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Oh, he did.
‘I think we’d both have been better off if we’d just decided to spend the day in bed.’ She knew what she had been trying to say and he knew what she had been trying to say, but somehow her perfectly innocent statement took on a double meaning as soon as it was delivered. She saw the light in his eyes, his eyes scorching hers as she rued every thoughtless word, as suddenly they were staring at each other and thinking only about one thing.
And she missed him being horrible to her.
Missed it because when he wasn’t being nice or sexy or funny—as impossible as he was to deal with—that Iosef was a whole lot easier to deal with than this one.
‘I’d better go...’ She attempted a smile and a casual wave and tried to walk rather than run for the door, biting on her bottom lip as for just a fraction of a second he stalled her at the door with his answer.
‘You’d better!’
The combination of the diet, the pain and the anesthetic must have fuddled her brain, Annie decided later as she arrived at the church where Jackie was barking orders like a sergeant major. As if someone as divine, sexy and utterly dismissive as Dr Gorgeous had really been flirting that morning. It had been a mis-communication—just a funny little thing that if it had been anyone else, had it been, say George, they’d both just have laughed.
As if Iosef Kolovsky, who had the pick of the worlds truly beautiful women would even be remotely interested in a rather plain, rather neurotic nurse.
As if someone as well heeled, well groomed and utterly fabulous as Iosef wouldn’t have an endless supply of ravishing beauties on tap.
That was what the Kolovskys were famous for after all—it was in their blood.
His elder brother Levander had had more women than the tabloids could keep up with till his recent marriage, and it was an open secret that Ivan had had a string of extramarital affairs. Why wouldn’t Iosef have the requisite super-models on ice, frantically waiting for the master to call...?
And why did it matter so much toherthat he did?
‘Over here, Annie.’ Jackie was jangling with nerves as she shifted her two millimeters to the right. ‘I want you in front of Claudia and Bella the flower girl... Oh, where the hell’s Iosef?’
‘Iosef?’ Annie couldn’t help but ask.
‘I left my wedding folder in my office—Iosef said he’d drop it round once Marshall arrived. And Jeremy’s best man is stuck doing an emergency appendectomy. The whole rehearsal is turning into a disaster. We really can’t start till he gets here, so I’ll just run through a couple of details, if that’s OK.’
Annie really wished she wouldn’t or at the very least that they could sit down for it. She already knew that they were to exfoliate tonight for their spray tan at ten tomorrow, that they weren’t to wash their hair again after tonight so that it stayed up beautifully on Saturday. Her leg was starting to throb again and apart from that glass of hot chocolate and toast and thanks to a rather extended midday nap, she hadn’t had another calorie all day.
‘Your dress fits OK?’ Jackie’s headlamps were thankfully on Claudia.
‘It’s fabulous.’ ThetinyClaudia beamed.
‘Annie?’
‘It looks marvelous!’ Annie assured her, crossing her fingers and praying that it would. But Jackie wasn’t listening, that morning’s exchange clearly forgiven and forgotten as she greeted her savior.
‘Iosef! Thank goodness!’
Goodnessindeed!
So far Annie had seen him in a suit and, she winced, caught a stolen glimpse of him in bathers. But a spot of blood or something must have found its way onto his usually immaculate attire, because he was dressed in theatre blues and a pair of runners and he looked... divine!
Apart from that little peek from a distance at the pool she’d only been privy to him from his Adam’s apple upwards, but now his arms were on show, pale, toned arms that had just enough dark hair to make her toes curl. Thanks to the lack of budget in the laundry department, threadbare pants outlined rather muscular thighs and a pert bottom that she really shouldn’t be noticing.
‘Could I ask a huge favor, Iosef?’ Jackie didn’t wait for an answer before she plunged in. ‘Brian’s stuck in Theatre till heaven knows when—would you mind filling in as best man?’
Annie couldn’t help smiling sympathetically as he gamely agreed.
Wedding rehearsals are possibly the most futile of futile exercises, Annie concluded more than an hour later—all they did was leave everyone feeling worse!
Everything that could go wrong did—and it was impossible to imagine that in just two days this motley crew could somehow shape up to become a suitable wedding party. The flower girl’s bedtime had long since passed and she was in floods of tears, the vicar was glancing at his watch and wondering if he’d ever get dinner, yet Jackie was grim with determination, insisting they run through it just one more time as the bullet of an antibiotic Annie had taken before she’d left continued to sit in her empty stomach and was starting to make her feel sick.
‘And,please, Annie, could you remember to smile?’
Before or after I throttle you ?Annie thought, poking her tongue out as Jackie turned her back and then feeling childish and stupid for doing so. For the briefest of seconds she caught Iosef’s eye. He was standing at the altar, looking thoroughly bored, but when he rolled his eyes Annie actually managed a tiny giggle. She walked behind the exhausted flower girl as Jackie hummed the Wedding March ahead of them, Jeremy beaming at his soon-to-be bride as she arrived at the altar and Iosef rather inappropriately yawning. Annie never really knew how it happened, but those tiny little dots that had danced in front of her eyes this morning suddenly appeared again—only this time there was no Iosef to push her back down onto a pillow and no amount of blinking seemed to clear them. Her lips were impossibly dry, but she could feel herself sweating, feel herself gulping air in as she willed herself not to faint.
