Pretty Boy thumped her to the mat—so damned gently she elbowed him in the side. “Will you knock it off?”
“What?” he asked, pinning her arm to the mat so she couldn’t jab him again, his expression carefully neutral.
“Since when did you decide I was fragile?” she snapped, thrusting up her hips in a hard, fast move that rolled them both until she was on top.
He locked his jaw and tapped out, immediately yielding, and she wanted to scream. It had been like this ever since she’d broken up with him—so careful, so reserved, all of his emotions locked behind a blank façade.
“I know you’re pissed at me. Yell at me. Grapple with me. Let it out already.” She shook his shoulders, settling her weight back onto her hips—which pressed her against a suspicious hardness. At least something wasn’t repressed.
Ren’s face heated and he flipped her off him. “Leave it alone, Candy.”
He was on his feet before she could react, striding quickly toward the locker room. “Where are you going?”
“To take a cold shower,” he snapped over his shoulder without slowing.
“Pretty Boy.” He didn’t slow. “Ren!”
By the time she made it to the locker room he’d already stripped his shirt over his head. Her mouth went dry at the sight of his bare back, the muscles there. He was mostly turned away from her, but she could still see where his erection tented the front of his workout pants.
“Ren…”
It would be so easy to slide back into what they’d been before. What was the harm, after all? Hadn’t they been happy? Yes, she’d felt like she was leading him on, living a lie, sliding down into an abyss from which there was no return… but at least he hadn’t looked at her with that horrible careful blankness.
“It doesn’t have to be all or nothing,” she murmured. “I liked what we were before. Maybe I was too hasty, cutting things off like that—”
“I don’t think we should train together anymore.”
He hadn’t turned. Hadn’t swung a fist, but the words were a blow. Candy sucked in a breath. “Okay.” Right. Yes. They shouldn’t train. He shouldn’t put his hands on her. It was killing them both. The right thing to do wasn’t to go back to what they’d been before, it was to move forward. Into whatever they would be when there wasn’t a “them” anymore. “That’s probably for the best.”
He nodded, still without looking at her, and stepped into the shower room, shutting the door.
* * * * *
Present day…
Charlotte’s face froze.
Candy didn’t know what kind of reaction she’d been expecting—rage, denial, tears—but she hadn’t been prepared for blank shock. She put her hand on top of Charlotte’s unmoving one and kept speaking, filling up the stunned silence. “I’m so sorry. I know this is the last thing you want to hear on your wedding day, but it’s better to find out what kind of guy he is now, isn’t it? Before it’s too late?”
Emotions scuttled across Charlotte’s eyes, too rapid for her to read.
“We can tell Mom,” Candy suggested. “She’ll take care of everything. You won’t have to lift a finger—”
“Why would you say that?”
Candy broke off, confused. “About Mom?”
“Tug didn’t sleep with Alicia.” Her hand jerked out from under Candy’s. “Why are you lying? Why would you make up such a hateful story?” Charlotte turned to her with accusation in her eyes. “Do you hate me that much?”
Ah. Denial. Okay. She’d been expecting this, just maybe not with the accusations attached. “Charlotte, no. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. I saw him,” Candy kept her voice gentle, but firm.
“No.” Flat. Unquestioning. “You’re lying. There’s some explanation.”
“Maybe,” Candy hedged to pacify Charlotte as anger kindled in her eyes. Anger at Candy. “I’m sure he’ll have some explanation if you ask him about it, but the fact is—”
Charlotte shook her head as if Candy were speaking Swahili. “I can’t ask him. It’s bad luck to see him on our wedding day.”
Candy must have entered an alternate universe where everything looked the same but nothing made sense. “You can’t still be thinking of marrying him today.”
“Of course, I am. Everyone’s coming. The wedding is at four.”
As if her four o’clock wedding was a commitment that could only be changed with a majority in both houses and ratification by two-thirds of the states.
“Charlotte, he cheated on you with your maid of honor the night before your wedding.” Candy didn’t bother to keep her tone gentle this time. The words were intentionally harsh, designed to wake her sister up, but Charlotte shook her head.
“We haven’t said the vows yet so it’s not like he broke them.”
“And you think he won’t?” Candy asked incredulously. “How could you ever trust him?”
“I love him, Candy.”
“And love is all you need?” She scoffed. “Is this because of Reggie? I know he destroyed your self-esteem and Tug seems like the polar opposite of your first husband, but do you really want another man who is going to pat you on the head and lie to you while he’s sleeping with other people?”
Charlotte’s expression turned mulish. “Tug isn’t like that.”
