by Katee Robert
Two Wrongs, One Right
Katee Robert
Trinkets and Tales LLC
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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Copyright © 2013 by Katee Robert. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Also by Katee Robert
Wicked Villains
Book 1: Desperate Measures
Book 2: Learn My Lesson
Book 3: A Worthy Opponent
Book 4: The Beast
Book 5: The Sea Witch
Book 6: Queen Takes Rose
* * *
A Touch of Taboo
Book 1: Your Dad Will Do
Book 2: Gifting Me To His Best Friend
* * *
The Island of Ys
Book 1: His Forbidden Desire
Book 2: Her Rival’s Touch
Book 3: His Tormented Heart
Book 4: Her Vengeful Embrace
* * *
The Thalanian Dynasty Series (MMF)
Book 1: Theirs for the Night
Book 2: Forever Theirs
Book 3: Theirs Ever After
Book 4: Their Second Chance
* * *
The Kings Series
Book 1: The Last King
Book 2: The Fearless King
* * *
The Hidden Sins Series
Book 1: The Devil’s Daughter
Book 2: The Hunting Grounds
Book 3: The Surviving Girls
* * *
The Make Me Series
Book 1: Make Me Want
Book 2: Make Me Crave
Book 3: Make Me Yours
Book 4: Make Me Need
* * *
The O’Malley Series
Book 1: The Marriage Contract
Book 2: The Wedding Pact
Book 3: An Indecent Proposal
Book 4: Forbidden Promises
Book 5: Undercover Attraction
Book 6: The Bastard’s Bargain
* * *
The Hot in Hollywood Series
Book 1: Ties that Bind
Book 2: Animal Attraction
* * *
The Foolproof Love Series
Book 1: A Foolproof Love
Book 2: Fool Me Once
Book 3: A Fool for You
* * *
Out of Uniform Series
Book 1: In Bed with Mr. Wrong
Book 1.5: His to Keep
Book 2: Falling for His Best Friend
Book 3: His Lover to Protect
Book 3.5: His to Take
* * *
Serve Series
Book 1: Mistaken by Fate
Book 2: Betting on Fate
Book 3: Protecting Fate
* * *
Come Undone Series
Book 1: Wrong Bed, Right Guy
Book 2: Chasing Mrs. Right
Book 3: Two Wrongs, One Right
Book 3.5: Seducing Mr. Right
* * *
Other Books
Seducing the Bridesmaid
Meeting His Match
Prom Queen
The Siren’s Curse
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
About the Author
1
“I can’t do this.” Chelsea Callaghan slid lower in the front seat of her car and clutched her phone to her ear. “Why on earth did I let you convince me I could do this?”
Danielle laughed, just like she had when Chelsea first showed her the wedding invitation. “Because you were invited—and because you desperately need closure with your ex so you can move on with your life.”
If only it were that simple. Nothing had ever been simple where he was concerned.“What if he wasn’t the one to send it?”
“Oh, come on. This isn’t a giant conspiracy—this is one asshole trying to screw with you. Put him in his place and be done with it.”
Chelsea opened her mouth to tell Danielle the truth, the real reason she had driven all the way from Seattle to confront the ghost from her past, but she couldn’t. There had been too many years of silence to break it now.
“Come on, Chels. You’ve gone back and forth more than a dozen times. If you didn’t want to go, you wouldn’t be sitting in that parking lot, trying to talk yourself out of the whole thing. You’d be here, cramping my style.”
How well her best friend knew her. She’d been in danger of talking herself out of this mistake completely when she’d picked up the phone, hoping Danielle would support her change of mind. “This is a mistake. I just know it.”
“Maybe. You won’t know until you go inside. Shit, Chels, the hotel room is already paid for tonight. Worst-case scenario, you lock yourself in, order room service, and catch up on your soaps. Just get out of the car.”
Chelsea peeked through the front windshield, her gaze coasting over the sprawling grounds and large hotel situated directly in front of her. It wasn’t particularly terrifying on its own, but she knew all too well what the occupants held in store for her. The building might be large, but even an entire city was too small when it came to him.
Just sitting there, she could almost feel the familiar pull in her chest that had drawn her to him in the first place. It might have been her imagination, but the twinge existed all the same. She rubbed the back of her hand over her chest and mentally vowed not to let fantasy get in the way of reality.
She could not trust this man.
Chelsea stuck her key back into the ignition. “I’m coming home.”
