Simon: Le Beau Brothers: New Orleans Billionaire Shifters with BBW mates Series (Le Beau Series) (27 page)

“Do you know many single successful men and women locally?”

“Yeah…
why?”

“Have you ever been to a date auction?”

Laughing again. “A what?” His vibrating chest tickled her ear.

“It’s an auction where the local men and women agree to be auctioned off for a date. Dinner, dancing, all very respectable.”

“Oh, I have one single successful brother you can auction off, right now.” Simon grinned.

“I bet you have. Emma and Anna can help me with the auction lineup. You, my love
, will need to deliver a wallet pulling speech to promote the project.”

“A speech I can do, no problem.”

“Combine the plate fee and the money raised from the auction and you’ll have a good start.”

“How much time will you need to organize this shindig?”

“Provided a venue is available, caterer, musicians…as quickly as four weeks.”

“Holy cow, you’re fast
.”

“I
’ve done a hundred of these. They’re all pretty much the same.”

“Let the planning begin.”
Simon set his shoulders and took a breath. “Mon amour, I have something else I wanted to talk with you about.”

Rose sat up to see him better. “What, babe?”

“I love you with every fiber of my being and I know human women dream of a wedding. Would you like a wedding with your friends and family here to celebrate with you?”

“No.” She said without a second of hesitation.

“Really?”

“I only have Anna, Thomas and John as friends and my only family is Jack and Michael. Besides, as far as I’m concerned the mating was much more binding than any marriage could ever be. If for some reason we need to be married then we can do it quietly with a justice of the peace.”

“If you’re absolutely sure?” He searched her face.

“Absolutely.” Smiling, she snuggled again content with the world.

The next morning, Rose was enjoying coffee with her team. “Emma, can you handle the auction singles? You’re the only one who has lived here long enough to know the people available.”

“I would love to, I have several in mind already.”

“Anna, would you work on a list of attendees we can invite? You have your finger on the pulse of the business and financial community.”

“Piece of cake
. Cade can help me.”

“I’m going to preview venues, caterers, and the music options.
I’ll also need printed invitations, a decorator, and security.”

“Emma, do you think Isaac would be willing to act as auctioneer?”

“Oh my goodness, he will be tickled you thought of him.”

“Perfect! We don’t need a professional auctioneer. We want someone the people will recognize and enjoy. Isaac has the perfect combination of celebrity status, charisma
, and humor.” Rose was brimming with excitement. She was in her element.

“Is there anything else we can help with?” Anna asked.

“Once I have a short list of venues and venders, I’d love to have you both give your opinions on the final choices.”

“I’m game, Emma gave me a clean bill of health so
I’m no longer tethered to the bed.”

“I would be honored. And if you need a printer, I have a friend who does magical things with calligraphy and has a top quality shop.”

“If she has your endorsement, she’s hired.” Rose beamed. “Are you both available to have a coffee powwow in two days to see where we are at?”

“I am, Cade won’t let me leave the house without him until the threat against us is ended. I’m not allowed to go to the office so I work from home.”

“I have all the time in the world so just let me know.” Emma patted her hand.

Everyone had a task and they were off to a great start.

It had been two weeks of whirlwind planning. Rose blew a strand of hair from her eyes as she reviewed the final list of singles for auction. This was going to be a resounding success. She traded that list for the invitees’ roster. Running her finger down the response column she was pleased. There would be three hundred attending and twenty singles auctioned. That would guarantee three million raised plus the auction.
I can’t wait to tell Simon.

He was meeting Mark at the airport and settling him into a
n extended stay hotel. Once the facility was built, Mark would play a major roll in management and publicity. For now, Simon wanted his input into the bones of the organization. There was no one he trusted more than Mark to help build this service. He had the connections in the military and Washington as well as first hand experience in the needs of a returning vet.

She smiled to herself as she recalled his shining smile when Mark accepted the position of Vice President for
The Unforgotten Hero Foundation or TUHF. They had the land purchased and the contractor and architect were working furiously to have designs ready for the kick off ball.

Her heart fluttered when her caller
ID read Simon. “Hey, babe, how did it go?”

“Great! Mark looks wonderful, I could barely tell he had a prosthesis. He has a hi-tech design that lets him walk without a cane or anything. I asked him to research providing a service for rehab and custom fitting. How is your day going?”

“Perfect, everything is coming together. Have you heard if the scale model will be ready for display at the ball?”

“They’re on track to have it to me a few days before so we can review it ahead of time.”

“YES! I really want that on display, it makes the need real for the donators. Did you ask Mark to attend and speak?”

“I went one better, he is now one of your auction singles.”

“That’s great! The ladies are going to eat him up.”

“I have a call coming in
. I’ll be home in ten minutes. Love you.”

“Love you
, too.”

Everything was ready except her.
Crud, what am I going to wear?

Chapter 17

The Ball

Rachel Jorgenson
’s heart pounded as she glimpsed the mile long line of sleek vehicles, each worth more than her house. Her king cab ¾ ton stuck out like a crawfish on a plate of prime rib.

Craning her neck she spotted a hidden area at the back of the lot. She tried to pull out of the line of Bentleys, Mercedes…
Oh my god is that an Aston Martin
? But NO! The man in the orange traffic vest forced her to follow the cars to the valet at the grand entrance. She groaned when the tuxedoed man with white gloves reached for her door handle.
I am so going to kill Emma.
Why the heck did she have to use this as payback for curing her stallion? It made no sense at all.

