The Tycoon's Red Hot Marriage Merger (16 page)

Glancing around the softly lit room, Marco spotted Cassandra hugging her mother. “Thanks for the drink.” Marco stepped away from the bar, but Peter grasped his arm, stopping him.

“You sure you want to trust your life to those brains of hers after what happened four years ago?”

“That was an accident.” Marco jerked his arm from Peter’s grip. “Get out of here before I have security escort you out.”

Peter released his arm. “The only reason she’s with you is because I didn’t want her,” he slurred. “I bet she got turned down by every guy in her father’s who’s who contact list before she threw herself at you. Like you said; Cassandra is smart. She’s probably hoping you go down in the
Barracuda
like her brother did four years ago. After all, she made sure that her poor dyslexic brother manned the computer that day even though she was on board. She told me that she planned to cover for him while they raced. But she didn’t. Looks like she’ll get it all—Nelson Industries and Delgado Enterprises.”

###

Cassandra’s legs turned to jelly. Of all the people she’d expected at her reception, her ex-fiancé Peter Evans wasn’t one of them. “Who invited Peter?” Cassandra asked, clutching her mother’s arm. And he had cozied up to the bar with Marco. Not good. Not good at all.

“I didn’t,” her mother said. “Neither did your father. Peter must have used his pull with the concierge to get into the party.”

She had to get to Marco before everything went dead in the water. “Damn it. I bet Bridget told him about the party.”

“Judging from the smug look on that girl’s face”—her mother pointed—“I believe you’re right.”

Cassandra looked to see Bridget clink her glass against her friends’ flutes while sending a withering glance toward her. “I’m getting rid of the bastard,” she said. Before he destroyed everything she had worked so hard to rebuild. “While I’m doing that, please toss Bridget and her friends out, too. I never want to be in the same room with them again.”

“With pleasure,” her mother said, pulling her cell phone out of her clutch and punching in a text. “And done. You think you can handle Peter? Or for that matter, Marco?”

“Peter. Yes. Marco? That’ll be a bit trickier.” Though she had no idea what Peter and Marco had spoken about. How would Marco react if he discovered the truth about what had happened that day? And how would Peter spin the story?

“You want me to come with you?” her mother asked. “For moral support?”

Her pulse picked up speed. If Peter had dredged up her brother’s mistake then Cassandra didn’t want her mother to hear about it here. “No.” Cassandra lifted her skirt. “I’ll handle this.”

Though she wanted to lean on her mother, especially now that she realized she could count on her, Cassandra had to believe that Marco would understand why she had hidden the facts from him no matter what Peter had to say. Not when Cassandra had given Marco a way to regain his status in the regatta world. And the boat to that could win the next Platinum Cup.

“You’re sure?” her mother asked, squeezing Cassandra’s hand.

She nodded. “I have to be,” she said. After all Cassandra had given Marco more than a company, and a boat, and a ticket back into her regatta world. She had given him her body and her heart. And though their marriage had been arranged as a matter of convenience, love shimmered beneath the surface.

“Don’t you worry about that girl ever bothering you again.” Her mother hugged Cassandra. “Good luck,” she said, then released Cassandra and walked toward Bridget with a determined set to her shoulders.

Regretting the high heels she’d chosen to wear, Cassandra
clippety clicked
across the hardwood floor. Peter’s betrayal had been terrible, but she’d be damned if she gave him the opportunity to destroy everything now. Not when there could be so much more at stake than winning a race, or keeping Nelson Industries in the black.

The closer she got to Marco, the harder her heart pounded. By the time she reached him, harsh lines bracketed his mouth. Her heart dropped to her toes and she wobbled a little on her heels. Whatever Peter had said to him hadn’t been good.
Please let him understand. Let him remain calm. Please. Please. Please.
They had come here tonight to celebrate, not fight.

“I was telling Marco here about how marrying a brain might not be a smart move.” Peter saluted her, his eyes narrow. “You outdid yourself when you went straight to the enemy for a bailout, Cassandra. Bet he didn’t think you could be capable of killing him, though.”

