‘And the engagement is off?’ Josie was obviously having trouble keeping up with events, but then so was Kate.
Kate shrugged now, more confused and hurt than she cared to admit. ‘He didn’t say. He just left.’
Josie gave her an encouraging smile. ‘He’ll be back. He can’t have changed his mind about marrying you so soon after asking you. Being engaged is always a difficult time, it’s a great strain on both people involved.’
‘But not half an hour after you become engaged! Oh, I don’t know why I let him get under my skin all the time. We’ve always argued. It was silly to think that my agreeing to marry him would change that.’
‘He’ll be back,’ Josie said with certainty. ‘You’ll see.’
Kate wished she could feel so confident. She showered and changed in case Damien did still come back, but he still hadn’t returned by the time Josie went out with Paul in the afternoon. When a visitor finally did turn up it wasn’t Damien.
‘James!’ she couldn’t hide her disappointment.
‘Charming,’ he grimaced. ‘Thank goodness not everyone reacts the same way when they see me. What have I done?’
‘Nothing. I just thought— Oh, never mind. Come in,’
she opened the door further, leading the way to the lounge. ‘Why are you in London today?’
‘To see Damien.’
‘Damien?’ she repeated sharply.
‘Yes—Damien.’ James looked at her closely. ‘He called us all together for a meeting this morning.’
‘You’ve seen him today?’
He sighed impatiently. ‘I’ve just said so. What’s the matter with you this afternoon, Kate? And who did you hope I was when I arrived?’
He was altogether too perceptive! ‘No one in particular,’ she lied.
‘Mm, I’ll let that one pass for the moment. I have something much more interesting to tell you. Damien dropped a bombshell on us all this morning. Just as an afterthought to the meeting he invited us all to his wedding.’
Kate felt her heart leap. ‘He did?’ Excitement entered her voice.
‘Yes. It was a great shock, I can tell you.’
‘Did he—did he say who he was marrying?’ She didn’t think he could have done, not from James’ attitude. But he had told everyone working on the film that he was getting married since he had left her earlier, which meant he still intended to go through with it. Thank God for that! She had thought her ultimatum had made him change his mind, but it couldn’t have done.
‘No,’ James confirmed her suspicions. ‘And I think most of us were too surprised to ask him. Who do you think it could be? I didn’t know he’d been seeing anyone in particular, in fact it seemed to be the opposite. He hasn’t been seen at any of the parties, hasn’t shown an interest in anyone that I can think of. Except you, of course, but—’ He looked at her sharply, her flushed face giving her away. ‘Kate!’ he said angrily. ‘Not you? You aren’t marrying Damien Savage?’
‘I am,’ she told him quietly.
‘But you can’t be! Last night you were at the house together and you never gave the impression that you were in love.’
‘He asked me this morning.’
‘This morning? But—’
‘And I accepted. I love him, James.’
‘Then why don’t you look happy about it?’ He stood up to prowl the room. ‘You don’t look like a newly engaged girl. I remember that Sheri glowed when I asked her to marry me.’
‘She probably felt more sure of you than I do of Damien. We’ve had one argument already. And it’s all your fault.’
‘My fault?’ He stopped his pacing. ‘What did I do?’
‘You started this myth about the two of us, made it look like the romance of the century when I lived with you. Damien has completely the wrong impression about all that, and when I said I wanted you to give me away he flatly refused to even consider it.’
‘Do you want me to tell him about us?’
She shook her head. Damien thought her to be an experienced woman of the world, he might not want her if he knew she was untouched. After all, he liked his women to know what they were doing, how to please him as they were being pleasured. ‘I don’t think now is the right time for that. I’ll tell him when I’m more sure he’ll understand. At the moment it may just make things worse than they are.’
‘How can it do that? It’s only the truth.’
‘Damien may think I tried to make a fool of him.’ She knew how his mind twisted things at the moment. ‘When we’re truly man and wife and I’m more sure of how to tell him will be time enough for that, I think. At the moment the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages.’ Damien might not marry her at all if he knew the truth!
