The Wrong Fiancée: A Billionaire Second Chance Romance (Marriage by Contract Book 3)

My heart hurt, and I had trouble breathing as I stumbled out of Elika’s cottage.

I remembered talking to Dante, though I couldn’t recall exactly what I’d said. But she remembered—every thoughtless, painful word. How could I have been such an asshole? Had I really told Dante that she gave good head?

I walked to the beach close to Elika’s cottage and sat down on the sand. I dropped my face in my hands.

I was considered the caring Archer brother. Damian was ruthless, and Duncan, well, he was always just this side of an asshole. I was the nice Archer, the one who was like my father.

Tate Archer would never tell a friend that the girl he was sleeping with gave good head and was just good for sex because she was a maid because she didn’t have a what? A fucking PhD?

But my list of mistakes, as I recalled our time together was long.

‘You’re too good to me,’ Elika said when I made sure I had ordered French toast for breakfast after learning it was her favorite.

‘Nah, baby, just want to make sure you’re fortified for a long day at work.’

She worked a lot—she had a shift during the day doing housekeeping and then worked at a bar three nights a week.

‘I’m so sorry I can’t take time off to be with you. I wish I could.’ She looked so forlorn that I kissed her softly. ‘But if I turn down work, it may not be there later, and I need to save money.’

For school, she’d said, but I had a feeling she was just embarrassed that she didn’t have an education. I was fine with that. She didn’t need to feel bad about that with me.

‘No problem. I can get some work done during the day and still have time for golf.’

I rubbed my face. Had I really said that to her? That while she was cleaning rooms and serving drinks, I’d play golf? Wasn’t I an entitled son of a bitch?

‘Can’t we just eat something at the tiki lounge? This is all so expensive, Dean.’ She looked at the spread that room service had dropped off at my suite.

‘Don’t worry about it. Come on. I want to make sure you get a good meal into you…you’re gonna need your energy because I want to fuck you all night.’

She had smiled at me. We made love all night long. She’d probably gotten a few hours of sleep before rushing off to work while I was still in bed. She’d made sacrifices to be with me those two weeks, surviving on little sleep, while spoiled little Dean Archer had shirked off meetings in Hong Kong with no consequences.

My phone beeped, and I saw a message from Felicity.

Felicity: Remember that Dante is joining us for dinner. We need to discuss the artwork for his new casino in Monte Carlo.

I wanted a partner who could bring in business and curate art for Archer Arts & Antiquities. Nonetheless, seeing her message annoyed me.

Me: Dante just wants to hang out with friends. No business tonight.

Felicity: LOL! Like you can NOT talk business EVER.

Is that what she thought about me? When the fuck had I become one of my brothers? Or had I always been like them and just didn’t know it?

I ignored her message and called my father.

Our parents always answered the phone when any of us called, including my brothers’ wives. Once their children were able to use a phone, they’d be there for them as well.

‘Dean,’ Dad picked up on the second ring.

‘Hey.’

I had no idea what to say to him, how to tell him what I’d done. I was an idiot then. Young. Was I wiser now? But Elika had been younger by four years. I’d been twenty-six, cocky, thinking I had the world at my feet and all the pussy I could want. Regardless of the truth, it didn’t give me the right to crush someone, as I knew I had Elika. I could see on her face how my words had devastated her. She’d not just been angry, she’d been heartbroken.

‘What’s wrong, kiddo?’

It was not necessary to ask how he knew something was wrong. Mom couldn’t pick up nuances, but Dad always could—just like me, or at least that’s what I used to think.

‘I hurt someone really badly,’ I confessed.

‘Who? How?’

‘You don’t know her. I met her four years ago in Honolulu and⁠—’

‘She the girl who made you miss the Edo auction in Tokyo?’ Dad had a good memory. Like a fucking elephant.

‘Yeah. She was.’

‘How did you hurt her?’

I told him, haltingly, because saying the words again hurt—made me feel like a fucking worm. I felt small. Awful. I told him about the Thatchers, how they were connected to Elika, and how I’d tried to offer Elika money to help care for her sister, which had backfired big time.

‘I thought we taught you better than to indulge in degrading locker room talk.’ Dad’s tone was sharp. I had known there would be no it’s okay, son, you were young, or everyone makes mistakes. And, honestly, his reaction was better than what Mom’s would be. She’d show up and kick me in the balls.

‘I…I didn’t even know I was doing it until she told me.‘

‘And that makes it okay?’

‘Fuck, no, Dad. I know I screwed up. I hurt her. You should’ve seen her face…Christ!’ I closed my eyes, and I could still remember the unshed tears in hers, the trauma on her face, probably her soul.

‘You made her feel like a prostitute; how do you think she’d feel?’ Dad barked at me. ‘Dean, I’m fucking angry and disappointed.’

‘I know. How do I fix this?’

Dad scoffed. ‘There’s no fixing this. Stay the hell away from her, and you tell Sam that if he doesn’t corral Ginny, I’ll do it for him.’

‘Did you know about Sam’s half-brother?’

‘In passing,’ Dad told me. ‘But not the details and definitely not that Ginny decided her husband had an affair. Sam wouldn’t know how to.’

‘I gathered as much.’

‘Dean, maybe we should come down for a week or two in the summer,’ he mused.

‘To Kauai?’

‘Yeah. Maybe Dante has some bungalows to rent? We can come to you instead of going to Bordeaux for the family summer break.’

‘Why?’

‘I’d like to meet this girl.’

