Beauty and the Wolf / Their Miracle Twins

by Faye Dyer, Lois, Logan, Nikki

  ‘Your family likes Belinda Cluney from London. Why wouldn’t they like Belinda Rochester? Just because of her surname? Are they truly incapable of drawing a distinction?’

  He frowned. ‘No, they’re not. But I don’t think they would have given you a chance if they’d known upfront who you were.’

  ‘Like they didn’t give Gwen a chance?’

  He stared at her. A feeling that wasn’t quite guilt and wasn’t quite shame nipped at his conscience. Could they have come to like Gwendoline Rochester if they’d met her under different circumstances? Difficult to imagine.

  He tried again. ‘Your world and mine are very different …’

  ‘The difference is I don’t judge you for yours.’

  That uncomfortable nip again. Her eyes flicked around the room, looking for anything other than him to settle on. Suddenly he was overcome with a burning need to get her alone.

  To have a long overdue discussion.

  He spun her back towards him and brought them both to a halt in the centre of the room, reaching around her from behind and folding her into the care of his arms. ‘I think it’s time we got going,’ he announced over the music. Firmly. His family wanted to protest but they saw his expression and relented.

  Bel stumbled behind him through a round of goodnights and then towards the back door of the house. The air outside was frigid and she was still wearing nothing but the light dress she’d worn to the ceremony that afternoon.

  He stripped off his coat and helped her into it. It hung loose and ridiculous on her slim frame but it didn’t make her any less beautiful. So much of her flaming hair had come down with all the dancing she looked flushed and in disarray—as if she’d been thoroughly tumbled in a barn somewhere. The image hit him straight in the groin.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said quietly, tucking the coat firmly around her. ‘My bags …’

  ‘Dad took your luggage down earlier today. It’s in your room.’

  She looked so intensely relieved he had to wonder what was amongst her belongings that she valued so much. Or was it because he’d said your room …? Did she think he was going to force her in with him?

  ‘Listen, about the arrangements …’

  She lifted her eyes to his; how was it possible that she looked so suspicious and so trusting at the same time?

  ‘Even though we have separate rooms, we’re going to be spending a fair bit of time together,’ he said. ‘We’ll be like … roommates. I just wanted to let you know that I’ll do my best to stay out of your way.’

  ‘It’s not a big house; that could be tricky.’

  ‘In spirit, then, if not in person.’ He took a deep breath. ‘You won’t even know I’m there.’

  Bel frowned. ‘I don’t think I want that. I don’t want you to stay out of my way.’

  Surprise stilled his feet. He turned her to look at him in the darkness halfway between the houses.

  ‘I lived like that for most of my childhood,’ she went on. ‘Like a ghost in my family. I’m not in a hurry to be invisible again.’

  Empathy washed through him. He knew something about feeling invisible. Although it was impossible to imagine how she could have been in a room and not been at the centre of it. ‘That’s how you felt?’

  ‘Always. Except for Gwen. She saw me.’ Her eyes softened. ‘And then Drew.’

  And they were back to his brother. Saint Freaking Andrew. Wasn’t it enough that he’d played second fiddle to his brother his whole life? Did he have to do it on his wedding night, albeit a fake one? It was starting to be impossible to ignore the obvious. ‘You really cared for him, didn’t you?’

  Her eyes rounded up to him. ‘Your brother was the best man I ever knew. Despite what you thought of him.’

  Ever. Present tense included.

  Right.

  The unspoken criticism rankled. ‘Drew was no prince, Bel. He had a sour streak and could hold a grudge for eternity.’ Literally, as it turned out. ‘Not sure he deserved such a lofty position in your estimation.’

  ‘You weren’t there. He saved me when I was seventeen and going off the rails. He grounded me.’

  He did? Then he’d made an exception because that sure wasn’t his own experience when he’d been in need. ‘How?’

  ‘By being constant and welcoming me and letting me into his love for Gwen. He could so easily have sidelined me like my parents did, kept her to himself.’

