His Paradise Wife by Tina Martin

for it.
    With his large hand still holding her
hostage, he said, “Need I remind you that you signed a contract. If
you back out now, you owe thirty grand. Do you have that kind of
money, Emily?”
    Her lips quivered in anger.
    “ Didn’t think so,” he said
in a cocky, supercilious tone. Then he took charge. “Now here’s how
this is going to play out. We’re going to get married. Right here.
Right now. We’ll spend two weeks on this island and after those two
weeks, if you still hate me, as you obviously do now, I’ll have my
attorney draw up annulment papers. Understood?”
    Emily was speechless. All she wanted to do
was pack her bags and get as far away from this place as she
could.
    When she didn’t respond, Dante said,
“Good.”
     
     
    The minister welcomed the sea of couples to
Pleasure Island, then, after giving a small speech about love and
marriage, he instructed the women to face their men and repeat
vows. Some women were crying tears of joy. Others had the giggles.
Emily wasn’t laughing, and if she did begin to cry, they certainly
would not be tears of happiness. She was highly upset, so much so
that her entire face was a flushed, reddish color and did her brown
eyes darken in fury?
    Dante reached for her hands and she snatched
them away. The mere thought of his hands on her made her skin
crawl.
    “ Are you going to do this or
not?” he asked with a smile, finding her defiance comical because
he knew he had her right where he wanted her. Once she was settled,
he slid a ring on her finger.
    Emily felt thoroughly deceived by Dante, but
given the present set of circumstances, she wasn’t sure how she
could back out now. She certainly didn’t have thirty-thousand
dollars and, with the low sales from her boutique and less than
two-thousand dollars in savings, she was already on a path towards
becoming heavily in debt.
    She looked at Dante and with derision in her
voice, she repeated the vows from the minister out of mere
rote.
    When it was his turn, Dante did the same but
not in a rancorous way as she had. He stared happily at her,
feeling his heart rate increase since he was finally getting what
he wanted. It would’ve been better had she been happy about this,
but he had two full weeks to convince her that he was the man for
her. He loved the idea of that challenge with Emily and it
certainly would be a challenge, but he would handle her as easily
as he did his businesses. If he played his cards right, he was sure
to get a huge return on his investment.

Chapter 12
     
     
    After the ceremony, the couples took group
pictures, then private ones before going to a grand reception with
open bars, music, dancing and an open mic for brides and grooms to
publicly declare their everlasting love for each other.
    Dante shared a stiff, first-dance with Emily
before taking the mic.
    “ I just want to say that
this ceremony is special to me. I never thought I’d be able to find
another woman that I wanted to share my life with...a woman that
means so much to me. And to my sweet Emily, I want you to know that
I will always be there for you and I look forward to spending the
rest of our lives together.”
    Emily couldn’t hide the confused look that
washed over her face if someone paid her to do so. Was he for
real?
    As the crowd cheered and clapped after his
speech, Dante walked over to Emily, took her right hand and brought
it up to his mouth, kissing the smooth skin on the backside of it.
Emily flashed a fake smile and when the spotlight was finally off
of them, she made a quick run for the nearest bathroom. She slumped
over the sink, feeling dizzy for a moment, trying to wrap her head
around all of this. Rewinding the events in her head, she tried to
come to grips with the fact that Armand wasn’t really Armand. There
was no Armand. Armand was Dante Champion. How could she have fallen
for this?
    Instead of going back to the reception, she
headed for the suite. She needed to call Melanie as soon