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How had his mother known to turn, to catch him watching Faith, to see his inner turmoil over her tears?
Maybe a mother just knew. His certainly always had.
“I’ve had enough,” he announced to no one in particular. “Any other photos requiring my presence will have to be taken later.”
The photographer must have been finished with him anyway because no one seemed to mind when he left the wedding party to find Faith.
The guests had been served a sit-down meal and Faith had to be at one of the long white tables dotted across the lawn or inside the tent. But he didn’t spot her. Not even with his mother, which is where he expected to find Faith.
His mother’s gaze shifted purposefully toward the house and he sent her a silent “Thank you”.
She wasn’t downstairs, so he headed up to his suite.
“Faith?” he called when he entered his room, not seeing her in the sitting area. When he turned toward the bathroom she was coming out, another tissue in her hand. Some of her hair had worked loose from its u
pswept style. Her nose was red and her eyes puffy. Her make-up was slightly smudged.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked, looking at him in confusion. “Aren’t you needed for photos?”
He couldn’t move, could only stare at her and wonder at the pangs in his chest. “You’ve been crying.”
She winced, wiping at her eyes as if that would somehow disguise the truth from him. “It’s nothing. Weddings make me cry, that’s all.”
She was a horrible liar and unaccustomed guilt hit him.
“I shouldn’t have made you come with me this weekend. You told me you didn’t like weddings and I didn’t listen.”
She forced a small smile. “It’s okay, Vale. I need to get over my phobia about weddings. Besides, you needed me to protect you from your mother’s matchmaking.”
Rubbish, he thought. He could handle his mother. Sure, she’d been hinting more and more for him to find someone to share his life with, telling him he worked too much, needed to enjoy life, and had paraded female after female in his path the last time he’d visited. Having Faith at his side had ensured she wouldn’t do that, making his weekend less complicated. Only perhaps having Faith at his side had complicated things in ways he wouldn’t be able to easily undo. Regardless, at the moment all he wanted was to protect her, to take away her pain and promise her everything would be okay.
Whatever the everything that had upset her was.
Was he right and it had to do with her mother or was her phobia something more personal? Had Faith been engaged in the past? Married even?
His chest pang grew stronger.
“I wanted you with me, Faith.” He pulled her into his arms and she willingly went, laying her head against his tuxedo and wrapping her arms around his waist. The pang clawed at his throat, threatening to give him heartburn. “But it was unfair of me to force you to come to something that obviously distresses you so much. I’m sorry.”
In all the time Faith had known Vale she’d never heard him say he was sorry. Not that he was the type of man who thought he was too good to do so, just that he was rarely wrong. Maybe never.
“It really is okay, Vale,” she breathed against his chest, loving the strength she found in his arms, loving how tightly he held her, as if he planned to hold her for ever. “I wanted to be with you this weekend, too.”
Now, that was really stupid. Why was she telling him that? The next thing she’d be blurting out that she was in love with him. She wasn’t in love with him. This wasn’t love.
“I mean…” Oh, what did she mean? With him holding her, she couldn’t think and her mind had already been cloudy from her cry-fest. Silly that weddings made her sad, made her miss her father, made her wonder if she’d been responsible for him leaving, and if she was doomed to repeat her mother’s mistakes.
“I don’t know what I mean, Vale. I’m so confused about everything this weekend. Weddings confuse me. You confuse me. The way I want you, yet I know I shouldn’t.” There she went, saying stupid things again. “I can’t seem to think about anything but you, Vale. Make it go away.”
He tilted her chin, stared into her eyes, then did what she wanted more than anything, what she’d been waiting for nearly a lifetime. He kissed her with all the passion of a man who wanted a woman intensely. With all the gentleness of someone who cared about her and didn’t want her to hurt, who really did want her pain to go away. He kissed her with all the fierceness of a man who wouldn’t be denied, a man used to conquering the world.
Faith kissed him back with matching passion, gentleness, and fierceness, but also with everything in her heart, knowing that he alone could take away the ache in her chest, that only he could make her feel whole.
Was that love? Was that what she was feeling for him?
She couldn’t think of that now. Not while he was touching her.
He trailed kisses over her exposed neck, onto her bare shoulders. Cupping her bottom, he held her to his groin, pressing her into where he’d grown hard for her.
