Page 51 of Bargaining

Charlotte sipped from a champagne glass and laughed with Tiffany. I had to stop staring at her, but my eyes always found her in every crowd. This had been a mistake. I’d had a contract drawn up specifically to keep feelings out of this. I had no time for an actual wife or a genuine marriage. There were only two options: I could try to make this marriage work, in which case I had less than a year to win Charlotte over and do this for real, or I could resist.We could live our separate lives and these feelings would pass. The first option was unacceptable. It would derail everything in my life. I had a job to do and a focus, and a wife needed time and attention. I was already thinking too much about her when I should have been schmoozing and convincing all these bastards here that I was a top-notch bloke brimming with integrity.

The easier option was to get over it. If I got Charlotte out of my sight, then I hardly had to see her. Everything would go back to how it was before. Feelings were just ephemeral states. I made decisions with my head, not my dick, and definitely not my heart. Love was an inconvenience at best and dangerous at worst. Love was a distraction I couldn’t afford. I owed it to my mother to focus my energy on bringing down Philip. I’d committed to spending every day making him pay. Anything else would be a betrayal. The problem was I’d never been able to get Charlotte out of my head. For all these years, no other woman had compared. It would be easier if she was someone else. If she wasn’t everything I’d ever wanted. There was only one choice: I would have to live with it.

“I never thought I’d see this day.” Lucas held out his hand and shook mine. “My brother is a married man.”

My other brother, Theo, glowered at Lucas’s side. One side of his face shone with a mesh of scars from the explosion that had nearly finished him off. Not that he’d ever speak about it. It was hard to get a word from this man about anything, let alone something that mattered. He’d been a miserable bastard before he traveled the world driving tanks and blowing things up, and now he was ten times worse. Captain Gloom had left us the minute he was old enough to enroll in the army.

“Congratulations,” Theo growled, raising his glass in the most lackluster salutation imaginable.

“I didn’t expect you to come.”

“Didn’t believe it when I got the invite. Had to see it with my own eyes.” He took a sip of orange juice and scanned the party. “Where’s Reuben?”

“Posing on a yacht somewhere, I imagine.”

“You didn’t invite him?” Lucas narrowed his eyes. His voice was chiding, which it had no right to be, considering I was the only one that had suffered through a round of golf with him.

“He’s a pain, and I don’t trust him.”

Lucas scoffed. “He’s harmless. He’s a little puppy who wants to make friends.”

A puppy who was trying to hump my wife’s leg. No thanks.“I don’t buy it. I can’t trust anyone who laughs like that.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“I don’t know. He laughs at jokes that are barely amusing. He acts like he’s being graded for enthusiasm, and he’s so weirdly clumsy.”

“You make him nervous. He’s trying to impress you,” Lucas said.

“He’s trying too hard.”

“He wouldn’t have to try so hard if you didn’t have such a chip on your shoulder.” Lucas rolled his eyes and followed my gaze to Charlotte. “Your new wife is very sweet. How did you get a woman so nice to agree to this?”

I kept my voice low and level. “I’m paying her.”

Lucas laughed darkly and patted me on the back. “Good one. You’d need to. She’s way out of your league.”

Don’t I know it. Theo watched me over the rim of his glass. Nothing got past him. He liked to stand around with his massive muscles, eyeing everyone with watchful mockery, like a Bond villain’s evil bodyguard.

Lucas smiled and raised his glass to Beatrice and a couple of the other shareholders gathered by the buffet table across the room. “I’ve heard people talking about how this is you turning over a newleaf. This marriage is making you look good, Cole. You couldn’t have timed this better.”

Beatrice gave me a wave. I pasted a smile onto my face and waved back.That’s right. Drink my champagne. Stuff your face with my fucking vol-au-vents while you plot my downfall.

Beatrice had shed a few tears during the ceremony. The shareholders seemed appeased for the moment. Now I had to hope that my new status as a respectable family man was enough to convince Gabe Rivers to pick up the fucking phone.

Theo gave me a knowing look and raised his glass. “How convenient. You found a wife just when you need one.”

“What can I say? Sometimes things fall into place. I’m lucky like that.”

Charlotte appeared next to me, pink-cheeked and grinning. She’d never looked more beautiful. A rush of heat went through me.

She threaded her arm through mine. “Do you mind if I steal my husband? It’s time for the first dance.”

Lucas pushed his glasses up his nose and smiled genially. “Please. Take him away. We won’t miss him.”

No. Not a good idea to be holding her close and swaying. I had to make these feelings go away, not nourish them with lovey-dovey music and closeness. I shrugged out of her grip.

“I don’t dance.”