The Wrong Fiancée: A Billionaire Second Chance Romance (Marriage by Contract Book 3)
The Wrong Fiancée: Chapter 26

My week-long vacation was almost over. I turned down Dean’s offer to stay at the beach house which he’d rented for a few months.

‘Why are you renting it for months? How long are you staying here?’ I asked as I combed my hair.

Dean lay on the bed of the room I was staying in as he watched me get ready for dinner.

‘You’re here, so I’m here.’ He looked around the room. ‘You like this house.’

‘What’s not to like? It’s a palace.’

He laughed. ‘Maybe we should buy it.’

‘We?’

‘You and I.’

I scoffed. ‘Sure! Why don’t we buy two of these places? One for you and one for your family.’

‘If that’s what you want.’

‘Dean,’ I protested.

‘What? You said you were giving us a chance, and we’re dating. We should live together.’

I scowled. ‘Fine, then move in with me.’

Dean shrugged. ‘Okay.’

‘I have a one-bedroom cottage, all of which can fit into this bedroom,’ I reminded him.

‘You have only one bed.’ He winked at me. ‘Means we can sleep together.’

‘We could be sleeping in the same bed already, but you’re, for some bizarre reason, protecting my honor.’

He came off the bed and put his arms around me. ‘I sometimes can’t believe you’re with me, that we’re together.’

‘We’re still figuring us out,’ I tried to sound firm, but who was I kidding? I was all in. This man made me happy. I could feel that I did the same for him.

‘I know, baby.’ He kissed my forehead. ‘Let’s get going, we have people waiting to meet you.’

I nibbled my lower lip. ‘What if they don’t like me?’

Duncan, Dean’s oldest brother, his wife Elsa, and their daughter Solène had come a few days before the rest of the Archers arrived for their week-long summer vacation that they took together as a family.

I’d met them briefly, and Duncan looked freaking scary. He was stern and serious. His wife was a petite French woman who had a sweet laugh and eyes that sparkled. She was half-Martinican, which explained her complexion. She was a baker in Paris and apparently made the best croissants that Dean had ever eaten.

‘They’ll like you.’

‘Did they like Felicity?’

I know, I know, I shouldn’t compare myself to his ex, but it was impossible not to. He’d been engaged to her like five minutes ago.

‘Duncan had no opinion. Elsa and Emilia didn’t like her; in fact, they have admitted that they tolerated her.’

At least that showed they had good sense.

I took a deep breath and looked down at my yellow sundress. ‘Do I look okay?’

The sundress was held together with bows on my brown shoulders. I had left my hair loose, as it was still a little wet. I didn’t wear much makeup, but I had made some effort with eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick.

‘You look fucking sexy, like a gift I want to unwrap. Would the dress come off if I opened these?’ He toyed with one of the bows.

‘Yes.’ I clamped down a hand on his. ‘But,’ I added seductively, ‘maybe later?’

He laughed. ‘You’re just trying to get into my pants.’

‘I’m not succeeding,’ I joked.

The thing was that I didn’t mind that we weren’t having sex. I mean, we were both frustrated as hell. Still, I knew from experience that if we started to make love, we’d be in bed for a long while, and we’d get to know each other’s bodies really well but not our hearts and minds.

He held my hand as we walked out to the garden where dinner was being served. It was going to be casual, I’d been told, and it was. Tiki torches lit up our dinner table.

Tate, dressed in his usual linen pants and button-down, sat at the head of the long wooden table, his laughter booming as he watched his granddaughter, Solène, run circles around us. He had the look of a man in his element, with a glass of red wine in hand and an easy smile on his face. Every so often, he’d catch Solène as she zoomed past, scooping her up and lifting her high into the air. Their laughter would spill into the room, bright and carefree, before he set her down again—only for her to take off running once more.

Duncan sat quietly at the table. He wore a loose T-shirt and shorts, and though he had that perpetual grumpy look on his face, it was impossible not to notice the way his hard edges softened every time his daughter got near him. Solène would fling herself into his lap mid-run. Duncan would momentarily abandon his stoic demeanor, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close before letting her go again. With Elsa, his wife, he was the same—watching her with a reverent softness, his gruffness slipping away entirely.

