His Paradise Wife (8 page)

“
Excuse me?”

“
You heard me. Now while I
love to see you pout, because I think it’s the cutest thing in the
world, I do want you to enjoy this journey with me. So, first
things first, we need to figure out where we’ll be
sleeping.”

I’m definitely not sleeping
with you if that’s what you’re thinking,
Emily thought to herself.

“
I’m sure you’ve seen the
bedroom,” Dante said. “I figure you can take the bed and I’ll take
the couch. For now.”

For now?

“
Perfect,” she said,
standing and walking to the bedroom. She shut the door behind her,
locked it and sat on the bed, holding her head. Just the thought of
being stuck here with Dante made her sick. How was she going to get
through two weeks with a man she despised? Then it dawned on her –
she’d stay nestled comfortably in this bedroom and would only come
out for food. Dante would not have the upper hand in this
situation.

Chapter 14

For three days, Emily stayed in the bedroom.
As planned, she only came out for food. Dante had tried to talk her
into coming to a group therapy session yesterday afternoon, but she
refused. She also hadn’t attended the new couple meet-and-greet nor
had she been in attendance at the first couples bonding activity –
tango lessons.

This morning, Emily opened her eyes to find
Dante lying next to her with a smile on his face.

She frowned and pulled up the covers over
her body. How did he get in her bedroom? She was certain that she
had locked the door.

“
Good morning,
Emily.”

“
What are you doing in
here?” she asked angrily.

“
I think it’s time we
talked.”

“
No! You need to leave. Get
out.”

“
Emily—”

“
Get out!”

“
Not until we talk. Now calm
down. I just want to talk to you,” he said, calmly.

“
I don’t want to hear
anything you have to say.” Emily turned around so her back was
towards him.

“
May I ask why?”

“
Because you’re a liar. A
bold...faced...liar. Every time you open your mouth, you spew out
lies.”

“
That’s not
true.”

“
It
is
true! How dare you invade my
private life, pretending to be someone else, making up stories
about your dead wife. Must’ve been real entertaining to read the
things I wrote about Melvin, huh?”

“
Nothing about someone dying
is comical.”

“
You’re missing the point. I
told you personal things about my life, but you don’t care about me
or anything I had to endure. All you wanted was to go out with
me...the same way you came into my boutique to buy necklaces only
so you could get a date with me.”

Ignoring her, he said, “Listen...the group
will be having breakfast in an hour, then we’re all going boating.
Why don’t you try to make it? You just may have a good time if you
get that chip off of your shoulder.”

“
I doubt that very
seriously.”

Dante sighed. Had he ever had to deal with a
more stubborn woman than Emily? Still, he couldn’t deny the
feelings he had for her. The first time he laid eyes on her, he’d
wanted her and nothing had changed. Even after her resistance, he
still wanted her, and when he wanted something, he got it. Point.
Blank. Period.

Chapter 15

“
Today is the perfect day
for this,” Dante said, sitting comfortably in the
rowboat.

Emily was sitting across from him, facing
him, just the way he wanted, only she couldn’t stand being this
close to the man who had deceived her. She held the oar in her hand
and didn’t even consider stroking the water with it.

The other couples who’d wanted to rowboat
today, about fifteen of them, were already further along than Dante
and Emily.

Dante used his oar, sweeping it along the
surface of the water, helping the boat to move along with his
strength alone. He watched Emily sit there and pout, her arms
crossed. He laughed internally, then said, “Emily, this is supposed
to be a couples building activity.”

The sound of his voice irritated her. “Well,
we’re not a couple, so I don’t know why I need to participate.”

“
Why are you so
uptight?”

“
I’m not.”

“
You are, and I think you
will feel a lot better if you at least gave it a shot. Look
around,” he said gesturing with his palms up. “Look at this
beautiful water on this beautiful day. I’m usually stuck in an
office all day and you’re busy working in your store. How often do
you get a chance to sit in a boat and listen to trickles of water?
Relax, take in the fresh air and enjoy this. Come on. Draw in a
deep breath and release it slowly.”

He demonstrated his breathing technique
while Emily felt her body become tense, increasing her anger.

“
How can you do this?” she
finally snapped. “How can you be so calm about all of this after
you basically tricked me into doing this mess?”

“
That’s partially your
fault.”

“
My fault?”

“
Yes. I would not
have
tricked
you
into doing anything if you would’ve just went out on a date with
me. I asked you out several times, and you shot me
down.”

“
So you create a fake
profile and stalk me?”

His chuckled echoed off the water. “I didn’t
stalk you. I only created the profile so I could get to know
you.”

“
And you’re still
lying...”

“
I’m being honest, Emily. I
wanted to get to know you and, unfortunately, that was the only
avenue I had to do that.”

“
Okay, then answer
this...how did you even know I had a profile on
Grieving Hearts Connect?”

“
Easy. It’s my
company.”

Emily felt faint for a
moment. “Grieving Hearts Connect is
your
company?”

“
Yes. I own GHC along with
several other internet companies. Oh, and for the record, Armand is
my middle name.” He smiled then winked at her.

Emily took a breath. Dante had been planning
this all along. But if he thought she was flattered, he had another
thought coming. “Well I had my reasons for not going out with you,”
she said, “So why not just move on? That’s what most men do when a
woman asks him out and she declines. Move on. Find another woman to
ask out on a date. From what I hear, that’s what you do...date
around, and I’m not about to be another notch on your bedpost.”

