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Amelia shifted her gaze from the honkingly large pink stone on Nadia’s finger to the bag slung carelessly over her arm. Both were bright pink. That bag, she knew, was worth more than her car. Probably more than ten of her cars, and Nadia was using it to carry her dog.
“He chose perfectly,” she repeated robotically, while her brain scrambled for a way out of this.
The truth. The truth was all that was needed to extricate herself from this situation. Leo would be humiliated, of course, but what did she care about that? Leo was the one who dumped her in this mess in the first place. He deserved to be humiliated! Who did he think he was?
She took a deep breath. “Listen. I’m not sure why—”
“But where’s your ring?” Nadia cried, grabbing Amelia’s left hand. She tugged, thrusting the hand toward Leo. “Explain, mister.”
“Yes,” Amelia bit off. “Explain, mister.”
“It’s being cleaned,” Leo lied smoothly, taking Amelia’s hand from Nadia’s grasp and pressing his lips to her knuckles once more.
Despite everything that had happened since his blasted thumb had stroked her mouth—every lie he’d told in the last few minutes—the touch of Leo’s lips on her skin still made her go utterly still. Heat swamped her middle as he brushed his lips over and back across her knuckles as his eyes held hers, as if he knew precisely the effect his touch had on her brain.
Anger detonated somewhere deep below the surface of Amelia’s consciousness, but her body still remained frozen as he pressed a kiss to the back of her hand, then tucked her fingers against his palm and gave her a soft smile.
This man—this man wasout of control!What the hell was his problem? Amelia glared at him, but the only reaction he gave her was a twinkling in his brilliant green eyes.
“Well, we have a wonderful four days planned,” Fred said, “and the whole team will be glad to finally meet St. James’s mysterious fiancée. You’ll be there, of course.”
“Of course,” Leo cut in smoothly, just as Amelia said, “No.”
Fred patted Leo’s shoulder, then curled an arm around his own fiancée’s waist. “We’ll leave you two lovebirds to it,” he said, then headed for the counter. Amelia spun around and met Camilla’s wide-eyed stare, but the baker had to paint a professional smile on her lips to take Fred and Nadia’s order. How much of that had Camilla witnessed? All of it, probably, which meant an inquisition was incoming as soon as Amelia was done with her sister’s wedding.
“What the hell wasthat?” Amelia hissed.
“Oh, there’s the cake,” Leo said smoothly, and he stood up to grab the tall cardboard box holding Maggie and Emory’s wedding cake.
“Drive carefully!” Camilla called out, then gave Amelia a look that said,We will speak of this soon.
And they would. Amelia would tell her everything, right after she skewered Leo through the guts with one of the dowels supporting the cake’s upper tiers.
“We’ll see you on Wednesday!” Nadia called out, waving her fingers. “The retreat is going to besomuch fun.” She gazed at her ring, tilting it under the bakery’s bright lights, then wiggled her finger at Amelia again. “We can compare rings!”
The dog yipped for emphasis, then disappeared back into the bag.
“Ha,” Amelia managed past the mounting fury tightening her throat.
Oblivious to the gory death in his near future, Leo held the big cardboard box with tender hands and asked, “Grab the door, will you, hun?”
Hun. Amelia reminded herself that she shouldn’t upend Maggie’s wedding cake on Leo St. James’s head, even if he deserved it. She opened the door and held it for him, then headed for the back seat of her car. She secured the box with a seatbelt, then gently closed the door and whirled on Leo.
“Not here,” he said, tilting his head toward the bakery windows. “They’ll see.”
“Oh, we wouldn’t want them to see, would we?” Amelia snarked. “But wait. I don’t care!” She thrust her arm toward the bakery. “What the hell wasthat?”
“We should really be getting back to the wedding. Maggie and Emory are probably at the reception by now.”
“Oh, no. No, no, no. You’re explaining yourself to me right now.”
But Leo was circling the car and opening the driver’s side, which mean—
“How did you get my keys?”
He flashed her a smile and got behind the wheel. Amelia gaped, and the boiling magma of her temper finally erupted. She ripped the passenger door open, and its hinges squealed in protest. She fell into her seat and glared at him, her breath whistling as she inhaled through her teeth. There were so many words fighting to come out that none of them did. She looked at his stupid purple bow tie and wished she’d strangled him when she had the chance.
“You—”
