Read Online The Billionaire's Bidding by Barbara Dunlop - Free Book Online

the crowd.”
    â€œCan’t security take care of them?”
    Emma pressed the save button on her laptop and turned her complete attention to Katie. “Oh, sure. Then all the reporters can have a field day on McKinley security staff roughing up skinny men in berets.”
    Katie glanced behind her. “We have reporters, too?”
    Emma sighed and pushed back her damp hair. “Yes. We have reporters. In the lobby, out front, on the mezzanine floor.”
    â€œNobody bothered me.”
    â€œThat’s because Alex Garrison didn’t make a spectacle of you last night.”
    Katie took a seat on the far end of the lounger, curling one leg beneath her as her face lit up with the memory. “You have to admit, if that had been real, it would have been incredibly romantic.”
    Emma didn’t have to admit any such thing. It was grandiose and tacky. She’d never, not in a million years, marry a man who thought proposing in public was romantic.
    She snapped the laptop closed. “It wasn’t real.”
    Katie sighed. “I know that.”
    â€œSo quit getting all starry-eyed on me. Alex was acting. ” A small difference, maybe. But a rather important one.
    Katie toyed with a lock of her hair. “He’s a good actor.”
    â€œHe probably had his marketing staff coach him.”
    Katie laughed at that.
    â€œMademoiselle McKinley?” came a nasal male voice.
    A sudden shift in Emma’s blood pressure left her feeling light-headed. She stared at Katie. “You were followed? ”
    â€œI’m not exactly double-o-seven,” Katie protested.
    â€œAarrgghh.”
    â€œMademoiselle McKinley?” Philippe Gagnon repeated. Then he appeared around the corner of the marble wall. “Ah, there you are.”
    Katie nearly choked on a laugh as the brisk, wiry sixty-something man stepped in front of them and clasped his palms together over his chest.
    â€œThere is so much we must do,” he began.
    He sure had that right. And on the top of Emma’s list was a clandestine trip to the Bahamas. She’d find a small secluded beachfront hut with no phone, no radio, and no caterers.
    Katie, on the other hand, seemed completely unperturbed by Philippe’s interruption. She stood and held out her hand to him. “I’m Katie McKinley, sister of the bride.”
    â€œ Enchanté, mademoiselle.” He gallantly raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “I am Philippe Gagnon. Sous chef, trained at the Sorbonne and apprenticed under John-Pierre Laconte. I have cooked for princes and presidents.”
    Katie turned to Emma, her grin growing wide. “Did you hear that, Emma? He’s cooked for princes and presidents.”
    â€œShoot me now,” Emma muttered as a trickle of sweat made its way between her breasts.
    Philippe shook an admonishing finger. “No, no. None of that from the bride. I am here now, and I will take care of everything.”
    Emma sat up straight. “Oh, no you—”
    â€œEmma.” Katie shot her eyes a look of warning.
    But Emma wasn’t getting dragged into this circus. “I am not—”
    â€œThis is a most stressful time for you, mademoiselle.” Philippe fluttered a hand toward the exit. “Those bohemian food hacks in the lobby. I will have them gone. Poof.”
    Then he held up his palms. “No, no. No need to thank me. After that, I will talk to the reporters. Give them a tidbit or two, non? Satisfy them for a short while.”
    Emma stared into the man’s pale blue eyes, seeing an unexpected shrewdness in their depths. It took her less than a minute to revise her opinion of him. “You can get all those people out of my lobby?”
    â€œBut, of course,” he said. “You must stay calm. I must keep you calm.”
    If by keeping her calm, Philippe meant protecting her privacy? He was hired.
    Â 
    Mrs. Nash punctuated her presence on the pool