Best Friend Bride

by Kat Cantrell

  Clearly equal parts shocked and grateful, he stared at her. “Why would you do that for me?”

  She squared her shoulders. “Because I said I would.”

  No matter how hard it would be.

  * * *

  Jonas kept sneaking glances at Viv as she slept in the reclined leather seat opposite his. She’d smiled for nearly ten minutes after claiming a spot aboard the Kim private jet that Grandfather had sent to Raleigh to fetch them. It was fun to watch her navigate the spacious fuselage and interact with the attentive staff, who treated her like royalty. Obviously his grandfather had prepped them in advance.

  But after the initial round of post-takeoff champagne, Viv had slipped back into the morose silence that cloaked them both since their conversation. He’d done everything in his power to drive her away so he didn’t hurt her and what had she done? Repacked the suitcase that she’d just pulled off a conveyor belt at the airport hours before and announced she was coming with him to Korea. No hesitation.

  What was he going to do with her?

  Not much, apparently. The distance between them was nearly palpable. Viv normally had this vibe of openness about her as if she’d never met a stranger and he could talk to her about anything. Which he had, many times. Since he’d laid down the law about what kind of marriage they could have in that desperate bid to stop the inevitable, there might as well have been an impenetrable steel wall between them.

  Good. That was perfect. Exactly what he’d hoped for.

  He hated it.

  This purgatory was exactly what he deserved, though. If Viv wasn’t being her beautiful, kind, amazing self, there was no chance of his emotions engaging. Or rather, engaging further. He was pretty sure there was a little something already stirring around inside. Okay a lot of something, but if he could hold on to that last 50 percent, he could still look Warren and Hendrix in the eye next time they were in the same room.

  If he could just cast aside his honor, all of this would be so much easier.

  Seoul’s Incheon Airport spread out beneath them in all its dazzling silvery glory, welcoming him back to Korea. He appreciated the birthplace of his father and the homeland of his grandfather. Seoul was a vibrant city rich in history with friendly people who chattered in the streets as they passed. It was cosmopolitan in a way that Raleigh could never be, but Jonas preferred the more laid-back feel of his own homeland.

  “It’s beautiful,” Viv commented quietly as the limo Grandfather had sent wound through the streets thronged with people and vehicles.

  “I’ll take you a few places while we’re here,” he offered. “You shouldn’t miss Gyeongbokgung Palace.”

  They could walk through Insa-dong, the historic neighborhood that sold art and food, then maybe breeze by the Seoul Tower. He could perfectly envision the delighted smile on her face as she discovered the treasures of the Eastern world that comprised a portion of his lineage. Maybe he’d even find an opportunity to take her hand as they strolled, and he could pretend everything was fine between them.

  But Viv was already shaking her head. “You don’t have to do that. I don’t need souvenirs. You’re here for your grandfather and I’m here for you.”

  That made him feel like crap. But it was an inescapable fact that she’d come because he needed her. Warmth crowded into his chest as he gazed at her, the beauty of Seoul rushing past the limousine window beyond the glass.

  “Why?” he asked simply, too overcome to be more articulate.

  Her gaze sought his, and for a brief moment, her normal expressiveness spilled onto her face. Just as quickly, she whisked it away. “No matter what, you’re still my friend.”

  The sentiment caught in his throat. Her sacrifice and the unbelievable willingness to be there for him would have put him on his knees if he wasn’t already sitting down. Still might. It didn’t make any sense for her to be so unselfish with her time, her body, her cupcakes even without some gain other than the righteous promise of friendship. “I don’t believe that’s the whole reason.”

  A tiny frown marred her gorgeous mouth and he wished he could kiss it away. But he didn’t move. This was something he should have questioned before they got on the plane.

  “Is this another conversation about how you don’t trust me?” she asked in a small voice.

  Deserved that. He shook his head. “This is not a trust issue. It’s that I don’t understand what you’re getting out of all of this. I’ve always wondered. I promised you that I would help you with your business since you claimed that as your passion. Then you politely declined all the success my efforts have produced. I give you the option to leave and you don’t take it. Friendship doesn’t seem like enough of a motivator.”

  Guilt crowded through her gaze. What was that all about? But she looked away before he got confirmation that it was indeed guilt, and he had a burning need to understand all at once.

  The vows he’d taken with Warren and Hendrix after Marcus’s death seemed like a pinky swear on the playground in comparison to Viv’s friendship standards, yet he’d based his adult life on that vow. If there was something to learn from her about the bonds of friendship, he’d be an instant student.

  Hooking her chin with his finger, he guided her face back toward his, feathering a thumb across her cheek before he’d barely gotten purchase. God, she felt so good. It was all he could do to keep from spreading his entire palm across her cheek, lifting her lips into a kiss that would resolve nothing other than the constant ache under his skin.

  He’d enjoy every minute of the forbidden, though.

  Since she still hadn’t answered, he prompted her. “What’s your real reason, Viv? Tell me why you’d do this for me after all I’ve said and done.”

  She blinked. “I agreed to this deal. You of all people should know that keeping your word is a choice. Anyone can break a promise but mine to you means something.”

