For You I Do (5 page)

Only seconds after the microwave’s timer informed her that her water was ready, she heard a car in the driveway. Rising from the chair, she hurried over to the window and peered out between the blinds. A swooshing rush of breath escaped from her parted lips just as her eyes widened in surprise.

London Brown!

What in the world did he want?
Not waiting to find out, Bianca quickly hurried out of the kitchen and down the hall to her bedroom. Glancing at her reflection in the mirror, she frowned. Just as she thought, her hair was a mess. Reaching across her dresser, she grabbed a comb and while looking in her
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vanity mirror, she ran it through her short brown curls and frowned at the way her hair refused to cooperate. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything she could do about it now.

The doorbell rang and Bianca took one final look. If she had known London was coming over, she would have chosen something other than the faded pink T-shirt and spandex shorts. With a sigh, she put the comb down, then headed toward the door as she heard the doorbell again.

“I’m coming. I’m coming,” she mumbled under her breath as she moved to the door, the entire time wondering why London was paying her a visit.

“Who is it?” she asked as if she didn’t already know.

“It’s London.” The deep voice sent a spark of excitement straight to her heart. Get a grip. She warned. She didn’t know why she behaved that way every time she was around him.
It’s
not as if I’m attracted to him,
she told herself.

She took a moment to get herself together, then opened the door. “Hello.”

“Hey, sexy.”

Sexy? Yep, that’s exactly how she would have described London Brown. Her eyes swept over him, finding the view to be nothing short of fine. London was standing on her porch and his six-foot frame was silhouetted by moonlight. This particular April evening, he looked hotter than ever. A crisp, black, long-sleeved shirt showcased his solid chest, and together with his black jeans made him look mysterious and daring. Downright sexy, in fact. His thick, close-cropped, wavy black hair added to his devilishly handsome looks. He usually wore a neatly trimmed goatee, but now he had the start of a beard. She figured he was probably too busy juggling dates to spare twenty minutes to go to the barbershop. The stubble on his jaw was smooth and dark, giving him a rakish look that was just too damn appealing.

“Like what you see?”

She felt her cheeks flame. London thought every woman in Sheraton Beach wanted him.
Conceited
was his middle name.

There was no denying that he was fine as they came in a polished, Will Smith kind a way, but she preferred a more rugged look,
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For You I Do

which was why she was attracted to Collin. Nothing was more handsome than a man in a military uniform, she reminded herself.

“Actually, I was thinking you looked a bit scrubby this evening. What, some woman broke your heart and you came running to cry on my shoulder?”

He shot her a disarming smile. “Very funny. My love life has nothing to do with my reason for dropping by to see you.”

She crooked an eyebrow at him. London had been to her house before, but not in the last few months. Not since she realized she could no longer control her feelings around him.

“What brings you here?”

“Why don’t you let me in and I’ll tell you,” he said, staring down at her with those sexy brown eyes of his that held glints of gold. Every time he stared at her, she felt as if she were in a trance.

It took everything she had to look away. Then she stepped aside and let him in. He brushed past, and the scent of his cologne was enough to make another woman weak at the knees. She was grateful that his back was turned.

Bianca shut the door while London moved across her oak floor into her plush, stylish living room with familiarity. With his hands behind his back, he stared out a bank of floor-to-ceiling windows that showcased an incredible view of a sandy beach and the ocean beyond. And while he stared out the window, Bianca took in the view inside.

She admired his slanting cheekbones and strong nose and his full lips that were made to kiss. He was something that a woman wrote about in her journal, and that was the reason he was all wrong for her. London Brown had a reputation as a heartbreaker, which meant he was off-limits.

When London had returned to town, they had gone out on a couple of occasions. But they hadn’t spoken since their last dinner date. London was sexy and knew it. And as soon as word got around that he was back in town, every single woman in Sheraton Beach would be at Clarence’s Infamous Chicken

& Fish House buying lunch, then returning again for dinner.

Hell, if London served breakfast, they would have been there.

Bianca thought it was a shame the way those women threw themselves at him. What was even worse was the way London
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sucked it up through a thin straw. Within weeks, London Brown became a hot commodity and everywhere Bianca turned she saw him with one female after another on his arm or in his car. She just turned up her nose and looked the other way. After a while, she started ignoring his calls and rejecting his gifts.

A player was not her style. Ending their relationship had been hard. Unfortunately, London had wanted something she didn’t—a no-strings-attached sexual relationship. At the time, Bianca knew there was no way she could have separated her body from her heart.

“I heard about your engagement,” London said, then swung around and gave her a bold, daring look.

The sound of his voice jolted Bianca and she gasped, caught completely off guard that he had mentioned it. For some reason it bothered her that he thought she was no longer available.

“Who told you?”

He shrugged, then gave her a slow, sexy smile that said the answer was obvious. “Your brother told me.”

She held her breath before letting it out slowly. “Which brother? Jaden?” she asked as she walked over to an oversize sofa and lounged comfortably across it. She knew it couldn’t have been Jace because he was in Virginia interviewing staff for their new hotel. She had thought about moving to Virginia on several occasions to get away from her demanding mother and her overly possessive brothers, but she never did and now…now that she was getting married there was no point in going anywhere. Especially since Collin was stationed in Delaware.

“It must have been Jaden. He’s always running his mouth.”

“I’d rather not say.” London replied with a chuckle as he strolled around her room past the bookcases on the opposite wall, pausing long enough to browse a title or two from her ex-tensive collection. Bianca gave his back a long, suspicious look.

She’d known him long enough to know that this wasn’t just a social visit. London had come to her town house for a reason.

She blew out an impatient breath. “I’m really not in the mood for games. What do you want?”

