When Honey Got Married

  No surprises when the older man ushered Alex into the library and offered him a drink. The library was a large room lined floor-to-ceiling with leather-bound books sitting pretty in wooden bookshelves. Theodore probably meant for the setting to intimidate people, but the fact was, Alex had vroom-vroomed toy cars all around a room very similar to this one. He’d played caves under his father’s glossy walnut desk, and he and his sister had taken the thousand-year-old tapestries off the wall once and strung them between the backs of leather armchairs to make more caves. He could still remember his mother’s loud and lengthy objection to the cave game. This library didn’t intimidate him.

  And neither did Teddy Moreau.

  Alex had waited almost two years for an opportunity to get Nina on her own, away from the dance and the bright lights of the circus, and it was working. Nina was finally seeing him, leaning on him, touching him…maybe even falling for him.

  She had to know how long he’d been in love with her. Didn’t she?

  Everyone else at the circus teased him about it mercilessly.

  Damn right Judge Teddy Moreau didn’t intimidate him. The only Moreau with the power to crush him with a word was Nina.

  The whiskey the older man poured for him ran sweeter than the whiskey at home, but it still lit a fire in his throat on the way down, and that was fine by Alex too.

  Nina’s father offered him a seat by a hearth filled with flowers. Not a large man, Theodore Moreau, but whipcord lean and economical of movement, and presumably economical with words, for he’d offered very few of them to Alex. Nina had his eyes.

  “The flowers aren’t usually in here,” Theodore said finally. “Weddings.”

  The judge sounded heartily sick of weddings. Or maybe it was just this wedding. Alex wasn’t about to comment, just made himself comfortable in the low-backed leather chair. He was two days short of a shave and not exactly dressed to meet the father of the woman he had every intention of making his own. He had on his roomiest jeans, mainly because he could no longer look at Nina without getting hard. A ratty white T-shirt. The jacket Nina liked.

  He had other clothes, more suitable clothes. He just didn’t have them on.

  “So, Lex—

  “Alex,” he interrupted smoothly. “Alexander if we’re being formal. My mother prefers it.”

  “I see.” They were sparring and the canny old judge knew it. “Family name, is it?”

  “Distant.” His mother had named him after a king.

  “Your family is based in the UK?”

  “Derbyshire.”

  “And you met Nina where?”

  “I run the finance and marketing side of the Night Circus corporation. Have done so, for the past two years.”

  The judge didn’t sneer, just reached for his whiskey and drank deeply.

  Alex lifted his glass to his lips and drank too, and then lowered his arm along the arm of the chair, dangling the finely cut crystal from careless fingers, every bone in his body insolent.

  Too damn pretty for your own good, his older sister had delighted in telling him. People let you get away with murder.

  He didn’t think the judge felt like letting him get away with anything. “Have you ever been?” Alex asked.

  “To Derbyshire? Yes. I have acquaintances there.”

  “To the Night Circus.”

  “No,” the judge said.

  “Shame. Mesmerizing, the Washington Post called one of your daughter’s routines. Stunning. Incandescent. She’s fearless. And gifted. A performer at the peak of her career.”

  “Tell me, Alexander.” The judge smiled cordially. “Are your intentions toward my daughter in any way honorable? Or do you just like sleeping with a pole dancer?”

  “Let me know when you’re next in Orlando.” Alex made sure every word dripped with disdain for this man’s willful misinterpretation of his daughter’s art. “I’ll send you some tickets to the show. And, yes, my intentions are honorable. If Nina had a father who showed the slightest interest in her welfare I’d ask his permission for her hand in marriage. Given your current relationship with your daughter, I doubt I need to afford you the courtesy. Your call.”

  Teddy Moreau hated him.

  For shoving his shortcomings as a father in his face. For forcing him to tolerate insolence from a jumped-up circus clown who wanted his daughter’s heart.

  The same clown who was about to ask Nina to walk away from the lights and the applause just so he could have her at his side.

  Alex didn’t know which of them was the bigger fool.

