by Fiona Brand
Francesca waved a hand in front of his face to attract his attention. “Just tell us one thing. Is Eva pressuring you to marry her?”
“No.” The reason he wanted to marry Eva was cut and dried: it was the most efficient way of keeping her away from other men.
Sophie gave him a considering look. “But this is a marriage of convenience, right?”
Kyle decided there was no point prevaricating, since the twins had clearly made up their minds that it was. “Yes.”
Sophie stared at him with her spooky eyes, the ones that interrogation officers would kill for and which sucked the truth out of you whether you wanted to tell or not. Clearly, she had just sucked something significant out of his brain, because she exchanged a look with Francesca. “Is there something wrong with a marriage of convenience?”
The twins gave him a pitying look.
Sophie sat back in her chair as if the case was concluded. “A marriage of convenience where you sleep with Eva? Sounds like a real marriage to us.”
* * *
Eva rushed to her doctor’s appointment only to find her last consultation had dragged on so long she had missed it and had to wait for an emergency appointment. Stomach churning, not least because she hadn’t stopped to get any lunch, she sat down to wait.
At three o’clock, she finally got in to see Dr. Evelyn Shan, an elegant Indian woman with an impressive list of qualifications and a daughter, Lina, who had been a good friend of Eva’s in her last year of school.
After a couple of minutes of catching up about Lina, who now lived in England, Eva finally managed to get to the point of her visit.
Evelyn’s eyes widened ever so slightly at Eva’s request for morning-after and contraceptive pills, before she began asking a crisp series of questions. “I’ll prescribe the morning-after pill, and you need to take it today, as soon as possible. The results aren’t one hundred percent, and given the time in your cycle...”
She scribbled a prescription. Eva, feeling about six inches tall, folded the piece of paper and placed it in her handbag. As she hurried out to pay for the consultation, her phone vibrated.
She took the call from Luisa Messena, Kyle’s mother. Feeling frazzled, she agreed to meet Luisa, Francesca and Sophie at a nearby café in a few minutes, although she was certain “coffee” was a euphemism for what was about to take place. As much as she loved the Messena women and enjoyed their company, they were, each in their own way, formidable. It was also a fact that the twins knew about the clause in Mario’s will.
She paid and filled her prescription at a chemist then hurried to the café. Sophie and Francesca were grinning like a couple of cats that had gotten the cream. Luisa hugged her with an odd smile in her eyes.
Feeling dazed that all three women seemed quite relaxed about the quick marriage, Eva ordered sparkling water. She intended to sip some now then cap the bottle, place it in her bag and, as soon as she got a chance, take her pill. She didn’t want to risk taking the pill at the table, because she was pretty sure that if she took out the pack, the twins would recognize the medication and all hell would break loose.
Half an hour later, just as she was making her excuses to leave, Detective Hicks called. They needed to get into her house to dust for fingerprints, and they needed her to meet them there now.
After quickly explaining about the break-in to Luisa, Sophie and Francesca, she got up to leave, but Luisa wouldn’t hear about her going on her own and insisted on calling Kyle.
She beamed as she disconnected the call. “He’s more or less finished for the day and will drive you to your house.”
Feeling just a little bit frantic because she needed a few minutes alone to take the pill, Eva found herself strolling across the road to Kyle’s bank, an imposing old building with several floors and a plaster facade in a tasteful shade of mocha. She stepped through antique wood-and-glass revolving doors into the hushed echoes of a large reception area with marble floors and very high, intricately molded ceilings. She had been in the bank on a number of occasions before, but always with Mario.
Kyle stepped out of an elevator, and her heart did a queer little leap. He was dressed in the same suit she had seen him wearing that morning, after she had gotten out of his bed, but he looked...different. Maybe it was the understated richness of marble floors and pillars, the diffused light that shimmered through fanlights over the doors, but in that moment he looked utterly at home in the opulence and wealth of the bank and every inch the urban predator.
An hour later, they left her house, locking it behind the police team. After the short drive home, where they were changing for dinner because they were eating out, Eva finally made it to a bathroom.
Setting her bag down on the vanity, she took the morning-after pill out of her bag and read the instructions.
She needed to take the pill in the first twenty-four hours. She checked her watch. She was within the time.
Relief making her a little dizzy, she filled a glass with water, popped the pill in her mouth, took a mouthful of water and swallowed.
Nine
Ten days later, Eva walked into her office to find Jacinta rushing out, her normally magnolia cheeks bright pink. “Anything wrong?”
“Nothing.” Jacinta waved her clipboard. “Just needed this. I must have left it in here by mistake. Oh, and some man called to see you. I actually found him in your office when I came in with coffee and shooed him out. I noted down his number on the pad beside your phone.”
Frowning that someone had walked into her office while she’d been having a fitting for her dress at Sophie’s shop, and without an appointment, Eva checked out the number, which was unfamiliar.
Eva sat down behind her desk. It was then she noticed that her handbag, which she’d left behind because Sophie’s shop was just down the street, was gaping open. Mario’s will was tucked inside where she had left it, but she couldn’t remember it being folded open at the second page.
