AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Sorry, I just didn’t trust her at all...’
Walking down the aisle in the echoing grandeur of the cathedral with its soaring ceilings and packed pews demanded every bit of Gaby’s confidence. She worked at keeping her head high, looking neither left nor right even as she felt the rustle of turning heads and heard the low murmur of comment that accompanied her passage. Angel wanted her to be his wife. That knowledge lifted her. It was only that the packed cathedral and her new status were a little intimidating. At the altar she saw Angel with another equally tall black-haired man by his side and she saw Angel swing round to openly stare as she approached, and colour flared like a burning banner in her cheeks.
One look at his bride and Angel was riveted to the spot. Gabriella’s dress clung lovingly to her shapely curves and yet exposed only her creamy shoulders. Her glorious hair was piled in a vibrant copper mass on top of her head, providing a wonderful setting for the superb tiara glittering below the lights. The priceless sapphires merely enhanced her bright blue eyes and the luminosity of her skin.
‘I’m impressed, little brother,’ Crown Prince Saif of Alharia murmured softly from behind him. ‘You did better than well.’
Angel’s calm soothed Gaby’s galloping nerves. They might have been alone in the room for all the attention he paid to their surroundings and their audience. She supposed that level of sangfroid only came with practice and experience. During the ceremony, he lifted her hand to slide on the platinum wedding ring and she glanced up, ensnared by his stunning tigerish eyes, and her heart started to race in spite of the acid reminders she was pushing quite deliberately through her brain.
This was the guy who had blackmailed her to the altar and trapped her between a rock and a hard place by using her precious son as a weapon against her. And he might have tried to wrap up his behaviour in clean linen by insisting that he was only thinking of what was best for all three of them but, in truth, Angel had merely utilised his power to get what he wanted at speed and with minimal personal effort. And he hadn’t given her any time at all to adjust to the new status quo. Worse still, his demand for ‘normal’ in such an abnormal marriage was even less reasonable.
Desperately stoking up her anger in self-defence, she listened while the priest spoke timeless words over their bent heads. She looked at the ring on her hand and contemplated a truth she had long avoided. She had been in love with Angel at university, but she had refused to admit it to herself. In those days, unhappily, she had underestimated Angel’s stubborn, wilful streak. She had assumed that he would compromise over the NDA she had refused to sign. She had failed to recognise just how ruthless Angel was at heart, not to mention how swiftly he would move on from her. The hurt inflicted by that rejection had taught her not to assume that a man would react the same way she did to obstacles. Angel hadn’t cared enough about her to reconsider his boundaries or his rules. Indeed, when she had coincidentally seen him kissing that other woman at the party, he had been demonstrating his indifference to her...and hitting back. Don’t forget that, she reminded herself doggedly. Angel was a vengeful soul.
Indeed, so fiercely and efficiently did Gaby revive her every worst thought and feeling about Angel that her profile might have been chipped out of pure ice as they walked back down the aisle again, his arm resting lightly at the base of her rigid spine. Only at that point did she register that she was reviving her negative outlook as a defence against the other powerful emotions flooding her. Angel and what he might do and what he thought meant so much to herbecauseshe stilllovedhim.
It was a moment of revelation that shook and stunned Gaby in the wake of that anxious flood of critical recollections. Fear of allowing Angel to have that power over her again had made her throw up every possible barrier because naturally she didn’t want to get hurt again. Only, sadly, her emotions and the world in general were not under her control.
‘You look stunning,’ Angel murmured softly. ‘But you can smile now.’
‘To do that I would have to have something to smile about,’ Gaby countered in a dry joke, her mouth quirking as they walked out onto the steps, and dismay gripped her when she realised that television cameras awaited them.
Angel caught both her hands in his and tugged her round to face at him. ‘We did it for Alexios but that doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy being together,’ he told her softly, his dark drawl roughening as he gazed down at her. ‘Or that we can’t make a huge success of this marriage.’
