AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mouth dry, Violet waited for her first kiss from JT. Her stomach had been in knots for the last several hours since they’d agreed to get married. How would he kiss her? Would it be passionate? Romantic? Would he sweep her into his arms and steal her breath or would he woo her with slow, sensual kisses? Either way, she knew it would be perfect.
She’d never dreamed he’d catch her chin in his fingers and plant a quick kiss at the corner of her lips. Lost in a fog of disappointment, she automatically went through the formalities that followed and accepted the congratulations of the witnesses with a heavy heart.
And then the car was rolling out of the Tunnel of Love Chapel and emerging into the noise and lights of Las Vegas once more. While JT negotiated the traffic on his way to the freeway, Violet stared at the ring on her hand. How had he gotten a set of wedding rings on such short notice? And such unique ones at that.
“It’s my grandmother’s,” JT said as if reading her mind. “And this is my grandfather’s.” He held up his left hand. “I drove to the ranch before picking you up.”
Rendered speechless at the significance of wearing a family heirloom, Violet gaped at him. Harper would laugh at her for believing that jewelry held the energy of the wearer, but what else could explain the tranquility that came over her the instant she’d put on his grandmother’s ring? They’d married without love. She didn’t deserve to be wearing something so dear.
“Is something wrong?” he prompted.
“We could have bought rings at the chapel.”
“Why, when these were collecting dust in my safe?”
“But it’s your grandmother’s ring.”
He eyed her. “And I trust that as soon as it’s no longer necessary, you’ll return it.”
“Of course.” It was beginning to annoy her that he wasn’t getting the significance of the jewelry he’d just pledged his troth with. Heaving a sigh, Violet decided to let it drop. In a few months it would be back in his safe where it belonged.
As the car streaked through the Nevada night, the adrenaline rush she’d been riding for the last two days began to fade. Her confidence waned as well. She was now married to a man who was for all intents and purposes a virtual stranger. And with the strength of his deflector shields, he was likely to stay that way no matter how delicately she probed. Which she really shouldn’t do.
What she had to remember was that despite the marriage vows they’d just exchanged, theirs was a union of expediency. Mutual benefit. JT got the chance to reclaim his family’s business. She would finish what Tiberius had started and preserve the stock’s value.
It was a business arrangement. He would resist her efforts to dig around in his private thoughts in an attempt to get to know him better.
“Now what’s bothering you?” JT quizzed.
“Nothing, why?”
For the last half hour they’d been heading north out of town on I-25. His sixty-acre ranch sat just beyond the outskirts of the city. At first she’d resisted being away from the hotel on such short notice, but since Tiberius’s death, she’d been working herself hard and could really use a night off.
“You haven’t said a word in fifteen minutes,” JT said. “It’s not like you.”
“Was it crazy, what we just did?”
“Completely.” He exited the freeway and turned left onto a two-lane highway. “Have you changed your mind?”
“No.” And she was surprised at how strongly she felt about staying the course. “It’s all going to work out. We just need to get the last three percent Tiberius had been working on before the next stockholders’ meeting.”
JT nodded. “One way or another, we can be divorced before fall.”
Her stomach fell at his eagerness to be rid of her and she chided herself for reacting so foolishly. That was the deal they’d made. She had no right to wish for something else.
“Then we’d better get to work immediately,” she said. “I brought all the files from his desk at the house. He was about to approach eight more shareholders. Four of the leads look promising.”
“I’ll look at them first thing in the morning.”
His use of first person singular wasn’t lost on her. Before she returned to Fontaine Chic tomorrow, she was determined to make him understand that this undertaking was going to be a team effort. She’d married him and was determined he would not do battle with his father alone.
“This is going to work, you know.”
He shot her a dour look. “Are you always this optimistic?”
“You make it sound like a bad thing.”
