His Paradise Wife Read Free Page A

settle down. He was twenty-eight when they married, but
five years later, Anita passed from breast cancer, a disease that
her mother had also died from.
    After her death, Dante couldn’t bring
himself to stay in California because everything there reminded him
of her – the landmarks, their friends, their house...everything. So
he quit his executive position at a top marketing firm there, sold
his home and moved away in search of a new beginning.
    Once he was settled in Asheville, he and his
brothers were the talk of the town. They basically took over the
social scene and partygoers knew that if the Champion men weren’t
at an event, then it wasn’t the place to be.
    After that partying phase of his life, which
he also understood as being the denial stage that Anita was truly
gone, Dante began to clean up his image. He missed what he had with
Anita and it wasn’t until he got his head back on straight that he
knew he desired what he’d lost. Unlike his brothers, he wanted
love, marriage, a woman to grow old with. Someone to share his life
with. The problem was, after all the women he’d met and casually
dated, he hadn’t run across a woman who could make him want to
pursue her – someone who could take his breath away.
    Then he saw her, Emily Mitchell, showcasing
items from her boutique at a community festival. She was one of the
vendors there, laughing it up with a customer when her eyes locked
with his as he stood a few feet away, admiring her. He was there
alone, checking out all the vendors and their products, but when he
saw Emily, he stopped and stared, particularly at her full, red
lips as she smiled and interacted with customers.
    When he noticed her customers were gone, he
stopped by her booth and bought a turquoise stone necklace. He told
her it was for his niece but he had no such niece. It was just a
ploy by him to get her name and number. She handed him a business
card that had the name of her shop, Emily’s Boutique, as well as
her business number, but he wasn’t able to get her personal number.
He had also been unsuccessful at getting her to go out with
him.
    Then something amazing happened, almost as
if by divine intervention. His brother Dimitrius, head of the
accounts department, informed Dante of a new account that had been
set up on Grieving Hearts Connect, a woman by the name of Emily
Mitchell.
    Right away Dante logged into the site,
looked her up and sure enough, it was the same Emily he’d bought
the necklace from, the woman who declined his request for a date.
Had he communicated with her online as himself, she probably would
not talk to him, and would easily dismiss him the same way she did
when he asked her out. That’s when he decided to take on a new
persona, to create a profile under the name ‘Armand Hill’. He
uploaded a fake picture – some man’s picture he found off of an
image search – created a profile and began chatting with Emily.
    Over the course of three
months, he’d learned pretty much everything about Emily – things
that made him even more enamored by her. But he’d grown tired of
late night chats and shorthand typing with her. That had gotten old
real quick. He needed to see her laughing out loud. He wanted to personally
tell her, goodnight , seal it with a hug and kiss and not by typing ‘XO’ and
logging out of a chat window. He wanted his tongue buried in her
mouth while his arms encircled her body. He needed his lady by his
side.
    So, using his lethal power of persuasion, he
devised a scheme to get a ring on her finger by coming up with a
first ever, GHC mass wedding at their resort on Pleasure Island.
All along, his plan had been to make her fall in love with his
online persona, Armand Hill, and he thought he was doing a pretty
good job of doing just that – persuading her that he was the man
for her, the one who could heal her broken heart. If she accepted
his proposal, she would meet him at Pleasure Island. Then and only
then would she learn his true