Page 72 of The Vineyard Crush

Martin shifted his weight, suddenly looking almost…sheepish? A frown tugged at his craggy features as his gaze flicked between Leo and me. “Listen, I hope you don’t mind that I brought Mel along.” He jerked his chin toward the dark-haired girl at his side. “She was only in town for the weekend and I didn’t want her to be alone at home.”

I blinked, nonplussed by his preamble. Of course we didn’t mind. The more the merrier as far as I was concerned. But something in Martin’s tone suggested he expected resistance.

I followed his trailing words to my older brother. Leo’s trademark smile stretched wide and easy, banishing Martin’s doubts with its warmth. “Not a problem at all,” he reassured. “We’re happy to have her.”

Relief flooded Martin’s features as the tension seeped from his shoulders. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

Pivoting, I crossed to the front desk to begin checking them in. My fingers flew over the keyboard, pulling up the cabin assignments. “Let me just grab your keys, Martin.”

“Actually…” Leo’s voice brought my movements to a halt. I glanced over to find him regarding me with an apologetic look. “I didn’t reserve Martin a separate cabin. I was thinking he could just bunk with me, so we have more vacancies for other guests.”

My brow furrowed as I rapidly recalculated logistics. The cabins all varied in size, Leo’s included. “Your place has four bedrooms, right? So Martin and Mel could each take one?”

Ridge’s fingers found mine, giving a gentle squeeze. “I’m going to go track down Ethan,” he murmured, eyes crinkling at the corners with affection. “Say hi and see if he wants some help.”

I managed a smile, grateful for his steady presence amidst the whirling chaos of arrivals and greetings. With a final brush of his calloused thumb over my knuckles, he slipped away, broad shoulders slicing through the milling crowd.

“I wanna go with Daddy!” Lily materialized at my elbow, garnet curls bouncing as she danced from foot-to-foot. She paused, solemn hazel eyes finding mine in silent question.

Bending, I cupped her cherub face in my palms with a reassuring smile. “Of course, sweetie.”

“Emma.” Leo’s deep baritone sliced through the noisy babble, demanding my attention. He gestured toward the entrance, mouth set in a grim line belying the twinkle still lingering in his eyes. “Mom wants to see you.”

A groan rumbled up my throat before I could bite it back. Of course she would insist on an audience after that awkward introduction to the weekend’s fresh arrivals. Rolling my shoulders to brace myself, I swept my gaze over the remaining cluster of familiar faces—Ridge’s brother James, Cody, Mel and her father Martin—and dipped my chin with an apologetic grimace. “Catch up with you all in a bit.”

With leaden steps, I traced the same path Ridge and Leo’s family had taken moments earlier. Dread coiled through my belly as the broad double doors swept into view, framing the slender, silver-coiffed figure of Miriam Calloway in intense conversation with another couple around her age. My spine stiffened as I registered the taut lines of displeasure etched into her elegant features.

And then a hulking form shifted into my periphery vision and my breath stalled in my lungs.

Sheathed in an impeccably-tailored charcoal suit, the man could have been carved from stone for all his stillness. He was angles and hard planes, from the blade-like slashes of his cheekbones to his braced stance—feet planted shoulder-width apart as though awaiting the shock of an earthquake. Despite the lush heat hazing the entrance, his expression projected an almost preternatural chill, a sheet of arctic ice layering those harsh features into sneering disdain.

An involuntary shudder raked my frame as glacial eyes speared me in place. For an endless, viscous moment, the rest of the world faded to a silent, monochrome blur and all I could comprehend was the suffocating, slate-edged weight of that glare.

My mother’s lilting voice intruded then, a shrill crack in the sepulchral silence. “Emma, beta. So glad you could join us.”

The spell shattered like a vase hitting the pavement. I hitched my shoulders higher as I forced one stiff leg in front of the other. “You wanted to see me?”

Miriam beamed, so at odds with the tension coiling her perfectly-styled hair into wire. With a practiced flourish, she extended one slim, ring-laden hand—the very image of maternal pride and delight. “Yes, yes. This is Jayesh. The young man I told you about?”

My stomach plummeted in a sickening, zero-G swoop, even as my breath wedged in my throat like shards of glass.

The Arranged Marriage Guy.

Rayesh—no, Jayesh—straightened infinitesimally. His glower could have stripped varnish as he raked me from crown to toe and back again with a glacial, scathing sweep. The derision in his obsidian stare was palpable, crystallizing the very air between us.

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Could only stare back, petrified, as the full, horrific reality crashed over me in waves.

Somehow, I found the strength to hitch my lips into a polite, plastique rictus. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Thirty

Emma

My mother was relentless, sidelining me at every turn with a saccharine smile and serpentine maneuvers. By the time the sun dipped behind the mountain peaks, staining the sky in watercolors of violent and indigo, I still hadn’t managed more than a glimpse of Ridge’s familiar silhouette amidst the mingling crowd.

But the carved stone statue at my elbow remained an inescapable, looming presence.

Jayesh radiated a chill so profound it seeped into my very marrow no matter how I tried to edge away. His obsidian eyes roved my face with undisguised derision, harsh angles and hawkish intensity magnified by the hollows and planes of his austere features. He might have been reasonably attractive in an unbending, patrician sort of way, if not for the supercilious sneer forever affixed to his full mouth.

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