I GAVE MY WEDDING TO HIS MISTRESS

On my wedding day, a college girl put on the wedding gown and walked down the aisle in my place. "If I'd known the girls out there were this much fun, I never would've tied myself down to one woman." When I heard my fiancé Leopold say he'd wasted five years for nothing, I was surprisingly calm.

He had saved himself for me for five years. With the wedding almost here, he slept with a pretty college girl anyway. The girl wasn't just younger than me.

Her face looked a lot like mine back when I was in school. I contacted her privately. Chapter 1 Once the date was set, Leopold and I both got busy. I was busy planning the wedding.

He was clearing his work ahead of schedule so he could take two weeks off for the honeymoon.

That day I picked two options for the reception decor and took them to his office to show him. Before I knocked, I heard him through the door.

His voice was full of contempt. "Women really do lose their flavor once they get old." "Someone like Paisley Zeller, though.

She's just right." I had no idea what he was talking about, but some part of me already sensed the old woman he meant was me.

I pressed close to the gap in the door and kept listening, and piece by piece it came clear. "I saved myself for Fiona Knowles for five whole years.

The date's set and she still won't let me touch her.

I'm starting to regret marrying her." His buddy snorted out a laugh and asked him in a voice dripping with sleaze. "If the old lady's got no flavor, then how does your little girlfriend taste?" Leopold narrowed his eyes slightly, his index finger rubbing the tip of his pen, and smacked his lips a little. "Tender.

A lot more tender than Fiona Knowles." "Like a peach that's just gone ripe.

I can't kiss her enough." He sighed. "If I'd known the girls out there were this much fun, I never would've tied myself down to one woman." "Five years of my life, wasted for nothing." Through the gap in the door I saw the look in his eyes, a coiling tangle of wanting he hadn't satisfied.

Nothing like the restraint he usually wore. Right then he was a still pool. Drop one stone in and the water would break into ring after ring. My fists clenched.

I could feel my heart going slowly under. Just as I worked up the nerve to shove the door open and have it out with him. That stone, Paisley Zeller, arrived.

Paisley came out of Leopold's private lounge. She had on a white Tshirt and a pleated miniskirt, her face still heavy with sleep from an afternoon nap.

Look closely and there was a real resemblance to the way I'd looked back in school. "Leo, you two are still talking about the project?" The girl's voice was sweet.

Leopold didn't say a word, but his eyes clung to her the whole time. "I have to get back for class, or I'll fail my finals and then good luck graduating." "Mm.

I'll have the driver take you." Leopold hooked an arm around her waist and kissed her cheek like it was nothing. "Don't, your friend's right there." Paisley was shy about it, but their hips and legs stayed pressed close.

The internet says body language like that usually means physical attraction.

Then there were the reluctant looks, the hands that wouldn't come apart, the goodbye that took three glances back for every step. So sweet. If I weren't Leopold's fiancée.

When Paisley came out, I was sitting at his assistant's desk.

She saw me and went wary, confused. "Didn't Leo say nobody comes up here without him saying so?" Chapter 2 I smiled. "The driver's out on a run. Mr.

Ellsworth asked me to take you back to campus." That settled her.

She followed me down and got into my car. "Wow, an assistant drives a car this nice?" The girl probably hadn't seen much of the world.

The car wore a Mercedes badge, sure, but it had come to a little over fortyfive thousand out the door. I didn't set her straight. "Mr.

Ellsworth is generous," I said. "You work for him long enough, the package gets pretty good." "You've been with Leo a long time?" "Five, six years. We went to school together.

He thought I was good at what I do, so he kept me on." In the rearview I watched the girl's eyes fill with curiosity.

Sure enough, a second later she leaned forward and asked something more personal. "Then you must have met his wife." "Mr.

Ellsworth doesn't have a wife," I said evenly. "The woman you mean is a fiancée at most." The corner of the girl's mouth curved up, delighted. "So what's the fiancée like?" "In what way?" "Age, degree, family, job." "Twentyeight.

Bachelor's degree. Grew up in a singleparent home. She teaches." "She sounds pretty average." She made a face. "And she's almost thirty. She's past her best childbearing years.

How's she supposed to give Leo kids?" My hands tightened on the wheel. I hadn't expected to hear that come out of a college student's mouth.

Apparently reproductive health education still has a long way to go. After a few seconds of quiet, I picked the thread back up. "I don't think she'll be having Mr.

Ellsworth's children." Paisley's full lips opened and closed, and a gasp came out. "Why not!" "Because of you. Knowing Mr.

Ellsworth, with how much he likes you, he may not marry that fiancée at all." "Really! Can you keep an eye on it for me?" "Sure," I said.

When Paisley got out, she made a point of taking off her jacket. That was when I saw the red marks all over her neck and arms. Maybe my stare was too intense.

Paisley put the jacket back on, embarrassed. "Hon, quit looking, it's embarrassing." I turned my eyes away and asked gently, "Does it hurt?" She looked hurt, and she pushed out her lower lip. "It really does.