  That wasn’t it, or rather it wasn’t the full extent. He could tell. While he appreciated her conviction, she was hedging. He hadn’t expanded Kim Electronics into the American market and grown profits into the ten-figure range by missing signs that the person on the other side of the table wasn’t being entirely forthcoming. But she wasn’t a factory owner looking to make an extra million or two or a parts distributor with shady sources.

  She was his wife. Why couldn’t he take what she said at face value and leave it at that?

  Because she hadn’t told him about wanting a real marriage, that was why. It stuck under his rib cage, begging him to do something with that knowledge, and the answer wasn’t pulling her into his arms like he wanted to. He should be cutting her free by his choice, not hers.

  Yet Viv was quietly showing him how to be a real friend regardless of the cost. It was humbling, and as the limo snaked through the crowded streets of Seoul toward his grandfather’s house, his chest got so tight and full of that constant ache he got whenever he looked at Viv that he could hardly breathe.

  Caught in the trap of his own making, he let his hand drop away from her face. He had a wife he couldn’t let himself love and two friends he couldn’t let himself disappoint. At what point did Jonas get what he wanted? And when had his desire for something more shifted so far away from what he had?

  There was no good answer to that. The limo paused by his grandfather’s gates as they opened and then the driver pulled onto the hushed property draped with trees and beautiful gardens. The ancestral home that Grandfather had given Jonas and Viv lay a kilometer down the road up on a hill. Both properties were palatial, befitting a businessman who entertained people from all over the world, as Jung-Su did. As Jonas would be expected to do when he stepped into Grandfather’s shoes. He’d need a wife to help navigate the social aspects of being the CEO of a global company.

  But the painful truth was that he couldn’t imagine anyone other than Viv by hi
s side. He needed her, not a wife, and for far more reasons than because it might or might not secure the promotion he’d been working toward. At the same time, as much as he’d denied that his questions were about trust, he was caught in a horrible catch-22. Trust was at the root of it.

  Also a trap of his own making. He was predisposed to believe that a woman would string him along until she got tired of him and then she’d break his heart. So he looked for signs of that and pounced the moment he found evidence, when in reality, he’d have to actually give his heart to a woman before it could be broken. And that was what he was struggling to avoid.

  Grandfather’s jibsa ushered them into the house and showed them to their rooms. A different member of the staff discreetly saw to their needs and eventually guided Jonas and Viv to where his grandfather sat in the garden outside, enjoying the sunshine. The garden had been started by Jonas’s grandmother, lovingly overseen until her death several years ago. Her essence still flitted among the mugunghwa blooms and bellflowers, and he liked remembering her out here.

  His grandfather looked well, considering he’d recently been diagnosed with some precursors to heart disease and had begun rounds of medication to reverse the potential for a heart attack.

  “Jonas. Miss Viviana.” Grandfather smiled at them each in turn and Viv bent to kiss his cheek, which made the old man positively beam. “I’m pleased to see you looking well after your flight. It is not an easy one.”

  Viv waved that off and took a seat next to Jung-Su on the long stone bench. His grandfather sat on a cushion that was easier on his bones but Viv didn’t seem to notice that she was seated directly on the cold rock ledge. Discreetly, Jonas flicked his fingers at one of the many uniformed servants in his grandfather’s employ, and true to form, the man returned quickly with another cushion for her.

  She took it with a smile and resituated herself, still chatting with Grandfather about the flight and her impressions of Korea thus far. Grandfather’s gaze never left her face and Jonas didn’t blame him. She was mesmerizing. Surrounded by the lush tropical beauty of the garden and animated by a subject that clearly intrigued her, she was downright breathtaking. Of course, Jonas was biased. Especially since he hadn’t been able to take a deep breath pretty much since the moment he’d said I do to this woman.

  “Jonas. Don’t hover.” Grandfather’s brows came together as he shot a scowl over the head of his new granddaughter-in-law. “Sit with us. Your lovely wife was just telling me about baking cupcakes on the American television show.”

  “Yes, she was brilliant,” Jonas acknowledged. But he didn’t sit on the bench. The only open spot was next to Viv and it was entirely too much temptation for his starving body to be that near her.

  “Jonas is too kind.” Viv’s nose wrinkled as she shook her head. “The show hasn’t even aired yet.”

  “So? I don’t have to see it to know that you killed it.” Plus, she’d told him she’d won, like it was no big deal, when in fact, it was. Though the result was hardly shocking. “Brilliant is an understatement.”

  Viv ducked her head but not before he caught the pleased gleam in her eye. He should have told her that already and more than once. Instead, he’d been caught up in his own misery. She deserved to hear how wonderful she was on a continual basis.

  “It’s true,” he continued. “She does something special with her recipes. No one else can touch her talent when it comes to baking.”

  Grandfather watched them both, his gaze traveling back and forth between them as if taking in a fascinating tennis match. “It’s very telling that you are your wife’s biggest fan.”

  Well, maybe so. But what it told, Jonas had no idea. He shrugged. “That’s not a secret.”

