The Holiday Escapes Collection. Sandra Marton

you know it wasn’t my intention to have more than one,” she bit out, a sour feeling settling in her stomach. “Zack was decent, you know.” She eyed the open door, and her suitcase, still occupying their position in the hall. “He was one of the few truly good people I’ve ever met. I hate that I did this to him.”

      “Have you been in contact?”

      “No.”

      “Perhaps you should…?”

      She clenched her teeth. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. Anyway, he hasn’t called me, and he didn’t come by my house, so, maybe he doesn’t care.” That actually hurt a little.

      “If he thinks you’re missing, he may send out a search party. I didn’t think you wanted to publicize our marriage. Or rather, why you ran out on your wedding. It doesn’t matter either way to me.”

      She swore and took her phone from her purse. “Fine. But Shelby did go and speak to him.” She bit her lip and looked down at the screen. Still no calls from him, and she’d been sort of hoping there would have at least been one. There was a text from Shelby.

      “And have you heard from him?”

      “No.” Strange. But she couldn’t really imagine Zack playing the part of desperate, jilted groom. Decent he was, but the man had pride. She opened the text from Shelby and her heart plummeted. “Zack wasn’t at the hotel when she arrived.”

      “So he still hasn’t heard from you at all.”

      She clutched the phone tightly against her chest. Eduardo was watching her far too closely. She needed a moment. Just a moment.

      “Why don’t you bring my bags in?” she asked.

      Dark eyes narrowed, but he walked over to the entry and pulled her bags just inside the door, shutting it behind him.

      She bit her lip and looked back down at her phone.

      “Scared?” he asked.

      “No,” she muttered. She opened up the message screen and typed in Zack’s name, her fingers hovering over the letters on the touch screen as she watched the cursor blink. She really didn’t know what to say to him. “Nothing about this in the chivalry handbook?” she asked.

      Eduardo crossed his arms over his broad chest and leaned against the back of the couch. “I think we both have to accept that we’re on the wrong side of honor at this point in time.”

      “Good thing I never gave honor much thought,” she said.

      Except she was now. Or at least giving thought to what a mess she’d made out of Zack’s life. She growled low in her chest and shot Eduardo one last evil glare.

      I’m so sorry about the wedding, Zack.

      She let her thumb hover over the send button and then hit it on a groan.

      “What did you tell him?”

      “Nothing really yet.” She pulled up another text window.

      I met someone else. I—She paused for a moment and looked at Eduardo. If she’d been speaking, she would have gagged on the next word. —love him.

      She closed her eyes and hit Send. Let him think that emotion had been in charge. She and Zack were both so cynical about love…he might even find it funny. That had been the foundation of their relationship really. Zack had wanted a wife, the stability marriage would bring. But he wanted a wife who wouldn’t bother him about his long working hours, and who didn’t want children. Or love.

      They’d been so well suited.

      “There. I hope you’re happy. I just ruined things with my best bet for a happy ending.”

      “You said you didn’t love him,” Eduardo said.

      “I know. But I like him. I respect him. How often do you get that in a marriage?”

      “I don’t know. I’ve only ever had separate bedrooms and blackmail in my marriage. What excuse did you give him?”

      “I told him how much I loved you, dearest,” she bit out.

      He chuckled. “You always were an accomplished little liar.”

      “Well, I don’t feel good about this one.”

      “You felt good about the others?”

      She truly didn’t know the answer. “I…I never thought about how I felt about it. Just about whether or not it was necessary. Anyway, I don’t lie as a matter of course.”

      “You just lie about really big things infrequently?”

      “Every job application has started with questions about college. Didn’t I get near-perfect grades at university? Didn’t I have a prestigious internship at Vega Communications? No lies. No one wants to know about high school, not once you’ve been through university.”

      “And your fiancé?”

      “Never asked many questions. He liked what he knew about me.” And neither of them knew all that much. Something she was realizing now that she was being haunted by her past. She and Zack had never even slept together. Not for lack of attraction. She’d been quite attracted to him, impossible not to be, but until things were legal and permanent between them she’d felt the need to hang on to that bit of control.

      It was so much easier to deny her sex drive than to end up back where she’d been nine years ago. Being that girl, that was unacceptable. She never would be again.

      “Lies by omission are still lies, querida.”

      “Then we’re all liars.”

      “Now, that’s true enough.”

      “Show me to my room,” she said, affecting her commanding, imperious tone. The one she had gotten so good at over the years. “I’m tired.”

      A slow smile curved his lips and she fought the urge to punch him.

      “Of course, darling.”

      This time, he picked up her bags without incident and she followed him into her room. Her room. Her throat tightened. Her first experience with homecoming. Why should it mean anything? He had replaced the bedding. A new dark-colored comforter, new sable throw pillows, new satin curtains on the windows to match. The solid desk she’d loved to work at was still in its corner. Unmoved. There was no dust on it, but then, Eduardo had always had a great housekeeper.

      “This is…perfect,” she said.

      “I’m glad you still like it. I remember you being…giddy over it back when we were first married.”

      “It was the nicest room I’d ever been in,” she said, opting to give him some honesty, a rare thing from her. “The sheets were…heaven.”

      “The sheets?”

      She cleared her throat. “I have a thing for high-quality sheets. And you definitely have them here.”

      “Well, now you get to live here again. And reap the benefits of the sheets.”

      She arched a brow. “My fiancé was a billionaire, you know.”

      “Yes, I know. I would expect you to find nothing less,” he said.

      “I’m not sure how I feel about your assessment of my character, Eduardo. You express no shock over Zack’s financial status, or over the fact that we weren’t in love.”

      “You’re mercenary. I know it…you know it. It’s not shocking.”

      She was mercenary. If being mercenary meant she did what she had to to ensure her own success. Her own survival. She’d needed to be. To move up from the life she’d been born into. To overcome the devastating consequences of her youthful actions. And she’d never lost a wink of sleep over it. But for some reason, the fact that it was so obvious to Eduardo