Read Marriage by Mistake Online
Authors: Alyssa Kress
Tags: #romance, #contemporary, #las vegas, #humorous, #heartwarming
Marriage by Mistake
MARRIAGE BY MISTAKE
by Alyssa Kress
Published by 4 Dolphins Press at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Alyssa Kress
Cover Design Copyright 2011
by http://DigitalDonna.com
Visit Alyssa Kress at her Smashwords
profile
or at her webpage,
http://www.alyssakress.com
Thank you for downloading this free ebook.
Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property
of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed
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author. Thank you for your support.
The characters and events in this book are
fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is
coincidental and not intended by the author.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the members of
the ever-evolving critique group, all of whom have given immense
support and help in creating this and other stories: Julie Woolley,
Kathy Bennett, Cathy Yardley, Rose Murray, John Lovelady, and to
Ruth Barges of blessed memory.
Dedicated to David
Table of Contents
On a sidewalk in downtown Boston, two
thousand miles from home, Kelly Williams should have been standing
on the brink of sweet success. Instead, she caught the distinctive
whiff of failure.
Jet-lagged and dazed, Kelly braced herself
against the people jostling to get to work, her cowboy boots and
snug jeans at odds with the tailored suits and designer outfits of
the crowd. She peered up at the big, glass office building matching
the address of the business card she clutched in one hand. At the
roof, huge metal letters spelled out SINGLETON INDUSTRIES.
Please. She was supposed to believe the
building was named after
Dean
? Dean the devil-may-care, Dean
the definitely
not
-at-all-serious Singleton? This big, fancy
office building, not to mention the corporation it housed, was
named after the casual smile of a man she'd met sliding quarters
into a slot machine in time to the song he'd been whistling?
The man she'd foolishly allowed to become her
lover, and more, two nights ago?
"Drat," she muttered, wishing her upbringing
allowed her to use a word that was much, much stronger.
The whiff of failure was becoming a positive
stench. Here Kelly'd thought she was going to do something strong
for a change, take action when a man walked out on her, instead of
sit huddled in her apartment, crying.
So she'd begged off work and maxed out her
credit card only to end up at this phony address Dean
had put on his sham of a business card.
She was no closer to the bum than before.
With a furious groan, Kelly spun away. She
tried to calm down, but it was so...stupid. Indeed, she'd been so
stupid since three days ago when Dean had looked up from the slot
machine and into her face, his easy grin fading. She'd been sucked
in by his seemingly awkward, apparently sincere, charm.
Oh, he'd been an operator, all right. He'd
got her, a seasoned chorus girl, to believe every honeyed word and
warm look he'd tossed her way. He'd acted like he understood her
desire to desert the life of glitter in order to build a real home,
a home with a man who truly loved her. Kelly supposed he
had
understood that part, for he'd used it. He'd sweepingly declared he
was that man. He'd said they were made for each other.
And she'd believed him.
She'd
married
him.
Just so he could have a one-night stand.
An awful pain constricted Kelly's chest.
She'd been in
love
, while he'd he'd
She gritted her teeth and shook the pain away. Uh-uh.
No matter what he'd intended, she wasn't going to cry.
She was going to seize her self-respect.
Kelly brushed a windblown strand of hair from
her eyes and straightened her shoulders. She would declare to Dean,
the world, and herself that she deserved to be treated better. She
didn't deserve to have a man marry her, and the very next morning
sneak out on her.
Her smoldering anger burning once more, Kelly
narrowed her eyes and turned back to the black glass office
building. Her gaze traveled up to the huge metal letters and her
brain began to function again.
Okay, so the building wasn't named after
Dean, but he'd known about it. He'd put this address on his fake
card. There was a good chance he was related to whoever actually
did run Singleton Industries.
Yes, maybe he was related. Maybe someone
inside the building knew Dean.
Better yet, maybe someone knew
where Dean
was
.
The possibility galvanized Kelly. She strode
toward the busy revolving glass door at the base of the building
and joined the crowd filing into the lobby.
A gleaming black elevator took her to the top
floor, the one indicated on the phony business card. Kelly's jaw
set as she took in the expanse of elegant marble, the partitions of
polished oak paneling, and the humming professionalism.
Dean, the man who didn't even wear a watch,
wasn't going to be found here.
But she didn't expect to find him, Kelly
reminded herself. Just her next clue. An address a
real address would be nice.
Her cowboy boots clicked on the smooth wood
floor as Kelly approached the closest cubicle, one that looked like
reception. The fringes of her lucky faux-deerskin jacket flicked
over the marble countertop as she held out the well-worn business
card. "Do you Well, have you ever heard of this guy?"
she asked with a polite smile.
The woman on the other side of the marble
counter skimmed Kelly's smile and looked down at the card, the one
Dean had given her the night they'd met. The incandescent lights
gleamed on the receptionist's sleek chignon as she gave the card a
good, long stare. Then she looked up to give Kelly an even longer
stare. "That's his personal card," she finally said, sounding
suspicious.
