Paris
I SLIPPED ON the white dress Henri had bought for me.
Some designer number his mother would recognize and the world would ooh and ahh about.
It wasn’t me.
I looked at myself again. The smile I plastered on my face felt frozen. Then again, it was pretty damn hard to smile when you were marrying a man who was in love with another man, just to save your business.
What was I doing?
Getting married. Right.
But I had nothing borrowed.
Nothing blue.
And no one to give me away.
The town hall required a marriage license and we had been waiting almost two hours to get the signature.
I would have had time to gather what I could.
I hadn’t.
Instead, I’d flopped in this chair in the woman’s room outside of the ceremony room and waited. I was tired and achy and sore.
Tired from staying up too late with Tyler.
Achy from the great sex with Tyler.
Sore from Tyler’s hands being all over my body.
Tyler.
Tyler.
Tyler.
My head was full of Tyler Holiday.
I sighed and pressed back the tears that threatened to fall. He had been trouble and he was trouble.
Trouble.
Nothing but trouble.
I knew that all too well. This was for the best. There were no feelings involved in my relationship with Henri.
He was safe.
He was not trouble.
I could not be disappointed and I could disappoint.
Safe.
My eyes drifted to my cell in front of me. I stared at it, surprised Tyler hadn’t called. Surprised he hadn’t tried to find me. Surprised he hadn’t tried to stop me.
Surprised. Angry. And maybe a bit disappointed.
Then again, it wouldn’t be anything new.
Yes, Henri was safe.
But had I acted without thinking everything through with Tyler?
No, this was the right decision.
Fresh anger surged in my blood when I thought about how I’d almost trusted him again.
Almost let my guard down.
Almost let him back in.
Almost, that was a lie, though, wasn’t it?
I had.
Damn me.
I had.
Tears threatened to spill. I had to put him out of my mind. I had a business to save, and Henri was how I would save it.
End. Of. Story.
As far as I was concerned, Tyler Holiday was my past.
Not my future.
There was a soft knock on the door. “Paris, it’s time.” It was Henri. The man who was to be my husband.
All of a sudden, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“Paris, darling?”
I broke out in a cold sweat. “Give me a few minutes.”
“No problem, darling.”
Henri.
So accommodating.
I took calming breaths. In and out. In and out. I got this. I could do this.
Getting to my feet, I worried my knees were going to give out when I stepped, so I grabbed the counter and carefully walked to the mirror. Grabbing my bag, I rummaged through it. Using powder and lip gloss, I tried to touch myself up, but my lips still tingled from Tyler’s kisses and my cheeks were still flushed from his sexy stubble.
Giving up the effort, I fastened my ridiculous designer heels around my ankles and strode toward the door.
Showtime.
Henri was waiting for me in the drab corridor. Plastic chairs were placed haphazardly here and there and the smell of Pine-Sol filled the air.
“Ready?” he asked, offering his arm.
I nodded, the lump in my throat growing so big I could barely breathe. Once again, I took deep, calming breaths.
I got this.
We walked quickly down the short corridor and into the ceremony room that looked more like a space where a wake might take place. It wasn’t long before the officiant rose to his feet and strode around his desk. “Next,” he called.
Henri and I walked up to where he was standing, and I swore I could feel my pulse beating all the way across the room. I wanted to run. Hide. But I wouldn’t. Couldn’t.
I got this.
The officiant cleared his throat. “Do you, Henry?”
“It’s Henri,” I corrected.
He stared at me.
“The last letter is an i, and it’s a long vowel.”
He nodded. “Okay, let’s try this again. “Do you Henry?”
I gave up.
“Take, Paris to be your lawfully wedded wife for now and forevermore?”
Henri looked at me. “I do.”
The officiant turned toward me. “And do you, Paris.”
I stopped him. “It’s Paris Elizabeth Hollis Fairchild.”
“Formalities aren’t necessary,” he muttered.
I nodded.
Let’s try this again. “Do you, Paris, take, Henry to be your lawfully wedded husband for now and forevermore?”
I said nothing.
I didn’t have this.
Both he and Henri stared at me. When I still said nothing, the officiant looked at his watch and went on anyway. “Does anyone here object to the union of these two people?”
“I do.” The voice was deep, dark, sexy. I didn’t have to turn around to know it was Tyler, but I did. He was striding down the aisle like a force to be reckoned with, wearing a suit that had to have been custom-made for his body.
He was a live wire.
Electric.
All clenched jaw and determined eyes and beautiful hair.
My silly heart started to beat like a bird freed from its cage—wild and free and out of control.
Those blue eyes burned with blazing heat and his intentions were written over every inch of his tightly coiled body.
Stopping in front of me, he looked at Henri. “Sorry about this, man, but there’s no way I’m letting you marry her. She’s mine.”
I’m not going to lie—a felt a thrill for about two seconds. Then I realized he was going to ruin everything.
How dare he?
My mouth opened to tell him to get lost, but before I could say a word, he picked me up and slung me across his shoulder, sauntering confidently toward the door.
My hair was in my face and the layers of ruffles on my dress were practically around my waist. “Put me down.”
Turning his head, he bit the place where the soft flesh of my ass would be, under all this satin and lace, in warning.
