I Belong To My Fiancé’s Enemy Brother

The kiss in the car didn't stay a kiss.

By the time the Rolls-Royce rolled through a pair of iron gates, my hoodie was twisted sideways. My lips felt swollen. Damien's coat lay crumpled on the seat between us like evidence.

Hollis hadn't said a single word the entire drive. Bless him.

The house sat at the top of a hill, all dark stone and tall glass. Damien led me inside, through a hallway lined with paintings, and into a room with a fireplace and one long leather couch.

He poured a glass of water and set it in front of me.

I didn't touch it.

Up here, with the door shut and his scent spread thin across the room, my head finally cleared. And what was left behind made my stomach turn.

I'd kissed my fiancé's brother. On a sidewalk. Then I'd kept kissing him in the back of his car.

"You're regretting it," Damien said.

He leaned against the mantel, arms folded. He wasn't smiling.

"I'm thinking."

"Same thing, on your face."

I wrapped my arms around my knees. "I don't know why I did that."

"Don't you?"

"No." I bit the inside of my cheek. "Maybe it was the bond. Maybe I just wanted to hurt Caleb. I can't tell which, and that scares me more than you do."

He didn't argue. He didn't reassure me either. He just watched, waiting for me to finish.

So I changed the subject.

"The vase." I sat up straighter. "I'll pay for it. Every cent. Give me an amount and an account number."

Damien crossed to a desk by the window. He pulled open a drawer, took out a single sheet of paper, and held it out to me.

An invoice. Ming dynasty porcelain, blue and white. Five million dollars. His signature sat at the bottom in sharp black ink.

"You already had it ready," I said.

"I had it printed last night."

"So this is it? I pay, and we're even?"

"For the vase, yes." He tucked his hands into his pockets. "What happened in the car is a separate matter. I don't mix the two."

I stared at the paper. The numbers blurred.

It should have made me feel better. Clean lines. A debt with a price tag. Instead my skin prickled like I'd walked into a room where everyone knew a secret except me.

"Why does that make it worse?" I muttered.

"Because you wanted me to be using you. Then you'd have a reason to be angry."

My head snapped up. "Did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Use me." I rose to my feet. The invoice crinkled in my fist. "Did you already know? That I'm your fated mate? Is that why you showed up at my door with a story about a broken vase?"

For a moment, he said nothing. The fire popped behind him.

"Yes," he said. "I knew."

The word dropped into my chest like a stone into a well.

"How?"

"I came home last night an hour after you left. The study was a mess. Glass on the rug, Bianca's perfume everywhere." His jaw shifted. "And under all of it, you. Your scent was on the door handle. On the shards. I stood in that room and my wolf nearly tore out of my skin."

My mouth went dry. "From one smell."

"From one smell."

"Then why didn't you just tell me?" My voice climbed. "This morning. On the sidewalk. You could have said it in one sentence. Instead you grabbed me and talked about money."

He held my gaze. Something cold and tired passed behind his eyes.

"Because last night you were busy grieving another man."

I flinched like he'd slapped me.

"That's not fair."

"It isn't kind," he agreed quietly. "It's still true. You checked your phone this morning before you opened the door. I saw it in your hand."

Heat rushed into my face. I turned away and stared at the dark glass of the window. My own reflection looked back, hair half dry, eyes too bright.

"Fine," I said. "You're right. I was waiting for him to call. He didn't. Happy?"

"No."

The single word was so flat and honest it knocked the fight right out of me.

I took a long breath and faced him again.

"Here's what's going to happen," I said. "I'm ending the engagement. That part's done. I decided it the second I saw his hands on her."

He nodded once.

"But I'm not jumping straight into something with you because some bond says I should." I lifted my chin. "I've spent my whole life being handed to people. My parents handed me to Caleb. I'm not letting fate hand me to you."

I braced for him to push. To pull me close again, to let that scent do the talking.

He laughed instead. Low and short, almost surprised.

"What's funny?"

"Nothing." The corner of his mouth tipped up. "That's the first thing you've said today that sounded like you."

I had no answer for that.

"I'll drive you home," he said, and reached for his coat.

---

Hollis brought the car around. I stood by the front door, invoice folded in my pocket, while Damien walked back into the hallway. He returned with a thin manila folder.

He held it out.

"What's this?"

"Something you should see before you decide how to end things."

I opened it.

Photos. Glossy, high resolution. Caleb stepping out of a hotel lobby with his arm around a blonde. Caleb in a parking garage, his mouth on her neck. The two of them laughing in an elevator, her hand inside his jacket.

Bianca. Every single one.

I flipped through faster. My fingers had gone numb.

The last photo was older. The colors were warmer, the light golden. Caleb wore a navy suit I recognized, because I'd helped pick out his tie.

The date stamp sat in the corner.

It was the night our families toasted our engagement. The night his mother kissed my cheek and called me daughter.

He'd left the party early, he'd said. Headache.

"How long have you had these?" My voice sounded strange to my own ears. Far away.

"Long enough to know they're real."

"Why give them to me now?"

"So you stop wondering if any of it was your fault."

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

I pulled it out. *Caleb.*

Damien's eyes flicked to the screen. He didn't move.

I answered.

"Finally." Caleb's voice came through sharp and bored. "Where are you? I've been calling."

He hadn't. Not once.

"I'm out."

"Whatever. Listen. Family dinner tonight at my parents' place. Seven o'clock. You're coming with me."

"Am I."

"Don't start." He sighed like I was a chore he'd forgotten to finish. "My father's already asking questions about the vase. Just show up, smile, and don't make a scene over one little thing. You'll embarrass both our families."

One little thing.

I looked down at the photo in my hand. Caleb in his navy suit, Bianca on his arm, the hotel's gold sign glowing above them.

Something inside me went perfectly, beautifully still.

"Sure," I said. "Sounds great."

A pause. He hadn't expected that.

"Good," he said slowly. "Wear something nice."

"Oh, I will." I closed the folder and tucked it under my arm. "See you tonight, Caleb."

I hung up before he could answer.

When I looked up, Damien was watching me with an expression I couldn't read. Not worry. Not approval.

Interest.

"You're going," he said.

"I'm going."

"What are you planning, Aria?"

I smiled at him, and for the first time in two days, it didn't hurt.

"Bring the car around," I said. "I need to find something to wear."