Prologue

PROLOGUE

M y eyes trail over the big wooden sign. Welcome to Wild Thorn Ranch. A rush of excitement travels through me as we wait.

We hired a driver to bring us here from the airport, not knowing that they wouldn't go past the front gate. I told Greg that we should have just rented a car and drove here ourselves. Of course, I knew how stupid it sounded as soon as the words left my mouth because, of course, Greg Sutherland doesn't do anything himself, not if he can pay someone else to do it.

"Now what do we do?" he huffs, glaring at the property before us.

"We only have a few bags. We can just walk the rest of the way," I tell him, fully expecting the horrified look on his face.

"You're joking, right? Not in these Prada loafers, I'm not."

"Greg, we're on a ranch. If you can't walk down a dirt road, then how are you going to do anything for the next two weeks?" I huff, crossing my arms.

"Easy, I'm not. I have no plans on leaving that cabin. Room service, air conditioning, and wifi. We're here for you . Because you hounded me for days after finding this place online and said it was your dream to come here." He rolls his eyes and my teeth grind together in annoyance. "I agreed to two weeks here, and you give me two weeks in London."

What is this man's obsession with London? Why the hell would I want to spend my honeymoon there when we literally go every other month?

I'm so over this rich boy bullshit.

"Fine. You can stand here all you like, but I'm going to walk."

"Emma." He scolds me like I'm some ridiculous child. "Just let me call the ranch and see if someone can come get us."

"You do that." I don't bother looking at him as I grab my suitcases and start down the dirt road.

He calls my name, telling me to get back there but I don't listen. Honestly, I'm starting to wish I bought the idea of a solo honeymoon. He does his thing, I do mine.

Sounds crazy for a couple who just got married, right?

Not for us, seeing how there's not one ounce of love in this marriage. Hell, half the time I can't even stand the man.

We are married in name only.

You would think being engaged to the man since birth, I'd eventually learn to love him, but love can't be forced. Sometimes, you can fall in love along the way but I don't see that happening with Greg.

I'm Emma Vanderbilt , heiress to the Vanderbilt fortune. My job is to smile and look pretty. I've been a pawn in my parent's life since the moment I was conceived.

While this might be my future, I still want to find any bits of enjoyment I can out of life. When I was looking up honeymoon locations, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do.

So when I stumbled upon the Wild Thorn Ranch website, I felt like it was a sign. And by the time I was done looking, I knew this was the place I wanted to go.

Squinting my eyes, I grin as I take in my surroundings. It's truly breathtaking. Mountains as tall as the eye can see. It's a refreshing change of scenery. Nothing like New York, that's for sure.

I'm halfway down the road when I start to regret my decision to walk. The hot sun beats down on me as I start to break into a sweat. My feet are already killing me. I'm starting to think these boots were more for fashion than authenticity.

Stopping, I close my eyes and take in a few deep breaths.

"Hey there little lady, are you alright?" Opening my eyes, I find a man on a horse. He's older, maybe in his fifties, but damn, he's fine. My lips part as I stare a little too long, getting a twitch of his lip in amusement.

"Ah, yeah, sorry." I laugh. "We got dropped off at the end of the road. Thought I could walk it myself. I think I might be wrong about that."

"We?" he asks, cocking his head to the side.

"Oh." I look behind me to the tiny little dot that is Greg. "My husband is back there with the rest of our bags."

"Well, shoot. Let me call my son down here to go get him."

"Thank you."

"Not a problem." He shoots me a wink. He pulls his phone out and calls someone. The whole time my eyes are on the stunning brown horse he's riding. I smile when I see the little white spot between its eyes resembling a heart.

A few minutes later, an UTV races down the road.

"My son, Carson, is heading down there to grab him. Why don't you leave your bags here, he can pick them up on the way. I'll give you a ride." He hops off the horse.

"Really?" My eyes light up.

"Names Bo, Bo Wilder."

"Nice to meet you, Bo." I take his outstretched hand. "Emma Vanderbilt."

His brows jump at the mention of my name. Does he know who my family is? Wouldn't surprise me, we're all over the news at this point. If it's not my father, it's one of my brothers with one of their many achievements making daddy dearest proud.

"Nice to meet you, Emma." He gives me a charming smile and I relax a little bit. He helps me up on the horse.

I've ridden horses before and was a part of a few riding clubs over the years but I've never taken it past lessons and casual rides. I wasn't interested in show riding, but the horses themselves.

Bo rides us to the main part of the ranch where a crowd of people are. "We like to hold a little fair of sorts on opening day every year for our first set of guests," he informs me.

"That's so cool. We'll have to check it out after we get settled in."

"Carson should be here in a moment, then he will get you checked into your cabin and all setup."