Her fingertips pricked with adrenaline and air whooshed through her ears. “I didn’t kill anyone. Now get out of here before I call security.”

“And just when things were starting to get interesting.” Peter raised a full glass and stepped out of Marco’s hitting range. “See you on the Entertainment Channel.”

“Go,” she said.

“It seems you’ve developed a knack for keeping secrets, Cassandra.” Marco closed the distance between them. “Let’s go somewhere private to discuss this before the main reason I married you tanks.”

Anger radiated off Marco, his back rigid and his hands fisted. She could see her parents in her peripheral vision. If they heard the truth and learned about what happened that day, their hearts would break. “Excellent idea,” Cassandra said, ignoring the tittering of laughter behind her back though old wounds resurfaced. And Marco’s judgment lanced her heart, adding new searing pain. “Follow me.”

Quickly, she moved away from the gathering crowd and moved toward the French doors that led to the terrace outside. After stepping into a secluded alcove surrounded by swaying palm trees, she turned to face Marco.

“Please try to understand,” she began, but Marco cut her off.

“Enough lies,” he said. “You knew your brother couldn’t man the computer, yet you let him take control. After the crash, you used Justin’s death to create a scandal that implicated me, and let me take the blame. I spent the last four years reviewing that day, looking for any way that I could have been responsible for what happened. While I didn’t find a mistake, at no time during the three weeks we’ve been together did you bother to tell me the truth.”

Tears scalded the back of her eyes. “I told you everything you needed to know—that I felt responsible for the accident, but I believed Justin could handle the computer calculations after we went through the scenarios that could happen while racing. He memorized everything, but when the catamaran caught that freak wind sheer Justin panicked and he screwed up. I didn’t know all the answers until weeks after the accident, and by then you were long gone.”

“At no time did you come forward to clear my name.”

She stood her ground. At the time, while her loyalty had been misplaced, she had been motivated by protecting her brother’s memory. “The racing officials never charged you with negligence.”

“No, but the damage was done,” Marco said, crossing his arms. “My name was mud in the regatta circle because your father made sure no one would sail with me.”

“I didn’t know. All I knew was that I didn’t want to hurt my parents,” she said. “They were grieving. I was grieving.” And nothing would bring Justin back.

“Yet you got engaged to the man who could bail your father’s company out before I destroyed it.” Marco’s emerald eyes narrowed. “I wonder if you would have proposed to me had that not fallen through. Perhaps Peter didn’t want to risk his life by marrying you.”

“My father manipulated the entire engagement when he realized he could lose everything, but when I found Peter cheating on me, I broke it off.” Cassandra swallowed hard, trying to hold back the emotion that clawed at her throat. “At the time I didn’t know you had gone after Nelson Enterprises, and that our company was in financial jeopardy.”

Marco flinched and a muscle jumped in his tight jaw. “So you came to me with your crazy proposal. Now Peter has accused you of planning more than a marriage of convenience. How will you answer to those charges?”

Her parents hovered by the open doorway. And Cassandra shut out the sight of her mother wringing her hands and the shock in her father’s gaping mouth. “You know what happened that day four years ago,” Cassandra said, everything inside of her crystalizing. “I never expected anyone to get hurt, especially not my brother or your father. I’ve tried to atone for what happened that day. Maybe if I hadn’t let Justin convince me to give him a responsibility that he couldn’t handle, nothing would have gone wrong. But I refuse to let you believe that I planned that terrible day. Not when I’ve lived with the guilt and grief for four years. Not when I bartered my body and my future to be your wife in a loveless marriage to save my family’s company and give you the ticket you needed to regain entry into the regatta world.”

Her mother gasped, raising her hand to her lips, but Cassandra couldn’t change the reality of what her mother had overheard. “Marco, please stop this before you destroy everything all over again.” And before he shattered her heart.

