ASHFORD (Gray Wolf Security #5)

by Glenna Sinclair

  There was a decent crowd at our little, impromptu wedding. I recognized Joan Tarek sitting just to Miles’ left. And a few of the other people I’d seen in the office—architects, secretaries, and others whose roles with his company I didn’t yet know. My aunts had invited their bridge buddies and the ladies from their book club. There was the guy who brought their groceries twice a week and their doctor—a kindly man who was so patient with them that he probably deserved some sort of medal. And Lisa’s brothers sitting with their significant others—those who had them—and their parents.

  There were a few others I didn’t recognize, including the dark-haired woman Miles was staring at. I could only see the back of her head and the curve of her jaw. I couldn’t imagine who she was or why she was here. But Miles seemed unsettled by her presence.

  The music changed as Lisa arrived at the altar, and Colin took her arm to lead her into position. It was my turn. I had considered having my aunts walk me down the aisle. But I didn’t want to waste that sentiment on this. So I decided to walk alone. And, in this moment, I was regretting it.

  My knees were shaking, and my feet didn’t seem to know how to take a step. I bit my bottom lip, and then remembered the lipstick Lisa told me to be aware of, not to eat it off. Heads were turning in my direction, and I just felt that much more rooted to the spot. I was panicking, even as I willed myself to move. Little titters rose in the air around me as Lisa’s brothers began to laugh behind their hands. My heart was pounding, and I simply couldn’t move.

  And then Miles was there, his hands gentle as he touched my upper arms.

  “You okay?”

  I couldn’t even shake my head. I was so lost in my panic that I it was like I was paralyzed. He ran his hands slowly up and down my arms, the heat of his touch bringing back some sense of feeling. His eyes never left mine as he said quietly, “One step at a time, okay? Just follow me.”

  He began to walk backward and, by some miracle, my body remembered what to do. I followed him as he walked backward, his hand slowly slipping down to mine, his fingers intertwining with mine. He stepped back and turned, walking beside me as we approached the altar. My heart began to pound again, beating so quickly that I couldn’t hear anything for the roar it created in my ears. But then Miles leaned close and whispered, “It’s almost over.”

  I held on to that thought as the priest began the ceremony.

  ***

  “Can you believe you’re really married?”

  No. That’s what I wanted to say. I couldn’t believe it. The whole thing was so bizarre. I couldn’t even remember the ceremony. All my mind could focus on was the feel of Miles’ hand in mine, the feel of his sweat that proved he was just as nervous as I was. But I couldn’t remember the words, couldn’t remember repeating them to Father Brian. Couldn’t remember anything about it until we were walking down the aisle again, his hand on the small of my back.

  Well, that wasn’t exactly true. I remembered the kiss.

  I remembered how soft his lips were. I remember thinking they shouldn’t be that soft. And then I remembered all thought disappearing, as he drew me closer to him and the tip of his tongue brushed against my lips. I remembered the way my body responded to him, the way my belly fluttered and my heart skipped a beat. I remembered that I wanted it to go on forever, and when he pulled away it was like he’d taken away a gift he never should have offered in the first place. And I remembered the little spark of surprise in his eyes, as he looked at me in the seconds after that kiss.

  I touched my lips now, the memory almost overwhelming for a second.

  “You okay?” Lisa asked.

  “Yeah. I’m good.”

  “Did you pack a bikini? I mean, I don’t suppose you’ll need many clothes on this little honeymoon, but it never hurts to pack a few essentials.”

  “I have a bathing suit.”

  “Tell me you didn’t pack that old, black one-piece that you wear every summer?” Lisa groaned without waiting for an answer because she knew me too well to expect a denial. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

  “Get what?”

  “This whole seduction game. Just because you got the guy, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep working at it. You have to make the man happy he chose you.”

  “I think Miles understands better than I do why he chose me.”

  Lisa didn’t seem to hear me. She was too busy rooting around in her backpack. A second later she mumbled something I couldn’t hear and came back over, a small bag in her hands.

  “Here,” she said, shoving it at me.

  “What is this?”

  “A wedding gift. Don’t open it until you get to the hotel, okay?”

  “Lisa…”

  “Go on, now,” she said, pushing me toward the door. “Your husband is waiting downstairs.”

  I grabbed my overnight bag, nearly tripping over my own feet as she gave me another shove. I’d changed into a white pant suit that my aunts insisted was the proper attire for a honeymoon trip. The ceremony had only ended an hour ago, but Miles was in a hurry to get to Florida. Lisa followed me down the stairs, her back growing a little stiffer, her posture a little straighter, when she saw Miles talking to Colin at the bottom of the stairs. The dark-haired woman was there, too, her face still turned away from me. She hadn’t come to congratulate Miles and me after the ceremony like everyone else, choosing to remain in her seat as everyone else milled around, enjoying the refreshments my aunts had worked all night putting together. But she was here now, and Miles seemed to be deep in conversation with her.

  Colin spotted us and touched Miles’ shoulder. He turned, his eyes unreadable as he watched me come toward him.

  He seemed as frozen as I had been earlier. Colin moved around him and slid the bag from my shoulder, smiling politely as he said, “Let me take that.”

