Page 9 of The Wrong Husband

Emilia had been mortified.

And, what did I do? Nothing, I'm ashamed to say. I did nothing. Just ignored the whole family drama as I did all others.

Maeve and Bianca were proficient Drama Queens. They worked together and were constantly at each other's throats even though they were as close as friends.

"Fine, Emilia. I'll see you tomorrow." I couldn't face her. I just couldn't do it. I needed a minute to get my bearings. What I'd done to this woman was horrible and I didn't have the courage to see her understanding smile. This morning, she smiled at me like I wasn't a monster. It made me angry and I took my self-loathing out on her. I had no business doing that. This wasn't Emilia's fault. It was mine…and maybe Bianca's.

No, not Bianca's. She did fuck all. This was all on me.

"Okay. Bye, Damian."

She sounded so young. So uncertain. It broke something inside me, and I had this crazy desire to walk out and give her a hug.

Who the hell did I think I was to use her like this?

What the hell was I supposed to do now?

First, I should never have come to Vegas. And even after I did, I should've walked away when I saw her at the Bellagio bar, but instead, I flirted with her. Then I took her to the casino and watched her lose money at the blackjack table.

Emilia's excitement was palpable as she sat down, her eyes wide with anticipation. It was her first time playing blackjack.

"I'll figure this out." She confidently grinned, placing her chips on the table. The dealer dealt the first hand, and Emilia received a seven and a nine.

"Hit me," she declared, and the dealer added a queen of hearts.

"Busted," she muttered, her smile faltering slightly but her determination unwavering.

The next hand was no better. This time, she was dealt a king of hearts and a five.

"Stay," she decided, hoping the dealer would bust. But luck was not on her side. The dealer flipped over a seventeen, just enough to win.

"Ugh, this is harder than it looks," Emilia groaned as her pile of chips dwindled.

Hand after hand, she continued to hit when she should have stayed and stayed when she should have hit.

Christ, this kid was a mess.

The cards seemed to mock her, with the queen and king of hearts appearing just often enough to remind her of the fortune she wasn’t winning. Despite her terrible luck, there was something endearing about her determination, and I found myself more captivated by her.

And that's when I got stupid. I asked her to go for a walk with me as a ploy to get her away from the blackjack table and ended up at the Silver Bells Wedding Chapel where we said I do in front of Elvis.

I compounded that error by fucking her three ways to Sunday and even now as I looked at myself with regret, the truth was that I wanted to be inside her again.

Chapter 3

Emilia

"Mr. Archer is in a meeting that is running late but he'll see you shortly," his assistant, Devi Rao, a gorgeous Indian woman said to me.

She hadn't been particularly solicitous when I informed her that I had a meeting with Damian at ten. She went off about how Damian hadn't run it by her, blah blah blah.

Devi knew who I was, after all my father was the CFO at Archer Galleries and my sister had been dating her boss for three years. She just didn't like me very much and I had no idea why. But her feelings were hers and I couldn't control them; I could only manage my own response to how she treated me. I decided to take the approach of the penguins in the movie Madagascar.

"Smile and wave. Smile and wave."

While I waited for Damian, I didn't sit on the comfortable chairs in the lobby, instead I set my backpack next to a chair and stood in front of the tall floor to ceiling window to watch my favorite city in the world.

I put my hands inside the pockets of my linen jumpsuit.