Page 6 of An Inconvenient Marriage
There was no point in inviting him to something that was nothing more than a business transaction. Plus, I didn’t want him knowing what I was up to. He’d only try to talk me out of it. And I couldn’t have that.
Not when I was so close to finally taking my revenge.
Turning my back to the guests, I shoved all thoughts of my brother aside and checked my watch again. Irritation morphed into anger when I discovered another ten minutes had ticked by. I should have known Natalie Stevens would not be capable of honoring our agreement. She was her father’s daughter, after all.
I was about to say fuck it and walk off. There were other ways to get my hands on Trent Stevens. Ways that didn’t portray me as a damn fool.
Two steps were as far as I got when the shackling sound of the wedding march bounced off the walls and the heavy wooden doors at the back of the old church slowly creaked open.
And there she was.
My bride… dressed in black.
In fucking black.
Unbidden, my mouth curved into a smile, and I bit my cheek to keep it from spreading. But I had to hand it to her, that was quite the entrance. Even more so when she slowly made her way down the aisle.
My gaze traveled up and down the length of her, taking in as many details as possible. Instead of a veil, a small black hat sat atop her head with a sliver of netting covering half of her face.
A few tendrils of soft blonde curls brushed past her cheeks, touching her shoulders, while the rest of her hair seemed to be tied into an intricate knot at the side of her nape.
And then there was the dress.
The long, lacy black fabric clung to her curves like a second skin. The tight beaded bodice hugged her breasts and pushed them up as a glorious offer.
An offer most men would have a hard time resisting.
And although I wasn’t like most men, I was still very much a man staring at a beautiful woman—albeit only on the outside—and my body reacted accordingly.
I clenched my fists in front of my groin and bit down hard on my back teeth. I’d do well to remember exactly who was sashaying toward me.
Luckily, that small reminder was enough for me to get my thoughts under control just in time for her father to very unceremoniously hand her off to me. As little as I cared about the woman, the way Stevens just shoved her toward me with no hug or smile rubbed me the wrong way.
I didn’t like it.
Nor did I like the way she stood stock-still for a few seconds, as if contemplating whether or not she wanted to stay.
I stared at her, willing her damn feet to move. Because no way in hell was Trent Stevens’ daughter going to leave me standing at the damn altar like a fool.
Even if that was exactly what I was.
She took a deep breath and then another. I stared some more. After one last breath, she nodded ever so slightly. I probably would have missed it if I hadn’t been glaring so intently.
After what felt like an all-too-long-and-yet-too-damn-fast moment, she hooked her arm through mine, and together we turned toward the waiting priest.
Natalie sucked in another shaky breath, and I simply couldn’t help myself. Leaning closer, eyes fixed on her magnificent cleavage, I whispered through the corner of my mouth, “Love the dress.”
“It was my choice.”
What the hell did she mean by that? I wasn’t about to ask. Not only because of the talking priest in front of us, but also because I simply didn’t care.
She was a means to an end, nothing more than that.
The ceremony passed by in a blur, and before I knew it, I had kissed—more like pecked—the bride. Photos had been taken, and we were ushered to the limo taking us to our reception at Trent’s estate.
The drive was made in complete silence, which I was grateful for.
What I didn’t appreciate was the way mynew wifewas hugging the door as if she was seriously considering jumping out of a moving vehicle. If anyone should have been thinking about abandoning ship, it should’ve been me.
