One Night to Risk It All by Maisey Yates Page A

wake-up call she’d badly needed. And after the photos and video had been managed, after Colin had been paid off, her mother had gotten sick. Rachel had thrown herself into caring for her mother, driving her to appointments, keeping her company, helping her plan her parties. Helping host them.
    And then on the other side of that, after her mother’s death, had been Ajax.
    Her father had expected her to marry him. Of course, her father also hoped she would love Ajax. Either way, she’d known what she was supposed to do.
    Ajax treated her like she was fine china he was afraid to break. Unlike Alex, who seemed to think she could withstand all manner of rough treatment. Brute.
    She sniffed. Loudly.
    “What?” he asked.
    “You aren’t very nice to me,” she said, walking ahead of him, following the cart that held their luggage. “Interesting you claim Ajax is such a villain but he treated me like a—”
    “Nun.”
    “—a princess.”
    “You aren’t a damn princess. You’re just a regular woman.”
    “Ajax thinks I’m a princess.”
    “In about four hours Ajax will think of you as that traitor who left him at the altar.”
    She clenched her teeth together tightly. She couldn’t argue with that. And she couldn’t blame all of this on him, not when she absolutely had a stake in the guilt. But she really, really wanted to.
    The conversation stopped when they approached a sleek jet parked on the runway. The door opened—a carpeted staircase waited to ease their entrance.
    “Swank,” she said, going up the stairs and into the plane, where her tart descriptor was proven to be an understatement.
    Everything was beautiful beyond belief, polished and plush, from the cream-colored floor to the soft leather couches.
    “There’s champagne chilling,” Alex said, coming in behind her. “Of course, you can’t have any. Bad for the baby.”
    “Are you always this insufferable?”
    “Are you?”
    “No, I never am. I’m actually extremely pleasant, all the time. It’s just that you make me... There really isn’t a word strong enough to express the anger-slash-anxiety I feel when you’re around.”
    “Attraction?”
    She narrowed her eyes. “That’s not the word.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “I am so sure.”
    “Then why did you kiss me earlier?”
    She sat down on the couch, suddenly feeling taxed. “You also make me crazy. I do stupid things when you’re around.”
    “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
    She crossed her arms. “I wouldn’t. Can you at least get me an orange juice?”
    “That, I could manage.” He pushed a button on his arm rest and gave the order.
    She leaned back and crossed her arms. “Where are we going, anyway?”
    “Back to my house. Away from the media firestorm that will no doubt ensue when they realize the bride has failed to show up for the wedding of the century. You’ll have to face the fallout eventually, but why not put it off for a while?”
    It really did sound good. To avoid reality for just a bit.
    “You can text your sister now.”
    Oh, yes, that was a bit of reality she really couldn’t avoid. Otherwise her family would be sending the police after them. For a couple of seconds she entertained the idea of letting them arrest Alex for kidnapping. But that was a news story she didn’t really want her child going back and reading, so she decided against it.
    Rachel pulled out her phone, her fingers hovering above the letters on the screen. What did you say when you did something like this?
    “Why aren’t you texting Ajax, by the way?”
    “Because I’d rather roll around in honey and get thrown into a badger den.”
    Short and sweet, Rach. Don’t tell all yet. She looked across at Alex, who was now sprawled in the armchair like a lazy big cat. Twitching his tail, waiting for his prey to make a false move.
    Yes, the less she said about the situation, the better. She knew next to nothing about it except that she couldn’t marry Ajax. And that she had to figure