Light brown eyes, a striking contrast to his dark skin, narrowed slightly under raven eyebrows before London reached
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For You I Do

into the inside pocket of his windbreaker. He removed a manila envelope and tossed it onto a dark oak coffee table. Bianca glanced down at the envelope then up at him again.

“What’s that?”

His eyes darkened with an indefinable emotion. “Something I think you need to see.”

She hesitated a few seconds longer, as if she feared it was some kind of booby trap, before she finally reached out for the envelope and opened it. For the longest time she stared down at its contents.

Bianca froze as a multitude of emotions ran through her—

shock, denial and finally enough anger to cause her body to shake. “Where did you get these?” her voice was barely audible.

“I took them myself.”

London captured her gaze and was holding it with an intensity that she found unnerving. He wasn’t kidding. Looking down once more in disbelief at photograph after photograph of her fiancé in the arms of another woman, her hands began to shake.

Driving in his car. Holding hands. Eating dinner at
her
favorite restaurant in Philadelphia, she felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. “These aren’t real. This must be some kind of joke.” But even as she said that, she knew it was not a joke.

London would never lie to her. He’d always told it like it was, and she liked how straightforward he was, even when she didn’t want to hear the truth. Unlike a lot of men she knew, London had never been afraid to speak his mind. She expected nothing less now. Anger coursed through her. For a second, she’d thought he had dropped by to wish her luck on her future, but instead he’d come to destroy her happiness. Her life.

She sprang from the couch and glared up at the tall man looming over her. “Who asked you to bring these here?”

Lowering his gaze, he said, “No one.”

Irritated, she narrowed her eyes at him and fisted her hands at her waist. “You’re lying.” Her mind was reeling. This couldn’t be happening to her. There had to be some kind of misunderstanding. Bile rose from her stomach and threatened to choke her. With grim determination, she forced it back. “Where did you get these?”

“I already told you. I took them.”

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“Quit saying that. I want to know who took these photographs!” she demanded.

“I said I took them.” He spaced his words out evenly.

What London said finally started to register. She tilted her head to the side, her forehead wrinkled with confusion. “
You
took them?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

London let out a sigh of pure frustration. “Believe it or not, I care about you.”

Bianca looked up and something in the depth of his eyes made her heart skip a beat before she shook the feeling away. “Do you really think I am that stupid? Since when do you care about me?”

His brow rose in confusion. “We’re friends. Why wouldn’t I care about a friend?”

She dropped the envelope to the table and bore angry eyes into him. “Which one of them paid you to spy on me?” she demanded.

“Was it Jaden or Jace?” He opened his mouth, but she held up her hand, cutting him off. “You would think since they have families, they’d have better things to do than to be meddling in my life. Damn them! Damn you!”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t come over here to upset you.”

A single tear slid down her cheek. “Well, you did!” she flopped back onto the couch. “Now what? Now that you’ve ruined my life, what’s next? You go back and give your report?”

London’s looks softened. “No. I’m not giving them anything.

No one will know about this but you and me.”

“Oh, boy, is that supposed to make me feel better!” She glanced down at the pictures of Collin in the arms of a beautiful woman and her stomach churned. Suddenly, she felt so nauseated she rose. “Oh, I’m going to be sick.”

Before she made it halfway down the hall, London came up behind her, scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bathroom just in time. She emptied the contents of her stomach and when she was done, he handed her a cold wet towel so she could wipe her face. She rose to her feet and rinsed her mouth out, then leaned against the edge of the sink for strength.

“Finished?” he asked.

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For You I Do

She nodded weakly and didn’t object when he lifted her in his arms once again and carried her back into the living room, placed her on the sofa and sat beside her. Bianca closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder, waiting for her stomach to settle and her world to quit spinning.

Her fiancé was having an affair!

What was she going to do?
Word had already gotten around that she was getting married. She hadn’t been too happy about the gossip, but Collin seemed quite pleased about it. She dropped her forehead to her hands. “Oh, God, I’m going to be sick.”

“You need me to carry you…”

Bianca placed a palm on London’s chest and pushed against the solid muscles. “No, I just need for you to leave.”

“I’m not leaving until I know that you’re okay.”

Uncontrollable tears were now running down her face. She swallowed. “How am I going to be okay when you just ruined my life?”

He looked confused by her response. “Ruined your life? I just saved you from a disaster.”

Angrily, Bianca rose, desperate to put some distance between them. “Is that what you think you did?” She gave a stifled laugh.

“Don’t try to act like you care. The only reason you stuck your nose in my business is because Jaden paid you to do so.”

“You should be happy,” he said with utter seriousness.

“Happy? Happy? Why would I be happy?” Her eyes misted.

“Everyone in Sheraton Beach knows I’m supposed to get married and now I need to figure out what to do.”

London rose in one fluid motion. “What is there to think about? Those pictures should be all you need to know. He doesn’t deserve you.”

“Just go away. I need to think.” She moved over to the love seat, sat down and buried her face in her hands. “Dear God, what have you done? My mother is going to have a cow when she finds out,” she added miserably. “Just go away and leave me alone.”

She was going to be the laughingstock of their stupid little town. All because London stuck his nose in her business. For the longest time she sat there with her legs folded beneath her, with her head on the armrest and her hands covering her face, as the images of Collin and the other woman kept flashing before her
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face. She didn’t need to see the photographs again because they would forever be emblazoned in her mind.

“What am I going to do?” she mumbled, then looked up to find London still standing there, staring at her like an idiot. “I thought I told you to leave.”

“Bianca, he isn’t worth it,” was his smooth reply.

“No, he isn’t,” she began with a sob in her throat. “But it’s a little too late for that now.”