Page 49 of Secret Dynasty

Inside was my wedding dress. The impossible dress. The dream dress. The dress I never wanted to see again in my life. I choked back a sob. Iris understandably misunderstood my reaction.

“Your wedding is going to be beautiful,” she said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and squeezing. “You deserve to have it all.”

I couldn’t bring myself to speak, so I allowed everyone to think I was too emotional for words. I felt numb as I slipped off my robe and they began helping me into the gown.

It fit perfectly. Iris spun me around to look in the mirror.

“Don’t cry,” Camille said, reaching over to dab my eyes with a handkerchief. “You’ll ruin your mascara.”

“Just like a princess,” Iris said, her eyes watching me in the mirror.

I could only nod.

I smiled when the photographer told me to, but nothing I did seemed to make her happy. She huffed about the solarium, adjusting my hands, my body. I got the impression she was on the verge of asking Camille to put on the dress and pose for me when her team yelled at newcomer.

“You can’t see the bride,” Camille cried. “It’s bad luck.”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’m not the lucky man meeting her at the altar.” Holden shot her a charming smile, but my heart flipped instead. “I just came to see how things are going.”

“Terrible,” the photographer announced. “I never met a stiffer bride. She’s like a corpse.”

“But unlike a corpse, I can hear you,” I reminded her with narrowed eyes.

“It sounds like you need a drink,” Holden said to me. “In fact, maybe you should take a break.”

The photographer stared daggers at him but finally shrugged. She lifted her camera over her shoulders. “I’m grabbing a smoke.”

It turned out that everyone else smoked, and given how stressful this whole morning had been, I couldn’t blame them.

“How about that drink?” Holden asked.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said softly.

“I’ll behave.” He cleared his throat, glancing down at his shoes. “Plus, I miss you. I guess we won’t have many chances to be alone.”

We hadn’t had many lately. Despite Spencer’s nonchalance about the idea of Holden serving as my captive entertainment, there was always someone around. Usually, I was grateful for the presence of others. I couldn’t bear the thought of being one person in public and hiding him in private. That meant I wasn’t just relying on others to keep us on our best behavior, I was also avoiding him.

“It’s just that I have to do this photoshoot,” I hedged.

“Yeah, and it looks like it’s going swimmingly.” He stared at me, silently daring me to challenge him again.

“Fine. One drink. That’s it.”

“Deal.”

We left the solarium and made our way to the billiards room.

“You must really love pool,” I teased as he uncapped a bottle of Scotch and poured some into two glasses.

“No one comes here,” he said. “I really love that.”

“It’s unfortunate.” I twiddled a crystal on my dress.

“What?” he asked, passing me a glass.

“I know your secret.”

“Dirty girl, I have no secrets from you.” He took a sip of his drink.