Marco turned to her parents. “You accused me of killing your son, Justin. And dragged my name through the mud after I proved the crash was an accident. But Cassandra hasn’t been honest. She’s the reason I lost everything four years ago. And she’s the reason Justin is dead.”

“But how?” her mother asked. “Cassandra, please, can you explain to us what this is all about?”

“Justin misread the onboard computer.” Cassandra felt hollowed out. “Because he had dyslexia.”

“And your husband’s foolish pride prevented Justin from getting the help he needed,” Marco added, stepping closer to her father. “Clever Cassandra figured it out and helped cover up Justin’s mistakes. But she couldn’t stop him from screwing up the computer calculations. And, unfortunately, she can’t bring people back from the grave. She might have engineered the entire situation, using Justin’s learning disability against him to maneuver into a higher position at Nelson Industries.”

Her mother gasped. “No, she wouldn’t.”

Cassandra shot her mother a grateful look, but still a sick feeling settled low. Through the corner of her eye she could see people inside the ballroom whipping out their cell phones and taking pictures. Soon the entire story would be all over the Internet. “Justin wanted to prove he could handle the job.”

Her father pressed his lips together. “I always wanted him to captain a winner. Carry on the Nelson tradition,” he said after several tense beats of silence. “I was too hard on the boy.”

“You were too hard on both of them.” Her mother laced her fingers through her husband’s. “It’s too late to save Justin, but we have to stand by Cassandra. I won’t lose her, too.”

“Agreed,” her father said. “Marco, I’ll do damage control inside, but I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for Cassandra.”

“And Marco,” her mother said, straightening her shoulders and raising her chin. “If you believe something so horrendous about our daughter, then you’re not worthy of her.”

And with that parting comment, her parents returned to the reception room, together and prepared to fight. Never had Cassandra felt more loved by her mother and father than in that moment, but what mattered was what would happen next with Marco.

The damage had been done, but all that she cared about was Marco. If he couldn’t see through Peter’s manipulation of the truth, then she’d have to do the one thing she never thought possible no matter how much she loved Marco.

“Please Marco—Peter twisted the truth. Let’s go back to the penthouse and I’ll explain.”

“The truth? The truth is that two people are dead because of you,” Marco said. “The truth is that you were willing to sell your body to me to get a cushy position in your family’s corporation, save your catamaran for yourself, and maybe get everything I owned in the bargain if something were to happen to me in the next race. You could have given me what I wanted four years ago with the
truth
.”

Pain arrowed through her and fissures formed at the seams of her soul. “It’s not like that. I admit that I was desperate,” she said, but stopped speaking when she recognized the misplaced pride fueling his anger. Anger which had forced her to ruin her parents’ memories, albeit skewed, about her brother. Anger which had brought Marco to betray her trust in him.

“I’ve given you every reason to trust me. And if you cared about me even a little, you would know that everything I do is for a good reason.” She wouldn’t explain herself. “You know there was never a plot or plan against you. If you’re foolish enough to believe that nonsense then we have nothing to bind us together.”

“We have a marriage contract.” Marco dropped his arms by his side, then leaned forward ever so slightly, a breath away from her and yet a million miles gone from her heart. “I only wanted your pedigree. Now I have it. The fact that you’re fantastic in bed is a bonus.”

Her heart turned to crystal, cracked, then splintered into a thousand pieces. Still, she refused to flinch and let him know how he’d broken her. “What we have is a marriage in name,” she said. “My coming to you was the best thing that could have happened for both of us. I trusted you with my heart. I gave it to you freely, and not because I signed a stupid piece of paper. But until you let go of the bitterness that’s consuming you, the only bargain I’ll honor is the legal one.”

Cassandra waited a beat before leaving Marco. When she reached the door leading to the foyer, she turned and saw him standing alone and her heart ached for him. But she had to hold her ground and stay firm despite her desire to return to try to convince him to believe her.

Because she deserved a man who loved her unconditionally. One who would stand up for her and support her without fail. And she would never settle for less than that again.

Chapter Thirteen