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The neighbour had been right that she’d been dressed up. She wore a knee-length summery cream dress and a soft cream leather jacket. On her feet were cream heels.
The only colour on her were her eyes. They were red raw.
‘What are you doing here?’ she whispered.
‘What are you doing here?’ he countered, not trusting what his eyes were telling him.
Silence hung over them as they gazed at each other, Carrie drinking in the tall figure she had resigned herself to never seeing again.
She’d told herself she was running a fool’s errand but that hadn’t stopped her rifling through her wardrobe for the most bridal-type clothing she could find.
She’d fallen into bed, utterly exhausted, at six in the morning and after three hours’ fitful sleep had woken with a cast-iron certainty that she had to get herself to the registry office.
Even now, with what looked and sounded like Andreas standing in front of her, she couldn’t say where this certainty had come from. It had been a compulsion that had taken over her.
She’d made it to the registry office well before the appointed time and had watched one happy couple and two dozen happy guests pile into the room, then pile out twenty minutes later.
During those twenty minutes she had waited on her own.
When the last guest had gone and her reality had come crashing back down on her, she had burst into fresh tears. The registrar had been sympathy itself, taking her into the room and making her a cup of tea, giving her the time she needed to gather herself together in privacy rather than have her humiliated should anyone come into the waiting room while she was wailing.
And now, as she looked at the ghost before her, a scent played under her nose, a fresh, tangy cologne that had her bruised heart battering against her ribs.
She gazed into the light brown eyes she loved so much, saw them narrow with the same disbelief that must have been ringing in hers then saw the truth hit him at the exact same moment it hit her.
In seconds, he’d hauled her into his arms and was kissing her fiercely as she clung to him, inhaling his scent, more tears spilling from her eyes and splashing onto his face.
It was him! Andreas was there! He had come.
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ she cried, raining kisses all over his face, hungrily inhaling more of his scent, tasting his skin…
It really was him.
Eventually he disentangled their clinging bodies to take her face in his hands and stare at her.
There was a wonder in his face. ‘You are here. Oh, matia mou, you are here. I didn’t dare believe…’
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, tears falling over the fingers cradling her face with such tenderness.
‘No, my love, it is I who is sorry. My pride—my ego—never let me say what was in my heart.’ His words came in a rush. ‘I want to marry you for ever because my heart will not accept anything less. I love you. You are the bravest, most loyal and loving woman I have ever met. You are stubborn and sexy and I love everything about you. The only freedom I want is the freedom to wake next to your face every day for the rest of my life, so please, I beg you, marry me. I love you. I can’t be without you.’
Carrie covered his hands with her own feeling as if her heart could burst. If it did, glitter and starlight would explode over them.
‘I love you, Andreas, and I’m so sorry for…’ she raised her shoulders helplessly ‘…everything. You are the best person I know. You’re sexy and funny…the way you have taken care of your family… I should never have… I was scared.’
‘I know.’ He covered her mouth with his. ‘I need to learn patience. You know what I’m like. I want something and I want it now. You need to think things through. I have to accept our brains work differently.’
She laughed softly into his lips. ‘I’ll teach you patience if you’ll teach me spontaneity.’
‘It’s a deal.’
Their kiss to seal their deal was broken by a loud cough.
They broke apart to find the registrar looking at his watch, a faint smile on his lips. ‘If we’re going to marry you we will have to do it now, I’m afraid. We have another wedding party due any minute and my colleagues who are supposed to be acting as your witnesses have other duties to attend to.’
Andreas looked at Carrie. ‘Well? Do you want to do it?’
She kissed him. ‘I’m here, aren’t I?’
The brightest, most dazzling grin she had ever seen broke out on his handsome face. ‘Then let’s do it.’
So they did.
And neither of them ever regretted it.
EPILOGUE
‘YOUR VEIL IS falling off!’ Natalia screeched as Carrie attempted to get out of the limousine.