"His ?" Kelly blinked. "You
mean...it's real?"
Confusion now tinged the receptionist's
earlier suspicion. "Of course."
Of course. Kelly drew her hand back to look
at the card, herself. It was real. It was
real
. That meant
Her breath rushed into her lungs. Her head jerked up.
"Then he's here."
"Excuse me?"
"He's here." Heat immediately flooded Kelly's
veins. He was
there
. She'd found him. Broad smile, gleaming
eyes, aura of sincerity and acceptance. Handsome. Oh, handsome as
all get out. Something inside her convulsed with an emotion that
felt a lot like longing.
Kelly instantly pulled herself back from that
brink. Not longing. None of his sincerity stuff had been real. He
hadn't loved her. He'd
left
her. "I see, the card is
ahem. What I mean is, could you tell me where to find
him, please?" Kelly did her best to disguise her riotous emotions
behind another polite smile.
The receptionist tapped the end of her pen on
her desktop. "Well, since you have his personal card..." She turned
to glance at a computer monitor looming at her side. "According to
this, Mr. Singleton is in a conference right now."
"
Mr
. Singleton? Is in a
conference
?"
"That's right." The receptionist turned back
to Kelly, stone-faced.
Kelly looked back at her and
laughed. Apparently Dean was a close enough relative he'd been put
in a job that rated a 'Mr.' from the company receptionist, but had
to pay for it by sitting through a business conference. She could
just see him, lounging in the back of the room and folding paper
airplanes. Oh, it was a sad fact that despite the many choices of
men available to a dancer in a glamorous Las Vegas production,
Kelly always managed to pick the goof-offs, the dead-beats, and the
lying bums.
The receptionist glanced back at her
computer. "The conference is supposed to last all day, but there
will be a break for lunch."
"Lunch!" Kelly's eyes went wide.
The receptionist regarded Kelly thoughtfully.
"You do have Mr. Singleton's personal card, so I suppose it would
be all right if you waited."
Kelly gaped at the woman. She was supposed to
wait for Dean, the scum-sucking slug, until
lunch
? The
horrible part was that she could feel the 'good girl' part of
herself starting to agree to this delay. She didn't like to make
trouble. Why not wait?
And then Kelly remembered Dean had used the
very same word yesterday, right before he'd left her.
Wait
.
Pressure built behind Kelly's forehead. The
memory was painfully clear.
Wait
, Dean had said, while
strolling with a smile toward her front door. He would only be gone
for a minute, to pick up donuts and coffee. Be right back, he had
said.
And Kelly had believed him. Of course she
had. She'd
loved
him.
And now she was supposed to wait? In the wake
of her deep pain over the betrayal roared a powerful combination of
anger and fear. If she sat back, obliged waited
for a man who'd done
that
, what would it make
her?
Kelly looked straight at the receptionist.
"I'm not waiting."
"What?"
Before she could chicken out, Kelly sidled
around the marble counter.
"Now, just a minute," squeaked the
receptionist, rising from her seat.
But Kelly was already stalking down one of
the polished halls. Reason told her it could take a while to track
Dean down in this big office building. Common sense screamed she
was stepping out of bounds, but she couldn't stop now. She was
determined to retrieve her self-respect.
"This way?" Kelly twirled to face the
receptionist, who was scuttling after her down the hall. "You might
as well tell me, honey, or I'll be opening every door in the
place."
"Now, really, you can't "
"Oh, can't I?" For once in her life, Kelly
would
. Heart pounding, she twirled forward again, groped for
the first closed door she saw, and whipped it open.
She found a glossy wood table and a dozen
black leather chairs all empty.
"Wait " the receptionist
squealed.
There was that word again. The worst part was
Kelly
had
waited. She'd waited amid the tousled bed sheets,
a stupid smile on her face, expecting to see Dean come back through
the door. She'd waited long after it had become clear he'd gone
farther than the corner donut joint. She'd waited until she'd had
to admit she'd done it again, let herself get used. Even despite
the extraordinary precaution she'd taken. Even so!
But this was it, the last time.
"Call security," Kelly heard someone order
behind her. She felt alarm, an amazed shiver at her own gall, but
her rage, and a kind of fear, overwhelmed everything. If she
stopped now, she'd never be able to look herself in the mirror
again.
He'd promised her love, then sneaked out. She
could not
wait
to deal with that.
Kelly wrapped her hands around the knob of
the next door down the hall, telling herself she was going to keep
on trying if it took all day, if it took all night
Kelly flung the door open and stopped dead. A
dozen business-suited professionals seated around a convex table
stared at her in shock.
But the business-suited professionals filling
the room were not what stopped Kelly's heart. What did that was the
one man standing at the head of the table, a pointer in his hand
and a fancy Italian designer suit stretched across his broad
shoulders.