THE EMPTY CHAIR AT HER SISTER’S WEDDING WAS SUPPOSED TO PROVE HER FIANCÉ HAD LEFT HER—BUT WHEN A QUIET STRANGER SAT BESIDE HER, KORA NEVER IMAGINED HE OWNED THE HOTEL, OR THAT HIS FAMILY WAS ALREADY PLANNING THE MARRIAGE THAT COULD DESTROY THEM BOTH

flat on the back of Marcus’s empty chair.

The chair her ex-fiancé would never sit in.

“I’ve been watching you sit out two songs,” he said.

His voice was low.

Unhurried.

There was no flirtation in it, and that surprised her. There was only a careful seriousness, the kind that belonged to someone who had spent years learning how to begin conversations that continue reading …