Page 198 of Hate Mates

Dammit, Amelie. Why did you have to be so compassionate? Other patients had given her similar feedback, she went above and beyond her job description. “If you want a nurse, you can hire one on Care.com. Nurse and wife isn’t the same thing.”

“I’d say Amelie is an even better wife than she is a nurse. I can’t imagine it’s easy for a twenty-three-year-old to raise her husband’s brothers and sister, but she acts like a mother to them. Who wouldn’t want to acquire such a wife?”

The nerve of this man! “My wife isn’t for sale,” I said, barely keeping the ire out of my voice, and that was only because if I offended him, he might refuse to pay our portion of the bill. We couldn’t afford one item on the menu, let alone everything we consumed.

He sensed the shift in energy and my rising agitation. “No need to get offended. I’m not a lecherous person, as has been made clear by my Google searches. I have no interest in breaking up your family, and I wouldn’t want to. You clearly love each other very much, and Amelie would never leave you. No, Stefan, you don’t lack love in your life. If anything, you resent your family’s endless love because it obligates you to provide for themwhen you don’t have financial freedom. I don’t lack money. If anything, I have too much of it, and it poses a problem. Women approach me with dollar signs in their eyes or for what I can do for them. Authencity, like the one I experienced in Amelie’s care and with your family tonight, is impossible for someone of my stature to find. What if we reached an agreement where we both gain the things we lack and part ways with the things we have in excess?”

Kai had figured me out. He sensed my hunger for limitless resources and my resentment at feeling stuck. He teased me with things his world had to offer, and only after I was desperate to remain in it he used my vulnerability to proposition me.

The worst part? It was working. Rather than leave, I was hearing him out, and I hated myself for it.

My heart raced. “What exactly do you want?”

“I want a lively family like yours. I want a compassionate wife like yours. However, my demanding schedule makes it difficult to be dedicated to a full-time family. I can’t give up my work, but I’m tired of coming home to an empty house. Business is stressful enough without factoring in other people’s feelings. If I need to leave for Africa at the drop of a hat, I can’t be bothered with fighting my wife over the unprecedented business trip, and I wouldn’t have to if there was someone else to pick up the pieces. I’m not proposing to take your family away but rather add to it.”

I sat back in my chair. It finally dawned on me what he wanted. Kai Cavendish wanted to play house without the responsibilities of the real thing. He wasn’t asking to marry my wife, but rather marryintomy family.

He was suggesting bigamy.

When you had Kai’s type of wealth, regular thrills became boring. He sought a bigger target for entertainment, exploiting our lives, problems, and desires to make a mockery of marriage.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Why not?” he asked boldly in the face of my disgust. “I want a wife and kids with flexible commitment; you want financial freedom. If I marry Amelie and become her second husband, we can live together like one big happy unit. In exchange for welcoming me into your family, you’ll receive a million dollars for every year we’re married, along with the endless benefits of being one of my family members. Vacation homes, jets, helicopters, country club memberships, the sky’s the limit.”

It was an audacious compliment.

He had appraised my wife and valued her at a million dollars a year. Had any man ever been so offended? Had any man ever been so flattered?

I shouldn't be surprised. In my humble opinion, Amelie was the most exceptional woman on earth. I pursued her relentlessly in high school. She refused to cave, citing I was the nominal jock who would break her heart. I didn’t back down, and once she agreed, I never let her go. If I had given anyone else an opening, they would have swooped in and done what I did—never let her go.

However, according to Kai, he had met another woman who was similarly exceptional.

“You can have any woman. Why did you target my wife; why not someone unmarried or the woman you spoke of earlier? You could’ve approached her husband with this plan.”

“Their financial situation wasn’t as dire as yours,” he replied without remorse.

Meaning her husband wasn’t desperate enough to listen to his preposterous scheme. It always came down to money, didn’t it? I had to suffer this humiliation because I didn’t have any, and he had it in abundance.

I picked up the drink he had salvaged. I should do something dramatic, like throw the glass against the wall. But Kai wasacting suave amid this climactic point. His calmness made me feel like I was the childish one for wanting to throw a fit over his unsavory suggestion. How could he act like he was the gentleman while talking about fucking my wife?

“I’m offering us the best of both worlds,” he continued. “One where you only have to share rather than give anything up.”

“You mean, share my wife with you.”

He nodded. “I want the marriage to be real in every way, that includes an intimate relationship and legal paperwork. But it doesn’t mean anything has to change between the two of you. You’ll be divorced on paper but remain married in every other way. You can have children with her, too, and it’s at her discretion if she wants one with me.”

I sneered. “Oh. I didn’t realize Amelie even had a say in this.”

“Why wouldn’t she agree? Amelie has nothing to lose in this arrangement.”

“How about her dignity?” A pit in my stomach appeared at the image of them in bed.

The smile on his face stretched. “I have immense respect for your wife and won’t let her suffer any indignities. I’m not a promiscuous man and won’t stray from my marriage. So, diseases and other women will never be a concern. But if you’re referring to our intimate relationship, I’ll clarify. Yes, I want us to be a real couple and sleep in the same bed, but sex will be consensual.”

“You’ll spend a million dollars a year to stay married to my wife, and she doesn’t have to sleep with you?”

“As long as she makes an honest effort in the marriage—spends a set number of nights with me, has meals together, accompanies me as my date, everything a wife does—I’m willing to wait.”

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