I steeled myself, pulling myself up straight and trying to sound confident and strong. “I hope you’re happy.” Despite all of my best efforts, my voice broke and tears started to fall down my cheeks. I had been holding it together just fine, but now it was time to say goodbye.
It was going to be the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life.
His one word came out in a harsh breath, “No …”
“You should be happy. You got the only thing you ever wanted—the only thing you have ever loved.” I paused and then added as I shook my head, “I will never trust another human being again. Never.”
What else was there to say? I didn’t look at him, trying to avoid him seeing the tears dripping down my face. I just turned away, intending to leave. I would go right to my lawyer, ask for the divorce, and sign everything over to David.
Or so I thought, until I heard the faint rustle of movement behind me. The next thing I knew, David’s large, strong hand closed around my wrist and pulled me back.
David
Kaye was going to leave.
I could see it. I could tell it wasn’t a bargaining chip. She wasn’t trying to manipulate me. She really was going to leave after giving me freely everything I’d wanted.
Everything I’d thought I’d wanted, anyway.
I moved before I thought, and when I put my hand on her wrist and she spun around, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the anger in her face.
There was no anger there. Only tears and pain. These horrible gifts I had given to her.
“Don’t go,” I whispered, and if I had thought it would help, I would have fallen right down onto my knees then and there. I would have begged for her to stay, and I wasn’t the sort of man who begged. Ever.
“Why?” Kaye asked, and she used her free hand, the one I wasn’t holding, to dash the tears from her eyes. They were swollen and red, but she had never looked more beautiful to me.
Now that I was going to lose her, I realized just how crazy I really was about her and how thoroughly I’d fallen in love, despite all of my efforts to avoid it. I was utterly smitten, completely and totally hers.
Too bad I had only fully realized it while I was losing her. But I had to at least try, didn’t I?
“I have something more to confess to you,” I said quietly and watched as her eyes widened.
More? I could pretty much guess she was thinking. What else was I going to drop on her now? “David, please,” she whispered, and I could feel her small body shaking. I didn’t let her go, though. I pulled her closer to me, gazing down into her beautiful face. Our bodies were so close that I could feel the heat radiating off of hers.
“Please,” I echoed her. “Just hear me out. If you still want to go when I’m done talking, I won’t stop you.”
I wouldn’t. It was definitely her right. I’d certainly put her through enough—she didn’t owe me even this much of her time.
She glanced down at my hand on her wrist, then took a step back. She didn’t actually pull her wrist away, though, so I kept my grip on it. This might be the last time I ever got to touch her, after all.
“Okay,” she allowed, and I took a deep breath. Against all odds, she was giving me this chance to explain myself.
I didn’t deserve it, and I knew it, but I was going to make the best of the opportunity. “I love you,” I started. It seemed the best place to start—the best base to build my argument from. I saw the skepticism in her eyes and knew I deserved it, but I kept going. “I have almost from the beginning. Since before our wedding. From the very first time we were intimate, or maybe before that.”
“David, please.” Kaye was very pale as she looked at me. “Stop it. You don’t have to do any of this.”
I shook my head. This was my chance to get out, to walk away with all of the money, and to not have to deal with the wife I hadn’t wanted in the first place. Only, now, I did want her. More than the money. More than anything.
I just had to make her see that.
“Look, Kaye, I know you have no reason to trust me, but I mean it. I have no reason to lie to you now. I love you. You’ve already said you’d give me all the money. I could just walk away, but I can’t do it. I need you. I’d burn the money in a huge bonfire right here and now if it would make you listen to me.”
I looked at her, and she just looked back at me. I didn’t see belief in her face, not yet, but I saw something that made me think she might be on the right track. She was still listening. I couldn’t give up.
Not until there was no hope left at all.
“David …” she tried to say more, but I put my finger to her lips to make her stop talking. She couldn’t say another word until she’d heard what I had to say.
“Kaye, if you leave—if you walk out of here—I don’t think I can handle it. I will sign whatever papers you want. Take everything from me. I don’t care about any of that stuff. I just care about you. Just you.”
“David,” she whispered, looking at me, and this time I was sure of it. There was something like hope in her eyes. She still loved me. For some reason, she still loved me, and she wanted to believe what I said.
My heart took the first hard beat it had since she told me she was leaving me. The smallest spark of hope formed and it spurred me on. “I want to be with you. I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love you. I can tell you this truthfully—my life will never be the same if our marriage ends. And I’m not talking about money. I am talking about love. I’m talking about actually living. I’m talking about moving forward. I haven’t been my true self with you since our wedding. The stupid plan got in the way. I’m not actually such a workaholic. I’m not actually a moody man. And I’m not actually against starting our family. If you want to start a family with me, I want that too.”
It was so strange, saying those words out loud, but I meant them. I had wanted all of those things before, though I hadn’t admitted it to her, or even myself really. “I’m sorry. If you try to forgive me, I swear to you that I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Please, Kaye. I want to be married to you. To really be with you.”