  “Thank you.”

  Lisa moved up beside him. “Such a gentleman,” I heard her say as the two of them moved off, stepping deeper into the entry hall.

  But my eyes were glued to Miles. There was something about the way he was watching me that felt different. Like something had changed between us that he didn’t bother to explain to me. Maybe it was just the stress of the day. Or maybe I was seeing things where they didn’t exist. But he seemed more aware of me than he had been before.

  He continued to stare at me even after I stepped onto the laminated floor of the entry hall. I smiled softly, not sure what else to do. And then the dark-haired woman moved around him and I suddenly realized who she was.

  “We haven’t had a chance to meet,” she said with a smile of her own. “I’m Lila Gardner, Miles’—”

  “Sister.” At the slight frown that word produced, I said, “I recognize you from pictures.”

  Her eyebrows went up. “Didn’t realize you were that sentimental, brother,” she said, pushing her shoulder into his side.

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, darling,” Miles said, as he slid his arm around her shoulders.

  “I didn’t realize you were going to be here,” I said.

  Lila looked up at Miles. “If it was up to my brother, I wouldn’t be. He didn’t bother to tell anyone about his nuptials. I actually found out from the internet. A well-timed call to Joan, and I was able to get here in time.”

  “I’m glad you did. I told Miles we shouldn’t do this without his family.”

  Miles’ eyes narrowed slightly. “And I told you we could do a bigger ceremony for them later. I just wanted to get married.”

  I pressed my hand to his chest and moved closer to him. “Well, so did I.”

  He hesitated just slightly, but then he slid his free arm around me, tugging me closer to him. And then he pressed a kiss to the top of my head, the movement almost natural, like we’d actually shared little gestures of affection before.

  Lila watched us, a touch of weariness in her gaze, but then she pulled back and smiled a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “Well, I
understand you have a plane to catch, so don’t let me get in your way.”

  “I’m glad you came,” Miles said, moving around me to give her a hug.

  Lila pressed her face to his shoulder for a long second. “I just wanted to make sure you were really okay. I know—”

  “We’ll talk about all that later.”

  Tension burned between them for reasons I couldn’t even begin to understand. And then she nodded, rising up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to the end of his nose.

  “Call me when you get back to town.”

  “Of course.”

  She turned to me and took my hand, drawing me close to her.

  “Take care of him. He doesn’t always do it himself.”

  I nodded. “I will.”

  She glanced at Miles again, worry clear in every fine line of her face. But she didn’t say anything else and didn’t touch him again. She walked away, joining Lisa, Colin, and the others on the front steps of my aunts’ house.

  It was time to go.

  Miles didn’t even look at me as he took my hand and led the way to the car.

  Chapter 6

  I didn’t know what to expect on my wedding night. I knew that it wouldn’t be traditional, but I didn’t expect to spend it with a surly man who wouldn’t even acknowledge my presence. The moment we were alone, he shut down. It was as if I’d played the role he’d asked me to play, but now he was done. He was silent on the flight, silent on the car ride to the hotel, and silent as we rode up the elevator to our suite with the bellboy. The moment we were alone, he went to the bar and pored himself a hefty glass of whiskey. I stood there and watched him for a minute, not sure what I was supposed to do.

  “You want a drink?” he asked.

  I shook my head, but his back was to me so he couldn’t see it. He turned, his eyes almost cruel, as they found me standing there, still dressed in white, clutching the handle of my clutch.

  “You should probably go.” His voice was low, very controlled. “I plan on getting very drunk, and you probably don’t want to be around for that.”

  “Where would you like me to go?”

  He shook his head as he turned back to the bar, pouring more whiskey into his glass. “Fuck if I care.”

  And that’s how my wedding night went. I ended up locking myself in the bedroom and crying myself to sleep. When I woke the next morning, he was gone. He showed up for dinner, and then he was gone again. He never bothered to tell me where he was going or when he would be back. The first day I spent waiting for him to return. After that, I figured I was in Florida and I wasn’t going to sit in a hotel room the whole time. I’d never traveled further than Dallas my entire life—except, of course, the first five years of my life that were spent in Houston—so I was determined to enjoy this experience. I went for a walk on the beach, visiting some of the tourist shops in town. I even took a snorkeling class at the pool. Miles didn’t even ask me how I’d spent my time.

  We flew back to Waco after five days. And that’s when I got to see his house for the first time.

  I wanted to hate his house. I wanted to find it ostentatious and pompous, just like him. I wanted it to be something I would find it easy to walk away from in a few months when he decided he was done with me.

  But I couldn’t.

  It was beautiful. It was a Georgian-style house with gorgeous, gray bricks and whitewashed pillars. It wasn’t huge, not a mansion by any stretch of the imagination. Cozy seemed like a more fitting description despite the fact that it had five bedrooms on the second floor and a rambling floor plan on the first. As we turned the corner of the long drive and the house came into view, I found myself imagining how I would decorate a house like that, how I would change the landscape, and what I could do with the many rooms that looked out on the driveway through huge picture windows. I fell in love with it at first sight despite my determination not to.