  ‘The Drew I knew would have.’ His brother had made an art of self-absorption. Second only to his competitive streak. Probably what made him so successful in his field. ‘Maybe he just liked having a leggy young sycophant feeding his ego?’

  Maybe he missed the unconditional adoration of a younger sibling.

  Bel squeezed and released her fists. ‘Or maybe he grew in his years away from you. Changed.’

  Unexplainable hurt ravaged him. That Drew had needed to leave the family to turn into a good man, that once again little brother failed to measure up.

  ‘Your unflinching loyalty is a credit to you, Bel. Misguided as it may be.’

  ‘That’s your opinion. It’s always been your opinion and I give up trying to change it. You will just have to accept that your brother and my sister were different people in England.’

  ‘Or you’ll have to accept that you were so blinkered by your fascination with Drew that you couldn’t see the truth.’

  Frustration almost exploded from her tight chest. Her voice lifted. ‘I was not fascinated by him,’ she gritted though she felt the heat rise in her cheeks again.

  ‘Come on.’ And it was almost a sneer. ‘You clearly had an obsessive thing going on.’

  ‘I loved him, of course. But not …’ She swished her skirt angrily as she kept pace with his long strides. ‘He was like my brother.’

  He spun around to face her. ‘He was my brother, not yours.’ The vehemence with which those words spat from his lips seemed to surprise even Flynn. But it was so telling. The only sound other than their strained breathing was the crunch of their feet on the dry paddock as he started off again.

  ‘I think it’s you that’s obsessed by him,’ she called out to him when he failed to notice he’d left her behind. ‘You’ve held onto all that resentment and hurt for years. You see echoes of Drew in everything. And now you’re dragging me into it. Looking for reasons to be mad at me.’

  He stalled and turned back towards her, his jaw pure granite. Frowning. And not denying it.

  ‘Why didn’t you ever try to see him, Flynn—to bring him back? To heal things?’

  She thought he wasn’t going to answer but then words fought their way out of his strangled throat. ‘Anything I said, he did the complete opposite of. So I stopped trying.’

  She smiled sadly. ‘He always was determined.’

  ‘Belligerent,’ Flynn snorted.

  ‘Single-minded.’

  ‘Stubborn.’

  ‘Tomato/tomahto.’ She smiled softly

  He glanced at her from under low lashes and took two deep breaths. ‘The point is, there was a brief window where I might have been able to bring him home but that slammed shut the day he met your sister.’

  Again with the Gwen-bashing. But this unhappy dynamic between them wasn’t going to change if neither of them did. Maybe she’d just have to be the bigger man. ‘I was there that day, Flynn. It was the closest thing to love at first sight I’ve ever seen. They were utterly captivated with each other. Both so … enraptured.’

  His dark eyes simmered. It looked like anger.

  ‘Why would you wish that not so?’ she asked. ‘Do you truly resent them both that much? They found that rare thing we all seek.’

  He stared at her, eyes creased.

  ‘Their other …’ she went on. ‘The one person that is out there for each of us.’

  ‘You truly believe that?’

  ‘I suppose you’d say true love doesn’t exist? Despite the two thriving examples living on this property.’

  He indulged her an
d the look made her feel all of seventeen again. ‘My grandparents married because Nan got pregnant. Love was a long time coming for them but they toughed it out for my father’s sake.’ His lips pressed together. ‘My parents … They’ve just always been so solid and steady. They met in school and just never parted. There’s no great romance there.’

  Bel stared. How sad for him that he couldn’t see the truth. ‘Well, your brother found it. He found it.’

  Flynn snorted. ‘Just one more jewel in the crown of Drew’s brilliance.’

  ‘He’s dead, Flynn. How can you think of him like that?’

  ‘I know he’s dead, Belinda,’ he blazed down on her. ‘He died in a fetid river trying to save your sister.’

  The scorn burned. ‘Because he loved her. Gwen was the air he breathed. They had the sort of love I can only dream of.’

  Flynn stared at her, thinking. ‘Yet you’re willing to give up your chance at that to raise their unborn children.’

