Wedding Survivor by Julia London

but he looked a good long minute, long enough for her to feel her blood start to heat. He looked from the top of her dress, which draped low on breasts encased in a new lacy push-up bra, to the hem, which was on her knee. And on down to her toes, and her very cool, very strappy beaded sandals.
    Then he lifted his gaze and looked her in the eye. "You didn't go shopping, did you, Marnie? I thought maybe you'd sworn that off with the debt you're in."
    Oh hell,
that
again.
    "And weren't you supposed to make a little progress with our client?" he added.
    "I did!" she protested. What did he think, she was a com-plete novice? Well okay, he might have reason to think that, but she had done more than shopped! All right, not a
whole
lot more, since they had shopped most of the afternoon, and he was right, dammit, that she had sworn off shopping. But hey, she was due to get a big payment here soon!
    Anyway, she hadn't left Olivia without getting
something
about the wedding accomplished. In fact, the insinuation that she had "just shopped" was insulting the more she thought about it, and she snorted, "
Honestly
, Eli, I know what I'm doing." And she rolled her eyes.
    "I'm sure you do. But I'm thinking you probably can't do a whole lot of wedding planning in die middle of some pricey dress shop."
    He had a point, but Marnie tossed her head nevertheless. "For your information, we talked about the chef and how many guests she'd like to invite, and stationery, which Olivia is not big on, and linens, which she is very big on and
must
be BBJ linens, and the music, and then how we might incorporate an arch into the ceremony."
    His heart-stopping blue eyes immediately narrowed at that, and he shot forward like a striking snake. "What did you say? You talked about
what
?"
    "A chef—"
    "Not that," he said, gesturing for her to move forward.
    "The guests?"
    "No," he said, frowning. "The last thing you said."
    "Oh! A little arch she wants to incorporate into the ceremony. You know, get married under it."
    Eli closed his eyes and sighed for a moment. Then he opened them and pinned her with a look that made her shiver a little. "Marnie," he said evenly, and put his giant hand on her wrist, let his long, thick fingers wrap around it. "Do you know what arch she's talking about?"
    "Yes! It's an arch that they used in the filming of
The Dane
!" Right, like she didn't know what arch! It held great sentimental value for Olivia, and she said it was made of plastic, so it wasn't a big deal as far as Marnie could see, and Olivia said she'd pay for the shipping. Bottom line, she'd
saved
T.A. money today!
    But Eli's fingers tightened on her wrist. "Just out of curiosity—have you seen
The Dane
?"
    "Not yet. I was going to rent it this weekend."
    "Well when you do, try and envision Olivia and Vincent's wedding under the Arc de Triomphe."
    Marnie blinked. Then laughed. "Oh, Eli! Not
that
arch. She was talking about another one."
    "How do you know?"
    "Because she described it to me," she said and yanked her hand from his grip so she could sketch an invisible arch with her hands. "Not so big, and it's plastic, and she offered to ship it, so what's the big deal?"
    "The big deal," he said calmly, "is that it's not that size." He mimicked her invisible outline. "It's actually about the size of Kansas. And Olivia is right, it's made of plastic—about three hundred pounds of it."
    Marnie's earlier feeling of being a player was rapidly disintegrating. "Huh," she said, biting her lower lip thoughtfully. "Three hundred pounds, you say?"
    Eli nodded.
    "Mmm… that is a little different, isn't it?"
    "Uh-huh."
    She winced. "But I think it's a deal breaker."
    "Excuse me?"
    " 'Fraid so," Marnie said, nodding sympathetically. "If Olivia can't get married under that arch, then she's not getting married."
    Eli surprised her by laughing. "Promise? Because that wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit," he said, and intercepted the waiter who was about to lay the check on the table as he