Feeling unsettled, she refolded the will and replaced it in her bag. It was ridiculous to think that the person in her office could be Sheldon Ferris. Picking up the phone, she rang the cell number noted on the pad.
A male voice picked up, and her stomach plummeted as she recognized her stepfather’s voice. “What were you doing in my office?”
“Now, what way is that to talk to a relative? Especially with a wedding coming up.”
The veiled threat in his voice made her tense. “You married my mother for a couple of years. That doesn’t make you a relative.”
“I suppose, now you’re an Atraeus, and rich, you’ve got no time for the family you left behind—”
“If you want money, you can forget it.” As far as she was concerned, Ferris had only ever been with her mother to benefit himself. He had lived off her sickness benefit and run up enough gambling debts that when her mother had died there had been nothing left.
There was a small silence. “You’re not going to get rid of me this time.” He mentioned a figure that took her breath. “If you don’t want your story splashed all over the tabloids, you’d better pay up.”
In that moment Eva noticed a message sitting on her blotter, from Detective Hicks, to the effect that they hadn’t been able to make a positive ID on any fingerprints other than her own. She didn’t care, she was now sure in her own mind who it was that had broken in. “That was you in my house the other night, wasn’t it?”
The click of the disconnected call in her ear was loud enough that she wrenched the phone away. With shaky fingers, she set the phone down in its rest.
Sheldon Ferris. He popped up in her life at odd intervals, usually wanting money. Mario had frightened him off the last time, but Mario had failed to tell her what leverage he had used. All she could hope was that the fear of a police investigation would be enough to scare him off.
W
ith the pleasure of trying on her wedding dress drained away by the nasty call, Eva deliberately tried to recapture her optimistic mood by checking through her wedding file.
Predictably, Kyle had not been happy when he’d discovered that Eva had not booked a registry office wedding and that she had involved Kyle’s family in almost every aspect. Eva, on the other hand, had felt it was important that his family were involved, not least because in a more distant way, they were also her family.
She had invited the Messena clan to her last wedding, which hadn’t happened, so why would she not invite them to this one, especially when Kyle was the groom? It just hadn’t made any kind of sense to cut family out and in the process cause hurt.
It still felt faintly surreal that she was actually getting married, and that the toxic clause in Mario’s will would be neutralized in just two days’ time.
Two days until she became Kyle’s wife.
The speed with which the wedding was approaching made her feel breathless and just a little panicky, which was not her. Usually she was in control and organized. She lived and breathed detail and was superpicky about every aspect of a wedding, which made her good at her job. She also had a huge network of contacts thanks to her family and her modeling days. She had thought twelve days was enough time to organize a small, intimate wedding, but it seemed the universe was working against her.
She’d fought tooth and nail over venues, food and music, and she was losing sleep. To cap it off, none of her bridesmaids of choice were available on a Thursday. Even Sophie and Francesca had had prior commitments that meant that, while they could come to the wedding, they just did not have enough time to do all the bridesmaid things. She was starting to get desperate. The way things were going, the wedding would take place in a registry office.
Jacinta strolled back in with the clipboard in her hand, this time with a couple of sheets attached. Her dark bob was perfect and glossy, her vivid pink cotton dress, cinched in at the waist, made her honey tan look even darker and more exotic. “You said you wanted to talk to me about a new wedding.”
Eva slid the page with the basic plan she had arrived at across her desk. “It’s my wedding.”
Her eyes widened with shock. “But, since Jeremy went to Dubai, you’re not even going out with anyone—unless Troy Kendal proposed?”
“Uh-uh. Not Troy.” Eva tried to look unconcerned and very busy shuffling pieces of paper as Jacinta flipped the sheet around and stared at the line that contained the groom’s name.
“You’re marrying Kyle Messena?” There was a curious silence. “Now I am confused. He’s a babe, but I didn’t think you even liked him.”
Eva avoided Jacinta’s curious gaze and tried to look serenely in love, which was difficult because nothing she felt for Kyle fell into the “serene” bracket. “Like doesn’t exactly describe what I feel for Kyle.”
That, at least, was honest. Nothing about any of their interactions had ever fallen into comfortable friendship territory. “We had a thing years ago, and when he knew how close I came to marrying Jeremy, he, uh...decided we should be together.”
Jacinta managed to morph surprise into sparkly enthusiasm. “Sounds take-charge and...romantic.”
Eva caught the subtext, and so not like Eva. She searched for a little enthusiasm herself. “Like I said, we go way back.”
Desperate to quit the conversation, she checked her wristwatch. Happily, she had arranged to have lunch with Kyle, so she had a legitimate out. Jumping to her feet, she hooked the strap of the sleek handbag over her shoulder. “You know,” she said vaguely, “the family connection.”
Jacinta added the sheet to her file, her expression vaguely horrified. “Of course. If he’s a Messena, then you’re related.”
Eva frowned at the way she said it. “The connection is hardly close. Mario was Kyle’s great-uncle, and don’t forget that I’m adopted.”
“It’s coming back.”