‘Isn’t it a bit extreme to drag all the Archers here to meet Elika?’ I wondered, though the idea of them all being here made me both uncomfortable and relieved. Uncomfortable because I knew that the Archers and Thatchers, despite what I’d thought previously, would not get along. Relieved because they’d be able to give me advice on what the hell to do with Elika…and Felicity.

I shook my head. I’m marrying Felicity. I don’t need any advice on that.

‘I’ll check with Dante, or we can rent a house on the island.’ I heard Dad typing on his computer, which I suspected was him sending an email to his assistant, telling him to move the family summer break to Hawaii.

‘Dad, I’m going to see you in San Francisco in a few days. We don’t have to drag the whole family here.’

‘What’s the name of this rehab center that Elika’s sister is at?’

I sighed. When my father decided to do something, he basically ignored all other input. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Find out and let me know. I’ll see what I can do.’

‘Dad—’

‘This girl made an impact on you, and it sounds like her life has been tough. We should help her.’

‘I want to help her and I offered, see how that worked out?’

‘You’re driven by guilt, I’m just a good person,’ Dad joked.

I smiled. ‘Yeah, Dad, you are. How are the grandbabies?’

Dad’s voice and tone changed completely as he talked about my niece Solène and nephew Leo.

After the call, I sat on the beach, wondering what the fuck I was doing with my life. I had thought getting settled with a woman, getting married, and having a family was what I had to do—that it was the next step. Still, as I thought about Felicity, I wasn’t sure any longer if she was the woman I wanted to be with.

Would I have felt this way if I hadn’t met Elika again?

According to Dante—who, after an interminable dinner with the Thatchers, offered me refuge in his bungalow under the pretense of talking about work—I was never going to marry Felicity. Elika, he said, was simply the catalyst that forced me to realize it sooner rather than later.

‘My parents like Fee,’ I protested.

‘Didn’t your parents also like Bianca?’ Dante asked, amused.

Bianca had been my brother Damian’s girlfriend. She’d cheated on him, and he’d had some warped sense of revenge, so he seduced and married Emilia, Bianca’s sister. They fell in love and had a great marriage now. But we’d all thought Bianca was a better match for Damian than the plain and boring Emilia (who was none of those things).

I shrugged. ‘Felicity is like us.’

‘Define us,’ Dante challenged.

‘In the art world. She has a PhD from an Ivy League. Is⁠—’

‘Isn’t Duncan’s wife a baker? Is she too dumb for Duncan?’ Dante interrupted me.

‘Don’t talk about Elsa like that; she’s fantastic,’ I immediately went on the defensive. I adored my sisters-in-law, especially Elsa, with whom I had a close bond.

‘But she doesn’t have a PhD.’

I downed the Scotch Dante had served. ‘Why don’t you just say what you want to say?’

‘You’re a snob. When it comes to who you should have as a life partner, you lead with complete and total intellectual snobbery.’

I couldn’t really defend that because he was right. I did look up to people who were well educated, and those who weren’t had to prove themselves worthy of my attention.

‘I’m a shallow son of a bitch, is that it?’

‘We all have our biases,’ Dante said kindly, ‘I’m not into virgins.’

I chuckled. ‘Is this about your future wife?’

‘Like hell,’ Dante scowled. ‘But getting back to you, I know you thought that Felicity’s family is like yours, but they’re not. Are they?’

I shook my head. ‘They’re pretty focused on money. I find it uncouth, which now makes me a wealth snob.’

‘When the focus is the acquisition of wealth and not what it does for you, that’s when the train goes off the tracks.’ Dante raised his glass in a toast.

We were the same age and met at university, quickly becoming friends. Our friendship eventually turned into a business relationship when the Giordano family, who owned a successful hotel and resort chain, contracted with Archer Arts & Antiquities to supply art for their high-end properties.

Dante and I were close and open with one another. He was like a brother to me, and because we were all dark-haired and had blue eyes, sometimes people wondered if Dante and I were indeed brothers. But the minute he opened his mouth and his Italian accent struck, there was no doubt where he was from.

‘Dad is going to find a way to help Elika. Can you find out which rehab center her sister is at?’

‘Ka Pono,’ Dante supplied, and when I raised an eyebrow in inquiry, he chuckled. ‘I spoke with her boss to get a better sense of what’s going on in Elika’s life after you asked about her.’

‘She works a lot.’

‘She has to. Ka Pono is not cheap.’

‘She doesn’t look like herself,’ I remarked. ‘She used to be full of life, and now it’s like someone dimmed the light inside her.’

‘She’s not had it easy. What were you doing when you were twenty-six?’

That was when I’d met Elika—and I had been living the life. Running the Asian operations of Archer Arts & Antiquities, traveling first-class around the world, extending vacations, and having a great time. Hell, I was doing all of those things now.

‘Point taken.’

‘What will you do about Felicity?’

‘I…we’re engaged.’

‘That’s not a permanent relationship. Hell, even marriage isn’t.’

‘I love her, Dante.’ But did I?

‘I’m going to say this for the last time. She’s wrong for you. You’re making a mistake. If you get married, I’ll offer you my condolences instead of my congratulations.’

‘Well, you’re all heart.’

‘Fuck, no. I’m an asshole, but I’m an honest one. Felicity is good on paper and fits the list your snobbish ass put together, but if you see her through your heart…I doubt she looks suitable.’

‘Did you say, heart?’

Dante shuddered. ‘I know, I’m not happy about that either. Feel like another drink?’

‘Sure.’ I didn’t want to go to bed where Felicity was sleeping, where she’d expect us to make love. If I was having trouble fucking my gorgeous and sexy fiancée now before we were married, what kind of sex life would we have when we were married?

I drank a whole finger of Scotch in one go at that thought.