‘I can’t pretend to approve of your marrying him.’ James frowned. ‘You know my opinion of the man. And I don’t think he has it in him to be faithful to any woman. He’s a rake, Kate—you must realise that.’
She gave a teasing smile. ‘Sheri assures me that reformed rakes make the best husbands.’
Dark colour flooded his cheeks. ‘I was never as bad as Damien, never.’
‘Maybe not,’ she agreed. ‘Oh, please, James, wish me luck. I think I may need it.’
He looked at her pleadingly. ‘Please change your mind about marrying him. I just can’t let you ruin your life like this.’
‘I love him, James.’
‘So I might as well get used to the idea, hmm?’
‘Something like that,’ she nodded.
‘I can’t let you—’ he broke off as the doorbell rang.
Kate stood up, looking at him as if for understanding. ‘That will probably be Damien now. You won’t start an argument with him?’
‘It’s usually the other way round,’ he told her dryly.
‘Yes, but— Oh, damn the man!’ she swore as the doorbell rang again. ‘I’d better let him in before he breaks the door down. Please be nice, James.’
‘I’ll try.’
Kate hurried to open the door, stepping back as Damien walked in uninvited. ‘Are you ready to go out?’ he asked abruptly.
Well, she had been, but she wasn’t now, not with James in the other room. ‘I have a visitor,’ she told him.
‘Really? And who might that be—as if I need ask?’
She almost had to run to keep up with him as he strode into the lounge. His anger at seeing James could be clearly seen, his green eyes narrowing with dislike. His stance was one of challenge and Kate saw all chance of this being a peaceful meeting vanish out of the window. James wasn’t the sort of man to sit back meekly while another man treated him so contemptuously.
‘You didn’t waste much time, St Just,’ Damien rasped curtly. ‘How could you be so sure it was Kate I intended marrying?’ He looked at her now and she felt herself step back from the distaste in his face. ‘Unless of course my loving fiancée called you and told you.’
She shook her head. ‘I didn’t do that, Damien. James—’
Her brother stood up, feeling at a distinct disadvantage to the other man sitting in the low armchair. ‘Kate has just this moment informed me that she is to be your bride,’ he answered just as chillingly as Damien. ‘And I can’t say I approve,’ he added infuriatingly.
‘Oh, James!’ Kate’s eyes pleaded with him. ‘You promised.’
‘Just what did you promise my future wife?’ Damien demanded, dangerously soft.
James wasn’t intimidated by this man’s arrogance. ‘I didn’t promise her anything, I said I would try. But I’m finding it increasingly difficult to even be civil to you, let alone avoid an argument with you. You’re just downright arrogant, and if Kate has any sense at all she’ll tell you she’s changed her mind about marrying you. I may have to put up with you, I work with you, but Kate has the choice.’
Damien looked down at her, his mouth a thin angry line. ‘Kate?’
She knew that James was trying to persuade her to change her mind, but she couldn’t do that, not when she loved Dami
en so much. She put her hand through the crook of Damien’s arm, looking at her brother as if for understanding. ‘I mean to marry him, James,’ she told him huskily.
He sighed, seeing the opportunity for stopping this marriage quietly slipping through his fingers. ‘Then I suppose I’ll just have to get used to the idea,’ he said, admitting defeat.
‘Damien?’ she prompted.
He gave her an impatient look and seeing her unflinching stare back he too sighed. ‘Kate wants you to give her away at the wedding,’ he said without enthusiasm. ‘Personally, I’d rather you didn’t come at all, but she’s made it the condition to us getting married.’
‘Personally, I’d rather not come either. I’m not sure I can stand to watch Kate throw herself away on a swine like you,’ James told him bluntly. ‘But I have a very good reason for agreeing to it—and when you find out that reason you’re going to feel a damned fool.’
‘James!’ she cried warningly.
‘I can manage this without your help,’ Damien misunderstood her interruption.