  Pain lanced through her. His words so closely matched her deepest fears it stole her breath. ‘You assume the two are mutually exclusive.’

  ‘It’s a big sacrifice.’

  ‘These babies had a family once and it was ripped away from them. They deserve their chance to be loved. And to love.’

  ‘They do? Or you do?’

  She winced. ‘Is that so terrible? Am I not entitled to some happiness, too? Someone to love me?’ Two little someones, in fact.

  As she stared at him his own face cleared and understanding widened his eyes. ‘You don’t think it’s there for you.’

  What?

  He stepped closer, looked down on her, close and warm, and her body thrilled. ‘That’s why you’re willing to fill your body with someone else’s babies. That’s why you were willing to travel halfway around the world with a total stranger. Marry that stranger. A beautiful twenty-three-year-old woman.’ His head tilted as he studied her. ‘You don’t think that kind of love is out there for you anywhere.’

  Panic bubbled through her at how close he was to the truth and that her face might give her away. Or her hammering heartbeat. She faked a shrug. ‘What are the odds of it happening twice in one family?’

  Let alone in two families.

  ‘I don’t think it even happens once,’ Flynn said flatly. ‘What you saw was just the product of a child’s lens—’

  That brought her up cold. ‘Child? I was seventeen.’

  ‘Physically, perhaps.’

  ‘You think I didn’t know what I saw in front of my face? They were in love.’

  ‘Would you even know what it looks like?’

  She frowned at him. It looks just like this. It feels just like this. Good and horribly fatal at the same time. ‘Of course I’d know …’

  ‘Bel. You came from a home where affection was in short supply. You’ve built these two people you lost up into saints. Martyrs, practically. And you cling to these perceptions about love because they help you to justify everything you are. Everything you’ve done.’

  Like having the babies.

  ‘What you were seeing was attraction,’ he ended. ‘Pure and simple.’

  ‘No.’ Okay, yes … but no. ‘There was more there. Complete connection. They got engaged just weeks later. They knew they’d found it.’ Because if they hadn’t, then what made her think she ever would?

  Flynn snorted and turned for his cottage. The lights glowed a welcome and a spiral of smoke curled from the chimney. Pop’s forethought: good man. ‘Two narcissists managed to find each other through the crowd. Alert the media!’

  She shot off after him. ‘Don’t change the subject.’

  ‘The subject? Of whether or not true love exists? Hell of a conversation to be having on our wedding night.’

  ‘You know, you and your brother might have been more alike than I realised.’

  He looked at her sideways.

  ‘You have the same basic traits. Solid. Consistent. I may not always like the things you do or say but you’re as dependable as the earth we’re walking on.’

  He skipped over her not liking things he did and zeroed straight in on him having the same basic traits as the best man she ever knew. Selective hearing was a wonderful thing. He swung around as they reached the cottage door to look down on her.

  Really look.

  This entire stubborn discussion reminded him so much of his youth. ‘You know, you might be onto something …’

  She frowned up at him. ‘Onto what?’

  ‘The whole Drew thing …’ The creases between her eyes only deepened. ‘Well, the thing with Drew and you, really …’

  Her eyes fell shut and he could swear he could hear her counting to ten. ‘There was no thing with Drew and me—’

  ‘The thing with you and me and Drew, then.’

  That got her attention.

  ‘I’ve been racking my brain as to why you and I set off so many sparks.’

  Her eyes flared. ‘Apart from the obvious, you mean?’

  He blinked at her.

  ‘The way you’ve had your lawyers drag every single part of my personal life across their desk and sift through it looking for usable dirt. The fact we’re neck-deep in a custody battle.’

  He waved a hand. ‘No, not that.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘I thought it was because you were like Gwen.’

  ‘What was?’

  He stepped closer on the crowded top step. ‘The reason you get so firmly under my skin.’

  Her tiny gasp was partly disguised by the wind buffeting overhead. But her lips parted and her pupils slowly grew as she twigged what he was saying. ‘I was ready for you to be stylish and socially flawless and all about outward appearances,’ he said. ‘But you’re not like that at all. You’re clumsy and messy and—’

  The speculation in her eyes drained. ‘I think I liked you better when you were all moody and silent …’

  He held a hand up to continue. ‘And you’re down-to-earth and warm and … natural.’ The hand reached out and tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear. ‘And so completely my type.’

