by Fiona Brand
Kyle’s mouth quirked. “We work in different parts of town, so a chance meeting isn’t likely. Sophie mentioned something about a bridesmaid and a guest list.”
Eva set her glass down. “Your family need to be part of the wedding—”
Kyle set his fork down. “Babe, the wedding is two days away, there’s not exactly time—”
“You don’t have to worry, all you need to do is turn up. All the details are taken care of.”
He lifted a brow. “How many have you invited?”
Eva put her fork down. “Just close family. I know you wanted to bypass all the fuss and frills and that you probably wanted to slide the wedding through before most of your family found out, but it is still my wedding, probably the only wedding I’ll ever have.”
Kyle’s head came up. “Why won’t you marry again?”
She kept her expression bland. “I’m not the marrying kind. I’m just not...suited for it.”
Kyle frowned, but before he could reply, his cell rang.
Eva picked at her salad while Kyle walked to one end of the patio and conducted what sounded like a business call. When he came back to the table, his expression was thoughtful, but he didn’t resume the conversation.
Relieved, Eva made an effort to eat a little more. Lately, with all the turmoil, she’d been skipping meals and eating sketchily, which was bad for her stress levels. Witness the off-the-register way she kept reacting to Kyle.
When Kyle was finished, she collected their plates and carried them through to the kitchen. Carefully taking off the ring, she set it on the counter, rinsed the plates and glasses and stacked them in the dishwasher.
Kyle, who had followed her in, replaced all the food in the fridge and wiped down the counter. When she dried her hands on a kitchen towel and went to pick up the ring, he beat her to it.
Automatic tension hummed through her as he picked up her left hand and slid the ring on the third finger. Despite trying to downplay the moment, a shimmering thrill went through her at the warmth of his hands, the weight of the ring and the sheer emotion of the moment. This was what he would do on their wedding day, and they both knew it would not mean what it should. But here in the mundane surroundings of his apartment kitchen, the small act seemed laden with meaning.
Kyle’s gaze connected with hers. “You’re right, it is beautiful.”
For a blank moment, she thought he had said, “You’re beautiful.” She tried for a breezy smile. “Yes. It is.”
When she would have stepped back, he kept hold of her hand. If Kyle had been any other man, she would have had no problem putting an end to the tension that had sprung up. But while a cautious part of her knew she should keep things businesslike, the crazy, risk-taking part of her wanted to kiss Kyle, to pretend for just a moment that the engagement, the wedding and he were the real thing. Without consciously realizing she had done it, she swayed closer. “We shouldn’t.”
“The hell with it,” Kyle murmured. “We’re going to have to kiss in church, and it’s not as if we haven’t done it before.”
The vivid memory of the passionate night they had spent together, and further back to the long-ago necking on the beach at Dolphin Bay, sent a hot flash through her that practically welded her to the spot. Seconds later, Kyle’s mouth closed on hers, her arms found their way around his neck and time seemed to slow, stop.
When he finally lifted his head, Kyle studied her expression for another few seconds, as if he was contemplating kissing her again then he released her. “We need to discuss something. Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?”
Suddenly the choice of his very private apartment for the choosing of the ring and lunch made sense, when it would have been quicker to have gone direct to the jeweler. “It’s not exactly something that comes out in casual conversation.”
“I thought—”
“I know what you thought.” The same thing most people thought. “That I’ve had more men than hot dinners.”
“You don’t exactly put across a facade of innocence.”
Eva lifted her chin. “In the modeling business, if you’re tough, men leave you alone. It’s a way of keeping safe.”
“Now you’re making me angry.”
“Don’t be. The strategy worked.” Until Kyle.
Walking out to the sitting room, she found her bag and hooked the strap over her shoulder, ignoring the question that seemed to hang in the air.
Kyle shrugged into his jacket and adjusted his tie. “I know you’re probably not going to answer, but why me, and why now?”
“You’re right,” she said with a trademark breezy smile, as she headed for the door. “I’m not going to answer.”
Eleven
Kyle woke, uncertain what, exactly, had pulled him from yet another restless sleep. Tossing his rumpled sheets aside, he paced to the window. Opening the curtains, he looked out over the now-smooth sweep of lawn to the bay and a delicate and beautiful sunrise.
His wedding day.
Memories cascaded. Another wedding day, clear and hot and filled with family and friends. Nicola, elegant in white. She had been sweet and smart, athletic and funny. Perfect. She had fitted seamlessly into the measured pattern of his life, and when Evan had arrived, that pattern had seemed complete. Until...Germany.
His stomach tightened. Now, a marriage of convenience.
Feeling tense and unsettled, he walked through to the bathroom and flicked on the shower. The problem was, every time he looked at Eva, convenience was the last thing on his mind and the guilt that he wanted her more than he had wanted Nicola, was killing him.
Unbidden, the hours they’d spent locked together in his bed replayed, along with the uncomfortable knowledge that there had been nothing measured about his response.
And that what he had felt had somehow sneaked up on him, eclipsing the past.
His head came up at the curious clarity of the thought. Peripherally, he was aware of the sound of the shower, steam misting the bathroom mirror, the steady beat of his own heart.
