Perfect Bride for Christmas, A

by Dyann Love Barr

  It hurt to think she would take part in a prank like this. And it hurt in a place no one else had ever touched.

  The hurt fueled a hot coal of anger.

  To hell with everyone: Bianca Freemont, Tommy, and most of all, Zoe.

  ****

  Still glowing from her night of passionate lovemaking, Zoe smiled up at her new husband. She lifted up her hand with the shiny new gold band. It was a dream come true, and after the night they shared, Alex finally saw her as a woman. No matter the reason for his hasty proposal, underneath it all, he saw beyond the extra pounds and baggy clothes. He saw her last night as a woman in love. She’d taken a gamble and won.

  He blinked down at her, his face an unusual shade of green. Last night had been a blur of drinking and celebration, at least on his part. She’d 10

  A Perfect Bride for Christmas sipped two glasses of champagne while Alex and Tommy drank three bottles of a vintage that cost more than her month’s salary. They topped it off with drinks with names like Sex On The Beach and Screaming Orgasms. The names alone made her blush, but she had been eager to be alone with her new husband, and finally, at three in the morning, they went to their room.

  “Just what the hell are you doing here, Zoe?” He frowned and pulled the sheet up. “What time is it?”

  “I’m waking up with my husband.” The languorous glow faded. She’d seen that look often enough to know something was wrong. “It’s eleven in the morning. Why?”

  Alex ran his hand over his face. The gesture told her volumes. The gears in his brain were turning, trying to figure out a problem. Her heart lurched when he glowered down at her.

  “Get up,” he snapped. Alex swung his feet over the edge of the bed. It didn’t matter what he started to say, a second later, he made a dead run for the john.

  Zoe pulled the sheet around her toga style and followed the sounds of gagging. Alex crouched by the toilet, emptying out last night’s celebration in spasm after spasm.

  She grabbed a washcloth, wetted it down, and handed it to him.

  “Go away.” Alex batted the washcloth away. “I don’t want anything from you.”

  “Alex, let me help you.”

  “I think you and Tommy have helped me enough.”

  The look in his bloodshot blue eyes chilled her heart. “What are you talking about?”

  “When did you hatch up this little scheme?” The sarcastic remark reverberated out of the toilet bowl giving it a definite Darth Vader vibe.

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  “What scheme?” A spring of guilt bubbled up in Zoe’s heart. His remark struck close to the truth, but it didn’t involve Tommy.

  At least, not much.

  She had jumped at the chance, taking advantage of Alex’s off-hand proposal. Tommy had set the rest into motion with maniacal glee.

  Love could make a rational, conservative woman like her do something so out of character—like jump for the shining golden ring. Now she had a ring on her finger, but could she win what she really wanted, his heart? Her chances grew dimmer by the second.

  “The one where I’m supposed to believe we’re married.” He braced himself on the toilet and held up his left hand.

  “We are married. And I didn’t do anything—you were the one who asked me to marry you. Tommy brought you back to the office when Ms. Freemont didn’t show up at the church. Don’t you remember?”

  “I remember the church and feeling like a fool while I stood there waiting for Bianca.” He gagged again. This time he took the washcloth, flushed the toilet, and sat down after he lowered the lid.

  “Whatever happened after that is a blur, but I’d remember marrying someone else—especially you.”

  He let out a groan and buried his head in the washcloth.

  Lancing pain hit her heart. “I married you because I love you. I always have.” She felt like she bled out internally. “You think I’m playing some game with you, but it’s true. Why else would I—”

  “Hey, open up. It’s Tommy.”

  Alex waved her away as if she still worked for him instead of being his wife.

  “I’m coming,” she called out while she adjusted the sheet to keep from stumbling on the end.

  “I’ll bet you are,” Tommy called through the 12

  A Perfect Bride for Christmas door. The double entendre wasn’t lost on her.

  Everything that came out of his mouth had something to do with sex.

