I Do (Hate You) by Sienna Blake

Shell

“We can talk in here.”

I led James into the bedroom because it was the only room in the villa with a door besides the two bathrooms. Less than ideal, but if I gave him five minutes alone right now, then maybe I’d never have to see him again.

“What is it that is so urgent you had to come talk to me right this very second?” I asked, hands on my hips.

James took in a deep breath and ran his fingers through his now messy brown hair. “I need you to distract Rupert while I go get some answers out of his bodyguard Clive.”

He’d obviously gone crazy. Maybe he was having a mental breakdown because of our earlier conversation about commitment and feelings. Two concepts he couldn’t understand. It might have been the first time anyone had turned down him down for sex. Poor baby.

I took a few steps away from him and it hit me how great it was that I could get away from him instead of being joined together by handcuffs.

“What kind of answers are you going to try to get out of Mr. Tall, Dark and Scary, and why can’t you do it in front of Rupert?”

“I’m going to ask him what he had to do with drugging us and maybe handcuffing us together,” James said.

“What? No way! It can’t be Clive.”

“Why not?”

“One, Clive has no reason to drug either one of us. And two, even if he did drug us—he didn’t but if he did—then the last place he would leave you is in his boss’s fiancée’s bed!”

“I know it sounds crazy, but I just talked to a hotel staff member named Peter who said he saw a ‘friend’ of mine dragging me down the path by Rupert’s group of villas last night. He said I looked super drunk, and he thought the guy was helping me back to my room after a night of too much booze.”

“How do you know it was Clive? There are a few hundred people here at the resort. It could have been any one of them,” I reasoned.

“Peter said the guy had a big scar down his face.”

Shit. That was definitely Clive.

“Your fiancé and his bodyguard are always together, so I need you to distract Rupert while I get Clive alone and ask him some questions,” James said, his eyes pleading with me.

“Can’t you just ask him in front of Rupert?” I said, turning away to pace the room, not wanting to meet his eyes.

“Not without telling him how his fiancée spent two days handcuffed to me, sleeping in the same bed naked. How do you think that conversation will go down?”

I rounded on him, suddenly filled with rage. “James Kane, are you trying to blackmail me?”

“No. At least I don’t want to. I don’t know any other way to find out what happened that night and why, and I can’t do it without you.”

He took a step toward me and tried to put his arm on my shoulder.

I jerked away before he could. “Don’t,” I warned. “I just want to get this over with.”

“Are you, uh, going to go dressed like that?” he asked.

I looked down. I had forgotten I was wearing my long white wedding dress covered up by a knee-length red robe. I looked like a skinny Mrs. Claus.

“I can’t pull this dress back over my head without destroying my hair and makeup. This is just going to have to work.”

“Sounds good,” James said, happy not to have to talk about girl stuff.

I paused with my hand on the doorknob. “Do you think that you’re man enough to handle this?”

James stuck his massive shoulders back and puffed up like a prize fighter going into the ring. “I’m not exactly a wimp, Shell. I think I can handle Clive.”

“I’m not talking about him. I mean can you handle my friends who are going to go apeshit when you tell them we’re going off alone together?”

I jerked on the knob and Miguel, Talia, Vina and Claire all tumbled onto the floor. They had obviously been trying to eavesdrop through the door. The only one left standing was Brooke the makeup artist, who was still holding a glass up to her ear for a listening device.

“Don’t worry,” she said as innocently as possible. “We couldn’t hear a thing in here.”

 

* * *

 

We walked down the path to Rupert’s villa with me holding up the bottom of my dress so it wouldn’t trail on the dirty ground. James had reached for it as if to help, but I stopped him with a look. The last thing I needed right now was James Kane touching me.

He’d been lucky back at the bridal villa. Since I assumed my friends had heard every word, James didn’t have to explain our plan to them after all. We just stepped over their bodies as they lay on the floor looking shell shocked and guilty as hell after being busted eavesdropping.

