Wedding Fever

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Well, it was no use getting worked up about it, Raine told herself firmly, but at the first opportunity she’d have a word with Dr Broadbent.

Hands unsteady, she pulled on a silky lilac dress with a matching jacket and, to counteract Nick’s intimidating height, high-heeled sandals.

Too het up to bother with make-up, she pulled a comb through her smooth, glossy, below shoulder-length hair and picked up her bag; she was ready.

Quick as she’d been, Nick was waiting for her in the hall. He’d changed into a well-cut, lightweight suit and a pearl-grey tie, and his thick blond mane was parted on the left and neatly brushed.

Standing arrogantly at ease, head tilted a little, one hand thrust into his trouser pocket, he watched her come down the stairs, long-legged and elegant, her slender body moving gracefully.

‘Full marks for speed...’ he commented with satisfaction. Then, tilting her chin with a proprietorial hand, he studied her exquisitely boned face with its black winged brows and wide-spaced almond eyes, straight nose and generous mouth.

His gaze lingered on her mouth.

‘Don’t!’ she said sharply.

‘You have no lipstick to smudge...’

She froze into immobility and closed her eyes as his mouth moved closer and hovered. But the kiss never came. With delicate cruelty he nipped her full lower lip between his white teeth.

When her lids flew open, he said flatly, ‘Even without make-up you’re still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.’

Badly shaken, she tried mockery. ‘In a minute you’ll be telling me Kevin’s a lucky man.’

‘That’s a matter of opinion. Personally, I rate the willingness to trust a great deal higher than looks.’

The chilling put-down was delivered with a complete lack of emotion. Still it stung.

Jerking free, she retorted, ‘Was I the only one who was expected to trust you? Or did you ask your fiancée to trust you too?’

His mouth thinned. ‘I would have explained how things were if you’d given me a chance, instead of running out on me.’

‘Apart from admitting you were an unprincipled swine, how would you have “explained” seducing me while you were engaged to another woman?’

‘Hardly seducing you,’ he drawled. ‘As I recall, you were more than willing.’

Her face flamed. Unable to deny the charge, she said tightly, ‘But then I had no idea what you were really like.’

‘And you didn’t stop to find out. You weren’t prepared to even listen, let alone trust me.’

The accusation was full of anger and contempt. In that instant she knew that if he had any feeling for her now, it was hatred.

Well, that made them equal, she thought bitterly.

He lifted broad shoulders in a shrug. ‘However, that’s all in the past. It’s the future I’m concerned with, and what I want from you now doesn’t include trust.’

‘What do you want from me?’

‘Nothing you haven’t already given me.’

That sardonic statement made her blood run cold. ‘If you think—’