I thank Bo and not long after he takes off, the UTV shows up. Greg gets off, nearly face-planting. The man driving–who I'm assuming is Carson– gets off and tries to help Greg, but Greg is a dick and scowls like the man's hand is an insult.

Carson shrugs and takes the bags off the UTV and leaves them on the dirt before taking off.

Greg looks around for me and I get the urge to slip into the crowd. He's pissed and the last thing I want to do is deal with his grumpy ass. It almost always leads to a fight because, unlike most women, I don't put up with his shit.

I don't give a shit about who he is and how much he's worth. I might have to be married to this man, but I won't allow him to treat me like his property.

When he finds me, I let out a disappointed groan. He frowns and storms over to me. "There you are," he huffs in annoyance. "What the hell, Emma? You just left me there."

"You made it up here just fine."

"I'm covered in dirt. Could they not have sent a car down?"

"This is a ranch." I give him a look. "Why are you so surprised?"

"Whatever," he grumbles. "Is there a bathroom around here? I need to piss and I can't wait until that guy on the UTV is done checking us in."

"Carson."

"What?" he frowns.

"His name is Carson," I inform him. He just blinks at me like he couldn't care less. I sigh and look away. One of the things I hate about him is: that if you have no value to Greg, you're not worth him knowing your name.

"Hi." A bright, bubbly voice sounds next to us. A blonde girl in a cowboy hatsmiles at us. "I can show you the bathrooms."

"Thanks," Greg grumbles. "Watch the bags." I hate how it's a demand.

Rolling my eyes, I head over to our bags and wait. As I'm checking my purse, making sure I have everything, I hear a buzzing sound.

Brows furrowed, I grab my phone but it's not coming from mine. I find Greg's phone in the pocket of his bag and look down to see he's got a new text message. I'm about to put it back when another one comes through, then another. Then, it starts to ring.

The caller ID shows the name, Liam, and so did the text notifications. Liam is someone Greg works with. If it's work, then it's got to be important. I go to answer it to let Liam know Greg can call him right back, but when I put the phone to my ear, it's not a man's voice I hear.

"I thought you would never answer, darling." The husky female voice filters through the phone.

I blink, brows jumping. Darling?

"Who is this?" I ask. There's a pause before the line goes dead. I stare at the blank phone for a moment before I click on the Liam contact and go to the messages. Doesn't take me long to realize this isn't Liam from work at all. From the tit pics I'm seeing, it's a busty blonde woman.

My hand starts to shake in anger, my heart racing. I read the text messages and my stomach sinks. The things he says to her, what she says back, it's not something you fucking text a married man.

This fucker has been cheating on me! And as I scroll to the first message, I see it's been at least six months. Six months of meeting up, fucking behind my back.

By the time I'm done reading, I'm fucking fuming. How dare this fucking piece of shit cheat on me!

"He's still not here?" Greg's voice has my lip curling.

"Who's Liam?" I ask him, fisting his phone in my hand.

His brows furrow but his eyes widen and he knows he's been caught. "What?"

"Who the fuck is Liam, Greg?" I ask, raising my voice. "Last time I saw him, he sure as fuck wasn't some big tit blonde chick who's been fucking riding your little dick."

His eyes widen and snaps down to his phone in my grasp. "You went through my phone?" he asks as if he has the fucking right to be mad at me.

"Fuck you, Greg!" I shout and slap him across the face. "You fucking tell me you will ruin me if I ever cheat on you. If I ever made a fool of you!" I start swinging widely. "What about me? I will not let you make a fucking fool out of me!"

"You're fucking crazy!" He tries to grab me, but I step back, take off my boot, and throw it at him. He ducks, eyes flaring with anger. "Emma. That's enough." Oh, no no. He did not just command me like a fucking dog. I step forward, hobbling with one boot on, and go for another swing but the asshole pushes me. I stumble back and trip on the boot I threw at him.

Scrambling to get to my feet, I dust myself off and snarl. I'm beyond pissed at this point. It's in the fucking contract that even if we don't fuck each other, we're not allowed to cheat. Cheating leads to scandals and scandals lead to tarnishing the Vanderbilt name.Something my father refuses to allow.

I'm going to kill this tiny dick prick!

Like an angry bull, I charge at him, finally snapping. I've pushed everything down. I smiled, nodded, and did what my parents asked of me. I married this asshole like they wanted. All I've gotten out of it is a miserable man who looks at me like I'm an inconvenience.

He cheated on me. This is my out according to the contract. And I'm fucking taking it.

I'm about to tackle his ass when strong arms wrap around me.

"Whoa there, Tiger." A deep husky voice sounds in my ear. "Put those claws away before someone gets hurt."

That's the fucking point!