Come to the ball
,
it’s for a very worthy cause. It’ll be fun
, Emma had said.

“Fun like a root canal,” Rachel grumbled, none too happy Emma failed to mention Stefan, the ego maniac womanizer, would be there.

When she’d first met the Romeo years ago, he’d ignored her completely, never even noticing she was alive. Of course she’d been sixteen and to her he’d looked very mature and manly.
He still could have at least noticed me
, she thought,
or at least acknowledged I was in the room.

She wasn’t sure of the exact date, but about the time of her eighteenth birthday she had even started to have dreams about the infuriating man. Hot dreams. Really hot dreams. And that just pissed her off more.

She bit back a few choice comments she was aching to fling at him. And having grown up with only her father and a few cowboys, they would be juicy words. She hid in a group of attendees.
I’m such a coward.
Even though she was sure he wouldn’t know who she was or notice her for that matter, she didn’t want him to see her in the spray on gown Emma forced on her.
For fuck’s sake,
I’m not Madonna or Miley Cyrus. People are going to think I’m walking around wearing pasties in this thing.
She still wondered how Emma had gotten a dress the exact color of her skin with black lace strategically placed.

With her heart heavy, she watched him flirt with a group of beautiful women across the room. Sighing,
why do I let him get to me like this
?

Stefan Le Beau caught the attention of a waiter carrying a tray of champagne and offered the refreshment
s to a group of ladies. As he greeted each with a smile and a flute of bubbly he realized he had dated each of them in the past six months. Making small talk as he tried to extricate himself from his self-made fiasco, he scanned the room for any women he
hadn’t
dated.

He’d barely escaped from the clinging mob of estrogen when Marcus joined him.

“What’s with the scowl,” his brother asked, gray gaze twinkling with mischief. “Poor, Stefan, already date all the women here?”

Make that
ex
-brother.

“Cute, go find someone else to annoy.”

“No, he probably got turned down for the first time in his life and can’t handle the shock.” Cade said, coming up behind them. “Lose your mojo, Stefan?”

“Up yours. I could get any woman in the room to go home with me, your wife excluded
, of course.”

Marcus grinned at Cade
. “Shall we take bets?”

“Hell
, yeah! We’ll choose a woman in the room and Stefan has to get her to go home with him.”

“Great idea.” They were both scanning the room when Cade spied Rachel. He tipped his head in her direction
. “The woman in the…is that see through?”

Stefan squinted to see whom he was referring to,
the damn room was too dark all he could see was she wore a flesh tone and black lace dress.
Oh, who cared? He would win regardless who she was. “
You’re on. If I win you give me your house in the Caymans for a week.”

“If we win, you clean the dog kennels for a month at Simon’s compound when it
’s finished.” Marcus smirked. He could tell by the gleam in Cade’s eye, he recognized Rachel Jorgenson too. She had a reputation for avoiding men, especially handsome men like Stefan. This was going to be fun to watch.

Cade and Marcus laughed and slapped him on the back before leaving him to mingle with the crowd. Stefan scowled at their retreating backs the
n said, “Bring it on, guys.”

Left to his own devices he scanned for the woman who would be his lucky date of the night. Where had that gal in the see
-through dress gone anyway?

Rachel walked behind Stefan, making her way through the crowded room. Her heady scent grabbed him by the ears and swung his head around. She held her head high, confidence emanated from every pore. He couldn’t see the woman’s face, she had already passed him and all he could see was her backside. And what a sweet backside it was. Stefan’s mouth watered as her hips swayed. If her scent hadn’t been enough to cause and immediate raging hard on, one look at her curvaceous body would have done the trick. Shifting his stance, he was ready to burst the seams of his tuxedo.

Stefan’s breath caught in his throat. It’s her, the woman his brothers had wagered he couldn’t seduce. As the spicy musk scented woman turned slightly, he finally caught a glimpse of her face. His heart accelerated. He had visions of this woman. He didn’t dream of her as often as he would like, but he had dreamt of her.

In those visions he had recognized some of the locations they occurred in. It only made sense she might be real and living in the area. He had spent night after night visiting club after club on the off chance she might be in one of them, only to spot her at a charity auction? How bizarre was that? He almost didn’t believe it. Could he be that lucky? Cade and Simon had both dreamt of their mates before they met them. Here she was, standing across the room, his vision lover. His MATE.

He set his scotch on the cocktail table next to his elbow and began making his way toward her.

She leaned down in order to hear the woman speaking to her. The movement caused her thick chestnut hair to slide over her shoulder. The movement caught the light cast by the chandeliers in the room and made her sleek tresses shimmer. Ah hell, there went his pants again.

As he neared her, he slowed and closed his eyes. He was enveloped in the warm soft cloud of her scent. His heart pounded so hard he expected to see it hanging from his chest.

Slowly, she straightened and turned, frowning into the crowd. It looked as if she was searching for someone. She inhaled a quick breath. A small, rapid movement that was barely discernible. He began to step forward when he felt the sweep of her gaze and stopped
in his tracks. He experienced that probing gaze as much as he saw it. Holding his breath, he stood frozen in place. Before he could convince his legs to work again, his mother took her arm and she move away from him. As he watched them cross the room he swore his mother glanced at him with a gleam in her eye. What was up with that?