Betrayed Bride: Claimed By The Best Man

fingers ached from gripping the heavy crystal-encrusted skirt of her wedding gown, thousands of Swarovski elements catching the dim light like s

ved how they made her legs look-had rubbed raw blisters into her heels with eve

evening's exertion, struggled to find purchase on the smooth plastic. She needed to get inside, peel o

t between stretches of shadow. As she passed the third doorway, something stopped her. A sce

eet, cloying, agg

te every department store in Manhattan carrying identical bottles in their discount bins. Her cousin had worn it tonight, dousing

e doing on the

at the corridor's end, its mahogany door slightly ajar.

he hea

oe's eardrum like a physical blow-a woman's moan, pitched high and theatri

er body moved forward without her permission, drawn by some hor

bodies moved in a rhythm Kloe recognized but had never seen from this angle. Candyce's red nails dug into broad shoulders. J

s voice thick with liquor and lust. "Like fucking a corps

ass. "You should have seen her face when yo

"Worth it for the trust fund control, though. Her grandmother's lawyer fin

pet with a barely audible thud. But in the ringing silence of Kloe's mind, the sound

ic. A display pedestal. An antique vase-Ming dynasty, on loan from the hotel's pri

c before it hit the floor. She braced for the inevitable crash, the shouting, the humiliati

act nev

se's base before it shattered. The Patek Philippe on the wrist c

ened h

cent of Cuban tobacco and wintergreen c

mussed in a way that suggested he'd been running his hands through it. His eyes-gray-green,

s "brother from another mother" who'd flown in from Singapore for the wedding. The man

re world crumble while she stood there like a naive fool? The thou

broad shoulders blocking the path to the elevator. He advanced one step. Then another. Until her back pressed

's probably asleep already. Poor thing was exhausted from all that smiling. Like a

against her ear, the vibration traveling down her spine. "You could scream and cry. Or you could

irectly, her voice a ragged whisper. "Are

a gentleness that contradicted everything in his stance. The touch sen

yes dropped to her mouth, held there. "B

ggle cutting through the wood. Kloe's nails dug into her palms, bre

His thumb pressed hard into the crescent-shaped wo

gister that vibrated in her chest. "Different room. D

for her answer, that he had nowhere else to be, that this moment-her humiliation, her rage, her desperat

nd his lapel. C

His arm locked around her waist, lifting her slightly off her feet. With one backward