Page 1 of Unexpected Temptation

“I can’t believe you’re actually going to do it. You and your friends can’t treat people like that.” Amelia watched her sister as she put on a delicate diamond earring while she sat in front of a vanity mirror in her bathroom.

Amelia stood against the door and tried to keep the frustration out of her voice.

“Why aren’t you even going to try?”

Meredith shrugged. “It was a bet, it was fun, and I won, and now it’s done.”

“I can’t believe you’re actually going to just leave him hanging.”

Meredith’s eyes pierced her sister’s.

“Amelia, you’re being an idiot. What woman would ever become a mail-order bride to some man-ape in the middle of nowhere? It was ridiculous for him even to consider it. I actually think I did him a favor.”

Amelia ground her teeth together. “It’s not ridiculous. I think it happens more than you think. I think these men do this because they don’t have a way to meet women.”

“That’s not my problem.” Meredith stood and smoothed the little ice-blue dress over her slim hips, then turned to look at her profile in the full-length mirror. “How do I look?”

Amelia swallowed back her resentment at her sister’s attitude but rolled her eyes. Like she didn’t know she was gorgeous. Her sister had mirrors everywhere so she could admire herself.

“You look beautiful, as always.”

Amelia avoided looking in the mirrors, especially when she was next to her sister. It made her feel even more dumpy and unattractive.

Meredith tapped Amelia’s chin with a long, perfectly manicured fingernail as she walked past her out of the bathroom.

“Don’t be jealous, little sister. You have your own redeeming quality ,” Meredith sniped and then snickered.

Amelia rolled her eyes again before turning and following her sister into her bedroom. She had caught the insult but let it slide. She didn’t expect anything else from her sister.

Amelia sometimes wondered how two people could be so different when they came from the same parents.

While Meredith was tall, thin, blonde, and gorgeous, Amelia was several inches shorter with curves she had always hated.

She had never been successful in losing weight, even after all the diets her mom had put her on over the years.

Her hair, her one beautiful feature, she thought, was a rich brown with a hint of silver. It hung down to the middle of her back and was slightly curly.

She wanted to think she had been adopted, except the blue color and shape of her eyes were exactly like her sister’s and mother’s.

“Meredith, you have to at least get a message to him. He’s expecting you next week, right?”

Meredith rolled her eyes. “I’m not doing a damn thing. If you feel so strongly about it, you get in touch with him.”

Amelia’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What am I supposed to tell him?”

“I don’t care, Amelia. Make something up,” Meredith snapped.

“But...”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” Meredith spat out impatiently. “I have to leave for the benefit. Mom and Dad are probably already waiting for me downstairs.”

Amelia gritted her teeth as frustration and anger swept through her. She lowered her head, so her sister didn’t see it. Not that Meredith cared, but it would give her another reason to torment her.

Meredith stopped at the doorway. “What are you doing tonight?”

Amelia shrugged. “Probably watch a movie or read a book.” She didn’t have a lot of options. She wasn’t invited to these kinds of things with her family, and she only had a few friends, but they were always busy working or with their own families.

She’d gotten used to never being invited to go with them.

She knew she was too much of an embarrassment to her mother, father, and sister.

They never came out and said it, but she could tell.

In the past, every time she had asked to go, they would give her the spiel about her not enjoying these things and not knowing a lot of people.

Amelia knew what the real reason was. Her family members were all close to six feet, beautiful, and blonde perfection.

Amelia had known her whole life that she was the oddball in the family. The black sheep. The ugly duckling. She also had an irritating and embarrassing compulsion to talk out loud when she was thinking or nervous.

They didn’t want to be seen with her in public.

Even when they were home, they all tended to ignore her.

Most of the time, it didn’t bother her, but it seemed the older she got, the worse it made her feel.

Seeing her friends married with children pierced the shell she’d built to protect her heart.

That’s all she had ever dreamed about. Children and a husband to give all the bottled-up love and affection she had stored her whole life.

Amelia knew she had to move on and had begun planning her next step weeks ago. The problem she faced was that she didn’t have much experience. She’d never lived away from the house. And frankly, she was terrified. She’d always been taken care of. She never had to worry about any of her basic needs.

Her parents made her go to the closest community college and live at home. She figured it was because they hadn’t wanted to spend money on her education, rather than wanting to protect her. Now she had a degree in business, but nothing else.

She needed to decide what she wanted to do and where she wanted to live.

All she knew was she wanted to be as far away from this place as possible.

She was lucky enough to have a substantial amount of money from her maternal grandmother—the only person she had ever felt loved by.

She was planning on using some to set herself up and make a life for herself.

She didn’t know what she would do yet, but she was determined to make it.

“Well, have a good time.”

Amelia lifted her hand as she watched her sister walk away in four-inch heels and wondered for the hundredth time how the hell she ended up in this family.

How many times had she fallen asleep crying, feeling like an outsider?

She would find a place where she fit in and around people who wanted to be with her, not hide her away.

She couldn’t put it off any longer. Amelia walked to her bedroom and closed the door behind her. She started pulling out the luggage she’d used twice in her lifetime and began organizing and gathering the things she wanted to take with her when she finally left the place she never belonged.