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He obeyed, though. And she knew it was because he was caught in an impossible place. His only option was to dig in, and ultimately embarrass her, and not look at all like a loving groom, or capitulate. And she knew that capitulation was not in the man’s vocabulary.

“Good work,” Julie said, watching Adonis leave.

A pinprick of jealousy shot down Esme’s spine. “Yes. It was.” She didn’t need to be jealous or bratty about it. Julie was just observing that Adonis was hot, which was an incontrovertible truth, so there really was no point being salty about it.

None at all.

Still. Maybe because she’d only slept with him once—well, a few times over the course of one night—and he wasn’t really hers.

It made her feel fragile.

Maybe because she was looking at a potential future where she might have to share him with other women it left her flat.

“He’s perfect for you,” Julie said, laughing. “I am happily partnered up.”

“Sorry,” Esme said, shaking her head. “It’s the hormones.”

She would be blaming everything on the hormones from here on out, she decided.

She doubled down on that inclination when a white rack of dresses was brought out to the waiting area she was in, and Julie proceeded to show her the most glorious gowns she had ever seen in her life. She didn’t know how she was going to choose one. She didn’t know how she was going to…

This was her wedding. It was for her.

It was for her.

She told herself that with each new gown she tried on. White lace, satin, then chiffon. Things that made her feel sexy, ethereal and princess like.

It was the flowing chiffon, though, that appealed to her sense of fantasy the most.

There were long flowing sleeves that blended in with the beautiful skirt that rippled around her like water when she moved. It was an empire waistline, so that delicate fabric poured perfectly over the baby bump, not concealing it entirely, but somehow making her look almost innocent even with it there.

If she could have pointed to an exact dream for a wedding gown, it would’ve been this one. No matter what.

It felt like a fantasy. And she needed that. Needed to be able to cling to something fantastic about the day, since the brutal reality was that the marriage itself wouldn’t be real.

That meant the wedding had to be. The gown would look perfect with the flowers she’d chosen. The cascading pink. Like she had known exactly in her heart what she wanted all along.

“That’s the one,” Julie said, watching her closely.

“Yes,” she said softly. “It is. It is absolutely the one.”

“I’ll invoice your brother.”

She laughed. Because there really was nothing to do but laugh. “Perfect. You should tell me how much it costs, just for fun.”

She took sadistic pleasure in hearing the dollar amount, and the distraction was a pleasant one. Because goading her brother was a good time no matter how hormonal and flat she was feeling.

When she walked into the waiting area of the boutique, Adonis was leaning against the wall, just standing there. He was looking at his phone, he wasn’t doing any sort of distraction activity. Just standing there.

“You’re a stronger person than I am,” she said.

“Why?”

“Alone with your thoughts?”

“Oh, I’m very good at not having them when it doesn’t suit me. However, I actually spent some of that time making appointments. You and I have a couple of houses to go look at.”

“Houses? Today?”