  He knew what happened to loved ones who came between Nina and the dance.

  He and the judge…they both knew.

  Movement in his peripheral vision made Alex look past the judge to the doorway beyond. Nina stood there, her expression unreadable. How much had she heard?

  Alex stood abruptly. The judge craned his neck around the chair and then slowly stood up too. He wasn’t a young man, by any means. Teddy Moreau had had his daughters late.

  “Nina,” the older man said, with a hitch in his voice that might have been longing.

  “Mother wanted me to make sure that you’d shown Alex his room.”

  “Not yet.”

  “I could show him now,” Nina offered, but her father didn’t seem inclined to reply.

  “How’s your sister?” Alex asked.

  “Nervous.” Nina stayed in the doorway. “She’s worried that Brent doesn’t love her. That everyone welcomed this union so eagerly he’d have found it impossible to pull out, even if he wanted to.”

  “The boy loves her, Nina,” the judge said wearily. “Honey needs to trust Brent more and test him less.”

  “Glad to see your empathy’s still a wonder to behold.”

  The judge said nothing in reply, but a muscle in his jaw worked and Alex almost felt sorry for the man. Nervous brides were hard work. And Nina was giving her father no quarter at all.

  “Would you care for a drink?” Nina’s father asked her and suddenly Nina looked uncertain and far too vulnerable for Alex’s liking.

  “No, I—thank you, but I have one upstairs and I—no. I really should be getting back to Honey. I just wanted to make sure Alex got settled.”

  “I’ll come up with you now.” Alex set his glass gently on the table. And then maybe Nina might settle. “Thanks for the whiskey, Judge.”

  “Son.”

  Not the judge’s son, but still his father’s son, and Alex could almost hear his father in his ear telling him that he’d pushed the judge quite far enough for one night. Alex nodded and headed for Nina, taking her hand on the way out and exhaling his relief when she held on tight and didn’t let go.

  Chapter Six

  “How much did you hear?” Alex asked her when he figured they were out of Theodore Moreau’s earshot.

  “I heard silence,” she murmured, with a questioning glance in his direction. “Miles of it. Guess you didn’t have much in common.”

  Alex stopped her and took her lips so he didn’t have to answer. He let himself linger and sank into her warmth because the thought of walking away from her in a couple of weeks’ time made him feel cold. He didn’t know how long they kissed. Mouth against mouth, drinking deeply or barely touching, they kissed, that was all, and Alex never wanted it to end.

  “So you found him.”

  The voice came from far away, the far end of the corridor, and Alex stilled and broke the kiss and turned his head to look at Olivia Moreau.

  “Yes,” Nina murmured and pressed her cheek to his shoulder. “I found him.”

  “Perhaps you might both get up the stairs faster, Nina, if you let him go,” Olivia Moreau offered.

  “Maybe.” Nina pulled away reluctantly and Alex offered her a wry smile. So much for stealing kisses here.

  “Alexander, has Nina told you of tomorrow’s breakfast and morning plans yet?” Nina’s mother continued smoothly. “Breakfast on the back lawn at nine? A round of golf for the gentlemen later in the
morning? I’m sure we can round up some suitable golfing clothes for you.”

  “Mrs. Moreau—”

  “Olivia.”

  “Olivia, thank you for the inclusion but I don’t need entertaining. I’ve already made plans to explore Bellefleur tomorrow morning. I’ll leave early, find a room in town and get ready from there, and then meet you all at the plantation house. I’m looking forward to it.”

  Get out of the way of the wedding preparations. A man didn’t have to be smart to figure that for the best plan of action by far.

  “Another time, then.”

  Olivia Moreau seemed determined to make him feel welcome no matter who he was. Alex liked that about her. He saw no disapproval in her. He wondered if she’d managed to welcome her daughter home yet. “Nina will have to bring you again.”

  “Another time,” he said agreeably, and followed the Nina and her mother back to the foyer where he picked up his overnight bag, and Nina’s too, and followed them up the stairs.