“You can’t.” “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I have a guest staying over tonight and I fully plan on instigating the naked rule. Sorry.”
She didn’t sound the least bit sorry. No, Danielle sounded positively gleeful, though Chelsea was hard- pressed to decide if it was regarding the so-called naked rule or her current situation. “There’s no such thing as the naked rule.”
“Actually, there is—it’s in place for when sexy-ass men like Sergei are around.”
Chelsea shuddered. “Don’t you ever get tired of trying to make your dad angry?”
Danielle’s father was a four-star general.To say her best friend had problems with authority was a serious understatement. It was part of why they got along so well. Chelsea admired Danielle’s complete and utter disregard for her father’s—and anyone else’s—wishes. Being around Danielle made her feel a little bit freer and less like herself.
“Actually, I don’t ever get tired of it. Now for the last time, ge
t your ass out of the car and into that hotel. You’re there for a reason and you’re never going to forgive yourself if you don’t follow through on it.As for me, I’m going to go have sex on the kitchen counter.” The line went dead before Chelsea could respond.
She dropped her phone into her purse with a sigh. Right now, Danielle having sex on surfaces Chelsea ate off of was the least of her problems.
Her eyes settled on the hotel entrance. “I can do this.”
Sheer bravado got her out of the car, though she couldn’t stop herself from clutching her purse to her chest as if it were a Prada-shaped shield. Her heels clicked over the concrete, which made her wish she’d worn flats. The last thing she needed at the moment was her very own soundtrack, each click in sync with the beat of her increasing heart rate.
When no one appeared to accost her—though there was really only one person she was worried about—she walked through the front doors. Distantly, Chelsea acknowledged the beauty of the place, with its rustic décor. Exposed beams and dark wood dominated the lobby. She wasn’t certain how long the building had been around, but the entire room smelled of fresh-cut wood. It was a nice place to hold a wedding, and the oversize fireplace sent her creativity flowing and made her fingers itch for her camera, but the location wasn’t something she would have chosen for herself.
The irony of the thought made her laugh.
“You’re here.” The voice licked up her spine, raising goose bumps along her skin.
She whirled around, forgetting to keep calm, and nearly toppled when she overbalanced on her too- high heels. He caught her. He always had, until the end. Slowly, so slowly she thought she might be dreaming because this couldn’t possibly be happening, she looked up from where her hands rested on his chest.
A small, petty part of her had hoped the years would have worn on him. Perhaps he’d have grown out his hair into a greasy mess, or grown a horrible mustache, or something else like so many of their graduating class.
Of course she wouldn’t be so lucky.
Nathan Schultz looked even better now than he had the last time she’d seen him. He’d filled out, the muscles under her hands markedly larger than they had been at eighteen. Surely his shoulders hadn’t been quite so broad? She definitely would have remembered if they had been. Her heart stuttered at how good he felt, her body instinctively melting against him just like it had countless times before.
Realizing she was practically rubbing against him like a kitten in the presence of catnip, Chelsea snatched her hands off his chest. “What are you doing here?”
He raised a single eyebrow, a skill she’d never been able to master no matter how she tried. Not that she would ever admit to trying—not eight years ago and not now. “It’s my brother’s wedding,” he said. “In what reality would I not be here?”
When he put it that way, her question did sound silly. Chelsea took a step back, the new distance between them forcing him to drop his hands from her upper arms. She told herself she didn’t still feel the imprint of his fingers on her skin, but memories threatened. Of his hands on her body, his lips on her neck, his voice curling around her as he told her how much he loved her. It was everything she could do to keep the answering shiver contained.
Focus on the reason you’re here.
Chelsea clutched her purse closer, comforted by the documents inside. “You know what I mean. Why are you in the lobby?”
“Maybe I’m waiting for you.”
A thrill went through her, though she couldn’t say for sure if it was from fear or something more… delicious.
She shook the thought right out of her head. It shouldn’t be like this. After what he’d done, she shouldn’t feel a single thing when she looked at his square jaw that had always caught the light so perfectly. Maybe she hadn’t outgrown those types of thoughts like she’d hoped, but she knew better than to be drawn in by them.
That she was anyway answered the question she’d been asking herself the entire drive to the lodge.
She really couldn’t do this.
The front door was only a few short steps away. It would be child’s play to smile and make some excuse about forgetting her phone in the car. Two steps—three—and she’d be in the parking lot and free, able to avoid the conflicting roil of emotions the sight of him created inside her. She could take the easy way out, send him what she’d come to deliver via mail—
“Nathan?”
