She considered what her chances would be of trying to simply barrel past him and call a cab, but she remembered her bags had been dropped off here earlier that morning and she would have to either drag them with her or come back and get them.
Admit it, you don’t want to leave him either, not until you know what the hell that spark was. The kiss was incredible, but she refused to stay with him because of a damn kiss that made her toes curl and give herself hope that she wasn’t as horrible as those other guys said. Okay, now you’re getting ahead of yourself. She rolled her shoulders, remembering he hadn’t seen all of her yet.
“Natalie?”
“Right, explanation. My sister was worried about me turning into an anti-social hermit after the accident, and she forgot about her profile on the website.”
“You said that before. How did she forget about putting herself on a marriage website?”
Natalie’s eyebrows lifted. “Well, if you’d actually met Lana, you’d realize how scatterbrained and impulsive can be. She signed up for the website when she and her boyfriend were on a break. It’s a long story.”
He nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. “And this accident you keep mentioning? Does it have anything to do with your irrational fear of cars?”
She narrowed her eyes. “I thought you were a politician, not a psychic.”
“I’m good at reading people. How bad was the accident?”
Natalie’s eyes closed. She heard the squealing tires again, the horrible cracking as her car slid off the road and rolled down and down and down. Felt the heat of the flames again. Gritting her teeth, she refused to meet his gaze as she whispered, “Bad enough. Can we leave it at that?”
“Bad enough your sister was scared for you? Depression?” he asked, his voice softening as well as his face.
“It happens when you almost die,” she replied sharply. “Sorry, it’s been a long recovery.”
“It’s hard to recover if you lock yourself in your apartment. I’m going to take a guess that you haven’t been on a date in a long time, either.”
Natalie glared at him and stiffened her shoulders. “You have no idea what I went through, all right? I’ll answer the important questions, but I am not going to drag up what happened for your amusement.”
The anger faded almost completely from his face. “Sorry, you’re right.”
“No, you shouldn’t be apologizing. I don’t even know what we’re doing here. I really should go. It’ll make everything easier.”
“Easier, maybe,” he agreed, “but I’ve never been one for the easy road.”
She wanted to know what thoughts were going through his mind right now, what game he was playing. The set of his body said he was still mad and that he clearly didn’t trust her. Most people, at this point, would be clamoring to get rid of the problem, not try to find a way to make it work, and for what? She was about to tell him again she could leave when the doorbell rang.
“Hold that thought,” he murmured. “I’ll be right back.”
Natalie followed him to the doorway but stopped herself from going any further. Her head ached and she needed another drink—or several—until she figured out Vincent’s plan. She realized he needed a wife to help boost his public image, but why stick with the woman who lied to him?
Maybe there’s hope for a man in your life after all.
“One can dream,” she whispered to herself and leaned against the doorway, waiting for him to come back with his decision on their next step.
* * *
Vincent opened the door and Billy strolled in. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows.
“Yes, but not what you think. We need to talk.” Vincent dragged his friend into the kitchen.
“I know that look. That’s a there’s a major problem you need your friend Billy to solve look. What happened? You decided you don’t like her after what, two hours?”
Vincent gave up on the champagne and grabbed a beer, handing another one to Billy. “Drink it, you’re going to need it.” He chugged half of it and shoved his hair out of his face. “That’s not Lana.”
Billy choked on his beer. He wiped at it dribbling down his chin as he muttered, “I’m sorry?”
“The woman I married and brought home to live with me as my wife is not Lana Jenkins,” he repeated slowly. “That woman is Natalie Jenkins, Lana’s identical twin sister.”
Billy glanced upwards as if he could see her through the floor. “They switched on you?”
“Actually, no. Well…” Vincent rubbed his cheek and shrugged. “It’s complicated. Short version, her sister was worried about her and I’ve been talking with Natalie the whole time, not Lana. Lana, it turns out, is already engaged and forgot she was on the website to begin with.”
“Uh huh,” Billy murmured, clearly not believing a word he said. “You’re going to divorce her, right?” Vincent squared his shoulders as he drank the rest of his beer. “Vinnie, come on, man. You can’t seriously be thinking of keeping her around? She lied about who she was and then you married her. You have no idea who this woman really is. What if she feeds information to the tabloids—or worse, your rivals?”
“And you think a same-day marriage and divorce will look better?” he argued.
“That I have a chance at explaining away, but this? You married the wrong twin.”
“Or the right one,” he whispered.
“I beg your pardon?”
Since Lana—Natalie—admitted who she really was, Vincent was at war with himself about what to do. He was pissed at being tricked, but when she told him he’d only talked to her and that her sister did it out of the goodness of her heart, not out of malice, Vincent believed her.
Explaining why he trusted her was impossible, but he did and there was no changing that fact. The pain was clear in her eyes, as was the anger at her accident, but those weren’t the emotions that drove him to want to keep her by his side.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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