I’d told them if we weren’t back in thirty minutes, they should call in the cavalry.

“Sweetheart, we are the cavalry,” Miguel said, getting to his feet and dragging Claire up with him. “And we’ll be there.”

I tried to think of those reassuring words instead of the conversation that I was about to have with Rupert. I didn’t want to tell him about James’s suspicions, and I damn well wasn’t going to tell him that I’d been handcuffed to another man all weekend.

Things like that didn’t happen in Rupert’s world. His world was calm and steady and orderly. Some women might think of that as boring but after the last few days, it sounded like heaven to me.

When we got close to Rupert’s villa, James stepped behind a bush. “I’ll hang out here and when I see you kick out Clive, I’ll come down the path like I was just out for a stroll and then confront him.”

I nodded and headed off down the path.

When I knocked on Rupert’s door, Clive was the one to answer. As always, I tried not to stare at his scar that stood out on his meaty cheek. He reminded me of a bulldog since he had a strong underbite that made his lower teeth so prominent in his face. The main difference was that a bulldog had more hair and Clive was completely bald.

“Boss,” Clive called over his shoulder, and Rupert came up behind him.

“Darling, what are you doing here? Is everything okay?” Rupert asked in surprise.

“Nothing at all. I just need to talk to you about a few things,” I said in a sweet tone, but when Clive opened the door for me to join them, I added in a flat voice, “Alone.”

Clive looked at Rupert for permission to leave and it struck me that I was about to start a marriage where I’d have to get the okay to be alone with my own husband. Well, we could set up those boundaries after the honeymoon.

Rupert nodded to Clive, who wordlessly stepped out on the little porch while I stepped over the threshold into the villa.

“You told me it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, darling. It must be pretty important for you to show up here a few hours before we get married. What do you need?”

Rupert’s handsome face was crinkled up with concern. I realized that I had been so busy thinking about covering James’s ass and what my friends would think and getting Clive out of here, I hadn’t thought about what excuse I’d give Rupert for demanding alone time with him.

“Uh… I wanted to talk to you about…the um…” I looked around the room for inspiration and saw a half-eaten croissant on the kitchen table. “About the food! The menu for the reception. What are your thoughts?”

Rupert’s phone rang in his pocket and he quickly pulled it out and checked the screen. He gave me a furtive look and then pushed the button to send it to voicemail.

“You can take the call,” I assured him. “Don’t worry about me.”

“No, nothing is more important than my bride. I can return that call later,” he said in such a bright tone that I got suspicious.

“That’s not a work call, is it? You swore to me that you wouldn’t do any work this weekend.”

“What?” he asked, then looked offended. “A promise is a promise. I haven’t done any work since the wheels of my plane made contact with the ground.”

The phone bleated again in his hand and he tossed it in surprise but caught it on the way down. I tried to read the screen as it traveled through the air, but the letters were too small for me to read.

“Are you sure?” I pressed.

Instead of answering that question, Rupert answered another. “You want my thoughts on the reception menu? I think the filet mignon and roasted parsnips was a wonderful choice, and it will pair well with the private label red wine I ordered.”

Dammit. He knew more about the menu than I did.

“Does that answer your question?” Rupert asked with a wide smile. “I really do need to go take a shower and put my suit on. You look so lovely, and I want to look worthy of your beauty.”

Rupert was facing the kitchen as we spoke. I had a perfect view out the window. I could see that James was still out there arguing with Clive. If Rupert saw him, it would open up a whole line of questioning that I wasn’t prepared to answer.

Rupert took my arm and gently guided me toward the front door with one hand while looking down at his phone in the other. I was grateful he was looking down or he would have seen James and Clive standing nose to nose through the window.

I panicked, knowing I had to keep him talking and away from the potential disaster waiting right outside his door. “Wait! I still want to ask you about the cake! I have a few questions about the icing…”

“I’ll see you soon, darling. I’ll be the one standing by the altar on the beach,” Rupert said, then yanked open the door.