His striking dark golden eyes held hers with savage intensity, as though he were demanding that she concede those points. A flush of heat and awareness enveloped her entire body, slowly sliding over her prickling skin like a silken caress, awakening every nerve ending and causing a tightening at her feminine core. The sensation was so strong that it almost hurt, and the tip of her tongue slid out to wet her taut lower lip.
‘Don’t do that when we’re in public,’ Angel warned her in a roughened sensual undertone. ‘It turns me on way too much.’
Gaby’s eyes widened and the butterflies tumbled in her stomach and for the space of ten seconds there was nothing and nobody else in the world for her. He linked his fingers with hers and walked her down the steps past the flashing cameras and shouted congratulations. She was still trying to catch her breath as he tucked her into the waiting limousine.
‘I’m looking forward to introducing you to my brother, Saif, and his wife, Tatiana, at the reception,’ Angel volunteered with a shimmering smile.
‘You have a brother?’ Gaby exclaimed with incredulity, still struggling to shake herself free of the sensual spell that he could cast. ‘Since when didyouhave a brother?’
‘A half-brother from my mother’s first marriage,’ he explained. ‘My brother is the Crown Prince of Alharia. Our mother was married to his father, the Emir, first. She deserted the Emir and my baby brother to run off with my father. The divorce was very discreet. I was born only weeks after my parents married.’
‘Why was your relationship with your brother kept a secret?’ Gaby prompted in curiosity.
‘Saif’s father is old and ill and still sensitive to that ancient scandal. Saif knew the Emir would be upset if he admitted that he had sought me out, but he finally bit the bullet and owned up. Today he just turned up and told me that he intended to be my best man. I was shocked,’ Angel confided with a softened light in his gaze. ‘But I was very pleased to have him by my side.’
‘I can see you were,’ Gaby admitted, jolted by the emotion unhidden in his expressive eyes. ‘Oh, my goodness, now I know what you were doing in Alharia when we met again! Obviously, I guessed you were a wedding guest but—’
‘Yes, I flew in for Saif’s wedding only to discover that I couldn’t show my face at the event in case I was recognised. He hadn’t told his father about our friendship at that stage,’ Angel told her heavily. ‘That was a sobering experience...’
Gaby wondered how much experiencing that disappointment that same day, over his brother’s reluctance to acknowledge their familial bond, had influenced Angel in his attitude towards her that night when Alexios had been conceived. ‘I expect it was...and Saif must have felt it too. I’m sure he must’ve felt that he was letting you down,’ she remarked thoughtfully. ‘That’s why he was so determined to show up foryourwedding and show the world that he is your brother and proud of it.’
Angel glanced at her with veiled appreciation, impressed by her understanding. ‘He’s sensitive that way, more so than me. I did understand how difficult a position he was in, with the Emir having a weak heart. That’s why Saif being here today with his wife and son means a great deal to me. Their son, Amir, is almost the same age as Alexios...’
‘And our sons will totally ignore each other,’ Gaby forecast with a chuckle. ‘They’re too young to be playmates yet.’
Much of the tension that had gripped her in the cathedral had drained away again. ‘So, your mother left Saif behind in Alharia as a baby when she met your father. That must’ve been a very difficult decision for her to make.’
Angel shot her a wry shuttered glance. ‘I doubt it. She didn’t like children much. She never saw Saif again and she didn’ttryto see him either. Saif swears that his father would have allowed her access to him, but she never asked for it. Instead, she acted as though he had never been born.’
In receipt of that rather astonishing information, Gaby widened her eyes, and her lips parted in a soundless ‘oh’ of surprise. Saying that shedidn’t like children muchwas a very revealing admission to make about one’s mother, she reflected on a surge of frustrated curiosity, but, as the limousine was drawing up at the palace, she clamped her tongue between her teeth and said nothing before gathering herself to walk back into public view.
A photo session had been set up in one of the grand ground-floor reception rooms. The wedding party was the main feature of those photos. She was briefly introduced to Prince Saif, who grinned at her and waved at a small blonde carrying a baby. ‘My wife, Tatiana. She’s dying to meet you.’
‘I shall look forward to it,’ Gaby said warmly as Marina appeared in the background with Alexios.
