Page 22 of Because You Loved Me

“Thank you. I’m fine. Just getting a little air.” Noa forced a smile to her face and shook her head. “It was just so hot in there.”

She pressed a hand to her chest in an effort to slow her still-racing heart and turned away. Behind her, the doors opened again, and she was sure she heard her father’s voice call her name.

It was at that moment she knew.

She wasn’t just getting some air. She wasn’t fine. And there was no way in hell she could marry Ryan Little.

Without looking back, or even knowing where she was going, Noa once more gathered the fabric of her huge dress and took off as fast as she could safely go down the stone steps. She had no idea where she was going. It didn’t matter. As long as it was far away from the wedding and her family. The only thing worse than running out on her own wedding would be trying to explain everything to her parents.

She could not bear to see their faces when she?—

“Watch out!” the bellboy yelled as a horn blasted.

Noa froze in place as a pickup truck skidded on the ice in front of her. It came to a stop only inches before hitting her, and her eyes locked with the driver’s.

Asher.

Her brain computed who she was staring at, only seconds after her body did.

“Noa!”

She turned to see her father, looking equal parts handsome in his suit and worried as he stared down at his daughter in the middle of the hotel driveway in a wedding dress when he should be walking her down the aisle.

The driver’s side door of the truck opened, and Asher began to climb out of the truck.

There was only one thing to do. She moved quickly, slipping on the ice in her heels as she moved to the passenger side door of the truck and hauled it open.

“Noa? What are you?—”

“Drive.” In a pile of satin and tule, Noa managed to wrestle herself up into the cab of the old truck. “Please, Asher.” Her eyes locked on his. “Drive.”

She didn’t have to ask again. He slid back behind the steering wheel, and with a spray of snow and ice, peeled out of the drive and away from her wedding.

ChapterSix

It was onlyonce Asher had swerved around a group of skiers in the parking lot, and made it safely out onto the main road, that he stopped to think about what exactly was going on, or what he was doing. It took about five seconds for him to realize that he had no freaking clue, on both counts.

“Noa?”

He glanced to the passenger seat to see the woman he’d been hot and heavy with less than twenty-four hours ago, wearing a goddamned wedding dress, on her knees, peering out the back window of the truck.

To say he had questions would be a massive understatement.

“What the?—”

“I don’t think they’re following us.”

She spun around and dropped into the passenger seat in a cloud of white fabric.Bridal white.

“Who?” He shook his head to make sense out of something. “Who would be following us? And why the hell are you dressed like that?”

“My dad.” She brushed her hair back off her bare shoulders. “Ryan. I don’t?—”

“Who’s Ryan?”

The dots were connecting pretty quickly, and Asher was afraid he already knew the answer. After all, the stupid sign had been on display in the lobby for the better part of the last week.

Alessandra and Ryan Forever.

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