Page 4 of Revenge Honeymoon

Ruby looked over her shoulder at the growing line of cruisers. Their problem was causing a delay and attracting undue attention. Worry lines marred her perfectly smooth, perfectly spray-tanned brow.

Stan took a quick snapshot of the QR code with his tablet. “Oh, Ruby Hardy and Tyler—?” He stared hard at Emily.

Ruby leaned in and whispered to the man, “Tyler won’t be coming on the cruise. I called late yesterday. I had a substitution. The cruise line said it would be okay. They promised it wouldn’t be a problem.”

Emily could hear the tears coming on.

“Please, sir, do we have to do this here?” People were starting to stare as Ruby sniffed and rubbed her nose.

More couples walked around them. Cruise employees stepped further away from the security line to give passengers room to pass.

“I’m sorry, miss, I don’t see your name on the list.” Stan didn’t seem to enjoy the problem the two women were causing him either. “You’ll have to go talk to my manager.” He pointed at a tall, thin black woman in a navy suit jacket wearing a name tag that read ‘Sylvia.’

Ruby sniffed once more and then rolled her massive suitcase toward Sylvia. Emily followed behind. Her stomach twisted. Maybe their plan wasn’t going to work as easily as they thought. She’d bent over backward to make her revenge honeymoon plan work, and now it was falling apart.

An inner fire grew inside her. She would make this cruise happen for the both of them no matter what. No matter who she had to step on. No matter who she had to swear at. Her best friend was going to have the cruise of a lifetime. She’d make damn sure of it.

Emily ran smack into a man who’d crossed in front of her. A tallish, muscular, oh-so-attractive-it-hurt man. The kind of man women only dreamed of existing in the real world. The kind of man she’d only seen in magazines and Google searches for ‘hot man’ photos when she was lonely on a Saturday night without a date.

She tripped over his roller bag and crashed to the hard concrete floor.

Fantasy ripped away.

He kept walking toward Sylvia. She’d been so unnoticeable, he’d crashed into her as if she were a post. Or a trash can.

“Excuse you,” she muttered under her breath.

Ruby, who’d reached Sylvia before the hottest man in the room, gasped at her friend sprawled out on the floor. “Are you okay?”

The man, who Emily wanted to despise but who made her stomach turn flip-flops by merely taking in the sight of his tight ass in blue plaid, form-fitting shorts, noticed Ruby. The same as every man noticed Ruby. She was absolutely one-hundred percent never not noticeable. Beyonce could walk in the room, and Ruby would still draw all male attention her way.

“Excuse me?” He had a bewildered look on his face. An ‘are you talking to me’ kind of face that most men had when even a single word came out of Ruby’s ruby lips.

Ruby gave him a hard stare, rushed to Emily’s side and helped her up. “What happened?”

Within seconds, Mr. Gorgeous was in deep conversation with Sylvia. He’d bumped them out of line. But what good would it do to put up a fuss? Ruby already was humiliated and embarrassed they hadn’t been able to sail onto the ship like everyone else.

“Oh, nothing. It was an accident.” Emily brushed her mussed hair out of her eyes and checked her knees and elbows for scrapes. No blood, That was good. But her backside sure ached from making contact with the concrete.

“You poor thing.” Ruby gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Let’s hope our luck improves. I don’t know if I could handle one more bad thing happening.”

Emily glanced at Mr. Gorgeous. Everything about him was perfect. Perfect hair. Longish, but not too long. Dark and slightly wavy. Eyes of an indiscernible color, but mysterious and sexy. A well-defined jawline with a scruff of beard. A purposeful scruff that looked as if it never was shaved and never grew longer. A fit physique, wide shoulders, bulked up arms, sculpted chest under a clinging linen shirt.

Some lucky young woman managed to score a prize when she married this fine specimen. Even though his manners left something to be desired, perhaps his wife didn’t mind as long as she got to stare across the breakfast table every morning while he drank his coffee and ate his eggs.

Then she thought of Ruby’s Tyler. Also a fine specimen. Also physically perfect in almost every way. But his affections for Ruby had been hot one minute, cold the next.

Although Ruby’s best friend, she had thought it not her place to speak ill of him. Ruby had been smitten from the very first date. She could have her pick of men, and Tyler had been her choice. So Emily had assumed a lot about the kind of man Ruby had been looking for. When he’d proposed, Emily did have a few stray thoughts that her friendship with Ruby would likely cool before too long. Tyler had made it clear he didn’t think much of Ruby’s friends and definitely didn’t warm up to Emily.

Emily surveyed the packed space. She wanted to see if she could figure out who Mrs. Gorgeous could be. Probably tall. Probably blonde. Probably a model.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Mr. Gorgeous was saying to Sylvia. “I tried to be here at eight, but I couldn’t find a taxi, and my plane was delayed last night.”

Emily’s ears perked up. He said nothing of a wife.

Chapter2

The Pact

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