Chapter 1

At the wedding rehearsal, Diana Fox appointed herself emcee. "Do you promise her that you'll spend your whole life protecting this love, that you'll be forever faithful, forever trusting?"

Job Delgado gazed at me with all the tenderness in the world. "I do."

Beside him, Diana was shaking with laughter. "You little devil, playing the picture of pure innocence. You were making out with me just yesterday, and you were so smooth about it you had my knees going weak."

Job's face darkened, and he dragged her off into the stairwell.

"Why did you say any of that to her? You know perfectly well I—"

Diana pressed her lips to his, grinning, her voice sweet and coy. "Can't bring yourself to kiss her? Then let me kiss you. Your big sister knows all kinds of tricks."

"Besides, your fiancée's really something. What century is this and she's still all Platonic. Only you would humor her and play house."

Job's hand slid over her waist, his voice dropping, gone a little hoarse.

"Don't bring her up, it's a mood-killer. Wear that pink outfit again tonight. Help me out."

A teasing whistle came from behind them, his buddies unable to keep the grins off their faces. "Diana, come on. Job only lost a game of truth or dare with her. With you it's the real thing."

I clenched the wedding dress in my fists and walked out of there on the spot.

This marriage that was just something to play at, whoever wants it can have it.

1

Job's best buddy saw me leaving and rushed to grab my hand.

"Come on, it was just a couple of kisses. Does it really warrant all this?"

He smiled, and there was a lot behind it. "Even if something did happen, as long as they didn't go all the way, it's nothing!"

The others chimed in, ribbing me. "Joshua Dickerson, how many of the girls have you played truth or dare with, and no one's ever seen her complain."

Joshua let out a snort of a laugh, his eyes drifting toward me. "Job plays his little Platonic games with you and fine, whatever, but you've got to cut him some slack. What man doesn't have needs?"

Joshua was laughing so hard he was doubled over. He swiped open a recording on his phone. The sound was muddy, but a woman's terrified scream came through clearly, followed by a man's crude, sneering laugh. "Quit acting like some untouchable saint. Last time, when you got cornered at the mouth of that alley, didn't you also—"

"Oops. Sorry. My hand slipped." He locked the screen with fake innocence, and the buddies around him burst into howling laughter, their eyes on me like nails dipped in mud. "Job's got a soft heart. He felt sorry for you, that's the only reason he played along with all that devoted-lover act."

Another one, the one with the dyed blond hair, kicked at the step and cocked his head. "The first time the two of us ever saw her, curled up in a corner with tears all over her face. Tsk, tsk. Job went soft right then and there. And what did it get him? Brought her home and kept her up on an altar like some saint for three years, not allowed to lay a finger on her. Bet he's about to burst, huh?"

"You said it," Joshua drawled, lighting a cigarette without hurry and blowing the smoke at me with a smirk. "You ought to take a good look at yourself. Trash somebody else already used up, and Job's still willing to sign the papers with you. That's eight lifetimes of good luck for you. And you actually think you're some pure, virtuous woman?"

Every drop of blood in me went cold in an instant.

Job told them even this?

That storm-wracked night I'd spent shaking, curled up in the bathtub, the way I'd looked, and the tenderness of him holding me and making his promises. It had all become their drinking-table gossip.

"Job drinks with us behind your back and says you shake the second anyone touches you, like a dead fish. Says he got sick of it a long time ago. Only Diana knows how to have fun, only she can make him feel like a real man."

He clapped me on the shoulder, hard enough to feel like he meant to press me into the ground. "So take the hint. From now on, Job does his thing, you play the empty-shell Mrs. Delgado, everybody gets what they need. Don't be too dumb to know a good thing when you see it."

The blood surged up in me, and I threw his hand off, shaking.

"Don't call me that. This marriage, I'm not going through with it."