Kaye took a deep breath, and I could see her struggling with herself. I could see she wanted to believe me, but for obvious reasons, she was having a hard time with it. “You don’t have to offer me a baby to get me to stay,” Kaye whispered. “I don’t want to be bribed into it. I only want to have a family with someone who really, really wants to have one with me.”
“I want a baby,” I said bluntly. “I have since the moment you brought it up. I don’t know how I even managed to keep saying no to you.” I gazed at her and there was no longer any doubt at all. She wanted to do this. She wanted to continue our marriage. My heart took another hard, thumping beat.
“Keep talking,” Kaye murmured, and I nodded. There were a few things I still had to say.
“I love you, I need you, and I’m sorry,” I whispered. “Part of me is glad Brent told you. I wanted out of this whole lie, I wanted to be with you, and I just didn’t know how to tell you. I wish I had. I know this may sound like a lie, but I was actually about to confess to you this morning.”
“Please, David,” the sound of her voice spoke to how hurt she was.
I shook my head, not ready to let her talk yet. “I was going to tell you the horrible truth and tell you I want to have a baby with you—lots of babies with you and only you. I really was about to do just that. Even as early as last night, after we made love better than we ever had before. I was. I promise you that. But, in all honesty, I never expect you to fully believe that, even though it is true. I truly love you. I do. If you believe nothing else, please, I am begging you to believe that. I love you, Kaye Black.”
“I love you too,” Kaye sobbed, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her free hand. I still held the other tightly, jealously guarding it and refusing to let go. “I love you too, David, and all I want is for things to go back to how they were before. How I thought they were.” She took a deep, s
huddering breath. “I want you back, but the you I thought I married … does that man even exist?”
“He does,” I promised. “I’m right here, and I will be the man you deserve. I swear to you. Just give me a chance.”
I had never meant anything more in my life and I tried to put that sincerity not only into my words, but my face as well. I could see how she was looking at me, and maybe she was crying, but she was shrewd and her trust in me had been tarnished. She was watching me closely.
Whatever she saw must have satisfied her. She suddenly smiled and launched herself at me. I released her wrist finally so she could wrap her arms around me, and then her slender, soft, sweetly curved body was pressed against me and she was hugging me tightly.
“I’ll stay,” she whispered, and I could feel her heart hammering in her chest, that’s how closely we were pressed together. She clung to me, and I could tell by how eagerly she came into my arms that she had never wanted to leave.
She just thought she had to. Well, now it was my job not to give her any reason to leave me. Not ever again.
“I love you, Kaye,” I murmured tenderly, gazing down into her flushed face, my arms still wrapped firmly around her.
“I love you too, David. We’ll work this out,” she vowed, and I believed her. One thing I had learned about this woman was not to underestimate her. She was sweet, yes, and kind, but she had a will of steel under all that softness.
If she said we would work it out, I had every reason to believe we would.
Just like that, she stretched up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against mine. I wouldn’t have thought it even possible for me to hold her closer, but somehow I managed.
The kiss we shared then was a promise—an acknowledgment of the past as well as a commitment for the future. Our wedding had been months ago, but in a very real way, this was the start of our marriage.
“No more secrets,” Kaye whispered, and I nodded, in full agreement. “No more lies. Promise me that and you have me forever.”
“I promise.” It was a very easy promise to make. I’d seen what happened when I did lie to her and tried to keep things from her. I was supremely uninterested in having a relationship based on falseness.
We kissed again, and it was strange at first, like we were both testing it out. Slowly, we relaxed into it, and I knew then for sure I had been forgiven. I didn’t deserve it, but I would spend the rest of my life trying to make sure she never regretted it.
“Good,” Kaye said, beaming at me through her tears, but there was no more misery in her eyes. Her whole face was lit up with joy and this beautiful woman was mine.
All mine, and I would never lose her again. I would never do anything to risk what we had. It had taken me a stupidly long time, but I had thoroughly learned my lesson and from here on out it would be honesty and consideration from me. Nothing less would be accepted by me or my wife, and I was great with that.
Hold me accountable, Kaye Black.
I had thought I couldn’t trust a woman—any woman—but I’d let my very real pain at losing my mother make me act like a dick. No more. I had been such an idiot.
Without any further hesitation, I swept her up into my arms and held her bridal style. It seemed fitting, since this was, after all, the first day of the rest of our lives together. She might as well be my bride all over again.
“Let’s go back to bed,” I murmured, and I knew from the slightly wicked smile on her face that she understood. She knew what I wanted and was ready to fully cooperate.
“To bed, husband,” she whispered, her arms going around my neck and her weight nestled perfectly in my arms.
“Thank you.” I meant it with all of my heart. She had no reason to give me another chance, but she had.
She just gave me an enigmatic little smile, one that made both my heart and my cock throb, and without further ado, I swept her up the stairs and to our bedroom.
All of the shit was over, it seemed. All of the ugliness was done, and our real marriage could begin.
I had never felt more optimistic in my entire life about anything.
Lesson learned—don’t think you can have a revenge marriage without falling in love in the process.
