Married to His Nemesis

Damon Fu married a college girl behind my back.

Threw her a whole wedding.

I walked in right as the crowd egged them onright as he kissed her like I wasn't standing there.

Five years. We'd been engaged five years.

He didn't even flinch. Said it wasn't legal, no papers signed, so the real Mrs. Fu spot was still mine. Like that fixed anything.

I didn't cry. I didn't scream.

I turned around and left.

He was sure I was just sulking. Sure I'd come crawling back in a few days.

Then the crown prince of the old-money setthe one famous for never touching a womanposted our marriage certificate.

Damon showed up at my door in the pouring rain, pounding on it like he'd break it down.

I opened it. My face was still flushed from the night before.

"Relax," I said. "We only signed the papers. No wedding."

Chapter 1

The wedding was in full swing.

The crowd chanted for the newlyweds to kiss.

The girl in white dropped her eyes, shy. Damon cupped the back of her head and deepened the kiss, slow, like he had all the time in the world.

I stood there and watched my fianc kiss another woman.

One of his buddies spotted me. His voice cracked.

"Mrs. Fu."

The room went dead quiet.

I walked toward Damon.

The girl fumbled, trying to duck behind him.

He didn't have the decency to look caught. He hooked an arm around her waist and raised a lazy brow.

"Viv's been dying to marry me." He smirked. "Relax. We never signed anything. The real Mrs. Fu will only ever be you."

Damon and I grew up together. Childhood sweethearts. Engaged the day we graduated, because both families wanted it.

He was famous in our circle for one thinghe couldn't keep a girlfriend past a few weeks, and he made sure everyone watched me swallow it.

I smiled. Faint.

I reached into my bag and took out a small velvet box.

"This is the bracelet the Fu family passes down to its daughter-in-law." I held it out. "You can have it back."

He turned it over in his fingers, mouth curling.

"Bringing out the family heirloom just to make me break up with you?" He didn't believe a word of it. It was all over his face.

"Damon." My voice stayed level. "As of today, the engagement's off. You live your life. I'll live mine. No strings."

His face changed. "Say that again."

His buddy jumped in before it could blow up. "Mrs. Fu, take a breaththis wedding doesn't count, all right? Fu's just messing around. You're the one he actually marries."

So this was the show. My fianc, marrying another woman, in front of a full room.

I didn't cry. Didn't make a scene.

I turned around and walked out.

"Fu, go after her, man."

Damon sounded bored. "Go after her for what? It's not like this is new. She'll come crawling back in a few days."

"You've never pushed it this far, though. No woman just eats it when the man she loves marries someone else. I'm telling yougo check on her."

Damon glanced at the door. His eyes narrowed to a thin, dark line.

Vivienne tugged his sleeve. "Can I see the bracelet?"

I called my best friend Bianca and told her to meet me at a bar.

By the time she showed, two wine bottles sat empty in front of me. She read the room in a second.

"What happened? Fight with Damon again?" She dropped into the seat. "Who is it this timean actress? Another college girl?"

The needle went straight through my chest.

"He got married today."

I told her the whole thing. Halfway through, she grabbed a bottle by the neck like she was about to go cave his skull in.

"You should've dumped him ages ago." She was already on her phone. "I made a group chat. Every eligible man worth anything in our circle. Take your pick."

My phone started buzzing. It didn't stop.

Over thirty new requests in under a minute.

"I'm going to the restroom."

The hallway was quiet. A man leaned against the wall, out of place in a sharp suit, collar open a few buttons, a cigarette burning between his fingers. Not the kind you walked up to.

He must have felt me looking. He turned, frowning.

Rhys?

What was he doing here?

Chapter 2

I walked over and gave him a thin smile. "Mr. Qin. Bum a cigarette?"

He arched a brow. "Didn't you turn into a good girl the second you got with Damon? Aren't you scared he'll find out you smoke?"

I didn't answer.

He leaned in, voice pitched to annoy. "Word is he threw some other woman a whole grand wedding today. That mean you two are done?"

I reached over and took the cigarette and lighter straight out of his hand.