He drew a breath, then another, but the tightness in his chest didn’t ease. It was an odd moment to notice that Eva had done something with the bathroom. There was a new mat on the floor in a soft shade of turquoise, and brand-new thick, white towels decorated the towel rail. A large glass jar filled with soaps decorated the bathroom vanity.
The feminine, homey touches should have reminded him of Nicola, but they didn’t. Somehow, they were one hundred percent, in-your-face Eva.
Moving like an automaton, he stepped beneath the stream of hot water. He considered the moment of self knowledge that had hit him like a bolt from the blue, the guilt of wanting Eva, and that what he felt was different than anything else he had ever experienced.
It occurred to him that in the years since Nicola and Evan had died, he had done his level best to lock the past away but, in doing so, he had also failed to let it go.
And in that moment he finally understood what he needed to do.
* * *
Eva stepped out on the landing just as the front door closed with a soft click.
Frowning, she walked down the stairs and glanced through the kitchen windows just in time to see Kyle dressed in jeans and a T-shirt disappear into the garage. It was possible that he had things to do in town before the wedding, but as it was barely six o’clock, nothing would be open for hours. Dressed so casually, there was no way Kyle was going into work, either.
Feeling unsettled, not least because after the incandescent moments in Kyle’s apartment, she had half expected him to follow up with a suggestion that they break the rules and sleep together, and he hadn’t.
She stepped out into the hall. The Maserati cruised quietly out of the garage. On impulse, she grabbed her car keys and decided to follow Kyle. It was a little crazy
and a lot desperate, but Eva couldn’t help thinking something was wrong, that maybe Kyle had gotten cold feet. Given the encounter with Elise the other day, she had to wonder if Elise was the reason. It would certainly explain the cool way he had seemed to shut himself off, as if he couldn’t even be bothered trying to pressure her into bed!
Eva accelerated to the end of the drive and managed to catch the taillights of the Maserati as it turned left at an intersection. Fifteen minutes of nervous tailing later, and feeling certain that Kyle would spot her, she braked outside the gates of what was unmistakably a cemetery.
Relief that she had been wrong about Elise gave way to a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had chased after Kyle in a fit of jealousy and had ended up intruding on what must be a very private moment. A moment that did not include her, because Kyle was not visiting Elise or any other old girlfriend. On the day of his wedding to her, he was visiting Nicola and Evan, the wife and child he had loved and lost.
* * *
Three hours later, hours that Eva had filled by first getting her hair and nails done then sitting in the kitchen sipping tea, she finally started to get ready for her wedding.
An odd, shaky relief filled her when she heard Kyle’s Maserati return. After those moments at the cemetery, her imagination had run wild and she had half expected him to walk away from the marriage.
Although, why would he? she thought flatly. After all, to Kyle it was only a marriage of convenience.
The heat of the day grew more intense and oppressive as Eva changed into the dress Sophie had designed for the simple church-and-garden wedding. A strapless gown with a tight bodice and full, romantic skirt, the dress was made even more gorgeous by the fabric, which was a soft, pale-pink-and-rose-print silk with an ivory tulle overskirt.
Unfortunately, when she came to fasten the dress, which had about thirty tiny cloth-covered buttons at the back, she could get so far and no farther.
Taking a deep breath, she checked her watch. She was running to schedule, but she hadn’t considered she would need help dressing and now she was out of time to call someone to come and help her. Another one of the little details she should have thought of, but which, in the rush to get things done, had escaped her.
She glanced out the window at the smooth sweep of lawn she had made sure was mowed and manicured, to where a group of men were setting up a white tent. Walking back to the mirror, she examined her reflection. Her hair was perfect, falling loose and tousled down her back, the soft waves held with hairspray. To match the dress, she had pulled a swath back from her forehead and fastened it with a clip studded with fresh flowers.
Turning, she tried to do up a few more buttons using the mirror, but when the silk-covered buttons kept slipping from her fingers and her arms began to ache, she gave up on the job. Ideally, Jacinta should have been here to help her, but her last text had explained that she’d had car trouble and would meet her at the church.
After checking the time again, Eva stepped out into the hall and went in search of Kyle, hoping against hope that he hadn’t left for the church. A door swung open. Kyle emerged from his room and she drew a breath. In a charcoal-gray morning suit, with a white shirt and a maroon silk tie that subtly echoed the deeper color of the roses on her dress, Kyle looked breathtaking.
She half expected him to say that he knew she had followed him that morning, but instead his gaze simply swept her and lingered. She found herself blushing at the soft, intense glow that seemed to make his gaze even bluer.
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to see you until the church.”
“Jacinta’s having car trouble, so I’ve lost my helper.” She turned and showed him the buttons she hadn’t been able to reach and tried not to sound too breathless and panicky.
She had always wondered why brides got so uptight and nervous. Now she knew. There were a hundred and one things that could go wrong. Right now she was beginning to wonder if anything would go right. “If you could do the rest of the buttons?”
“No problem. I was going to break the rules and come and see you anyway.”
Swallowing at the intent way he was looking at her and feeling utterly confused because she had convinced herself that the attraction he had felt for her had fizzled out, Eva led the way into the sitting room where the light was better and waited for him to fasten the last remaining buttons.
