Page 40 of Vengeful Seduction
For the first time, though, I found myself very strongly wishing there was some other way I could get it. If only I could get what was owed to me without hurting her …
It would hurt her. I knew it. Part of this plan was for her to fall hopelessly in love with me, and I knew she had done that. She was completely devoted, and when we got divorced, it was going to break her heart.
Or maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe she’d fall just as hard for Brent. Only he would break her heart, too, because he wasn’t any more interested in being with her than I was.
Kaye had been hurt so much. Maybe even more than I had been. She would end up with nothing and no one, whereas I would at least end up with piles and piles of money. Her heart was going to be trampled on.
Of course, mine already had been. What responsibility did I have toward her?
But she had no one. Only a few close friends.
It was just a little bit too close to my own situation for me to feel entirely good about it.
“We’re the same,” she acknowledged, still giving me the same almost unbearably sweet, patient, loving smile. She really had it perfected, and I tried to think cynically about how it was all an act—how no one could be as amazing, as saint-like as she was.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, and I meant it on so many different levels, though I knew she wouldn’t understand most of them.
“It’s okay,” she said, clearly misunderstanding what I meant, which was really for the best. “It’s okay because we’ll have each other now. We’ll have a family. The one we’ll start on our wedding day. You and me.”
Damned if, for half a second at least, it sounded like a good deal to me. Damned if I didn’t want it.
Of course, I came to my senses soon enough and pushed aside the unfamiliar feeling. Even then, though, I had to admit something, even just to myself. I was spending an awful lot of time pushing down my feelings for her.
It was just so damn rare to find someone who understood where I was coming from.
Chapter 11
Kaye
This was going to be the best day of my life.
It sounds like such a cliché, but I knew it was true. It would be the best day imaginable, a magical day, because today was the day I married the one and only man I had ever loved. Today was the day I made him mine and gave him myself in return—forever and ever, ‘til death do us part.
I wore a dress that made me feel like a fairy tale princess. Cinderella or Snow White had nothing on me. It was silly and I knew it, but I felt elegant and beautiful in the white silk dress with the skirt that went on for days. The corset hugged my waist and pushed my breasts up, emphasizing everything feminine about me.
Not only did I look beautiful, but I felt it, deep down in my very core. My hair was a silken waterfall down my back and my makeup, which Joan had done for me, was flawless. I had never felt so desirable in my life.
Though part of it might have been the way David looked at me. It was easy to think of myself as someone who was precious and desirable when the look in his eyes spoke of affection, love, and desperate want.
“Will you, David, promise to love, honor, and cherish this woman as long as you both shall live?” the minister intoned, and I beamed at David, holding both of his hands in mind.
The black tuxedo David wore flattered his handsome features—his strong chin, his chiseled lips, and his eyes that looked at me with such adoration. “I will,” David replied, his voice sure and strong, not a hint of hesitation in it.
“And will you, Kaye, promise to love, honor, and cherish this man as long as you both shall live?” the minister continued, shooting me a tiny bit of a look. He’d wanted me to go with the more traditional “love, honor, and obey,” but I had balked. I would love David, and I would certainly cherish him, but to promise to obey without question?
I didn’t have it in me, and luckily, David hadn’t seemed to mind the substitution. He smiled at me, and he really seemed like he couldn’t be any prouder of me or any happier to have me.
“I will.” My heart was in my voice as I said the words and I knew all of my friends, and all of his, would know I meant it.
It was exactly what I wanted.
I smiled at my husband, and he smiled back.
David
I was going to strangle Brent. He was enjoying this whole thing just a little bit too much, to my way of thinking. Laughing, dancing like a maniac, and holding the woman who was now my wife by law.
I wanted to grab him and whisper fiercely in his ear a reminder about just what this whole thing was. Brent wasn’t supposed to actually be enjoying this. It was a job—nothing more. So why were his green eyes alight when he looked at my wife?