Elsa was a whirlwind of sunshine. She wore a white and blue dress that caught the breeze every time she moved. With her bright smile and French accent, she was the opposite of Duncan’s quiet intensity, but together they made sense. She was a woman who could pull people into her orbit without even trying. And tonight, she was on a mission.

I was it!

We’d just finished dinner—grilled mahi-mahi, fresh poke, and tropical fruit—and now everyone was lingering at the table, sipping wine, and picking at the leftover pineapple and bananas that sat in the middle of the table.

Elsa asked me to join her for a walk, and as we stepped away, I heard Dean laugh at something. I turned to look at him and saw his eyes crinkling at the corners. He looked comfortable, relaxed, and—dare I say it—happy. He hadn’t been like this when he’d first come to the island. Even though he’d told me several times, I now believed that he and Felicity were never going to happen. When she was around, he was tense—now, he was loose, chill.

‘Elika is a lovely name. I’ve never heard it before,’ Elsa said to me as we walked barefoot on the cool sand.

The night air was warm but not too hot—a perfect August evening in Hawaii. The moon would rise soon and cast a silver shimmer over the ocean.

‘It’s Hawaiian for Elizabeth,’ I told her. ‘My name on my birth certificate is Elikapeka Leina Hamlet. But my first name got shortened to Elika. Some people call me Leina, which means ‘taking a leap’ in Hawaiian.’

‘People ask me if I’m named after the Disney movie,’ Elsa said sardonically.

As we walked, she added, ‘You’re good with Solène. She adores you already.’

I smiled. ‘She’s adorable. And fearless.’

Elsa chuckled. ‘Yes, fearless like her father. But Duncan is different now, oui?’ She tilted her head slightly, glancing at me. ‘When we first married, he was…how do you say confuse…ah confused? He didn’t know what love meant, or so he said. He only slept with escorts. Can you believe it?‘

I laughed. ‘How did you two meet then?’

She made a face. ‘I may have pretended to be an escort.’

‘Oh my God!’

‘You don’t know the half of it, and someday, I’ll tell you the whole story. But we married because I was pregnant, and, well, he didn’t know what to do with a wife.’ She laughed at the memory, clearly not bitter about it.

I looked at her, surprised at how easily she shared something so personal. ‘But you figured it out.’

She nodded, her eyes softening. ‘We did, oui. But merde, Duncan didn’t make it easy.’ She paused, looking back toward the house where Dean sat, speaking with his father. ‘Dean helped me in those early days. He was ready to kick his brother’s cul…ah…ass for me. He’s protective of Emilia and me.’

‘You’re all close as a family,’ I remarked.

‘Yes. Very.’ Elsa stopped, turning to me with that same bright smile. ‘You should give him a chance, Elikapeka. He’s a good man. I know he was an imbecile to you but don’t judge him on one mistake.’

I bit my lip, unsure how to respond at first. But her kindness, her sincerity, made it easy to be honest. ‘I am giving him…giving us a chance,’ I admitted. ‘I don’t know how it’ll work out—me here, him…God knows where. But I want to see where it takes us.’

‘But he told us he’s staying here,’ Elsa said, furrowing her brows. ‘Damian is promoting Dean’s second-in-command to take over the Asian operations. Dean wants to stay on Kauai and run the U.S. office so Damian can cut back on his workload. You know, before Damian and Duncan got married, they worked constantly. Now, they want to scale back and spend more time with the family.’

‘I…Dean said he was here for a few months.’ I didn’t want him to change his life for me. What if we didn’t work out? Would he resent me? Maybe he’d hate being here and giving up the big job he had.

‘Arrêtez ça,‘ Elsa snapped.

‘What?‘

‘I said stop it. I can see it on your face. You’re thinking he’s going to get bored. He’s going to miss his work. Dean will replace a way to continue to be part of Archer Arts & Antiquities without it being his entire life.’ Elsa kicked some sand. ‘In fact, I think that might be good for him.’

We walked closer to the water, getting our feet wet. My toes curled into the damp sand.

‘We haven’t known each other long,’ I let my insecurities show.