‘I’m going now,’ James said dejectedly. ‘And I stand by what I said, you’re throwing yourself away on him, Kate.’
‘We can manage without your opinion,’ Damien snapped. ‘The wedding is next week. I’ll let you know at what time and day.’
This stopped James’ exit. ‘Next week?’ he repeated disbelievingly. ‘You’re getting married next week?’
Damien raised a haughty eyebrow. ‘Do you have any objections about that too?’
James looked at Kate, slowly shaking his head as he saw the love shining out of her glowing brown eyes. He would make Damien Savage suffer if he ever hurt Kate, make his life hell if he did anything to destroy her love for him. ‘I suppose not,’ he said finally. ‘Take care, Kate. Damien,’ he nodded curtly to the other man.
She looked shyly at Damien once her brother had left. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d come back,’ she admitted softly.
He moved away from her, effectively removing her hand from his arm. ‘If I ever find you alone with him again I’ll beat hell out of him,’ he told her threateningly. ‘And then I’ll start on you.’
‘Damien!’ She looked shocked. ‘I never thought you the sort of man to beat a woman.’
‘I’m not.’ He gave a cruel smile. ‘There are more ways of punishing a woman than beating her.’ His eyes slid insolently over her slender body as if to emphasise his point.
Kate blushed as his meaning became clear to her. ‘I see.’ She bit her lip.
‘I hope you do,’ he drawled. ‘Fidelity will be part of our bargain. Don’t get the idea that I’ll ever share you with anyone. While you’re my wife you’ll remain faithful to me, and only me.’
‘Yes, Damien.’ If he only knew how easy that would be! She had never found any man as attractive as she found him, had never responded to any man as she did to him. She had no doubt that she could be faithful to him for ever, much longer than his interest in her would last.
‘I mean it, Kate,’ he said harshly. ‘I don’t ever want to come home and find you with James—or any other man for that matter.’
‘You have the advantage of knowing that James will be at work with you when you’re not at home.’
‘And Matt Strange,’ he bit out. ‘And what about this Alan you’ve been seeing lately, have I got to be jealous of him too?’
‘Alan and I are finished.’
‘You’re finished with everyone but me,’ he warned her. ‘I’m giving you a wedding ring to ensure sole rights to your time and body.’
Kate flinched. ‘Do you have to put it like that?’
His look was bitter. ‘Right now I can’t think of it any other way. You’ve used my desire for you to blackmail me into marriage. How do you expect me to feel about it—ecstatic?’
‘You don’t have to marry me,’ she pointed out. ‘No one is forcing you to.’
‘Believe me, I have to marry you. This longing for you is driving me insane. I’ve never before let any woman interfere with my work, but you—well, you enter my head at the most inopportune moments possible. And every time I look at Matt and James I see them touching you. I can’t take that any more.’
‘And how long are you expecting our marriage to last?’ She waited with bated breath for his answer.
He shrugged. ‘As long as it takes.’
‘For you to tire of me,’ she assessed.
‘Or until you tire of looking at that gold band that seems to mean so much to you at the moment. Talking of which, hadn’t we better go and see about getting you an engagement ring? We may as well get your wedding ring at the same time.’
‘I don’t want an engagement ring.’
‘What you want doesn’t come into it. We’re going to see my mother later today and she’ll expect to see you wearing an engagement ring. So you’re having one.’
‘Y-your mother?’ she queried nervously. ‘We’re going to see your mother?’
‘Haven’t I just said so?’ he said impatiently.
‘But I— We— Does she live in England?’
He gave that mocking smile of his. ‘Well, we’re not flying over to the States to see her, if that’s what you mean.’
‘But I—I had no idea. I naturally assumed—’
‘My mother is English,’ he supplied. ‘She came back to England when my father died five years ago. She now lives in a particularly beautiful part of Hampshire. I called her earlier and told her we’d be over this evening.’
‘Was she surprised? About the wedding, I mean.’
