Page 22 of The Marriage Playbook

“Oh, please.” She rolled her eyes. “Liam, I don’t know if it’s escaped your notice somehow, but you have run out of options. Your team doesn’t want you. You’re a laughingstock in the press. And as for Stephanie, she bailed. She contacted me right before the wedding was set to begin and told me she couldn’t go through with it. If I hadn’t met you at the altar, you would have had no one. The whole thing would have gone up in smoke. And if anyone had ever found out about that, there’d be no saving your reputation.”

He stared at her for a long time, then he turned away from her and picked up a glass. He unscrewed the top of the bottle in his hand, poured some out, and took a long drink.

At least he had stopped shouting. Maybe he had heard what she was saying. Maybe he realized that she was on his side.

I hope so, because I’m more on his side than anyone else in the world is.

The hotel room phone rang.

She frowned, then looked back at Liam. He didn’t seem as if he was going to make a move to answer it, so she walked over and picked it up. “Hello?”

“Cara? What the hell is going on? I’ve been texting you.”

It was Alastair. Cara was hit with a realization. “I left my phone at the church. It’s in the ladies’ room.”

Alastair let out a sigh. “I’ll have someone pick it up for you,” he said. “So the two of you made it to the suite?”

“Yes.” She hesitated, glancing at Liam. “I guess you figured out that Stephanie pulled out.”

“Oh, I figured it out.” He chuckled. “I have to say, Cara, that was some brilliant thinking on your part. Well done. I’m impressed.”

In spite of the stress of the day, Cara felt a sudden glow of pride. She’d impressed her boss. Maybe she would be moving up at the firm after all.

His voice hardened. “But don’t mess this up,” he said sharply. “It’s your project now, so if anything goes wrong, it’s on you. Understood?”

Cara swallowed hard. “Understood.”

CHAPTER 12

LIAM

Liam blinked his way out of sleep feeling confused and tense. It was a moment before the events of the day before returned to him, and when they did, he let out a soft groan, rolled over, and buried his face in his pillow.

Married to my publicist. This couldn’t have gone any worse if we’d scripted it.

Liam’s whole life was so utterly off the rails lately that he didn’t know how he could pretend to be surprised by these things anymore. He got out of bed and went to the bathroom, thinking he would take a long, hot shower.

The door was locked.

He jiggled the handle, frowning.

“Just a minute!” Cara called.

He stifled a groan, went back to his bed, and threw himself down on top of the blankets. Only one bathroom. Of course. This was supposed to be a luxury suite, but it was also intended for honeymooners. There’d be no reason to have separate bathrooms. They were lucky enough that there was a second room, with a comfortable couch for Cara to sleep on.

I probably should have been the one to take the couch. Yes, all right, he was angry at her, but he was still a gentleman. But she had insisted, reminding him that this was a professional relationship and that she was the one collecting a paycheck. And then she had gone into the second room and closed the door behind her, and he hadn’t felt as though he could go after her and continue the conversation.

The bathroom door opened and Cara stepped out, wearing the hotel bathrobe.

He couldn’t help staring for a moment. Her collarbone stood out above the neckline, and the robe was short, ending high up on her thigh. It had clearly been designed with honeymooners in mind. “You, uh…you don’t want to get dressed?”

She scowled at him. “I don’t have anything to wear,” she said. “In case you forgot, I wasn’t supposed to be here right now. I didn’t pack a bag or anything. Alastair is going to have some of my things couriered over, but they haven’t arrived yet. So unless I’m supposed to wear that wedding dress for the next several hours, it’s the robe or nothing.”

Liam couldn’t keep the smirk off his face. He hadn’t thought anything would be able to put him in a good mood this morning, but he had to admit that seeing Cara Bailey in this getup was a good start. “I don’t think I would have been so moody about everything last night if I had realized how hot my new wife was,” he said.

“Yeah? Because I’ve never known you not to be moody a day in your life,” she said. “If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to go back to my room and order up some room service until my things get here.”

“We need to talk about what we’re going to do next,” Liam pointed out.