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Her eyes widened. “What about your new friend?”
“She’s in good hands.” He helped the drunken sailor off the stool, holding the man close to his side to keep him from falling down. “I wasn’t interested in her, Natalie.” He looked up and saw the blatant disbelief in Natalie’s sharp gaze.
“But—”
“I want you, Natalie. And I have the entire weekend to prove it to you.”
Chapter Four
“Is this your idea of revenge?” Natalie demanded, her cell pressed to her ear as she stared at the fuchsia abomination hanging on the door to her bedroom closet.
“Cade dropped off the dress?” her little sister asked mildly.
“Your fiancé dropped off the dress and ran away before I unzipped the enormous garment bag,” Natalie said. “Coward.”
Lucia laughed. “You don’t like it?”
“No.” Natalie eyed the fluffy pink dress that looked like something a ballerina would wear to play the part of the wedding cake, not the maid of honor. Having never set foot in a ballet class, Natalie had never been this close to so much tulle. It felt ominous and threatening. And she wondered if the hideous dress just might eat her alive.
“But that was the point, wasn’t it?” Natalie continued. “You wanted revenge.”
Fourteen months ago, Lucia had gone to Vegas to pick up a stranger at a masquerade party. Natalie’s little sister had planned on one wild night with a man who would never glimpse beneath her mask and see the jagged, awful scars left by their third and final foster father. Of course, the scars wouldn’t be a part of Lucia’s life if Natalie hadn’t defied their foster parents’ authority and slipped away from the house.
Natalie closed her eyes as the familiar guilt washed over her. She should have been there to protect Lucia. When she received an email from her sister about her Vegas plans, Natalie had stepped in, determined to keep her sister safe. She’d failed the last time. But she would do everything she could to keep Lucia from being hacked to pieces and left in the desert by an ax murderer.
Not that all men looking for a wild night in Vegas were ax murderers. Just like most foster parents would never hurt the children placed in their care, most of the men interested in a single woman probably wanted a night of no-strings-attached sex. But when it came to her sister, Natalie refused to leave Lucia’s safety to chance. Because Lucia’s scars proved that if you gambled and lost, you could end up with the drunken jerk that would take a knife to a teenager’s face.
So she’d asked her best friend Cade, who was planning to visit his dad in Vegas
anyway, to look out for Lucia. And he’d done exactly that from a very close proximity—Lucia’s bed. And because Cade had his own issues, he hadn’t told Lucia that he’d gone to Vegas to find her.
In the end, Lucia forgave Natalie. But her little sister had promised she’d seek revenge—and Natalie was looking right at it.
“Lucia, are you sure that you want me to stand at the altar in this dress?” Natalie said. “There are ways to get revenge that won’t distract the guests’ attention from you in your wedding gown.”
Her sister laughed again, driving home the fact that her newfound happiness bubbled over at the drop of a hat. If she didn’t love Lucia more than anyone on earth, or have an up close and personal understanding of what her sister had gone through prior to landing in Happily Ever After Land, Natalie might feel a bit jealous.
But when Natalie closed her eyes, she saw the fresh wounds on her sister’s face. And guilt sent the green-eyed monster running for the hills.
“It’s a friends and family Vegas wedding,” Lucia said as her laughter faded. “The entire event promises to be a little wild and crazy. Plus, I don’t care if everyone else stares at you. Cade will be looking at me. And that’s all that matters.”
“Okay. But after this we’re even, right?”
“Maybe,” Lucia said. “I also have one small favor to ask you.”
“Favor?” Natalie ran her hand over the tutu on steroids, which puffed out from the fitted strapless and satin bodice. “I’m not sure you’re in any position to ask for a favor.”
“They make the dress in this weird sherbet orange color. I could order—”
“Maid of honor reporting for duty,” Natalie said quickly. Any favor was preferable to a sherbet orange dress. “How can I help you?”
“Jack’s truck broke down. He was planning to drive to Vegas today, too. Can you give him a ride?”
Natalie closed her eyes. Five, maybe six hours in a car with Texas’s very own Prince Charming, the man hell-bent on talking his way into her bed. The man who kissed like a god…
“No. My poor little compact car is already full. I’ll have Mufasa in the backseat,” she said, referring to the Great Pyrenees she co-owned with Cade. “And this dress has to hang somewhere. I don’t have room for six feet plus of Navy SEAL.”
“He’s not a big guy,” Lucia said. “Sure, he’s tall. But he’s lean and trim. I’m sure parts of him are small.”