Lit it like I'd done it a thousand times, breathed out a slow curl of smoke, and let my mouth tilt.

"Rhys. Come home with me tonight?"

His eyes held mine.

We were both grown. Nothing about it needed spelling out.

He pinched the cigarette dead. Laughed, low.

Then I rememberedhe was famous for never touching a woman. I opened my mouth to take it back, to say it was a joke.

He said yes.

He unlocked my door with my own fingerprint and had me against it a second later.

One hand curved around the back of my head. He didn't close the gap right awayhe let it hang there, his breath at the corner of my jaw, the heat of him a half-inch off my skin.

Then he was kissing me.

"Tessa." His voice dropped. "You part wolf? Ease up on the biting."

I frowned. "Can you stop talking? Right now your only job is to make sure I can't."

The whole night, Rhys took his slow, thorough time proving exactly what a loose mouth cost a person.

I didn't fall asleep until the sky went graywhich was, of course, when my phone rang.

I couldn't get my eyes open. I just reached out and patted blindly across the sheets.

A quiet laugh beside me. Rhys found it first.

He saw who was callingDamon, on videoand his face went cold. He handed it over and pulled the blanket up to my collarbone.

I hit accept, dragging my eyes half-open.

Damon's smile was flat. "Yesterday you were all separate lives, no strings. So how is it that in under a day you ran to my mother to trash Viv?"

"Who ran to your mother? Are you out of your mind? It's dawn. What are you losing it about over here?"

The second I opened my mouth, I froze.

My voice was wrecked. Raw all the way down.

Damon paused. "You getting sick?"

I smiled. "Don't play dumb."

It landed. His voice shot up and he shoved the phone closer to his face. "Where are you? Who are you with right now?"

"Mr. Fu. We're nothing to each other now. Where I am, who I'm withnone of it is your business."

I was too tired to keep going. I ended the call.

At the bar, Damon's face was a storm.

"Fushe hung up on you? She's not actually serious about calling off the engagement, is she?"

"No way. It's her oldest trick. Threaten him, make him sweat. You think she could really walk away?"

"She's obviously putting on a show. Pretending she's off with some other guy so you'll get jealous and fold first. Come onthat move's been dead for years."

They all laughed.

And Damon's face finally eased.

The call had shaken the last of the sleep out of me. I frowned, irritated.

Rhys caught it.

"What's so great about Damon anyway? He played around this hard before the wedding. You really think he'd have kept to one woman after? He doesn't deserve you."

I lifted my head. Confused.

Rhys reached for the pack on the nightstand, tapped one out, lit it. When he spoke again, all the play was gone from his voice.

"If it's a merger you're afterthe Qins are every bit the match the Fus are."

Chapter 3

"What are you getting at, Mr. Qin?"

Rhys gave me a look. "I know you've been after the Eastside development deal for a while. On your own, it's a long shot. If we marry and go in together, it gets a lot easier."

I was wide awake now.

"The Qins could land that deal alone. Why cut me in?"

"Maybe I don't like the idea of you getting it for free."

The corner of my mouth twitched. I thought about it for a few seconds, then held out my right hand.

"Pleasure doing business."

Forty minutes later, Rhys and I walked out of the courthouse. Married.

I stared at the certificate in my hand. It still felt like a fever dream.

"Let's go."

"Waitwe're meeting the client already?"

He reached over, ruffled my hair, and laughed under his breath. "Honeymoon."

We geared up and sank into the blue.

Coral. Whole schools of fish close enough to touch.

Rhys signed for me to follow. We dropped deeper, and when I looked up, the surface was a sky full of stars made of light.

Back on the boat, the crew said my phone had been going off the whole time.

I opened it. Dozens of messages spilled down the screen.

DK Bridal: [Hello, Ms. Jiang! When are you free to come in for a dress fitting?]

Wedding Planner: [Hi Ms. Jiang, what kind of flowers do you like? We'll fly them in for the day.]

Jeweler: [Hello, Ms. Jiang. Mr. Fu ordered a diamond ring for you at our store. When can you come try it on? We can resize if it doesn't fit.]