  ****

  Alex staggered out of the bathroom and propped himself against the doorjamb to stop the room from spinning. Zoe’s face was as sour as his stomach felt, but Tommy appeared red-eyed, wide-awake and ready for fun. “Have a good night, Zoe Pie?” Tommy’s eyes grazed her up and down, taking in her tousled hair, smudged makeup, and impromptu wrap. “Was it everything you imagined?”

  A flush raced up her chest and stained her face.

  “How did our boy like finding out he’s married to you?” A feral light came into Tommy’s eyes. “It serves me right for making a bet with him. He always wins—but this time, I think he actually lost.”

  Alex pushed away from the door, willing his knees not to buckle. He’d take a swing at Tommy if he weren’t sure he’d fall flat on his face. Oh, he’d overlooked Tommy’s offensive streak as a rule, but now his eyes were trained on Zoe. The anger he felt earlier toward Zoe evaporated under Tommy’s joyful nastiness.

  Zoe pulled the sheet tighter. Her eyes flicked from him and back to Tommy. “What do you mean?”

  “Yes, what do you mean?” Alex shuffled over to Zoe, half-afraid to lift his feet off the carpet. The floor still felt like a merry-go-round.

  “Don’t you remember, man?” Tommy stuck his hands into his jeans pockets and shrugged. “I lost the wager. You’re five grand and,” he gave Zoe a wink, “one wife richer.”

  “What wager? Cut the bullshit, Tommy. I don’t feel like playing games this morning.”

  Dunne threw up his hands in mock surrender.

  The look on his freckled face was angelic, but a devil 13

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  lurked behind his green eyes. “I can’t help it if you can’t hold your liquor or your women. Don’t you remember the trip on the way back to your office to pick up the airline tickets? You decided you were going to Vegas anyway.”

  “Vaguely.” Alex shook his head. A groan followed.

  “Bianca dumped you at the altar—remember that?”

  Alex gave a small nod. A bad move.

  “You said you were going to get married on Christmas Eve. You were going to ask the first woman you met to marry you. I bet you five thousand dollars you wouldn’t. Zoe just happened to be the first woman. She was in the office finishing up some paperwork.”

  “You mean I married Zoe on a bet?”

  “Yup.” Tommy rocked back and forth on his high-dollar running shoes, the smile on his face sly and wicked. He smirked at Zoe. “I know you’ve always had your eye on Alex. You’ve had the hots for our boy for so long, the whole office got a good laugh out of it.” He started to snicker. “Wedded and bedded. Come on, you can tell me, Zoe. How did the wedding night go? Did you make him scream your name? Zoe, Zoe, Zoe. ” Tommy couldn’t stop when he got on a roll.

  This time Alex cringed. “That’s a shitty thing to say, Tommy, besides not being true.” Alex glanced down at Zoe, expecting her to laugh off Tommy’s crass humor like she usually did. “Well?”

  “I—ah.” Guilt skittered through her eyes.

  Tommy cackled even louder. “Come on, Zoe, tell the man the how you really feel.” He wiped his eyes and grinned up at Alex. “Now you’re married to Zoe Pie. Can you imagine her at the company dinners with all the other wives? Yolanda Zucker would have to use two chairs to accommodate that ass.”

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  A Perfect Bride for Christmas Alex hands curled into fists. This was Zoe Tommy slandered. His friend, his real friend—but Tommy had a point. If he planned to climb in the law firm, he needed the right w
ife, one who could hold her own with the other wives. Yolanda and her coterie spent half the day at spas, wore the right clothes, went to the best hairstylist. Zoe probably hadn’t gone to a beauty shop in the three years he’d known her.

  And yet, he couldn’t take his eyes off the wealth of wild honey brown curls spilling down Zoe’s back to her waist. Her skin gleamed as white as the sheet she clutched to her ample breasts. Maybe being married to his friend might not be so bad. They could make it work.

  A memory, hazy at best, of his hands wrapped in her silky hair while he thrust into her caused an erection, so hard and fast, it nearly jumped out of his loosely wrapped towel. Alex managed to position himself until he could move without exposing himself. Tommy had enough to laugh at already.

  “Dude, you can’t stay married to her. It was just a joke.”

