Her mistake.
Stumbling out of the SUV, she tripped toward the curb, where Lars was waiting for her beside his gleaming sports car. He looked down at her, beaming.
“Darling,” the baron cried. “At last, you are back with me.”
“I will be a better man from now on. Everything is going to be different now, petal. I swear to you. I will do whatever you say, anything to make you happy, anything at all…”
Rose stared out wearily at the passing scenery as they approached the eastern edge of San Francisco. For the last hour, Lars had been prattling on about forgiveness and love. She didn’t think he knew what the hell he was talking about.
But then, neither did she, Rose thought bitterly. She thought of the stark, anguished look on Xerxes’s face when he’d said, “I will not try to see you again,” and it was all she could do to keep from crying.
So maybe she did finally know what love was after all. Pain.
She blinked quickly, staring out at the rain as they zoomed west on the highway.
“I was so selfish to insist on having our wedding in Sweden. I should have realized how important it was to you to be married in your own hometown. I swear to you, petal, this time we’ll do it differently…”
“Just take me home,” she whispered.
“Absolutely,” Lars said, clearly thrilled to get any response from her. “Straight home to your mother. Then we’ll have the wedding you always wanted. As soon as possible. Is tomorrow too soon?”
That statement was so shocking that she turned to gape at him. “You can’t honestly think I’m going to marry you?”
He switched lanes in his Ferrari, weaving through traffic on the rainy, slippery highway. “I know this whole experience has been very upsetting for you, petal, forced to endure the captivity of that depraved beast…”
Depraved beast? She had a sudden memory of Xerxes’s haunted expression as Lars had driven by him in the Ferrari, with Rose beside him. Her eyes had met Xerxes’s in the endless gray rain. Then Lars had stomped on the gas pedal, and they’d left him behind.
Xerxes was lost to her now. Forever.
“But we must put that all unpleasantness behind us now,” Lars finished firmly.
With an intake of breath, she whirled back to face him.
“What was unpleasant,” she said coldly, “was the way you lured me into a fake wedding to try to get me into bed, while you were waiting for your real wife to die so you could steal her money.”
Silence fell in the Ferrari.
“I did that because I loved you. I needed money for you. To make you happy,” Lars said in a determinedly cheerful voice. “But petal, we must move on now with our lives.” He gave her a toothy grin. “Marry me tonight. Let me start making it up to you.”
She had a sudden memory of raspberries in champagne, bubble bath, inscrutable dark eyes filled with tenderness and fire.
“What are you doing?”
“Making it up to you,” Xerxes had said.
Catching herself, she looked at the blond baron beside her. Lars clearly believed that with almost no effort, he could make her swoon back into his arms. How was it possible she’d ever been so blind as to believe herself in love with such a man?
“We’re not getting married,” she told him evenly. “Not tonight. Not ever.”
“But I did it all out of love for you,” he pleaded. “I divorced Laetitia, gave up her fortune. All I have now is this car and a castle that requires a fortune just to maintain. I gave up everything—for you!”
Her eyes narrowed. “And you think that makes me obligated to marry you? Because you allowed Xerxes to get her some decent medical care, when you were waiting eagerly for her to die of your neglect?”
He reached one hand from the steering wheel and tried to take her hand. “You’re just angry,” he pleaded. “After our wedding…”
“What will it take for you to ever actually listen to me?” she shouted. “I am not going to marry you. Ever! Pull off the highway. I’ll take a taxi home!”
He withdrew his hand. His face was grim as he pulled off the highway. But instead of stopping, he turned the car around to drive the opposite direction on the highway, now heading to the east.
“Do you really think I’ll let you go?” he said in a low voice. “I gave up Laetitia’s fortune. You owe me yours.”
“My fortune!” Rose choked out a laugh. “You mean the fifty dollars in my bank account? You can have it!”
“I mean the money Novros gave you,” he said coldly. “Millions of dollars and that old factory in the bargain.” He switched gears to go faster on the highway. “Once the building is demolished, the land might fetch a good price,” he mused. “Perhaps for a gated community of vacation homes.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Funny, isn’t it? Novros called me last night. He’d always said he’d never give me a penny. But this time, he offered instead to give money to you. What happens next is up to Rose, he said.” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “Oh, did Novros not tell you? He’s just made you a very rich woman.”
Rose suddenly thought of the envelope he’d given her, still clenched in her hand. Her hands trembled as she started to open the envelope.
Lars ripped it out of her hands and tossed it out his window.
“Why did you do that?” she gasped.
“You don’t need it.”
“What?”
“Forget him, Rose.”
“Stop this car!”
“Novros is a nameless bastard. A nobody. He’s brainwashed you, turned you against me,” he said resentfully. “Just as he did that sister of his.”
Her mouth fell open. “Laetitia is his sister?”
Lars shrugged. “Half sister. Something like that. He kept it quiet. Promised her he wouldn’t start a scandal. Her mother was sickly. After their father’s death, Laetitia feared one more shock might kill her.” He gave a cold smile. “She was right. Except it was the shock of Laetitia’s accident that finally killed the old woman, and left the whole fortune to my bride.”
She stared at him in shock. “You’re a monster!”
“Now, is that anything to say to the man you love?”
“I don’t love you!”
“You will love me, petal,” he said, still smiling. He reached out to stroke her cheek. “I promise you that.”
When she jerked her head away, Lars looked at her resentfully. “Too good for me now, are you? It disgusts me how you let him touch you.”
Turning away, she didn’t answer. He stared at her, then stomped harder on the gas pedal. As the car went faster and faster down the highway, she gripped her seat belt in fear.
“You were such a sweet, obedient girl,” he said in a low voice. “I’ll make you that way again.”
He veered abruptly off the highway to a side road, heading toward the distant mountains. The road was rough and bumpy beneath the wide tires of the race car as they flew through the forest. As the rain soon changed to sleet, she stared out the window in a panic as the Ferrari went faster and faster, sliding on the icy, rocky road still covered with scattered snow.
Xerxes,