A dress? Flowers? A ring?

The longer I read, the tighter my brows pulled.

Someone had leaked my number.

Right then, the phone rang again.

Damon.

"What."

He came in swinging. "Where'd you go? I've blown up your phone. Your office says you took a month off."

"Where I go is none of your business. In case you forgot, we're broken up."

That didn't faze him. He actually laughed. "You're only throwing this fit because I gave Viv a wedding, right? Fine. I'll throw you one too. You got the messages, the callspick whatever dress and venue you want, tell them, they'll handle it."

I couldn't believe him. "Are you out of your mind?"

This was Damon, all over. He hands you a way out, and if you don't grab it fast enough, somehow that becomes your fault.

"Tessa! You pitched a fit over a wedding, so I'm offering to throw you one, and you still want more? Not done sulking? Let me be clearthis is a one-time offer. Keep this up and you'll never get married at all."

"You're insane. We're done. Stop calling me. Marry whoever you want."

On the other end, Damon said it three times. Fine. Fine. Fine.

"Tessa. I gave you the chance. You're the one throwing it away. Don't come crying to me later."

Chapter 4

Rhys had changed back into his clothes. "That Damon?"

I let out a breath. "Yeah. He thinks I'm upset about a wedding, so now he wants to throw me one too. How was I ever blind enough to fall for that man?"

Rhys just smiled. Said nothing.

For the next month

Iceland's blue ice caves.

Hot-air balloons over Turkey.

The day we flew home, Bianca asked me out.

No amount of concealer covered the marks along my collarbone. I dug a scarf out of the closet and knotted it at my throat.

She barely sat down before she threw back two drinks.

"I am livid. Damon has completely lost it. He bought out every billboard in Manhattangot A-list stars to record birthday messages for that Vivienne Lin girl, and set them on a loop for a whole month. Did he think about your feelings for one second?"

I lifted my glass. Calm. "I got married."

She didn't believe me. Not until she saw the certificate.

"Rhys?!"

"Isn't he the one famous for never touching a woman? How did you land him?"

"Doesn't matter." She waved it off. "What matters is Damon doesn't even compare. God, I'd kill to see his face when he finds out you married Rhys."

Just like that, the fury flipped to glee. "This calls for a celebration. Drinks on me."

Bianca couldn't hold her liquor. A few bottles in, she was swaying in her seat.

I set my glass down. "Stay put. I'll grab you something to sober up."

In the hallway, I ran into Devin Lu.

He sidled up, eager. "Mrs. Fu, you made itFu and the guys are in the private booth in the back."

"Damon and I are nothing to each other anymore. Just call me by my name from now on. Have fun."

Devin took it as leftover anger. "Okay, look, Fu went too far with that whole thingbut give him a chance to say sorry to your face, yeah? We're in the back booth. I'll head back. Come by, Mrs. Fu!"

To get back to our booth, I had to pass the one they were in.

I heard familiar voices. I stopped at the door and looked through the gap.

Damon lounged against the couch, several shirt buttons undone. Vivienne's lips were swollen. Anyone with eyes knew what had just happened.

"Fu, I ran into Mrs. Fu at the door just now. Told youshe's still not over you."

"Didn't think Tessa could go this long without reaching out, though."

"It's been what, a month? Then she hears you're throwing another woman a birthday, and she can't take it, so here she is."

Damon's voice was flat. "Who invited her? We're done."

"Ease up, man. This is the longest she's ever gone quiet on you. Careful it blows up past fixing."

"Yeah, Fumaybe get this girl out before Mrs. Fu walks in and loses it again."

Damon glanced sideways at Vivienne, all soft and meek beside him.

Head down, her voice barely came out. "Mr. Fu... it's my birthday today."

I touched the scarf at my throat.

Then I pulled it off and pushed the door open.

Every head in the room turned at once.

The marks on my neck were impossible to miss. Even in the dim bar light, Damon saw them.

He shot to his feet, eyes narrowing.

"What's on your neck?"

I thought about the night beforeabout the way Rhys had marked me up, like he couldn't get enough.

"Kiss marks," I said, smiling