“Ouch,” I screamed.
“Quiet,” he warned.
I’d do no such thing. “Oh, God.”
Okay, so I did lower my tone.
“That’s not the first time you’ve called me by my name today,” he rasped.
I rolled my eyes. “You really are full of yourself, Tyler Holiday. I really hate you.”
“That’s not hate your feeling,” he whispered.
And I feared he was right.
Out in the corridor, he set me down and stared into my eyes. “What I’m doing is stopping you from making the biggest mistake of your life.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Henri is not a mistake. It’s what’s best for Highway 128,” I scowled. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, I was in the middle of a wedding and I’m returning to it right now,” I told him and turned to stomp away.
His fingers wrapped firmly around my upper arms. “You aren’t going anywhere until you listen to me.”
I wrestled myself out of his grasp. “Here’s the thing, Tyler, I don’t care what you have to say. It doesn’t matter. Nothing about you has changed.”
The look in his eyes was a mixture of regret and challenge. “That’s not true, Paris, but I didn’t think I could ever convince you of that, so I had to go at this a different way.”
“A different way?” I snapped. “A different way. Like manipulation?”
He shook his head. “Here’s the thing, I don’t care what you call me. I don’t even care if you hate me. Just as long as you know you’re mine. And trust me when I tell you, this time I’m not letting you go. You’ll thank me for this later, I promise you. But for now, we have some things to work out.”
I scrunched my nose. “Work out?”
“Yes, Paris. Work out. What’s a little compromise when we have forever?”
I pointed my finger at him and jabbed each word. “You. Told. Fabian. About. Henri. I can’t trust you.”
His head kicked back and roared with laughter. “It was the fucking truth, Paris, so why does it matter how he found out?”
Anger flamed and spiked through my veins. “This isn’t funny.”
“Think about it, Paris. It is. You can’t trust me because your fiancé was cheating and his lover found out?”
I hadn’t thought about it like that, actually. He had a point, and I stumbled on my comeback. “It was manip . . . manipul . . . manipulative,” I finally managed.
Tyler was beautiful—and I really did hate him. He took my hand. “Come with me, Love, we have some things to work out and not a lot of time.”
I raised my palms in protest. “I am doing no such thing. Your contract mandates I have three of your children for goodness sake. Mandates!”
He shrugged and looked chagrin. “Yeah, well, that probably wasn’t the best language to use. I can change that.”
“Change it. How about you delete it!”
His mesmerizing blue eyes widened, and he flashed me that dimpled smirk. “We can discuss it, calmly, alone in Wilhelmina’s chauffeured car, like the adults that we are. And for the record, naked would be my preference.”
My heart drummed with an excitement I shouldn’t have been feeling. “I am not having sex with you in a car and I only want two kids.”
That same smirk remained on his gorgeous lips.
Was I really negotiating with him, here, at the courthouse, while another man was waiting to marry me?
I stepped closer and narrowed my gaze. I wanted to tell him to climb a tree. Jump into a lake. Take a one-way trip. To forget it. To get lost.
Anything.
However, my eyes shifted and it was then that I saw his three friends. Grayson, Christian, and Julian were all dressed in suits standing at the end of the hall. Striding toward them were three women I knew from my short stay at The Jane Whitmore School for Girls, Tabitha, Darcy, and Lane.
I’d heard Grayson had married Tabitha, but I had no idea Darcy was with Christian and Lane with Julian. Wait, no Darcy was with Julian and Lane with Christian. Wow, I never saw that coming.
I pointed. “Why are they here? What’s going on?”
He leaned down low, his warm breath washing over me when he spoke. “I told you, we’re getting married, Love, and they’re here to bear witness to happy occasion.”
“Never,” I breathed out, my voice a husky whisper as I stared into those intense blue eyes. “You’ll have to handcuff me first.”
That slow, sexy grin formed on his gorgeous face. “I’d be more than happy to introduce kink into the bedroom, but first you have to stop pretending you don’t want me as much as I want you.”
I narrowed my gaze at him and he just smiled that smile that drove me wild. I looked back at Henri who wasn’t even going to fight for me.
I was at a crossroads.
Go one way, and I had Henri with a chance to turn Highway 128 around under corporate guidance. The thing was, Henri was under his parents’ thumb and I already knew he refused to stand up for himself, that was why he was marrying me. So, what were the chances of Highway 128 coming out in tact?
Go the other way, and I had Tyler offering a merger with California Jane and no guaranteed outcome. However, I also had a man who was proving more and more to be very determined.
Tyler pulled at some of the ruffles of my hideous dress. “Time to go. I had the girls run some errands for our wedding. You can change in the car.”
In that moment, I hated him. I hated him so much it made my stomach as weak as my knees.
He was arrogant.
Rude.
As charming as he was annoying.
He was anything but husband material.
Yet, I loved the way he looked at me. The tone of his voice when he spoke. The way he made me feel like I was the only person in the room.
Loved?
Love?
Is that what I was feeling?
It couldn’t be.
His perfect square jaw ticked as if he was fighting a smile. “What did you just say?”
Oh, crap, had I really said the word out loud for the second time in my life?
“You’re so going to be my wife,” he chuckled.
Was I?
TO BE CONTINUED . . .