Chelsea froze as a petite blonde approached, a smile on her face. She was beautiful in the fresh-faced girl-next-door way—the type of woman men labeled “the marrying kind.” A surge of white-hot jealousy hit Chelsea as the stranger stopped next to Nathan and nudged him with her shoulder. “Introduce me to your friend?”
Nathan smiled, and it was the only warning Chelsea received before he said, “Elle, I’d like you to meet Chelsea. My wife.”
My wife. Nathan couldn’t deny the surge of satisfaction he got from saying those two little words. Chelsea actually took a step back, though he didn’t know why he was surprised. She’d run from him once, and there was little to stop her from running again.
Except this time, he was more than willing to play dirty to keep her here.
He couldn’t believe she’d come. Inviting her to the wedding had been a long shot, but here she was, in the same room as him for the first time in eight years, with her chin held high and her hair a mass of red waves that she’d never quite been able to tame. It was something she’d hated in high school, an imperfection in her family of blondes and brunettes, but Nathan had always seen it as a physical representation of the fire inside her—a fire she hadn’t let anyone but him see.
She’d grown into herself, though, her face sharpened and her hair darkened to a slightly less fiery auburn that she probably preferred. Her body was still curvy in the pinup sort of way. The type of body he’d always desired over the stick-thin one so many women strove for. Then again, Nathan couldn’t picture himself not wanting Chelsea, no matter how she’d physically changed since he saw her last.
Conflicting emotions twisted through him. Desire. Anger. Guilt. Faced with the possibility of touching her, talking to her, he couldn’t avoid the truth that stood between them.
He’d fucked up. Really fucked up. And she’d left before he could fix it.
If there were any way to go back and do things differently he would, but it was too late to change the way things had fallen out. All that was left was to work through their issues and see if they had a chance at a future.
Next to him, Elle grabbed his arm. “Excuse me, I must have misheard you. I could have sworn you said wife.”
“Actually—”
“That’s because I did.”
Chelsea made a choked sound when he interrupted her. She obviously hadn’t wanted that little piece of information to come out. Well, screw that. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was his and had been since they’d snuck off to The Hitching Post and he’d put a twenty-five-cent ring on her finger.
“I see.” Elle’s blue eyes were a touch too wide. “I, uh…” She cleared her throat and held out a hand. “Hi. I’m marrying Nathan’s older brother, so I guess that makes us related.”
Though it couldn’t be clearer that Chelsea wanted to run for the nearest exit, her inability to make a scene was too ingrained. It was one constant he’d always hated, but now he was betting the future on it.
Guilt rose, more potent this time. All through high school, Chelsea had been intent on saving face—on the appearance of things. It went along with being a Callaghan, but she took it to a truly neurotic level. Her older sister was the one who did everything right, from choosing the right career to marrying the right kind of man. Instead of doing what a normal kid would do and rebelling until she found her own way, Chelsea had practically killed herself trying to make her family happy.
Until him. Nathan knew full well he didn’t fit into the life they had planned for their daughter, but he’d fallen for her anyway. And she’d falle
n, too. It was only once he and Chelsea realized they had to be together that she’d finally stood up to her family. It had been a glory to see, even if tears had streamed down her face and she’d gone hoarse from screaming.
She’d done it for him—for them—and it hadn’t meant a thing in the end.
Chelsea took Elle’s hand and even managed a smile. “Congratulations. Gabe is a wonderful person.” “Yes, he is.” Elle smiled as well, though she still looked a little wide around the eyes. “Have you checked in yet? I swear my wedding planner—who also happens to be my best friend—has this weekend scheduled down to the last minute, but I’d really like to get to know you better if we can find some downtime.”
She shot Nathan a glare. “Nathan hasn’t told us nearly enough about you.”
Because it was his burden to bear. And because it physically hurt to think about her, let alone talk about her. Their past was an open wound that had never quite closed. Lately it had felt like it was festering, the pain inside him only getting worse. It had finally gotten to the point where he had to do something about it.
Chelsea shifted and glanced at Nathan. “I’m not sure…”
She was going to run. The intent on her face couldn’t have been clearer if she’d said it aloud. He wanted to yell at her, spilling out all the words he’d kept locked inside over the years, and then pin her against the nearest wall and remind her just how perfect they were for each other. Forcing her to face the attraction that sparked between them was the only way he’d ever been able to break through her barriers, and he had absolutely no problem going there with her.