‘Duncan and I had sex one time before we married,’ she countered.

I laughed at that. ‘What if what we had four years ago was just…I don’t know, a mirage? And now we….’

I didn’t really believe what I was saying. What we had four years ago had been potent because it stayed with both of us. Sure, it had been a weird and rough start at Hale Moana, what with him being engaged to Felicity—which just proved that life’s irony never took a day off! I was just afraid that we wouldn’t work out, that I’d get hurt, that was the crux of it.

‘Life’s short; you have to grab it by the…I heard this on a British show,’ Elsa paused as if trying to recollect the right words and then triumphantly finished, ‘grab it by the nipples. Oui?’

I began to laugh and couldn’t stop. Soon, Elsa joined me.

I glanced back toward the house, where Duncan had scooped Solène up and was holding her on his lap, and Dean was still talking with his father. For a moment, I let myself imagine it—this as my life. This was my family. The laughter, the easy banter, the way Tate doted on Solène, and the way Duncan, for all his gruffness, melted into putty around his wife and daughter. It felt real. It felt…possible.

After we returned, Dean pulled me onto his lap and kissed the side of my head. ‘What were you two laughing about?’ he asked.

‘I told her to grab life by the nipples,’ Elsa said proudly.

‘I’d rather grab your nipples,’ her husband teased, and I almost fell off Dean because Duncan did not look like one who made jokes.

Elsa pushed him away and picked up her daughter. ‘I have to take her to bed.’

‘I’ll join you. And then I can grab⁠—’

‘Tais-toi,’ Elsa squealed and ran away from Duncan, their daughter laughing as he chased them.

I looked at Dean. ‘She asked him to shut up,’ he translated for me.

‘I never imagined the day would come when Duncan would chase after two women at once,’ Tate mused and raised his glass of what looked like cognac. I’d worked enough as a bartender to be able to tell.

‘She sure changed him,’ Dean agreed.

Tate shook his head. ‘No, Elsa didn’t change him; she gave him a reason to give life a chance—to do more than just work and make money. Emilia did the same for Damian, and if your Mom and I are lucky, Elika here will do that for you.’

‘If we’re all going to stop making money, what the hell will happen to Archer Arts & Antiquities?’ Dean mused.

‘We have a good team.’ Tate waved a hand. ‘It’ll be fine.’ He then looked around and sighed deeply. ‘I think we should buy this place. I like it.’

‘That’s what I told Elika, but she wants me to move into her cottage.’ Dean kissed the erogenous zone beneath my ear.

Tate cocked an eyebrow. ‘No offense, darling, but that place is a hovel. You should just stay here with us. The rest of the family comes in four days. It would be good for you to⁠—’

‘I can’t just stay here.’ I would’ve jumped off Dean’s lap, but he held me.

‘Please tell me she isn’t like Emilia and Elsa and has a problem with our money.’ Tate shook his head as if in disgust. ‘Most people would be thrilled to marry into a wealthy family. But my sons? They replace women who turn up their noses like our money reeks.’

I looked at Dean, who was chuckling while he played with the bow of my dress. ‘I’ll work on convincing her, Dad.‘

‘Marcella will be here, and she can do it.’ Tate gave me a wicked grin.

‘Why can Marcella do it?’ I asked.

‘Everyone is terrified of my mother,’ Dean told me. ‘And if she wants something, she gets it. She’s going to want you for me.’

‘Really?’ I didn’t know whether I should feel flattered or insulted.

‘You haven’t met my wife, darling. She’s a force of nature,’ Tate said indulgently. His phone beeped then, and he grinned. ‘Speaking of which,’ he answered the call. ‘Hey, my sweetpea.’

Sweetpea?

He walked away from us, and I cuddled into Dean.

I hadn’t felt this sense of belonging in years. The Archers were offering me a family, a home, the kind I hadn’t had since my mother died.

‘What are you thinking, baby?’ Dean prompted.

‘Just that…,’ I paused, unsure if I should tell him, and then decided, as my middle name suggested, to take a leap, ‘I feel like I’m home with you and your family.’

He squeezed hard, and even though he didn’t say anything, I could feel his emotions in how his breath became choppy and how he held on to me.