The Billionaire's Bridal Bid by Emily McKay

town to pick her up from a study group. He’d arrived so early, he’d sat at a nearby table and waited. Afterward, she’d introduced him to the other girls from her economics class. “But when Rachel emailed me those pictures—” To her embarrassment, her voice cracked and she had to swallow back her tears.
    More images she’d never been able to erase from her memory. Marena dressed in a microskirt, her body pressed against Matt’s, his hand cupped possessively on her backside. Claire’s stomach had churned at the sight and she’d barely made it to the bathroom before losing her lunch. Her sister had come in just after, nauseated herself, and they’d sat on the bathroom floor together and cried. Funny, but that was the moment her sister,Courtney, really started trusting her. After that, she knew there was no going back. They were in it together.
    “Of course, that was just the beginning.” Claire continued. “Six months later, FMJ went public. You guys were millionaires overnight. And you were, what—just twenty-one, twenty-two?”
    He didn’t give a precise number. Was he reliving the glory of those first weeks? Or trying to decipher her own emotions?
    “You were celebrities. It seemed like every move you made was in the paper.”
    “You must have been looking pretty hard to find news about FMJ in New York.”
    She shot him a glance, frowning. Was he baiting her or did he really not know?
    “I was back in town by then. Working at Cutie Pies. I couldn’t turn around without someone telling me about you. About the parties you’d thrown, the hotels you’d trashed. The supermodels you’d dated and dumped.”
    “We didn’t trash any hotels. That was a rumor. We just happened to be staying at the same hotel as Courtney Love.”
    “Exactly. You lived like a rock star.”
    “And it never occurred to you to wonder why I acted that way?” There was a note of anger in his voice. As if this was her fault.
    Her gaze snapped to his face. “Of course I wondered. That’s the point, isn’t it?” She’d been at home, cleaning up the mess his brother made, while Matt had been moving on with his life. Partying like a rock star with every scrawny model he could lure into his bed.
    Of course, she hadn’t known at first that Vic was the one who’d gotten Courtney pregnant. Courtney had refused to tell anyone who the father was. When she’dfinally relented and told Claire it was Vic, Claire had been incensed. He was four years older than Courtney. He’d committed statutory rape. But at sixteen—and even eighteen—Courtney had refused to admit that he had manipulated her into his bed. She’d refused to go to the police and had told Claire she’d deny it if Claire went on her behalf. In a small town like Palo Verde, Claire knew she’d have a hard time getting the police to act even if Courtney had been eager to point a finger.
    Then Claire had resented Matt all the more. He’d already broken her heart by moving on so quickly. The speed and fervor with which he’d recovered from his broken heart seemed proof that he’d never loved her at all. Against the backdrop of her life in Palo Verde, it was all too easy to believe the worst of him.
    That old bitterness leached into her voice as she hurled the words at him like an accusation. “You were supposed to love me. I was supposed to be the love of your life. ‘I’ll always love you.’ Isn’t that what you said?”
    “And you think the way I acted meant I didn’t love you? It never occurred to you that I dated all those women because I couldn’t have you?”
    “What occurred to me was that always meant something different to me than it did to you.”
    “What are you saying, Claire?” he pressed, his voice thick with anger. “Do you expect me to believe you still love me? Because if always meant anything to either one of us, we’d still be together.”
     
    The emotion in his voice surprised even Matt. He rarely lost his temper, and he hated that