  “It wasn’t a joke to me,” Zoe piped up. “You’re right, Tommy, I’ve loved Alex for a long time. Yes, I’m the office fat girl, so what. I have feelings. And if Alex will give me half a chance, I’ll be the best wife he could ever have.” She waited for him to come to her defense, her heart in her eyes. Alex didn’t know what to say. If he said yes to Zoe he could lose a chance at getting the corner office he had his eye on.

  A no would hurt Zoe. He shook his head in silent agreement. She was strong. Zoe would land on her feet anywhere. Refusing her might sting, but she’d forget it in a few weeks. He had a life that didn’t include her. Friendship aside… That’s all they could ever be. The Partners just wouldn’t accept anything more.

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  He offered her a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry, Zoe. This won’t work between us. Let’s forget about all this and chalk it up for what it was, a rotten joke.” The memory of what he considered a betrayal of their friendship justified his rejection. “You didn’t have to go along with it, you know.” There, that put the ball in her court and the blame square in her lap. “We’ll get an annulment.”

  She shoved the mass of hair out of her face. “So, this is all my fault?”

  Alex had trouble meeting her eyes. He said nothing. He didn’t want to see her hurt or the pain in her eyes. He wanted things back to the way they were between them. Alex knew that would never happen, not after the way she made love to him last night.

  “Hey, look at this way, Zoe Pie,” Tommy grinned with glee. “At least you got a trip to Vegas and got laid. That won’t happen again for a long time.”

  Zoe’s face paled, her breath hitched. For a moment, Alex thought she might faint, but she held her head high. A martial light sparked in her fantastic eyes. She clutched the sheet to her chest, marched over to Tommy, and did something he thought her incapable of. She curled her fingers into a fist and let Tommy have it—hard in the eye.

  Tommy’s yelp of pain and cursing heated the air.

  Tears of laughter poured down Alex’s cheeks.

  “You fucking deserved that, Tommy. I have an excuse. I can’t remember shit.” He wiped at his face.

  “If I did, I wouldn’t have married Zoe, not for all the money in the world.” He pulled in a deep breath and tried to stop laughing. “Sorry, Zoe, I didn’t mean it like that—it’s just I need you at the office, not in my bed.”

  It was more than that… She trespassed lines a wife shouldn’t. She knew too much about him. They were too close. All things he wouldn’t admit in front 16

  A Perfect Bride for Christmas of Tommy in a hundred years. Not that Tommy would understand anyway. But Zoe might…

  If they’d been alone.

  It would’ve been kinder to kill her. He saw the hurt, the humiliation cloud her eyes, and regretted his thoughtless words once they were out of his mouth. Alex sobered, the laughter died. “Come on, Zoe. The joke’s over. Let’s go back to normal.”

  “Yes, you’re right. It’s over.” With that, she punched him in the nose with everything she had.

  Pain exploded behind his eyes. The bone in his nose made a sickening crunch, and blood spurted—Alex yanked his towel off, stuffing it under his broken nose to staunch the flow.

  “You know, guys, this is better than any floor show.”

  Clutching the sheet tight, Zoe gathered up her clothes from the floor and snatched her purse from the dresser top. “I’m through with assholes. I’ve worked hard, sweated bullets, and pulled your butt out of the fire more times than you realize.” She twisted the ring off her finger and flung it at him.

  “You don’t care about me or my feelings.”

  A sharp sting blasted his right eye as the ring bounced off his face and onto the floor. “Ow, that hurt,” he yowled from behind the bloody towel

  “Go ahead, get the annulment. I won’t fight it, but do me a favor.” Her gaze slid over Alex. “Don’t contact me, ever again. I loved you Alex, and neither of you have any respect for me. So screw you, Tommy Dunne. And especially you, Alex.”

  She marched out of the room wearing a sheet, tears in her eyes, and her head held high.

  “No, wait, Zoe— stop. ” Alex ran out the room, bare-assed with a bloody towel in his hand. She got into the elevator and stabbed at the button. The doors slid shut but not before his heart clenched tight in his chest at the hurt in Zoe’s eyes.

