Love's Gambit

CHAPTER FOUR

*Unedited*

Monday, August 21, 2016
Private airstrip

Devante pulled to a stop at the airstrip where his private flight awaited; the airstrip belonged to a friend of his mother's. He looked at Melissa who had been twitchy for most of the whole ride and wondered what was bothering her.

But before he could ask, she turned, found him staring, and glared. "What?"

He sighed, stared out and ahead through the windshield for a few seconds, then swung his gaze back to her. "Are you alright?"

She frowned. "Why won't I be?"

"Just checking," he said, turning away again. "This is your chance to turn me down. Say the word and I'll have you driven back to your stepmom's."

She glared at him again though he wasn't looking this time. "This is a fine time to be asking for second thoughts. I didn't rush to pack up, just to turn back again. I didn't call a moving company to ship the rest of my stuff to me just to cancel with no refunds, just for you to decide that I might no longer want to go through with it."

"If it's the money waste you're worrying about, I'll refund you," he said, hand gripping the wheel so tight that his knuckles were white. The reason was simple: he didn't want her having second thoughts. He'd come too far, concocted far too many strategies to stop now.

"I have my own money," she replied in her chilliest voice. "And if this is all you want to talk about," she pulled on the passenger door handle to open it, "I'd rather not hear any more."

"One more thing," he said softly. When he got her attention, he turned and looked her in the eyes, saying, "Since we'll be getting married when we land in Valencia, we'll need to start looking the part."

She sat for a long moment, processing; trying to understand what he was getting at, but she failed. "What are you talking about?"

"One of the rules you wrote down for this marriage was that my family never finds out this is a sham, no?" For some reason, him calling the marriage a sham hurt her more than she was willing to admit. And it was funny, because she was the one who had said first that the marriage wasn't real.

She wondered for a brief moment if he'd had his feelings hurt too when she'd called the union a sham... then decided it wasn't possible. "Yes, there was one like that."

"So, we need to look the part," he explained. "My family is a cynical lot except Alessandro, and they would look into it. Lucky for us, the scene in the hotel this morning cemented our supposed relationship, and then there's Lourdes."

She went blank for a moment. "Lourdes?"

"My half-brother's girlfriend."

She blinked. "What has she got to do with this?"

Devante smiled. "She's the bartender from your drunk episode three years ago. She will attest to the fact that we met again then, and since she didn't know what we did when we left, we could say we started over again then."

She looked at him for a long time, then smiled with reluctant admiration. "You have thought it all through, haven't you?"

He gave her a decidedly wicked smirk. "Thinking things through is something I do well, except when it comes to you. You make me reckless."

Melissa decided it was time to make an exit, unless she wanted to make an undignified one later. She pushed on the already open door and stepped out into the afternoon glare of the sun. Devante did same, then when he rounded the hood to her side, they started making their way towards the plane.