My Dark Romeo: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance(43)

Madison appeared with a plate laden with pink and coral macarons, white-chocolate éclairs, and gold-specked fruit tarts. The desserts looked too beautiful to be eaten.

Nonetheless, I shoved a macaron down my throat, barely tasting it.

Madison sat beside me. “Better?”

I nodded, squinting at the never-ending rolling green hills and gardens bracketing von Bismarck’s property. “I’m really sorry, Mad—”

“Please, no more of this.” He patted my knee, smiling. “You and I both know you didn’t really cheat on me. We were always an arrangement. Don’t saddle yourself with unwarranted guilt. Was I disappointed? Yes. I liked you. I still like you, Dal. But you chose who you chose, and I accept that.”

Wanting badly to appease him and also unburden myself from the weight of the truth, I blurted out, “But I didn’t choose him at all. It was supposed to be one small kiss before I married you. Everything just snowballed, and now I’m stuck with…with…this beast.”

It felt good to be childish and authentic. With Madison, my childhood friend, I felt free to be a version of myself that would be thrown from the halls of polite and mature society.

Madison looked like the sky had fallen directly on his head. “Are you telling me you didn’t want to marry Costa?”

“No.” I tossed my hands up. “Daddy forced me after he caught us. Romeo planned this entire thing. He set me up.”

As I explained the chain of events to Madison, I knew in my heart that I wasn’t playing with fire, but rather a full-blown dynamite box.

But the temptation proved too much. If the slightest chance of Madison freeing me from this arrangement existed, I wanted to seize it.

It took me three minutes to explain everything.

After I did, he gathered my hands in his and faced me. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay married to him?”

I didn’t even need to think about it.

“Confident,” I said with conviction. “If there’s a way out in which my reputation can survive, I’ll take it.”

Madison bit his lip. “I can’t promise anything, but I think there’s a way to take him down.”

Take him down?

It all sounded so Riverdale.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. I made a mental note to bail on Madison’s plan if he formed a red circle.

“When will you let me know? Every minute spent in his house is torture.”

Especially since he confiscated the carbs.

Madison sighed, plowing his fingers into his hair. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this mess, Dal. Trust me, I never thought anyone could be as spiteful as to seek you out like this.”

“Could you call me when—”

“First thing’s first, keep an eye on him for me, will you?” he cut straight to business. “I’m sure he’s monitoring your devices, so don’t send me anything sensitive in texts. Just call, and we’ll meet up. Anything you have for me that smells fishy. Whether business-related or regarding his personal life.”

Was he…recruiting me to bring Romeo down?

I struggled to picture my husband getting caught red-handed doing something bad. He was more sophisticated than that.

If anything, he was always stupidly in control. Even when he introduced Scott the Co-pilot’s face to the airplane’s floor, he seemed calm and collected.

Withdrawing my hands from Madison’s, I snatched a fruit tart and nibbled on it. “What if I find nothing? He’s not exactly an open book.”

Madison pretended to look tormented. He really wasn’t a good actor. I’d seen better adult productions at Sav’s sleepovers.

“Well…I mean, depending on how hard you want to nail the son of a gun, you can always…manufacture an issue.” He chewed on his thumbnail, an old habit I always found off-putting. “You know, bring to light the horrible way he treats you. Anything at all that can tarnish his reputation. This is important, Dal. If you want Romeo Costa out of your life, out of our lives—”

“My, my, don’t you two look adorable together.” Slow, sarcastic claps followed the sharp voice. “The Beauty and the Yeast.”

Madison did look a little like bread dough.

Out strolled my new husband, twirling whisky in a highball glass, his steps long and confident.

He’d shed his blazer sometime during the event. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled all the way to his elbows, exposing tan, muscular forearms.

His hair looked slightly disheveled. Maybe Morgan had ruffled it while they disappeared in one of the twenty-three guest rooms together for a quickie.

My heart began pounding out of whack after I remembered that, when we’d last parted ways, I’d shown off Madison’s engagement ring.

The latter remained seated beside me.

Worse—he draped a hand over my knee, leveling Romeo with an undeterred glare. “I have my eye on you, Costa.”

“Your eyes are none of my concern. Your arm, however, is another matter. If you still want it attached to the rest of your body, I suggest you remove it from my wife’s lap.”

“Your wife.” Madison snorted. Still, he complied, dumping his hands between his legs. “All she is to you is a way to get back at me for strengthening our ties with the DOD and presenting an impeccable defense package that’s too hard to walk away from and twenty percent cheaper than what Costa Industries offers.”