“Why would he do that?” I ask. The waves wash over my feet, burying them in wet sand, and I pull them up out of the sand so the process can start over.
“I don’t know. Maybe because he still cared about Savannah. They were together a long time, and he wanted her to have a successful career. We both knew the reach a story about the two of us could have since we were brothers in the league together with a fairly well-known father. Or maybe because he knew I’d come out looking like the asshole and he loved any chance he had to take the spotlight.”
“So were you private even before she printed all that stuff about you two?”
He lifts a shoulder. “I guess I’ve always been that way. We’re a famous family, but we’re not perfect. We all have secrets we’d prefer to keep hidden.”
“What are yours?” I ask softly.
“Aside from marrying Savannah?” He grunts. “Stories for another day.”
So there are more secrets in his closet. Interesting.
I’m not sure what to do with the revelations from tonight, though.
“What are Jack’s?” I ask.
He kicks at the sand. “Not my secrets to tell.”
We’re quiet a beat, and then because I’m me and my filter often malfunctions particularly after alcohol, I ask the question that first came to mind at the bar. “So this wedding, and me...is this all just a game to one up your brother?”
He clears his throat, and then he blows out a breath. “I wouldn’t call it a game,” he says. “But it is an opportunity. We were going to do this anyway, and the timing just worked out. I get to flaunt my happy ending with my beautiful bride in front of my entire family. A bride who, by the way, has no prior affiliation with my brother. She’s all mine. It’s a fresh start. Besides, what’s more romantic than a wedding on the beach in Maui?”
“Even if you don’t have real feelings for that bride?” I press.
“They don’t have to know that.” He shrugs with nonchalance, and it only serves to piss me off.
I nod and press my lips together as I try to process all that. It shouldn’t hurt...but it does. I should be thankful for his honesty...but I’m not.
Instead, I’m left wondering whether I should really be doing this. All the breakthroughs over the last couple days, the bonding, the fun...it feels like it was all just part of his plan.
Luke doesn’t love me. He doesn’t want me. He doesn’t have feelings for me, as he just made abundantly clear.
I’m not even totally sure he even cares about me.
But how do I back out at this point? He may not have feelings for me, but it’s not like I can just shut off mine for him. And even if I could, then what? Move back to Chicago?
It’s not like I have a home or a job that doesn’t intertwine with Luke Dalton in Vegas. I could stay there, but I’m risking my career all over again after everything that happened in Chicago not so long ago. I finally have a celebrity client. This could open up so many doors for me, and all I have to do is just go through with what we already have planned.
But his admission hurts. His words cut. Maybe they shouldn’t, but my feelings are involved even if his aren’t.
“Glad the timing worked out for your opportunity,” I say, and then I spin on my heel, run up the beach, grab my shoes, and head in the direction of the hotel room I’m sharing with him.
I’ll call Nicki. She’s on her honeymoon, but I need to talk to someone about this. I’m desperate, and if this isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is. What the hell am I supposed to do?
I brush away a tear as I pass by the pool.
Should I go through with this ridiculous plan?
I already know what Nicki will say. The obvious answer is no. I’m only hurting myself.
I refuse to let more tears fall until I’m up in my room. I beeline for the elevator. I need to get the hell out of here before some other Dalton sees me crying in the lobby after Luke just admitted he doesn’t have feelings for me.
But fate apparently has other plans.
Just as I hit the button to call the elevator, a voice sounds behind me. It sounds like Luke’s, but it’s not. It’s deeper. More confident. “Going up to bed alone?”
I spin around, my feet still bare and my shoes in my hand. “That’s not your business.” My voice is a hiss, and I’m not sure why I’m so defensive when Jack has no idea what just went down between Luke and me. I haven’t even had thirty seconds to myself to process whether I’m overreacting, so of course I had to run into him.
Jack smirks, and I wish his face wasn’t so goddamn handsome. “You’re marrying my brother. Sounds like it is my business.”
“I’m not Savannah,” I spit at him.
“Or Michelle.” He laughs, but I don’t get the joke.
Or Michelle?
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Did Jack sleep with Michelle?
Is Michelle really pregnant with Luke’s baby?
Or is it...Jack’s?
Before I can ask that question, he leans in a little closer and lowers his voice. “So he filled you in on our history, did he?” He’s close enough that I can smell him, some woodsy and masculine scent mixed with hot danger and gin. He lowers his voice. “Did he tell you everything?”
“Of course he did,” I lie, and I’m not even sure why I’m lying after what he just said to me out on that beach. I’m angry with him. I’m hurt and I’m sad. Yet here I am, protecting him and our lie as Jack puts me on the spot—a place where I’m incredibly uncomfortable because honestly I don’t know Luke well enough to defend him. He hasn’t let me get to know him—not the real him, anyway.
The elevator doors open, but I don’t step on. I’m rooted to the spot as Jack penetrates me with his gaze.
He raises a brow as his mouth curls into a lazy smile, and it’s sly and salacious and definitely flirtatious. “Good. Then you know how we like to share. I’m in room twenty-six-oh-nine if you’re up for some fun. I can promise you a hell of a good time...better than whatever my little brother gives you.”
He gets onto the elevator, and his raised brow is a clear invitation that I should go up to his room with him.
Luke doesn’t want me.
But Jack seems to.
I don’t want to be part of this game between the two of them, but suddenly I’m sucked into this world I didn’t even know existed a few minutes ago. Suddenly I have two brothers pulling at me from different sides, neither of them pretending like this is something more than it is.
I don’t know whether I want either of them while I’m sure I want them both. How lucky is Savannah that she got to experience a life with both men? Not just for their talents or how fucking hot they are or their fame or money...but because she got to know each man and who he is on the inside, she got both to fall in love with her, and she got to share a bed with both of them.
And Michelle, too?
That could be me next...except neither man wants me for me. They want me for how they could use me to one-up their brother.
I shouldn’t get on with him. I shouldn’t share that small space with Jack Dalton, not with the tempting invitation he just issued when I’m engaged to his brother.