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'Huh!' Essie's grimace made her point of view clear.
'And I'll be all right, really. It was just seeing you both again.'
'You ought to call it off, Candy, now. Or at least tell him how you really feel,' Essie said worriedly.
'No.' It was immediate and definite, and they stared at each other for a long moment until Essie said, 'Oh, Candy…'
When Candy awoke on the morning of her wedding it was to a perfect May day. The sky was a cornflower-blue, the sun was sailing high and the heady scents from Essie's garden were already perfuming the bedroom with their intoxicating fragrance although it was only six o'clock.
Candy sat up in bed and hugged her knees as her stomach went haywire. This was it. This was really it Essie and Mary would be arriving at eight—Essie and Xavier were staying in a nearby hotel and Quinn's parents had spent the night in Quinn's spare room—to help her get ready for the service at eleven, and by noon she would be Mrs Ellington. Butterflies with hob-nailed boots began to do a dance just under her ribcage.
Toast. Two slices of toast and a cup of coffee and she'd feel better.
She pushed back the duvet and padded downstairs in her nightie without bothering to pull on her robe. The cottage seemed dead and empty without the cats—they had been living at the practice for the last couple of days and had already established their supremacy over the dogs and laid down the ground rules for future co-existence—and for a moment a sense of panic and something akin to desolation flooded her. And then she saw the package by the front door.
'This is a wedding present for the most beautiful girl in the world,' Quinn had written in his strong, firm hand, 'and my future partner through life.' There was no signature or 'love', just a black 'Q' that ended in a flourish.
The pearl necklace and earrings were exquisite.
He must have walked down the lane and slid them through the letterbox when she was asleep, because she hadn't heard the car, Candy thought as she gazed at the smooth, lustrous pearls with a thudding heart. And 'the most beautiful girl in the world' was a start. Wasn't it?
And she was thinking just that, concentrating on the thought and that alone, as she walked down the aisle on Xavier's arm five hours later.
Her delicate dress flared out demurely over her satin pumps, the fragrant cream rosebuds entwined in her hair and tiny frothy veil surrounded her in a cloud of perfume and chiffon, and the rosebuds were reflected in the bouquet she carried, along with deep red roses and trailing freesias and fern.
Quinn turned to her as she reached his side and for a brief moment the mask was ripped aside and she saw the fierce hunger and dark desire he had been keeping at bay for so long. She stared at him, quite unable to smile for a moment as the unexpectedness of seeing his passion laid bare after his remote coolness of the preceding months brought her eyes wide with shock. Almost immediately the mask was back in place as he saw her expression, and the service was commencing.
And then she was walking back down the aisle, but this time as Mrs Ellington, her arm in Quinn's and his big lean body in its grey suit and cream shirt and cream and gold waistcoat at the side of her. He was her husband; she was his wife.
They emerged to the ringing of the church bells and brilliant sunshine, and as the photographer led them over to a cherry tree bordering the cobbled church path, its mass of ethereal blossom the perfect setting for the wedding photographs, Quinn smiled down at her as he touched the pearl necklace at her throat.
'It doesn't do such beauty justice,' he said softly, his voice low and deep. 'There isn't a man alive who isn't envying me right
at this moment.'
'A slight exaggeration,' she managed breathlessly, her heart pounding. There was a dark power in his magnetic attractiveness at the best of times, but today the sensuous charm was overwhelming.
His ebony eyes held her azure-blue ones for a second, and then Quinn said, his voice a throaty murmur for her ears only, 'Don't be frightened of me, Candy. I meant what I said. You can take all the time in the world.'
He thought she was nervous of the night ahead? She stared at him, searching for the words to tell him he had it all wrong without giving her real feelings away, but her inexperience was against her and the moment to speak was lost as the photographer turned and began positioning them in the traditional wedding poses.
The rest of the day passed in a whirl of images and voices, none of which Candy felt she would remember. It was as though she was the chief performer in an elaborate play; none of it seemed real.
But it was real. She was married. To Quinn. It was his ring on her finger and his arms holding her close as they danced the evening away, and it was his bed she would sleep in from this night forth.
She missed her step at the thought and immediately his dark face peered down at her, his voice very deep as he said, 'Tired? It's been a long day.'
'Not really.' Tired? She was so keyed up with excitement and nervous anticipation that the adrenalin was pumping like a piston in every nerve and sinew, she thought a trifle feverishly. It probably wasn't at all the appropriate thing on a girl's wedding day, and it certainly negated that 'air of delicacy' that Quinn's mother had complimented her on at Christmas, but all she had been able to think of for the last few hours as she had floated in his arms was how he would make love to her once they were alone.
Quinn naked, that big, lean body in all its magnificence stretched out next to hers. His hands and mouth on her skin, her breasts, her thighs, touching her, pleasuring her…
She missed her step again, and this time he stroked the back of her neck with soothing fingers that were unbearably erotic as they massaged tense muscles. 'Come on, time to slip away,' he said huskily. 'Let's make our goodbyes.'
Her heart was beating in her throat as she forced her legs to carry her overwrought self off the little dance floor at the hotel Quinn had booked for the reception and begin the round of farewells.
She was tucked into his side as though she belonged there, and it was wonderful.
When they came to Essie and Xavier, Essie's gentle, 'Candy, we wish you both all the happiness in the world,' made her swallow hard.
