Page 20 of Unwillingly His

And there was also no reason to mention that I had an entirely different groom in mind for their friend. Me.

Charlotte’s shoulders relaxed, and the line that had formed between her brows disappeared.

“Is there anything else, or do I need to have a word with your husbands and tell them that you two both have far too much time on your hands?”

Both of my daughters swallowed the insult and then stormed out of my office just as quickly as they had stormed in.

They were angry of course, but no more than usual.

Charlotte would be pacified knowing I wasn’t going to marry Stella off to that spineless worm.

The phone on my desk rang. I picked it up without saying a word.

“Sir, she is staying at the Aman here in New York.”

“In one of the suites?”

“No, sir. She rented one of the long-stay homes. Her stay doesn’t have an end date.”

“Good. How is she paying for it?”

“Her family has a line of credit. It’s the hotel her father used when guests or family would stay. The bill is sent to the family’s financial manager and is paid monthly.”

“Perfect.” I slammed the phone down and relaxed back into my chair.

She was making this so damn easy.

CHAPTER 10

STELLA

The nightmare always began as a dream.

I was in a gorgeous dark red gown, as far from white as I could get without wearing black.

It was for a wedding, after all.

I was genuinely happy, laughing and gossiping with my mother as we walked down the stone stairs of the performance art center.

We talked about the unusual wedding and the handsome man who stood by the groom in a big, black cowboy hat.

My father was all smiles, making jokes about the New York weather being bad for horses, and asking what happened when the brim of a ten-gallon hat was filled with snow?

Did the sides collapse, or did the cowboy notice how heavy it was and tip his head back and dump the snow on the poor frozen horse?

We laughed harder than the joke deserved, my joy aided by the several glasses of champagne and the few shots of whisky I had taken with the groom’s brother.

It was silly, but we were all happy, almost giddy with the energy from the wedding, the drinks, and the snow swirling in the air, making it seem magical.

We’d watched Charlotte Manwarring marry the love of her life, a man who had saved her over and over, and then stolen her from the titled coward her father almost forced her to marry.

Before the wedding, my father even made a few off-handed comments about anyone being better than the Zieglers. He refused to expand further.

The entire wedding, I was enthralled, gushing to my mother about how Charlotte, a dear friend of mine, had gotten her happily ever after.

She’d married her strong, noble guard, who turned out to be a prince in disguise. I’m sure it was dramatic and full of issues, especially with her recent injuries. I didn’t envy the dangerous path she had to take to get to where she was. But I envied her ending.

It was seeing her so happy that made my own heart ache.

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