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  He’d screwed up big-time. The only person who could fix it rode down seven floors to the lobby and out of his life, forever. Alex ran to the elevator and beat on the door.

  “I do want you.” He gave the door one last thump with his fist. “I mean it. Come back.” With a groan, he turned and slid down to the floor. The cold metal of the elevator door froze his back, the rasp of the carpet on his bare butt felt like a hair shirt.

  “Here.” Tommy threw a hotel bathrobe at him.

  “They’re used to naked people in Vegas but not in the hotel hallways.

  “Fuck you, “Alex growled as he stood, looked both ways, and slipped on the robe.

  Tommy gingerly touched his fast blooming shiner. “You dodged a bullet, pal.”

  “No, I hurt someone very dear to me.” Alex trudged back to his room.

  “It’s for the best.”

  Alex felt hollow inside as he thought back to the anguish in Zoe’s eyes. “Maybe she’s the one who dodged the bullet.”

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  A Perfect Bride for Christmas Chapter Three

  December 2010, Kansas City, Missouri The mirror didn’t lie. It might as well be the mark of Cain.

  Alex ran a finger along the line of his nose, feeling the long-healed break that gave his once-straight nose a cant to one side. Plastic surgery was always an option, and Lord knew, Sydney had suggested it a thousand times. They were getting married Christmas Eve, and she said the wedding pictures would look so much better if he had it fixed.

  Appearances were everything, she told him.

  But if he had it straightened, it would be the last bit of Zoe he had left. It seemed strange he would cherish the moment she’d landed that mean punch, but it rocked his world. When he took a good look at himself, he realized Zoe had been right all along—he was an asshole. From that moment on, he tried to be a better person. He stumbled and failed, a lot, but at least he made the effort.

  No, Sydney would have to live with him, crooked nose, and all.

  Tommy sat on the leather sofa in Alex’s office, reading the papers Alex’s mother sent him earlier in the week.

  Someone named Keeley Jacobs had sworn, under oath, she was Dad’s kid, and she wanted her share of his estate.

  He thought of Hollyfield, their childhood home out in the boonies of North Kansas City. The 19

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  sprawling Victorian house, owned by Dad’s family since the late nineteenth century, sat on a large chunk of acreage. Not that Mom played Lady of the Manor. She had helped Dad run the car dealership, even took it over when their father had a scare with prostate cancer.

  “This woman is saying she has an interest in Hollyfield. Your dad died intes
tate. She may be right.”

  Alex paced, his hand rubbed over his face.

  “That’s impossible. My father would never cheat on my mother.”

  “She’s included copies of her birth certificate, pictures of your father with this woman. Vietnam was hard on a lot guys, the separation from their families, dangerous situations. You know.”

  “No, I don’t. You don’t understand—my parents had the perfect marriage. All the Kings get married on Christmas Eve. It’s a tradition. It insures a wonderful life together. This would never have happened.”

  “This is real life, not some cinematic fairy tale like It’s A Wonderful Life. Angels don’t get their wings when a bell rings down here. Some thug rips them off and sells them to Victoria’s Secret for their newest commercials.” Tommy tapped the file in his hand. “This woman says her late mother served as a nurse in Vietnam with your father. Get over it.”

  “Shit.” Alex flopped into his chair behind the desk, leaned back against the cushioned leather, and closed his eyes. “This is going to kill Mom. She didn’t understand all the legal implications when she sent it to me.” He turned his head to look at his friend.

  “She probably thought it might be a bill against the estate.”

  Tommy leveled him with a hard stare. “I know you, Heath, and Clint filed a quit claim deed back to your mother, but this can turn into a mess of worms.

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  A Perfect Bride for Christmas It’s like they say, it’s all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack.”

  “Thank you for those words of wisdom.”

  “Any time.” Tommy got up and laid the file on Alex’s desk. “You better explain this to her, rather than have this Keeley Jacobs show up on her doorstep with an appraiser in tow.”

  “You’re right, you’re right.” Alex took the file and opened it again, his eyes scanning over the bits and pieces of information. “I hate this. There are times I think I should’ve taken up selling cars instead.”