  They dropped Nina’s belongings in Honey’s room. Olivia peeled off to stay with Honey, leaving Nina to show him where he was to sleep. It wasn’t much farther along the corridor before Nina stopped in front of another door and hesitated.

  “Memories,” she said quietly. “Pesky things.”

  And then she squared her shoulders, opened the door, and stepped inside.

  It wasn’t a child’s room. The bed was a queen-size one, the bedspread a neutral blend of blues, white, and gray. There were pillows for ten. Fresh flowers on the mantelpiece. Alex wondered what had changed about the room over the past seven years, but Nina wasn’t saying.

  An old teddy bear sat propped on the bedside table, beneath the lamp. Nina picked it up and smoothed her fingers over the bear’s battered ear.

  “What’s his name?”

  “Big Bear. Because he was.”

  Alex grinned.

  “Not one word,” Nina said warningly.

  No, it was definitely going to take more than that. He dropped his bag on the floor beside the bed. He reached for the beautifully bound book placed carefully on the end of the bed and fingered it open, figuring it for a guest book, but it wasn’t a guest book. Instead, it contained newspaper clippings. He turned another page and found reviews. Brochures. Night Circus programs. Praise for Nina Moreau. “Seen this?” He moved out of her way and let her look. Let aerial silk artist Nina Moreau turn the pages for herself.

  Not exactly what he’d expected to find in the home of the parents who’d disowned her.

  Not what Nina expected to find either. She closed the book with a snap, put her palms to her cheeks, and then ran one hand around the back of her neck as if it ached. “Honey probably collected them.”

  Maybe. And maybe this family had missed Nina more than she knew. “Your mother given you a hug yet?”

  Nina shook her head and tried to laugh off her distress. “No.”

  “Ever thought about dropping the inherited reserve and laying one on her?”

  “Why? You think it’d work?”

  “You do give good hug,” he said, and then Nina was in his arms, seeking comfort.

  “I know I should be happier to be home,” she whispered against his chest. “I know I should feel happy that someone collected these clippings, but I don’t. I just feel sad. I followed the dance; that was all. I never wanted to leave behind the people I loved. There was always room for them too, if they could just be proud of me instead of disappointed. And now you’re leaving and all of a sudden I feel like the one who’s being left behind. The one who doesn’t know what’s going on.” Nina buried her head in his shoulder. “The one who doesn’t know how to give you what you need.”

  Nina pushed back and her gaze clashed with his. She looked a little bit scared and a whole lot determined. He’d seen that look before.

  “So here’s the thing. I need to know what you want from me, Alex. You need to tell me straight. And I’ll see if I have it in me to give.”

  “Nina, you don’t want to do this now.” Alex didn’t want to do this now either. “You have enough to worry about this weekend.” And she wasn’t going to like what he had to offer.

  “Try me,” she offered quietly and damn near broke his heart. He’d waited so long for this. For Nina to look at him and see him in color.

  “You’re not ready to hear what I have to say.”

  “Try me,” she said again, and so he gathered his courage around him like a cloak and told her plain.

  “I want you in Derbyshire with me. There’d be no Night Circus family nearby. The nearest would be London.”

  “What else do you want?”

  “My social obligations back home are complex. It’s going to take me a while to get up to speed on what my father requires of me and what I’m likely to require from you. There’d be politics. Maneuvering. Powerful people wanting all sorts of deals made, and you’d need to be aware of every last one of them. I don’t know how much time there would be for the dance, even if you could continue with it in some way.”

  “You need a Honey.”

  “Yes.” That was exactly what he needed. Though, possibly without the tears. “Could you do it? Would you want to do it?”

  “Wouldn’t my background as a circus performer work against me? Work against you?”

  “Sometimes, maybe. And sometimes not. Your being an American, on the other hand…you may have to give them some time to get used to that.”

  Nina thumped him and Alex laughed, he couldn’t help it. But then Nina’s expression grew solemn and more than a little worried.

  “You need a British Honey,” she murmured. “Your family’s not going to want a Nina. My family doesn’t want a Nina.”