  Her breath froze. ‘Are you drunk, Flynn?’ she managed to squeeze out.

  He chuckled, deep and low. ‘No. But I haven’t been able to work out—for the life of me—why you bother me so much. What it is about you. Why I didn’t just jump your bones the second week here. But I got it just now.’

  The pounding in her chest increased. ‘And?’

  ‘The way you’re fighting so fiercely for custody of the babies, the way you won’t accept anything but victory. The way you’re so quick with a witty comeback and so damned fast on the uptake with new things. The way you’ve colonised my family and become like the sun around which they all revolve. The way you push every single one of my buttons. Repeatedly.’

  She held her breath, staring at him wide-eyed.

  ‘You’re not Gwen,’ he rounded off. ‘You’re Drew.’

  His triumphant declaration almost echoed in the loaded silence that followed.

  ‘Are you saying I’m the female equivalent of your brother?’ Bel finally got out.

  ‘Just like him. I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.’

  She stared at him, her voice cooling. ‘Drew the “uncompromising”, “narcissistic”, pedant?’

  He stumbled then. ‘Okay … no … not like him in all things … Obviously.’

  She reached for the door handle, her face hard. ‘Goodnight, Flynn.’

  He quickly slipped his hand over the top of hers to still it. It took him straight back to that open cave mouth. ‘Bel … I just wanted to—’

  She rounded back on him. ‘To what, Flynn? Get back at me? Hurt me?’

  What the …? ‘Hurt you? You worshipped the man.’

  ‘But you hated him.’

  He winced and then twisted his body uncomfortably. ‘I didn’t hate him, Bel. We were brothers. But he … we had issues.’

  ‘That’s what you wanted to tell me? That I give you
issues?’

  ‘Woman—’ his voice thickened ‘—you have no idea.’

  ‘Goodnight, Flynn.’

  ‘Bel, wait …’ He snaked strong fingers around her wrist and halted her progress as the door swung open.

  She lifted her chin when he didn’t continue. ‘So was that it? I remind you of Drew. Mystery solved. Offence identified. Burden offloaded?’

  ‘I didn’t tell you to offload a burden.’

  She brought her eyes back around to his. ‘Then why did you tell me?’

  He opened his mouth and then closed it again. Second time lucky … ‘Because I wanted to explain … apologise, really … for being reactive with you sometimes.’

  ‘Sometimes?’

  The glint of challenge in her eyes got his blood racing. ‘Now you are being a pedant.’

  She stared at him. Then she pushed open the door to the house. Then she stopped. ‘Oh, my …’

  It looked as if Pop hadn’t come down alone. In addition to a toasty blaze in the fireplace, dozens of flickering half-spent candles littered the living area, throwing the whole place into a soft glow. It was beautiful. And so horribly out of phase with the conversation they were having.

  Bel swung back around to him and lifted her chin, her blue eyes sparking more than the fireplace. ‘Fine. Apology accepted, if that’s what it was. I have no problem being the best parts of your brother.’

  His thumb traced strokes on her bare wrist where he still restrained her. He knew she’d said it to be provocative but something about the way the dozens of flickering lights played on her skin and hair robbed him of interest in carrying on that conversation. He wasn’t in the mood to fight any more. ‘So I’m not entirely Hades, then?’

  She flicked her eyes up from next to him. ‘I never thought you were.’

  He turned her towards him and peeled his coat from her shoulders. ‘You stood before me today like you were being sacrificed to him.’

  ‘Today was … challenging.’ She immediately crossed to the fire and warmed herself, keeping her eyes shy of his.

  ‘You’ve had plenty of notice.’

  She looked at him strangely. ‘Time doesn’t make it any easier. Didn’t the irony of it strike you?’

  ‘Irony?’ Like the fact they’d entered their marital home talking about his brother?