He's rough every time, and I don't dare tell him no." "Next time Mr. Ellsworth does that, bite his shoulder and tell him it doesn't feel good.

Then he won't push you." "How do you know that?" I leaned close to her ear, smiling. "His fiancée told us, back when we were trading gossip." Paisley clapped a hand over her mouth and laughed. "You're so sweet, hon.

I'll try it at home." … At home? After I dropped Paisley off, I texted Leopold to eat dinner without me.

Then I switched back to my own Bentley and drove straight to the house that belonged to Leopold and me. I wanted to see whether the home Paisley had mentioned was this one.

Leopold had finished the place a year ago. He'd kept the door code from me all this time. He said he had a surprise waiting inside for our wedding night. 061397, my birthday. Beep.

Wrong code. 083195, Leopold's birthday. Beep. Wrong code. 022520, the day we started dating. Beep.

Wrong code. … The last try, I used the birthday I'd just gotten out of Paisley. 111305. Beep. The door opened.

Chapter 3 Even though I'd already guessed how it would end, having it confirmed hurt so much I couldn't breathe.

My feet tangled when I tried to step forward and I went down beside the entryway cabinet. Two pairs of slippers were lined up there, neat. The two of them must have come here often.

I wandered the place for a long time. Matching toothbrushes, matching pajamas, toys for two, everything anyone could want. Warm and romantic.

In the master bedroom I found they'd put in a mirrored ceiling. I thought of a romance movie Leopold and I had watched together once. The male lead's bedroom had the same setup.

He'd leaned on my shoulder then, breathing against my ear, begging me to try it with him someday. "Doing it in bed with a mirror over you, wouldn't that be fun?" I've always been careful about that kind of thing, but since Leopold and I would be husband and wife eventually, it struck me as a harmless bit of fun.

That once, I gave in. I just hadn't imagined he still remembered, that this was the surprise he'd been saving for me. The mirror overhead showed me the wreckage in my eyes.

It was strange. It was the crispest part of autumn, and yet inside that room the air felt damp and sticky, and I could even smell the salt left hanging in it. I almost threw up.

My brain was warning me to get out of there immediately. And that was when the door opened. Heavy breathing poured in with it and filled the whole house.

With no time to think, I ducked into the study off the master bedroom. There was nothing in the study but a desk.

A man with Leopold's appetite wasn't going to waste time in here. "Leo, isn't this a little too often for one day?" "Don't talk." Paisley went silent at once, even her filthy little cries sounding held in.

It only took a few strokes before the pain got a cry out of her. "I'm sorry, Leo, it hurts too much." Leopold didn't stop. He kept going. One minute. Two minutes.

My stomach rolled harder. My head went light. I bit down hard on my own arm, to keep my head clear, and to punish myself for being such a coward.

I couldn't work out what had made me trap myself in here. The second they walked in I should have caught them in the act. A slap for each of them, to get the anger out.

But that seemed to let them off too easy. Or maybe what I still felt for Leopold was what made me afraid to face his betrayal.

After all, I was the one who refused sex before marriage, and he'd waited five years for me, gladly.

In the middle of all that slamming, Leopold hissed. "Who said you could bite me!" "Leo, it doesn't feel good. Can't you be gentler?" Paisley's voice went soft and lilting.

Anyone who heard it would have melted. Leopold was no exception. He paused and said gently, "Whatever you want." Familiar voice. Familiar tone.

It had been a long time since Leopold said that to me. The last time, as far as I could remember, was six months ago.

That time, someone had slipped Leopold something at a business meeting. To keep himself from doing anything he'd regret, he called me over and told me to watch him.

He sat in a tub of cold water, shaking, his face flushed a strange deep red.

I went to the bar to pour him a glass of water, and when I turned around Leopold was coming at me like an animal off its leash. I knew he couldn't control himself.

I also wasn't going to give in. In the scramble I bit down on his collarbone. Chapter 4 Blood came down with the water, drop by drop, spreading across the white carpet.

Leopold's eyes were bloodshot. Something behind them contracted all at once. "I'm sorry, Fi. I wasn't thinking straight." I got dressed and pushed him back into the tub.

When I wouldn't speak, he apologized again and again. "I'm sorry, Fi. I didn't mean to." "Fi, don't shut me out.

I couldn't control myself." Like a parent ruining the mood, I stressed to him again that I hated the idea of sex before marriage.

He looked like a dog pulled out of a river, hooking his fingers lightly around mine, and said it. "Whatever you want." "Anything you want, I'll do it." … At some point the noise in the bedroom stopped.

I heard the front door open and close twice, one after the other. Then came Leopold's text. [Wifey, where are you?

I miss you.] Paisley reported in too. [Hon, what you said actually worked! The way Leo looked at me after was totally different.] I wrote back. [Really.

Then I guess the rumor's true.] [What rumor?] [That Mr. Ellsworth wants to call off the wedding and marry you.] I told Leopold I was at my mom's