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She had felt that fear echo inside of her. They could both ruin it. Part of her had begged him to ruin it. Ruin her.

Another part of herself had begged them both for restraint. In the end, the restraint had won.

It was the right thing. She knew that it was.

Still, everything felt wrong.

Adonis had work to do, and Esme flew to the south of France, to the wedding venue, on the same flight as Alex. It was nice to spend some time with Alex, even though she felt like he was judging her constantly now. That was all her stuff, and she knew it. Alex loved her. He probably wasn’t judging her. Probably.

“As your wedding coordinator, I took the liberty of inviting a vast number of guests to the wedding,” he said, without looking up.

“Um…vast numbers of guests from where?”

She was trying to imagine people from their old life rolling up to this spectacle. Thinking about that made her chest hurt.

“Business contacts, mainly. Past clients. Potential future clients—”

“No one from…back then.”

His expression was carefully bland. “I wouldn’t even know where to find them if I wanted to.”

“You’re a liar, Alex. We both know that you can find anything and anyone if you really want to. It’s literally the thing that you built a billion-dollar empire on.”

“So did you. So did Adonis. Which means you could’ve found anyone that you wanted to.”

Part of her wanted a fight, so she could admit she was being petty at her brother for that reason. She felt annoyed that her guest list was impersonal. A little bit angry that her life was small. That people she’d known in childhood were strangers now, except Alex and Adonis. But she wasn’t sure she’d want any of them at this…wedding anyway.

“Well, I don’t how I feel about all this. So I hate to involve anyone.”

“You’re not in love with him?” Alex asked.

The question hit her like a cannon blast to the midsection.

“What kind of question is that?”

Suddenly her brother’s gaze was intense, and far too cutting. “I thought that you might be in love with him, Esme. It’s one reason that I told him he needed to marry you.”

He had…

He thought she loved Adonis?

He’d done this because…

The plane might as well have done a barrel roll, she was so shocked.

“Oh, Alex,” she said. “You thought that I would want you to force a man that I was in love with to marry me?”

She wanted to hit him. Punch his stupid, beloved face. Because it was such a sweet, horrible, misguided thing to do. It made her seem so tragic and pathetic and she knew he didn’t think of it that way, but she couldn’t think of it any other way.

He’d strong-armed his best friend into marrying her so she could have the man he thought she loved. Because he didn’t think that man would come to the same conclusion on his own. Dire. Oh, it was dire.

“Yes.” He cleared his throat and looked away. “Well, Esme, I would do anything for you. Anything. Our dad wasn’t worth anything. He didn’t protect you. I want to be the one to give you this. All of it. Whatever you want. The life that you want.”

“But I don’t need you to do that. Look, I know exactly how difficult our childhood was. You certainly don’t have to tell me. You had it hard too. I want you to have everything, just as much as you wanted for me. But Adonis is part of that messed-up…thing that we were. That thing that we are. It’s never going to be that simple for me and for him.”

“Why not? Clearly, you’re attracted to each other. As much as I don’t want to think about that.

“You spent your life together, caring for each other. Why can’t it be love?”