Kyle gently moved her hair aside. The backs of his fingers brushed her skin, the small searing touch making her breath come in. She closed her eyes and worked at controlling her breathing as he systematically fastened each tiny button.
When he was finished, she opened her eyes and remembered that she was facing a mirror and that Kyle had been able to see her face the whole time. She blushed and hoped like mad that he had been too busy with the buttons to notice that she was having a minor meltdown.
He met her gaze in the mirror. “I expected you to wear white.”
She stiffened a little at the reference to her virginity. “I’m over the white dress. It would have reminded me too much of my last wedding.”
“The Dolphin Bay extravaganza.”
“Which, luckily, paid for the dress.”
He produced a case that he must have set down on a side table while he dealt with the buttons. “You should wear these today.”
Still off-balance at her response to Kyle, she opened the box and went still inside when she saw a pair of diamond studs and a pendant that matched her engagement ring. “I can’t accept these.”
“You’re an Atraeus bride and these are wedding jewels, a tradition in the Messena and Atraeus families. Mario would have given you a set if he had been alive, and Constantine will expect it.” His expression softened. “Aside from that, I want you to have them.”
A blush of pleasure went through her that Kyle wanted to give her a special wedding gift, even if he had tacked that bit on the end. The mention of Mario and of Constantine Atraeus, the formidable head of the Atraeus family and CEO of The Atraeus Group, made her feel even more strained. Family was important and celebrated in the Atraeus clan, even if she had never been quite sure that she had been accepted.
Kyle took the pendant from the case and unclipped it. “You don’t have to wear them for me. Wear them for Mario.”
“That’s not fair.”
“It wasn’t meant to be. Turn around.”
She turned and found herself once again facing the large mirror that sat over the mantel of the fireplace. As Kyle fastened the pendant, her heart turned over in her chest. Framed by the carved gilt frame of the mirror, they could have been two people who belonged in another era, another time. She touched the pretty jewel where it hung suspended in the faint hollow of her breasts. Such a small thing, yet it added an indefinable air of nurturing and belonging that made her throat close up. Like the engagement ring, she loved the pendant, not because of its value, but because of what it said about hers. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
Feeling strained and a little misty-eyed, she took the diamond studs when Kyle handed them to her. After removing the pretty pearl studs she had inserted earlier, she fastened them in place. As she did so, she couldn’t help being fiercely glad that the wedding to Jeremy had not gone ahead.
Kyle had been right. For all Jeremy’s plusses in terms of a convenient marriage, he had been superficial and utterly self-centered. He would never have offered to buy her even a token engagement ring, and he had expected her to pay for the wedding rings and a new wardrobe for him. “This is turning out to be an expensive wedding for you.”
Kyle grinned as he checked his watch. “Lucky for me I have a bank.”
* * *
Half an hour later, the limousine Eva had ordered arrived. Still feeling flustered but relieved, she attached the ivory tulle veil that slid in just above her rose clip, picked up the bouquets for herself and Jacinta th
at she’d ordered from her favorite florist, grabbed her handbag with her cell and strolled out to the car.
A tall dark man was leaning down, speaking to the limousine driver. He straightened and half turned and she went into shock all over again as she recognized one of her Atraeus cousins. “Constantine. What are you doing here?”
Normally, Constantine was based on Medinos, the Eastern Mediterranean island that was home to the Atraeus, Messena and Ambrosi families. Occasionally, he and his wife, Sienna, spent time in Sydney, where The Atraeus Group had an office, but he seldom came to New Zealand.
Constantine grinned. “I heard there was a wedding, so I came to give you away.”
She was glad she had thought to remember her handbag because now she needed a handkerchief. Juggling the bouquets, she found one and tried to delicately blow her nose so her makeup wouldn’t be spoiled. “Who told you?”
“Kyle rang a couple of days ago, so I cleared my schedule. Sienna and Amber came with me. Lucas and Carla and Zane and Lilah were in Sydney, so they hitched a ride in the jet.”
Meaning that quite a large chunk of the Atreaus family, with almost no notice, had dropped what they were doing in their high-powered, fast-paced lives to be at her wedding. Eva sniffed, abruptly overwhelmed. With Mario’s death, she had been feeling more and more cast adrift, and her natural instinct was to cut ties and minimize the hurt. But it seemed that the more she tried to walk away from this family, the more they found ways to tie her to them.
When she tried to thank Constantine, he gave her a quick hug around the shoulders so as not to crush the flowers then checked his watch. “Time to go.” He looked around. “Kyle said there was a bridesmaid.”
Eva would have crossed her fingers if she wasn’t holding the flowers. “Jacinta will meet us at the church.”
When they arrived there, only five minutes’ drive away, the cloud cover had increased, blotting out the sun and giving the day a murky cast. Praying that the thick cloud would blow over, Eva let Constantine hand her out of the limousine. There were a few stragglers outside the church, although Eva didn’t recognize any of them. She groaned when she started counting children playing around the church grounds. The Vicar had clearly forgotten to reschedule the La Leche League meeting.