  “Hey.” He tipped her chin up and bussed her lips with his. “Not true. Give them a chance. I think they’ll surprise you.”

  “Your family or mine?”

  “Both. I’ve already told my sisters about you, which means my mother knows too and so does my father. No one’s going to be surprised about my decision to take you for a wife.”

  “To take me for a what?”

  Oh, this was going swimmingly.

  “C’mon, Nina. Of course I want to marry you. You really think I’d ask so much of you and not offer you the protection of my name in return?”

  Nina stared at him incredulously. Alex didn’t think he’d grown another head, but he could be wrong.

  “What?” he asked warily.

  “Damn it, Alex, don’t you know anything about how to deliver a proposal?”

  “It’s my first.”

  “It needs work.”

  “I know the timing’s bad.”

  “And that’s just the beginning.”

  “But my love is true,” he continued doggedly. “Marry me, Nina. Be my wife. I’m very sure of my feelings for you.”

  “We’ve been intimate for one night!”

  “It was a good night.”

  “You do know I’m going to smack you soon, right?”

  “And we’ve been friends for two years,” he added hastily. “I know you. And you know me. And ladies don’t smack.”

  “You are so lucky I don’t bite,” she said, eyeing his lower lip speculatively. Alex instinctively wet it with his tongue and watched with satisfaction as Nina’s eyes darkened.

  “Marry me, Nina.”

  “You’re pressing your advantage.”

  “Absolutely. Though I am aware that you probably need more time to think it over. This is new for you, coming out of the blue like this. It’s a big decision; don’t think I don’t know that. And I did suggest that we didn’t have to do this now. I was going to wait a while. Let you get used to the idea of you and me first, before I mentioned marriage.”

  “But ultimately that’s what you want?”

  “It is.”

  “Marriage to me.”

  “Yes.” Alex leaned in to steal a kiss, just the brush of his lips against hers, light and fleeting, only she opened beneath him so sw
eetly and how was he supposed to resist taking just that little bit more?

  It was enough to make a man groan.

  “I love it when you groan just for me,” Nina whispered, and pressed one last kiss to the corner of his mouth, because if she kissed him the way she wanted to, they were going to wind up in this bed and then her mother would come looking for her again and that would be bad. “I have to get back to Honey’s room. They’re waiting for me.”

  “I know. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Alex, this decision you want me to make. Tomorrow’s going to be—”

  “Busy,” he finished for her. “I know that too. No rush.”

  “You’re a good man, Alexander Carradice.”

  “Tolerant,” he murmured. “Loyal. Plenty of heart. Good lover, too. And there’s more.”

  “Steak knives?”

  “And a cheese grater,” he told her with a charmingly crooked smile. “Think about it.”

  Nina headed for the door. “Oh, you can definitely count on that.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Everything okay?” Honey wanted to know when Nina returned to Honey’s room.

  “Yes. Where’s Mom?”

  “Getting some snacks. You and I are having a girl’s own slumber party. There could be pillow fights.”

  “Uh-huh.” Nina was having a little bit of trouble dragging her thoughts away from Alex. The same Alex who’d just asked her to marry him, and hell if he’d been prepared for it because he’d had no ring on him, but he’d certainly been determined. He’d been charmingly persuasive too. Marriage. Nina swallowed hard. Marriage to Alexander Carradice, he of the laughing eyes and unquenchable zest for life. “Where were we?”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m in full-blown getting-married-tomorrow panic,” Honey offered helpfully.

  “Right,” Nina said brightly. “Right. I remember now. Nerves. Absolutely normal.”

  Honey rolled her eyes. “How long have you and Alex been together?”

  “One night.”

  Honey gaped and Nina grinned and opened her carryall in search of her sleepwear.

  “One night?” Honey repeated as Nina pulled out cotton boy-leg stretch shorts and a camisole with a cartoon coyote on it. Honey wore a butter-yellow baby-doll nightie and matching bikini briefs. Honey’s sleepwear was better.