“Tug is exactly like that!”
“I’m sorry my marriage doesn’t live up to your exacting standards. Not everyone has a perfect life with a perfect husband who has eyes only for you. Some of us have to live in the real world, Candy.”
“Trust me, my relationship with Ren is far from perfect, but I don’t think holding out for a man who wouldn’t sleep with your best friend the night before your wedding is an unreasonable standard.”
“You misunderstood,” Charlotte insisted. “You didn’t see what you thought you saw. We both know how drunk you were last night. You threw up in the bushes! How can you be sure of what you saw?”
“I may have been wasted, but I wasn’t hallucinating. Ask Alicia.” It was a gamble, bringing Alicia into the conversation. Especially when she seemed so eerily calm this morning. Not at all guilty. Candy was betting that Alicia truly was Charlotte’s friend and wouldn’t let her marry someone who would betray her trust—which was a risky bet. But Candy was prepared to stare her down until she told the truth. Even if she had to use that damn shipment as leverage.
Though then Alicia would probably blab about Ren.
God, when did things get so complicated? If she’d been thinking, she would have done intense background research and dug into the histories of everyone present, getting dirt on them so she was prepared for the freaking minefield that was a wholesome Raines family gathering. Where the blackmail got too tangled to unknot.
She’d kill for her computer right now.
She’d been stupid, coming in blind. Failing to prepare for this like the battle it was.
Charlotte stood suddenly. “I don’t want to talk to Alicia. And if you say a word to anyone, I’ll never speak to you again. This is my choice. And I choose Tug. And if you even cough during the speak now or forever hold your peace portion of the ceremony, I’ll destroy you. Understand? I’m getting married today. And it’s going to be perfect.”
* * * * *
Ren had woken up that morning with a crick in his neck and an empty feeling in his chest.
The former was due to the chair he’d slept in last night because he hadn’t trusted his unconscious self in the bed with Candy. The instinct to reach for her was too strong. So after he’d doused the light, he’d stretched out in a chair—an idea that seemed much better at the time than it did when he was still trying to work the kinks out of his neck at eleven o’clock the next morning.
The empty feeling was a little harder to diagnose.
He’d been certain he’d reached the end of his rope with Candy before, but he’d always woken up ready to give her one more chance. This felt different. The sense of finality he’d experienced the night before still lingered in the morning.
He’d gone downstairs while she was still snoring to scrounge some breakfast and had picked up a few hangover cures, but it had been by habit rather than his usual desire to take care of her. To show her what love could be. Nothing he could say or do on that front would make a difference. She wasn’t listening. So he picked up a few things for her and counted the hours until this ordeal would be over. When he could go home and start over.
When she’d woken up—looking like death and probably feeling worse—he hadn’t wavered. When she’d nagged him about Javi, he’d brushed her aside without a thought. His uncle wanted to be in his life—even if he didn’t always show it in the most conventional ways. Candy had proven time and again that she didn’t feel the same.
And he’d flown across the country and pretended to be her husband all because he thought something would change. That she would see him differently—see them differently—and they’d live happily ever after.
Was there anything more emasculating than being that pathetic sap who trailed after a woman long after she’d made it clear she didn’t want him? Or rather that all she wanted him for was sex? Their friendship had muddied things, but it was obvious true love need not apply. She didn’t want that life. And he’d been the idiot who had taken years to wake up to that fact. What a freaking waste.
Ren checked his email. Sent Max a text to check on Wicket. Did a few searches for earlier flights to see what their options would be.
He’d learned to be patient. He was good at waiting—hadn’t the last four years proved that? But he was ready to be done. Ready to be home. He hated not knowing whether the wedding was on or off. Whether they were staying or going.
Was Candy talking to her sister even now? When she’d told him that Tug had cheated on Charlotte, he hadn’t been surprised. It seemed to fit with what little he knew of the groom. The kind of man who was a god in his own eyes. For whom the usual rules of decency simply didn’t apply. But it did suck for Charlotte. And for Candy, who now had to tell her.
Would she come back to the room to tell him what was happening if things were changing? Would she even think of him?
Ren pocketed his phone and left the suite, tired of waiting for Candy. He jogged down the stairs and around to the back of the house, heading for the terrace that seemed to have become the unofficial gathering place for the family.
Sure, Candy’s family drama wasn’t his business anymore, but he was done sitting back and waiting for her to decide things for him. No more passive, easy-going, accepting Ren. He and Candy might be over, but he’d learned this one lesson. He wasn’t waiting anymore.