  “It’s a sign of maturity that I appreciate,” his grandfather said. “For years I have watched you do nothing but work and I worried that you would never have a personal life. Now I see you are truly committed to your wife and I like seeing you happy. It only solidifies my decision to retire early.”

  Yeah. Committed described Jonas to a T. Committed to honor. Committed to making himself insane. Committed to the asylum might well be next, especially since his grandfather was so off the mark with his observation. But what was he supposed to do, correct him?

  “It’s only fair,” Viv murmured before Jonas could formulate a response. “I’m his biggest fan, as well.”

  “Yes, I can see that, too,” Jung-Su said with a laugh.

  He could? Jonas glanced at Viv out of the corner of his eye in case there was some kind of sign emanating from her that he’d managed to miss. Except she had her sights firmly fixed on him and caught him eyeing her. Their gazes locked and he couldn’t look away.

  “You’re a fan of workaholic, absentee husbands?” he asked with a wry smile of his own. Might as well own his faults in front of God and everyone.

  “I’m a fan of your commitment, just like your grandfather said. You do everything with your heart. It’s what I first noticed about you. You came into the shop to get cupcakes for your staff, and every time, I’d ask you ‘What’s the occasion today?’ and you always knew the smallest details. ‘It’s Mrs. Nguyen’s fiftieth birthday’ or ‘Today marks my admin’s fourth anniversary working for me.’ None of my other customers pay attention to stuff like that.”

  He shifted uncomfortably. Of course he knew those things. They’d been carefully researched excuses to buy cupcakes so he could see Viv without admitting he was there to see her. Granted, she’d already figured that out and blathered on about it to his parents during their first official married-couple dinner. Why bring that up again now?

  “That’s why he’ll make the best CEO of Kim Global,” she said to his grandfather as an aside. “Because he cares about people and cares about doing the right thing. He always keeps his word. His character is above reproach and honestly, that’s why I fell for him.”

  That was laying it on a bit thick, but his grandfather just nodded. “Jonas is an honorable man. I’m pleased he’s found a woman who loves him for the right reasons.”

  Except it was all fake. Jonas did a double take as Viv nodded, her eyes bright with something that looked a lot like unshed tears. “He’s an easy man to love. My feelings for him have only grown now that we’re married.”

  Jonas started to interrupt because...come on. There was playacting and there was outright lying to his grandfather for the sake of supporting Jonas’s bid to become the next CEO. But as one tear slipped from her left eye, she glanced at him and whatever he’d been about to say vanished from his vocabulary. She wasn’t lying.

  He swallowed. Viv was in love with him? A band tightened around his lungs as he stared at her, soaking in the admission. It shouldn’t be such a shock. She looked at him like that all the time. But not seconds after saying something so shocking, so provocative out loud. She couldn’t take it back. It was out there, pinging around inside him like an arrow looking for a target.

  A servant interrupted them, capturing Grandfather’s attention, and everything fell apart as it became apparent that they were being called for dinner. Jonas took Viv’s hand to help her to her feet as he’d done a hundred times before but her hand in his felt different, heavier somehow as if weighted with implications. She squeezed his hand as if she knew he needed her calming touch.

  It was anything but calming. She was in love with him. The revelation bled through him. It was yet another thing that she’d held back from him that changed everything. He worked it over in his mind during dinner, longing to grab her and carry her out of this public room so he could ask her a few pointed questions. But Grandfather talked and talked and talked, and he’d invited a few business associates over as well, men Jonas couldn’t ignore, given that the whole reason he was in Korea was to work through the transition as his grandfather stepped down.

  Finally all the obstacles were out of the way and he cornered
his wife in their room. She glanced up as he shut the door, leaning against it as he zeroed in on the woman sitting on the bed.

  “That went well,” she commented, her gaze cutting away from his. “Your grandfather seems like he’s in good spirits after his diagnosis.”

  “I don’t want to talk about that.” He loved his grandfather, but they’d talked about his illness at length before Jonas had left the States, and he was satisfied he knew everything necessary about Jung-Su’s health. Jonas’s wife, on the other hand, needed to do a whole lot more talking and he needed a whole lot more understanding. “Why did you tell my grandfather that you’re in love with me?”

  “It just kind of...came out,” she said. “But don’t worry, I’m pretty sure he bought it.”

  “I bought it,” he bit out. “It wasn’t just something you said. You meant it. How long have you been in love with me?”

  She shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”

  “It is a big deal!” Frustrated with the lack of headway, he crossed the room and stopped short of lifting her face so he could read for himself what she was feeling. But he didn’t touch her, because he wanted her to own up to what was really going on inside. For once. “That’s why you married me. Why you came to Korea. Why you’re still here even though I told you about the pact.”

  That’s when she met his gaze, steady and true. “Yes.”

  Something wonderful and beautiful and strong burst through his heart. It all made a lot more sense now. What he’d been calling friendship was something else entirely.

  Now would be a really good time to sit down. So he did. “Why didn’t you tell me? That’s information that I should have had a long time ago.”

  “No, Jonas, it’s not.” She jammed her hands on her hips. “What does it change? Nothing. You’re determined to keep your vow to your friends and I can’t stop being in love with you. So we’re both stuck.”