‘My mother tries never to be surprised by anything I do. Otherwise she would be old before her time.’
‘I can imagine.’
He gave a slight smile. ‘Do you have any family we should go and see?’
The only family Kate had was already going to be at the wedding, but he didn’t know that. Dear James, it was all very worrying for him. But she was determined to make this marriage work, determined to make Damien love her as she already loved him. Once they were married and she was more sure of him she would tell him the circumstances behind James being her brother. And he would understand. He would have to!
‘No,’ she answered finally. ‘I don’t have any family who would be in the least interested in my getting married.’
CHAPTER TEN
‘YOU look lovely, Kate.’ Sarah Savage kissed her warmly on the cheek. ‘Much too young and beautiful to be married to this disreputable son of mine!’
Damien glanced at Kate as she stood beside him. ‘It’s a little late to be warning her against marrying me.’ He held her firmly against his side. ‘Married an hour or a lifetime, she’s mine now.’
Kate laughed nervously at the possessiveness in his voice, attempting to lighten his mood. ‘Are all the Savage men this possessive?’
‘All of them.’ Sarah squeezed her hand reassuringly. ‘The reception is going very well. If you want to sneak off now I’m sure I can say all your goodbyes for you.’
‘An excellent idea,’ her son agreed readily.
Kate looked down ruefully at her wedding gown. ‘Can I change first? I don’t really want to leave looking like this.’
They hadn’t invited nearly as many people to their wedding as Sheri and James had, nevertheless a lot of people seemed to have turned up, most of them uninvited. The only guests really invited by Kate had been Josie and Paul, and Sheri and James. She had arrived at the register office with her brother and Sheri, mainly at James’ insistence that this was the proper thing to do.
Today was actually her wedding day! It had been a strange dreamlike day so far, and it was far from over. Tonight she was to become Damien’s wife in the fullest sense of the word, and the thought of that was quite frightening to her.
The reason for this was that there hadn’t been too much affection shown towards her during the week of their engagement. At first she had put this down the the fact that they were so busy arranging the wedding, but now she wasn’t so sure. Damien had
been even cooler towards her today, making her all the more nervous of tonight.
‘Go right ahead,’ he told her. ‘You can use the room put aside for you on the first floor.’
‘Excuse me,’ she smiled shyly at her brand new mother-in-law. ‘I won’t be long, Damien.’ She looked at him almost pleadingly, longing for a softening towards her in those harsh features, and finding none, ‘Damien?’
‘I’ll be waiting for you down here,’ he said impatiently.
She looked hurriedly away from the remoteness of his face. This wasn’t her idea of how a bridegroom should behave, and she wondered just what she had let herself in for. She supposed she should have realised just how autocratic he was going to be when he had cancelled her college course without even asking her. When challenged about it he had calmly informed her he had no intention of letting his wife work.
But now even his desire for her seemed to have lessened. When he had expressed such longings for her she had at least thought there was a chance for them, but his attitude now gave her little hope. He didn’t even show casual interest in her any more.
The small case with her change of clothing was waiting for her in the hotel room. They were only going back to Damien’s apartment. He had to be back on the set on Monday morning, which didn’t allow for them to go away on a honeymoon.
‘All right, Kate?’ Sheri came into the room after a brief knock.
A smile quivered and died on her lips. ‘How do you think the wedding went?’
‘It was lovely. James had been more nervous about this than he was over ours.’ She looked at her young sister-in-law closely. ‘Are you sure you’ve done the right thing by marrying Damien?’
‘Hey!’ Kate gave her a reproachful look, her eyes teasing. ‘You’re supposed to be on my side. I thought you approved of my seeing him.’
Sheri nodded, taking the wedding gown as Kate stepped out of it and putting it in the soft tissue paper to pack it away in the box provided. ‘I thought it a good idea for you to go out with him, yes. But marriage! That’s completely different. To go out with a man like Damien is an experience not to be missed. I went out with him myself a couple of times, and believe me, I can understand you falling for him.’
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