The End
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His Brother’s Wife
A Billionaire Romance
When beautiful classical pianist, Amalia Rai, marries billionaire Jackson Gallo, it is not a happy union. Amalia’s father has blackmailed his daughter into marrying the man who can save his company—and in return, he will allow Ama’s younger sister, Selima, to divorce her abusive husband.
As she walks down the aisle, Ama’s life is changed forever when she sees Enda—Jackson’s illegitimate, Italian half-brother. The attraction between them is obvious.
Beginning a sensual, erotic affair with Enda, desperate to relieve the tension from her sham of a marriage, Ama falls in love with him, but when Jackson finds out about the affair, his rage is all-consuming.
Fleeing to Italy with Enda, Ama begins a new life, making friends with Enda’s best friends, Raffaelo Winter and his lovely wife, Inca. Happier than ever, she is shattered when, after months of silence, Jackson takes his revenge, shattering everyone and everything Ama cares about …
Can Ama find the strength to fight for the people she loves and live happily ever after with the man of her dreams?
Not for the first time, Amalia Rai gazed in the mirror and wondered how the hell she had gotten here. This is the twenty-first century, right? And, yet, she, a successful classical pianist and music professor, was about to be married to a man she barely knew—and who she could barely stand.
Amalia closed her eyes. She could hardly stand to look at the sadness in her own eyes. At twenty-seven, she had accomplished so much and had thought herself free of her controlling father and all the bullshit that went on in their family. If it hadn’t been for her desperation to save her little sister’s life, she would never have agreed to this.
But her father held all the cards. He would not allow Selima to divorce her abusive husband unless Amalia agreed to marry Jackson Gallo—her father’s rival in business and the man who had nearly brought her father to his knees. When Gallo offered Gajendra Rai a lifeline—give him his eldest daughter in marriage, and he’ll give Gajendra a multimillion dollar cash –injection—Gajendra had not hesitated in going to Amalia and demanding she marry Jackson.
Amalia had turned him down flat. That she and her father were not close was an understatement. For months, she had held out, until the day Selima had called her from the emergency room of the hospital. Her husband had beaten her so badly that she could barely speak, but just sob over the phone to her sister. Amalia went to her and was horrified by her injuries and by what she had been through. Gajendra, though, refused to let Selima divorce her husband …unless Amalia married Jackson.
Desperate, Amalia agreed, and now, in a few minutes, she would take her father’s arm and walk down the aisle in the church Jackson’s family had built in their luxurious compound on the outskirts of San Francisco. A prison, not a compound, thought Amalia as she straightened the wedding dress that had cost seven times her salary. Her father had paid, of course, and although Amalia would have preferred to marry in the traditional Indian attire befitting her heritage, her father insisted that a white dress would be more suitable for the society pages.
Amalia shrugged to herself now. What did it matter? This wasn’t a real wedding and it wouldn’t be a real marriage. She had made it clear to Jackson that under no circumstances would the marriage be consummated. Jackson had laughed, and she knew he thought she was joking. He would find out tonight that she was deadly serious.
Jackson Gallo was handsome in a bland, preppy way. The youngest son of billionaire property magnate Macaulay Gallo, Jackson was often to be found in the pages of gossip magazines, romancing some of the world’s most beautiful women. When he
had laid eyes on Amalia at a benefit gala where she was performing, he’d pursued her relentlessly until Amalia had grown frightened of his vehemence. She had finally thought he’d gotten the message she wasn’t interested when the call from her father came. Jackson had been victorious when Ama had agreed to marry him, but for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why he would settle on her. Yes, she was a renowned pianist and a very successful professor of music at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Yes, she knew she was considered a beautiful woman, with her creamy coffee-and-pink skin, bright green eyes, long, wavy, dark hair, and curvaceous body, but to society and Jackson’s world, she was completely indifferent.
A knock came at the door and her sister, dressed in a simple lilac silk sheath, came in and smiled at her. “Hey, sis … are you nearly ready? Dad’s hovering outside.”
Ama smiled at her. “Almost.” She sighed and stood. Selima came up to her and studied her.
“It’s not too late, you know. We can skip out of here and escape somewhere hot.”
Ama laughed sadly. “And live on what, Lima?”
Selima shrugged, but her eyes were sad. “I hate that you’re doing this for me.”
Ama hugged her sister. “I swear, knowing that you’ll be free of that bastard is the only good thing about this.”
Selima nodded. “Thank you, Ama. I mean it. And look, the prenup says …”
“I’m trapped for two years.” Ama tried to make a joke of it. “Trapped, but living in luxury. How many women would kill to be me right now?”
Selima’s nose wrinkled. “With that creep?” Selima had as much of a low opinion of Jackson as Amalia did. Her smile brightened. “Olivier, on the other hand …”
Olivier Gallo was Jackson’s older brother, and Ama had grown very fond of him. He was in his early forties and a workaholic, but kind and quiet. He was the only one in the family who didn’t stand for Jackson’s arrogance or posturing, and there were many times when he’d met Amalia’s gaze over the family dinner table and rolled his eyes at what Jackson was bloviating about on that particular night.
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