Page 32 of The Bride's Billionaire

A sick feeling dropped in Kayla’s gut.

Marcos pointed to them. “I’ve never heard a better karaoke duet than from you two. The bride, Colette, requested the same song again after you left. It might become their new song.” He chuckled. “I think we should get an encore.” He laughed and turned to Rogerio. “This man has talent, and the two of them are as in love as I’ve ever seen a couple.” He winked. “Been together for five years now, didn’t you say?”

Kayla’s heart sank, and Tyler’s hands twitched. His game face was pretty impressive, but his pulse pounded in his neck. She laughed, not wanting to clue Marcos into their deception but wanting to make sure the truth of their relationship was known. “Oh, Marcos. That was one crazy night. It’s good to see you again.”

Tyler stood. “Might I have a word, Rogerio?”

“Oh ho. Only after you sing.” Marcos waved his hand around to the room at large. “I have a treat for you. Kayla and Tyler are not only the co-winners of our bid, but have been together five years now in their own relationship.”

Gasps and clapping were heard scattered around the room.

“And I know a secret about them. Tyler loves to sing.”

Kayla snorted, and Tyler reached for her hand.

“And the two of them together sing the prettiest love song. I’ve requested the music so that they can share it with us this evening.”

“Oh boy.”

The expressions on the faces of Rogerio and Mr. de Santos had only darkened, both men eyeing them with greater suspicion. At length, Mr. de Santos raised his hand toward the microphone. “By all means.”

As soon as Tyler and Kayla stood up, the music started again. Only this time, there was no magic, no attempt to help Tyler with a fear, just fear of her own, a sinking, horrifying realization that they might have lost the bid for both companies because of their foolish antics one evening.

They started singing. Tyler clinging to her hands. In between verses, he tipped the mic away and murmured in her ear, “This is easier when I think that we might lose the bid altogether. That’s way worse than my little fear.”

She nodded. “Perspective. You sound great.” Then she sang her part again.

But when he joined her, she couln’t enjoy it. Her gaze followed Rogerio around the room, watching the expressions on the various board members’ faces change, watched Marco’s turn to suspicion.

And didn’t she and Tyler deserve it? They’d played the whole thing off as if they’d never met. But was that really fair? It’s not as if they were old friends. Hadn’t they only just met twelve hours before seeing each other in the Antar office? Still, there was that wedding and their story of a long-term relationship. That didn’t help their case now.

When they finished singing to only sporadic clapping, they returned to an empty table and a quickly clearing room. She mumbled, “I guess dinner is over?”

“I guess so.”

The limo waited to pick them up, and both of their phones contained a message that Rogerio would be in touch. At the hotel, they made their way upstairs to their rooms in silence.

Stopping in front of her door, Tyler made an attempt to say something, but she cut him off. “It’s okay. Who knows what we should have done. Let’s just sleep it off and hear our fates in the morning.”

And for once, Tyler didn’t try to talk her into anything more.

The click of her door closing behind her echoed loudly. A silent room welcomed her, but refused to be comforting. She didn’t know what else to do to fix their situation.

Chapter 13

Completely deflated, Tyler opened his laptop to check on his company’s initial efforts to reach out to some Argentinian soft drink companies. Both letters were disheartening.

“We have local companies we would prefer.”

“We started up our own bottlers.”

The only remaining hope he had for a bottler partnership said, “If you can get a contract in Brazil, we will use you here in Argentina as well.”

He shook his head. The more he thought about it, the more he knew it was Brazil or nothing for his company’s efforts in South America. He ground his teeth. This was all Kayla’s fault. Or rather, not her fault, his fault, but none of this would have happened if he hadn’t met her. As he thought of her walking along the beach, wind blowing her hair, eyes shining with the sunset all around her, he couldn’t regret their meeting, not really, just the obscenely juvenile way he’d gone about it. What had seemed fun, carefree, and whimsical was now deceptive and irresponsible. And he had known better. It’s not like he was still in college.

There was nothing for it but to go in and talk to Antar. Alone.

His phone rang. Kayla. He groaned. Guilt overrode any pleasure at the thought of hearing her voice.

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