  “I’ll be late tonight,” Miles said, as he dragged our luggage out of the trunk. “I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on when I get to the office.”

  “Okay.”

  “There’s a car in the garage you can use if you have somewhere to be. Otherwise, you should probably stick close to the house. I’ll get you a cellphone in a few days so I can get ahold of you when I need you. Until then, there’s the house phone.”

  “I have a cellphone.”

  “Yes, well, I’d rather get you a better one. A more reliable one.”

  My cellphone was a little old, but it felt like an insult when he said it like that.

  He walked to the front door without looking to see if I was following. I did follow, curious to see the inside of this building I had already fallen in love with. I wasn’t disappointed. The marble and woodwork in the entryway alone was breathtaking. The French doors in the sitting room, the high ceilings, and the little details in the woodwork on the door frames were all incredible. I wanted to walk through each room and do it again, just absorb every little detail about the place.

  “Your room is at the top of the stairs, the second door on the right.”

  I nodded, not really listening to him. I ran my fingers over the glass doorknob that opened one set of French doors as I stared out at the terraced garden behind them. It was pretty obvious that the garden was a work in progress, but it already sported rose bushes that were overflowing with late spring blooms. My aunts would have a wonderful time here, planning what and where to put new plants. I was actually thinking of inviting them over when I realized what a mistake that would be.

  I couldn’t let them close. I couldn’t let them see the cracks in the façade Miles wanted us to put out there into the world. My aunts would see through it eventually. And I didn’t want them to know the truth.

  It was like a cold slap that brought me back to reality.

  “I’m leaving,” Miles said.

  I just nodded without bothering to turn around.

  And that’s how things went between us for the next few months. I stayed at the house, alone, and waited for Miles to need me. When I had a job, I thought it would be fantastic to stay home all day and watch television, but now, I would have given anything to have a job, or an excuse to get out of the house.

  We went to dinner with a few of Miles’ clients, attended a some parties, and even drove to Dallas for a big gala at one of the museums there. And it as fun, I guess. Most of the people stared at me and asked stupid questions without actually appearing to address me. Miles was always kind and gentle in front of other people, but the moment we were alone he mostly ignored me. If I’d known it would be like that…I don’t know. Maybe I would have done it anyway. Or maybe not.

  I was curled up on the couch one afternoon when Miles came slamming into the house. I mean, literally, slamming. The front door closed with such a clatter that I could feel the house reverberating under me. I sat up and watched him toss his suit jacket over the back of a chair and head for the bar.

  “Bad day?” I asked, even though it was only three o’clock. Miles rarely came home earlier than seven on a normal business day.

  He didn’t answer. Big surprise. I was so used to him ignoring my questions that I settled back on the couch. I was two more paragraphs in to my novel when he said, “Go pack. We’re leaving in an hour.”

  “Pack? For what?”

  He didn’t answer at first. He swallowed whatever it was he was drinking. I guessed that it was whiskey—that seemed to be his favorite drink—but I wasn’t sure. Then he turned and focused on me for the first time in weeks.

  “I’ve been summoned to my father’s house, so I need you to go pack. Make sure you have a couple of cocktail dresses. Mother and father like to dress for dinner.”

  That wasn’t a problem. Joan took me shopping a couple of days after we returned from Florida. She said a proper lady needed a proper wardrobe and she couldn’t imagine that covered my particular wardrobe. It was hard not to be offended by the words that often fell from Joan’s lips, but it was also hard to take offense
because I didn’t even realize I was being insulted half the time until I’d had a few minutes to think about it.

  I dropped my book on the couch and headed out of the room.

  “Riley?” Miles called after me.

  I turned around and looked at him.

  “It’s very important that everyone we meet at my parents’ house believe that this marriage is real. I realize I haven’t been very forthcoming with you these last weeks, but, please…”

  “I’ll be on my best behavior.”

  There was tension in everything about him, from the way his shoulders were set, to the way his jaw hardened as he watched me.

  “If we can pull this off, it will be the last thing I ask of you.”

  “Okay.”

  It was a different experience packing for this trip than it had been for our honeymoon. I had monogrammed luggage now and beautiful clothes that required careful arrangement. I packed more than one pair of shoes and makeup—I actually wore makeup now. Joan took me to a spa where they taught me how to accentuate my better qualities and hide my lesser ones. I still didn’t wear makeup often, just when Miles took me out, but it was nice to know I could do it without looking like a clown now.

  I changed from the shorts I’d been wearing into a soft linen dress that made my curves look desirable. At least, I thought they did. Miles never seemed to notice. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and fixed my face, tossing everything into the travel bag Joan also insisted I have. Packed, I opened the door to find Miles pacing in the hallway.

  This visit clearly had him tied up in knots for reasons I couldn’t even begin to guess. In fact, I’d stopped trying to figure out my husband. He was an enigma that it wasn’t mine to figure out.

  We drove to the airport in silence. I turned on the radio when I couldn’t stand it anymore. There was a local station that played some Sinatra, so I switched it to that and was instantly rewarded with “That’s Life”. I hummed under my breath, thinking of aunts with a wisp of nostalgia.