Betrayed Twice: Between My Fiancé and His Brother

Two days before my wedding, I found my fiancé with his tongue in another woman's mouth.

The Grand Halston lobby was all gold light and polished marble. I had come to drop off the seating chart. Nolan Kessler, the man I was supposed to marry on Saturday, had a redhead pinned against the elevator wall.

"Nolan."

He didn't jump. He didn't even flinch. He just pulled back, wiped his lower lip with his thumb, and turned his head.

The woman kept her fingers laced through his. Nolan didn't shake her off.

"Elise." He said my name like I was a waiter who had brought the wrong drink. "You weren't supposed to be here until six."

"That's your answer?" The seating chart crumpled in my fist. "That's what you're going with?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to explain why your hand is still holding hers."

The redhead smiled at me. Actually smiled. "Should I give you two a minute?"

"Stay," Nolan told her. Then he looked back at me, bored. "We're getting married, Elise. That doesn't change. This doesn't change it."

"You think I'll still walk down that aisle?"

"I think you're a Marlow." He shrugged. "And Marlows do what they're told."

The elevator chimed open behind them. He stepped inside with her, and the doors slid shut on his calm, handsome face.

I stood there until a bellhop asked if I needed help. I told him no. Then I drove home way too fast.

My father was in his study with a glass of scotch and a stack of contracts. He didn't look up when I burst in.

"Cancel it."

"Knock first, Elise."

"I said cancel the wedding." My voice cracked on the last word. "Nolan is sleeping with someone else. I saw them. At the Halston. He didn't even try to hide it."

Richard Marlow set down his pen. He finally raised his eyes, and there was nothing in them. No shock. No anger for me.

"And?"

I laughed. It came out sharp and wrong. "And? Dad, did you hear me?"

"I heard you. Men have affairs. It isn't the end of the world."

"It's the end of mine!" I slammed both hands on his desk. "I'm not marrying him. Call Mr. Kessler. Tell him it's off."

He stood up. He came around the desk slowly, buttoning his jacket like he was walking into a board meeting.

The slap snapped my head sideways.

For a second I heard nothing but ringing. My cheek burned. I tasted copper where my teeth had cut the inside of my mouth.

"Do you understand what this marriage is?" His voice stayed low and even. "The Kessler money is holding up our entire credit line. Two hundred million, Elise. If this wedding doesn't happen, the bank calls our loans by Monday."

I pressed my palm to my face. "So I'm collateral."

"You're my daughter. You'll act like it."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you walk out of this house with the clothes on your back." He picked up his scotch again. "I'll freeze your accounts. Your trust. Your car. Your cards. You'll have nothing. No friends will take you in, because their fathers all do business with me."

I stared at him. The man who used to braid my hair before school.

"You'd really do that."

"Try me."

I didn't remember leaving. I only remembered the rain starting halfway down the driveway, and my car keys digging into my palm.

I ended up on the Ridgemont Bridge at midnight.

The railing was so cold it hurt. Below me, the river was black and fast and loud, churning white around the pillars. My dress was soaked through. My cheek still throbbed.

*Marlows do what they're told.*

I leaned forward. Just a little. Just to see.

The wind pushed at my back like it was trying to help.

One foot slid off the curb.

A hand clamped around my wrist and yanked.

I slammed backward into a hard chest. Before I could scream, someone hauled me across the walkway, wrenched open a car door, and shoved me into the back seat of a black sedan.

The door thudded shut. Warm air. Leather. The smell of cedar and rain.

"Drive," a man said to the front seat. "Somewhere quiet."

The car pulled away from the bridge.

I twisted around, ready to claw at whoever had grabbed me. Then the streetlight swept across his face, and I froze.

Sharp jaw. Dark eyes. The same straight nose as Nolan.

But older. Steadier. Nothing lazy about him at all.

Adrian Kessler. Nolan's older brother. The one who ran the company while Nolan spent its money. I had met him exactly three times, and he had said maybe ten words to me total.

He shrugged off his coat and dropped it over my shaking shoulders. He didn't ask permission.

Then he turned his head and studied me.

"What happened?"

Two words. Low and slow, like he had all night to hear the answer.

My mouth opened. Nothing came out.

"Your face," he said. His eyes dropped to my cheek. His jaw went tight. "Who did that?"

"Does it matter?"

"It matters to me."

I laughed. I didn't mean to. It just bubbled up, wet and ugly, and I couldn't stop it. Adrian didn't flinch. He just waited.

"Your brother," I said finally, "had his tongue down some redhead's throat at the Halston tonight."

Something flickered across his face. It was gone fast.

"And when I told my father, he hit me. Then he told me I'd marry Nolan anyway, or he'd make me homeless."

Adrian's hand flexed on his knee. "So you went to the bridge."

"I went to the bridge."

"Were you going to jump, Elise?"

Nobody had said my name gently in so long. It undid something in my chest.

"I don't know," I whispered.

He exhaled through his nose. "Christ."

The car turned a corner. Light slid over us again, then away. In the dark, he looked so much like Nolan. And nothing like him at all.

Nolan never looked at me like I was worth worrying about.

A thought slipped in, cold and reckless.

Nolan kissed whoever he wanted. Nolan didn't care who saw. Nolan said Marlows do what they're told.

Why the hell was I the only one keeping promises?

"Adrian."

"Yes?"

I moved before I could think twice. I grabbed the front of his shirt, leaned across the seat, and pressed my mouth to his.

He went completely still.

His lips were warm. He tasted like whiskey and rain. For one long heartbeat, he didn't kiss me back and he didn't push me away.

Then his hand came up and closed around the back of my neck.

"Elise," he said against my mouth, his voice rough now. "Do you have any idea what you just started?"