Eva forced a smile. “Which reminds me, I have a favor to ask. We want to get married this week, and I was wondering if you could be my bridesmaid?”
“This week?”
“Thursday.” She caught another little piece of subtext. “I’ll supply the dress and shoes from Sophie Messena’s boutique.”
Jacinta’s expression brightened. “Okay.” She hugged the clipboard to her stomach. “I guess you must have both discovered you’re crazy in love? Like a fatal attraction, since you didn’t seem to even like one another at the Hirsch wedding.”
Eva’s phone chimed, negating the need to answer. Clutching the cell like a lifeline, Eva answered the call, which was from Kyle. She said his name with a pleased smile and waggled her hand at Jacinta, as if this somehow answered the question of whether or not she was in love. Happy to be free from the interrogation, she stepped out of the office.
“You sound happy.”
The low register of Kyle’s voice brushed across her nerves as she punched the call button of the elevator. She had stuck to her resolve that she and Kyle wouldn’t sleep together, but listening to Kyle’s voice, which was drop-dead sexy, didn’t help. Neither did the fact that Kyle was exhibiting a kind of calm, measured patience with her that was downright scary. She shouldn’t like that in an utterly male way he was waiting for her to get back into his bed. “It’s lunchtime. I get to eat.”
“And I intend to feed you.”
Eva’s fingers tightened on the phone. Why did that sound so carnal? She stepped into the elevator and hit the button to close the doors. “Where, exactly?”
“It’s a surprise. I’ll be waiting for you downstairs.”
* * *
As she stepped out of the elevator, despite giving herself a stern talking-to on the way down, her heart skipped a beat when she saw Kyle. She was glad she had worn one of her favorite dresses, a cream sheath dress that made the best of her honey tan and tawny hair. Kyle was dressed in a sleek, dark suit with a snowy-white shirt and dark red tie and looked edgily handsome and just a little remote. She tried to look breezy and casual as she walked toward him, as if making love with him and agreeing to marriage had not been earth-shattering events but, even so, her stomach automatically tightened.
He held the door for her, and she stepped through, suddenly feeling ridiculously feminine and cosseted. Since the dinner with his mother and sisters, courtesy of living in the same house, they had spent more time together than she could remember since the Dolphin Bay days, and the tension was wearing on her nerves. “Where are we going?”
He opened the passenger side door of the Maserati and named an exclusive jeweler’s. A glow of pleasure infused her. “You don’t have to get me a ring.”
His gaze touched on hers. “The ring’s nonnegotiable. My family will expect it, and so will the media.”
Her jaw squared at his reasoning and the quick little dart of hurt that went with it. Just for a moment she had felt that Kyle really did care for her and the engagement meant something more to him than a business arrangement. It was the kind of dangerous thinking she knew she couldn’t afford, but which somehow kept materializing. As if it mattered that Kyle should care for her.
As if she wanted this marriage to be real.
Ten
Jaw squaring, Eva slid into her seat. “You don’t have to buy the ring. I’ll get one for myself, after lunch.”
There was a moment of silence before the door closed with an expensive thunk. Fingers shaking just a little because out-of-the-blue anger had piled on top of the hurt and all over a piece of jewelry. Kyle slid into the driver’s seat as she fastened her seat belt.
Somewhere behind them a horn blared. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw a delivery truck waiting for the space that Kyle had illegally commandeered. Her cheeks heated as she became aware that Kyle, aside from starting the car, wasn’t moving. “We should go before you g
et a ticket.”
“Not until we get something straight. I buy the ring.”
Taking a deep breath, she forced her fingers to loosen on the buttery leather of her bag. “No.”
The delivery truck gave another extended blast on its horn.
“I’m not moving until you agree.”
She frowned at his steely blue gaze and the rock-hard set of his jaw. Not for the first time, she saw the defining quality that had seen him promoted in the military and which made him such an asset in the banking business: the cold, hard-assed ability to force his own terms.
It passed through her mind that living with Kyle would not be a cakewalk. He would be demanding, opinionated and difficult; she just bet that with his military training, he probably liked to make rules. Irritatingly, it also registered that she could never be happy with a man who didn’t challenge her, that a part of her relished the battle. That in some crazy, un-PC way, Kyle suited her and that she would rather argue with him than agree with any other man she knew. “What if I don’t want a ring?”
“Sophie said you wanted a dress. Why not the ring?”
She thought quickly. He was right, she did want the ring.
She guessed that, in her heart of hearts, it was tied in with the reason she wanted a real wedding in the first place. She liked the enduring conventions and traditions, the beauty and hopefulness, and she wanted to enjoy the occasion. Somehow, in going through the same process that countless other couples had entered into, there was a comforting sense of being a part of something time-honored and lovely, even if the marriage was a sham.
She decided the timing was right to mention another detail of the wedding preparations. “I’ll have the ring, but on the condition that we get married in a church.”
Kyle pulled out and let the delivery van take the space. “Let me guess. You’ve already booked the church.”
“Since it’s difficult to get one of those at short notice, I booked as soon as I had the date.”