AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘My privacy actually,’ said Dana. ‘Zac is living at his flat.’
‘Good God,’ Nicola said blankly. ‘And I thought the whole reason for this high-speed, low-key wedding was your total inability to keep your hands off each other.
‘After all the world would expect the Belisandro heir to be married by some cardinal in a packed cathedral.’
‘Then the world would be wrong,’ Dana said brightly. ‘Because it will be just the four of us at the registry office, making it a very small day. Zac’s father doesn’t approve of civil marriages and Mrs Latimer has just had an operation, so Aunt Joss doesn’t feel she can leave her.’
‘And your mother?’ Nicola asked gently.
‘I wrote, inviting her, but she hasn’t replied.’ Dana bent her head. ‘When Aunt Joss finally gave me her address in Spain, she warned me I’d be wasting my time.’ She sighed. ‘But at least I know where she is—working in a place called Roberto’s Bar in Altamejo. It doesn’t sound too promising.’
Nicola grimaced sympathetically. ‘Well, my mother won’t be gracing my wedding either. But she and lover-boy have sent me the most incredible emerald bracelet as a wedding present. One look and Eddie took it straight to the bank.’
She paused. ‘So what are you planning to wear at this very quiet wedding?’
‘Nothing,’ said Dana without thinking and Nicola gurgled with laughter.
‘Well, I’d have to blindfold Eddie, and the registrar, but Zac would probably be delighted.’
Dana groaned. ‘You can joke,’ she said. ‘But I’ve been searching through every department store in London, and I can’t find anything remotely suitable.’
‘Then we’ll go together. I know loads of places,’ Nicola said confidently. ‘You’d better make a list. I suppose you’re going somewhere exotic on honeymoon so you’ll need beachwear and pretty floaty things for the evenings.’
‘Actually, no,’ Dana said reluctantly. ‘We aren’t having a honeymoon—or not immediately. Zac will be travelling to Europe almost at once, dealing with the problems thrown up at the conference. And as it will be wall to wall meetings, starting at breakfast and going on until late into the night, I’ll be staying at Mannion.’
She smiled. ‘Making sure all the refurbishment is done in time for your wedding.’
‘To blazes with that,’ Nicola said vigorously. ‘You should be with Zac on this European tour. He must surely intend to go to bed at some point between meetings, and sex, quite apart from anything else, is a great stress buster.’
Dana forced a smile. ‘I get the impression he thrives on stress. Anyway, he’s quite adamant. He goes. I stay.’
And she was thankful for it, she told herself when Nicola had departed and she was alone again, remembering Zac’s slanting smile as he gave her the news, adding softly, ‘So, for a while, you will be spared my constant company, mia bella.’
Although she would still have to undergo the ordeal of their wedding night and all those other nights before he left. There was no escape from that.
As Zac had reminded her. ‘The interior design of the house, Dana mia, is your domain.’ Adding softly, ‘As you will be mine.’
Because their marriage was only a trade. Her body for his house.
That’s what he was telling her again. What his touch had said long before the startling moment when he’d proposed to her and been accepted.
So why, in that case, was she still sleeping alone in a bed as wide as the ocean?
Not that she wanted anything else, she added hastily. But this delaying of the inevitable was making her nervous.
I don’t understand it, she thought. I don’t understand him.
Was it forbearance, sparked by some innate awareness of her inexperience, or was he playing a cat and mouse game with her senses? Keeping her deliberately on a knife-edge of uncertainty?
Whichever—it ultimately made no difference. Because she would never be his in the way that Mannion would be hers. Never belong to him, because she already belonged to Mannion.
And nothing, she told herself defiantly, would ever change that.
* * *
It was a very conventional ring. Just a plain circlet created from a modest lump of gold, not wide enough to reach her knuckle, or studded with precious stones.
Something she’d not expected, like the way Zac had touched the gold to his lips before slipping it on to her finger.
It felt alien on her hand, its gleam always catching her eye, she thought, nervously smoothing the cream silk of her wedding dress over her knees.
