AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But he wasn’t feeling any of those things. He was feeling impatient.
Leonora was ten minutes late. And, while he knew that was traditional, this was hardly a traditional wedding, with only a handful of guests in the Cruz y Torres family church in the grounds of the castillo.
He’d managed to drag his mother back from the tropical luxury outpost where she was conducting her latest affair. His father was beside her, glowering. A parody of a united front.
All the more reason why Gabriel felt sure that Leonora was right for him. They wanted the same things for their children. A more holistic upbringing. They had respect and compatibility and that insane chemistry.
He shifted uncomfortably in his morning suit, recalling his totally out-of-character behaviour the other day—taking her back to his apartment mid-afternoon, where they’d lost themselves in a mutual frenzy of need. He couldn’t remember feeling that desperate even when he’d been a hormone-fuelled teenager with his first lover.
Leonora’s parents were here too. He’d talked to them the night before, when he’d hosted a dinner here at the castillo in order to meet them. He liked them. They’d been humbled by their experience and had paid a price that was disproportionate to what they’d done.
There was movement just beyond the church door and Gabriel tensed, surprised to find himself actually experiencing something that felt like...anxiety. A very unfamiliar sensation.
And then she appeared in the doorway. A graceful silhouette. Long white dress, veil obscuring her face. She was on the arm of Matías, whom she’d nominated to be her attendant. Gabriel’s sister had desperately wanted to be here, but she was on a fashion shoot in South America and logistically wouldn’t have made it in time.
Music began and they started walking down the aisle. Gabriel’s breath stopped when Leonora was revealed more fully. The dress was a plain white column—no frills or flounces or ruffles. Just straight, elegant lines, skimming her perfect figure. Long sleeves and a round neck. And yet even from here he could see how the material clung to every dip and curve.
He forced his eyes off Leonora and acknowledged Matías as they arrived at the front of the church. He shook the young man’s hand and then Matías went and stood beside his parents.
Leonora stood before Gabriel, face downbent. He willed her to look up at him. She finally did and he saw the shape of her face, the cheekbones, firm jaw. Lush mouth. Huge eyes.
‘You look...stunning.’
The priest coughed and Gabriel turned to face him—but not before he found Leonora’s hand and wrapped it in his, as if needing to touch her to make sure she was real.
* * *
Most of the wedding ceremony was a blur to Leonora. Gabriel taking her hand had been the only thing keeping her anchored to the spot as the enormity of what she was doing had sunk in when she’d reached the altar. She was committing herself to a man who would never love her. She was setting fire to all those secret hopes and dreams she’d nurtured deep inside her for years.
Somehow all this hadn’t occurred to her with Lazaro Sanchez. Because she hadn’t cared for him as she cared for Gabriel. That unwelcome realisation had made panic flutter in her chest. But then Gabriel had pulled up the veil obscuring her vision and she’d looked at him. And all she’d been able to see were those dark, fathomless eyes, and her panic had dissipated...
‘You may now kiss your bride, Señor Torres.’
It was over.
But it was only beginning.
Gabriel cupped her face and lowered his mouth to hers, so slowly and deliberately that she was quivering all over by the time he made contact. Damn him. He knew exactly how to play her.
The kiss was short, but just as devastating as if he’d pulled her close and taken it all the way to deep and explicit. When she pulled back his eyes were glittering. Until now she’d barely even taken in his steel-grey morning suit or the white cravat. It made his skin look very dark.
He took her hand again and led her back down the aisle. Leonora smiled tremulously at her parents and Matías. He was the reason she’d been late. He’d been confused by all the activity and wondering why Leonora was dressed so strangely, and he’d wanted to know what it meant that she would
now be living in this new place and not at home.
Very considerately, Gabriel had arranged for one of Matías’s favourite teachers from his school to come to the wedding so she could keep an eye on him.
Leonora sucked in big breaths of fresh air once they were outside. A professional photographer took some pictures and then they were ushered into one of the castillo’s dining rooms for the wedding breakfast.
Leonora saw her parents awkwardly conversing with Gabriel’s parents, who were looking unbearably aristocratic. As if all this was beneath them.
She had caught Gabriel’s mother looking expressly at her midsection at one point, and had realised that she must suspect that Leonora was pregnant. Well, she wasn’t. Not when she had the all too familiar cramps to prove it.
Leonora had always suffered from particularly painful periods, but it had never been diagnosed as anything but mild endometriosis. She hadn’t even considered that she might be pregnant—Gabriel had used protection every time—but she’d been surprised at the tiny dart of disappointment when her period had arrived as usual just the other day.
Was she really ready for babies? Children? The thought was alternately terrifying and awe-inspiring.
She put a hand to her belly now, as she took a sip of champagne, unconsciously easing the lingering ache of the end of her period.