Dante erupted in laughter.

Emily rolled her eyes, looked around to see
if there was any way possible she could escape being on this boat
with him. Heck, she would jump off and swim back to shore if she
knew how.

“
So that’s why you turned me
down?” he asked. “You think I’m a womanizer?”

“
It’s not what I
think...it’s what everyone says about you.”

Dante smirked. “You must have me confused
with my brothers, especially Desmond. He’s the ladies man.”

“
Whatever the case, I’m sure
a man of your caliber can find another woman to go out
with.”

“
Of course I can,” he said
with confidence.

“
Then why don’t
you?”

“
Simple. I don’t want
to.”

“
Why not?”

“
Because I want you, Emily,”
he said, giving her a penetrating look.

Emily crossed her arms. “Well, we can’t
always have everything we want, now can we?”

“
I can. I’m a Champion,
baby. I always get what I want.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Gosh I hate arrogant
men,” she mumbled.

“
What was that?”

“
Nothing,” she responded,
thinking about Melvin. He was a modest man with not one haughty
bone in his body, something she adored about him. Dante, on the
other hand, was arrogant and seemed to enjoy getting under her
skin.

Looking amused, he asked, “So are you going
to help me row, row, row this boat down the stream or what?”

She looked at him, noticing the sarcasm on
his face. “You look like you’re doing a good job of it all by
yourself.”

“
Okay, fine. You want to do
this the hard way? Let’s.”

Dante took his hand from the oar and with an
intense glare, he looked at her and asked, “What kind of man do you
think I am?”

“
The kind I don’t
want.”

“
Meaning?”

“
You’re deceitful, a liar,
you play on people’s weaknesses to get what you want, and while
that my work in business, it doesn’t work in the real
world.”

“
How did I play on your
weakness?”

“
You used my tragedy to your
advantage. You knew I was having a hard time coping with Melvin’s
death, but instead of being real with me, you create this fake
person and make me believe that I could love again, but it was all
lies.”

“
It wasn’t.”

“
It was,” she yelled,
fighting back tears. “Because you don’t know anything about what I
have to go through. You don’t know how it feels to lose someone, a
spouse, someone you promised to love for the rest of your life.
Yet, you listened to me talk about Melvin and offered me advice
like you were genuinely interested in helping me when all you
really wanted was a date. So if you don’t mind, I want to go back
to shore and get off this boat.”

After thinking about all she had said, Dante
chose not to address her now. She was too upset. “Okay,” he
responded, and began rowing back to shore, using both oars. He
hadn’t tried to reason with her because she was too upset to think
rationally. But it was time that she stopped being standoffish and
short with him and started being open and talking in a more
respectful and rational manner. Being on this trip with her for
nearly a week hadn’t yielded any real results and was basically
turning out to be a waste of time and energy. That was about to
change.

Chapter 16

In the morning, Emily opened her eyes and
laid still on the bed, thinking about how pleasant this trip would
be if Melvin was still alive and was lying next to her. She
regretted a lot of things when it came to their relationship. They
both wanted children, but let their careers get in the way of
starting a family. She still liked the idea of having a child, but
since she never had a desire to fall in love again, a child was out
of the question. She certainly didn’t want to raise a child
alone.

A knock at the door interrupted her
thoughts. She wondered why Dante chose to knock this morning and
not just barge in as he’d done the morning prior.

“
What is it?” she drawled
out.

“
We’re having breakfast in
ten minutes, followed by a two-hour marriage workshop. I would
really like for you to join me.” Dante waited for a response, but
when she hadn’t said anything, he continued, “I’m going to head
down there now. Please join me.”

Emily rolled over to look at the clock on
the nightstand. The time was 7:50 a.m. Breakfast was at eight and
then a marriage workshop was immediately following. She had no
interest in neither of them. She rarely ate breakfast and why would
she go to a marriage workshop for a marriage she didn’t even
recognize as being legit or at the very least, something she’d
wanted. As far as she was concerned, she was still single, this
trip was a waste of time and Dante was a pain in her rear end.

Her sight caught the ring that Dante had
given her. She left it on the nightstand and hadn’t worn it since
he slid it on her finger at the ceremony on Saturday. The ring was
a glamorous, platinum three-stone, five and a half carat, princess
cut diamond, that was as flashy as he was, part of the reason why
she refused to wear it. Everything about Dante was ostentatious –
from his expensive suits to his arrogant demeanor. Why would she
want to be around a man like him? And there was no way she could
endure a repeat of the boat incident yesterday, so she decided to
spare herself the drama and not join him.

Instead, she got dressed and called Sherita
to see how everything was going at the boutique.

“
Hey Emily,” Sherita
answered.

“
Hey Sherita. I would’ve
called sooner, but I’ve been going through a crisis
here.”

“
A crisis?”

“
Yes, girl. I’ll tell you
about it when I get back. How have things been going at the
store?”

“
Um...it’s okay. The
shipment of necklaces finally came in and I got them all hung up.
Oh, by the way, you sold out of scarves.”

“
Okay. I’ll put in another
order now.”

“
Okay.”

“
Thank you so much for
opening and running the boutique in my absence. I owe you big
time.”

“
You’re welcome,
girl.”

“
Okay. I have to go, but I
will call you later.”

Emily stood up from bed, walked out into the
living room where Dante’s scent lingered. She stepped out onto the
balcony to take in her surroundings, along with a breath of fresh
air. This place was beautiful and she couldn’t believe Dante owned
it.