Harlequin Desire January 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 Maisey Yates (sad books to read .txt) 📖

She broke the kiss a bare second after it had begun, leaving him feeling shorted.

“Do not say a word.” Her warm breath teased his ear, rousing a fire in his belly. “If you tell them you have the wrong wedding, my brothers will beat you to a pulp for kissing me. I suggest we take advantage of the surprise and run.”

She had a slightly Indian, slightly musical and entirely arousing accent. He reluctantly moved his eyes from her mouth and looked at her brothers, whose murderous expressions got him to haul ass.

“Out of our way!” He grabbed her hand. Given that there had to be hundreds of guests milling about, they had surprisingly little trouble getting moving. The guests eagerly parted so they could get a better angle for cell phone pictures and videos and then helpfully got in the way of their pursuers. It made for better social media posts if the bride actually got away.

Just wait until they find out who I am.

She matched his fast pace, despite the fact that they were on grass and she was wearing two-inch-high heels and a skirt that probably weighed more than she did. Once they got past the guests, she yanked his arm and he let her take the lead. People were shouting in various languages behind him, and he was glad he had no idea what they were saying.

Instead of running into the main building, where four men in black were making their way toward them, the bride banked a hard left. “There’s a gate through the serenity garden that isn’t guarded.” She led them to a wooden gate embedded in a perimeter wall.

I don’t think this is what they had in mind when they made this emergency exit.

It had one of those childproof locks, but she expertly handled it. Had she planned the escape route? Ethan hoped so; her brothers had recovered from their shock and were almost upon them.

They went through the gate and he pulled it shut behind him just as a hand snaked out. By the yelp he heard on the other side of the door, he’d succeeded in slamming the door shut. They exited onto a side street and he looked around to get his bearings. The front of the hotel faced the famous Vegas strip.

“Where’s your car parked?” she asked urgently.

“Not far,” he said and led her down the street. He had illegally parked nearby, and they had miraculously exited on the right side of the hotel, so the car was just down the block. As they approached it, he saw a ticket on the windshield. He ignored the piece of paper and went to the passenger side and touched the handle. The Tesla roadster recognized his fingerprint and unlocked. He opened the door and the bride gracefully lowered herself into the deep bucket seat. Just as he started the car, a hand smacked the passenger-side window, and he looked to see Brothers One and Two at her door. He floored the accelerator. Vegas traffic didn’t really allow for a high-speed chase, so he made a series of turns, hoping to lose whoever pursued them.

“We need to get out of Vegas,” the bride said, her voice frantic.

He drove aggressively until they were at least a mile from the hotel, then pulled into a public parking garage and stopped the car. He turned to her. Her beautiful dark eyes gazed back at him with such lustrous excitement that he momentarily lost his train of thought.

“We aren’t going anywhere until you tell me who you are.”

She stuck out her hand. “Divya Singh. Very nice to meet you. Now we have to get moving.”

He shook his head. “You have to get moving. I have a wedding to crash. The right one this time.”

CHAPTER TWO

Divya resisted the urge to scream at the man sitting next to her. He didn’t owe her anything, but she needed him if she was going to get away from her family. “How about I help you find the right wedding? I assume you’re after an Indian bride. You’ll have an easier time getting in with me by your side.” The last place her brothers would look for her was at another wedding. They had no way of knowing that the man sitting next to her was a perfect stranger, and she needed his help if she was going to get to New York City. Now that she’d done the unthinkable, this was her only chance to do the one thing she needed to do.

He narrowed his eyes, and she tried not to focus on how crystal blue they were or the way that the little crinkles in the corners of his mouth sent a little tingle down her spine. He wasn’t even her type. Though it was hard not to notice his sandy-brown hair, which glinted when it caught the sunlight streaming through the windows, or the angular cheekbones, sharp nose and broad shoulders. He looked effortlessly athletic and chic in a black tuxedo that looked tailor-made for him.

“Let’s start with your name,” she said.

He gave her a half smile and her heart gave a little kick. “Ethan Connors.”

Somewhere in the recesses of her brain, the name sounded familiar, but she was sure she’d never met him before. I wouldn’t ever forget him. She produced her best smile. “It’s nice to meet you. Now, about that wedding you want to crash. What’s the bride’s name?”

“Pooja Chaudhry.”

Divya pointed to his phone.

“I already tried googling her name and today’s date and every other key word I could think of.”

“Look at her social media.”

“I already did.”

Divya just held out her hand and raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow. He sighed, then tapped on the phone several times and finally handed it to her. Pooja’s Facebook page was on the screen. She was an attractive Indian woman with straight black hair, brown eyes, a sharp nose, cheekbones to die for, skin the color of white sand and a wide mouth. Dressed in a