His Paradise Wife

by Tina Martin

  “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 w
as 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.

  After calling her supplier for the scarves, she decided to spend the day alone. She headed down to the beach enjoying the warmth of the bright sun as the sparkling sand warmed the bottom of her feet and nestled between her toes. She walked towards the shoreline where the white foam had crested ashore. Seagulls squawked and circled in the air above the water, hunting small fish and seaweed. The sky above was a perfect light blue, decorated with thin, white clouds.

  In the distance, a tour boat breezed by and she wondered how she could get on one of those. That would be the perfect thing to do to keep her busy and away from Dante.

  After finding out where to sign up from a lifeguard, she headed down to the dock where the next tour was due to take off in thirty minutes. She sat, waited and checked her watch. It was a little after eleven. By now, Dante must’ve realized she wasn’t going to be joining him. Maybe he’d finally got the hint. He wasn’t going to get everything he wanted after all.

  Chapter 17

  Dante sat alone at the resort restaurant, eating lunch. After Emily hadn’t shown up for breakfast or the marriage workshop, he ran back to the room to make sure she was okay, only to find that she wasn’t there. He tried to call her phone a few times, but hadn’t received an answer.

  “What’s up, bro?” His brother Desmond asked. He’d seen Dante sitting alone and decided to join him.

  “What’s up, Des...thought you’d be back in Asheville by now.”

  “Well, you know, I met a spicy young thang out here and I decided to stick around for a few days.”

  Dante grinned and shook his head. “What about Dimitrius?”

  “He left yesterday.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  “What about you? You good?” Desmond inquired.

  “Yeah. I’m cool.”

  “So what’s up with the long face? You’ve been married for less than a week and you already look miserable. See, that’s why y’all crazy folk can have the marriage thing. It ain’t for everybody and it definitely ain’t for me.”

  Dante grinned. His brother was a notorious player, but he was sure that there would be some woman to come along and make him change his opinion on marriage.

  “Where is wifey anyway?” Desmond inquired.

  “I’m not sure at the moment,” Dante said, truthfully.

  “I saw her heading for the docks earlier.”

  “Heading for the docks?”

  “Yeah. So I would be correct to assume that there’s literally trouble in paradise.”

  Dante wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Emily thinks I’m a liar. She can’t seem to get over the fact that I created a profile just to have the ability to interact with her. And you know what...now that I think about it, she’s right. I should not have done that.”

  “I don’t know why you did it anyway. You act like since you’re old, you don’t have any game.”

  Dante grinned. “Forty is not old. I’m distinguished, and I can get any woman I want. I tried a different method with Emily because...well, she’s...different.”

  “Different...that’s the same thing you told me about Anita.”

  Dante nodded.

  “Honestly, bro, I thought you said that you would never get remarried after Anita died.”

  “I didn’t want to but when I laid eyes on Emily, I knew she had a story and I was right. She doesn’t know it yet, but she needs me, just like I need her. I’m not like you...I can’t just pick up some chick at a club and bring her back to my crib. That doesn’t do it for me. I need something stable with a woman I can grow with and spend the rest of my life with. I want children, a family. I want that stability.”

  “I want those things, too, just now right now.”

  “That’s where we differ. I want that now.”

  “Well, you got a lot of work to do.”

  Dante nodded. “When are you heading back?”

  “Late this afternoon. I need to get my bag and I’m off to the airport right after.” Desmond peeped at his watch. “As a matter of fact, I need to get going.” He stood up and pat his brother on the shoulder. “Good luck. See when you get back.”

  “All right, Des. Take it easy.”

  After lunch, Dante stood at the receptionist desk to get an overall feel from his employees on how they thought the event had turned out and if they had received any complaints. There were none.

  Afterwards, he returned to the suite, checking to see if Emily was back. She wasn’t. He walked in the bedroom, looking around, his eyes instantly fixed on the wedding ring he’d given her. He had the ring designed specifically for her hand. It was special to him. Now it was lying abandoned on the nightstand. Emily wasn’t taking him seriously and it irked him to no end.

  After taking a short nap on the couch, he woke up to find that she still wasn’t there. Or what if she came by while he was resting, then quickly left again? He stood up, stepped out onto the balcony, pacing the space, trying to determine where she might be so he could go looking for her now. That’s when he heard the door to the suite close.

  He walked back in the living room and saw her making a beeline straight for the bedroom, but she wouldn’t escape so easily this time. He’d had enough of being ignored. The woman he fell in love with on the computer was here and he would make her his before this trip was over, starting now.

  “Excuse me, Emily,” he said, stepping in front of her and blocking her path to the bedroom.

  “What?” she asked, feeling a frown form in her forehead, the norm whenever she was face-to-face with Dante.

  “Where were you today? I was waiting for you at breakfast and to participate in the marriage workshops but you never showed.”

  Emily boldly looked up at the built, broad-shouldered man towering in front of her and said, “I’m not interested in that.”

  “Well, you need to be. Emily, this is part of the process, okay?”

  “What process?” she asked, exasperated.

  “What this resort is all about. I formed this place for people who lost spouses in death. The therapists here, as well as all the staff, are well-trained individuals to help people like us to deal with loss.”

  “People like us...” she hissed. He hadn’t lost anyone unless he was starting to believe his own lies. “I don’t have time for this. Excuse me.
”

  When he hadn’t bothered to move out of her path, Emily looked into his eyes, watching them darken. “Gosh, I really don’t have time for this. Will you please move out of my way?”

  “Why do you insist on being angry, Emily? I’m trying to work with you and you—”

  “You’re trying to work with me?” she asked, cutting him off. “Newsflash...I didn’t ask for, nor do I need your help or anything else from you for that matter.”

  “Stop!” he yelled, grabbing her forearms and backing her up to a wall. “Stop fighting me, okay. Just stop!”

  “Let go of me,” Emily said, trying her best to free herself from the grasp of his strong hands.

  “Emily,” Dante said in his efforts to calm her down. She was persistently trying to free herself from him and he fought to control her wild movements. “Emily!”

  “Let me go! What’s wrong with you?” she shouted. “Let me go!”

  He listened this time, and unlatched his fingers from around her wrists.

  “You’re such a jerk...you freakin’ animal!” She rubbed her wrists and said, “I have to find thirty-thousand dollars so I can get out of here. I can’t take another minute anywhere near you!” She headed back for the door, then took the elevators down to the ground floor, still rubbing her arms.

  Venturing away from the resort, she stumbled into a bar, sat down and covered her face with her hands, trying to get herself together.

  “You look like you can use several drinks,” the bartender told her.

  Emily looked up and saw a woman there, an African-American woman who appeared to have been in her late twenties. She was thin, had her hair pulled back into a ponytail.

  Drawing in a breath, Emily said, “Yes. I can use a drink. What’s popular around here?”

  “I make a mean Bahama Mama.”

  “All right then. A mean Bahama Mama it is.”