They’d forgotten Charles.
Ruby had organised his invitation but no one had thought of him again. But as the official words faded and Marcus stared down at his bride, stunned by the enormity of what had just happened, the door burst open and in walked Peta’s cousin.
To say he was angry would be an understatement. The man was nearly apoplectic. Charles stood in the doorway, his eyes almost starting from their sockets. His expensive three-piece suit denoted him as an executive, but the uncontrolled fury on his face was more that of a petty criminal. A thug. When Peta turned to see who it was, he lunged straight at her.
He would have hit her. He’d hit her before. Marcus saw that at a glance. He saw Peta flinch and he saw her body brace.
This man had lived with Peta, he thought grimly. There’d been enough violence in Marcus’s past for him to recognise the pattern.
There’d also been enough violence in Marcus’s past for him to react, and to react fast. In one swift movement, Peta was thrust behind him, and his body was protecting her from her cousin’s angry rush.
‘You little…’ Charles moved sideways as if to grab her but Marcus was faster. He had him by the shoulders, holding him in a grip of steel.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
‘That…slut!’ Charles was beyond logic. He’d come here at a run; he was out of breath and he was out of control. He shoved against Marcus’s hold but he was going nowhere.
Foiled, he was forced to explain. To try to voice his fury.
‘I got to the office after lunch to receive this.’ He hauled back from Marcus’s grasp and pulled the invitation from his top pocket. ‘This! I don’t know how she conned you-’
‘No one conned me.’ Marcus’s voice was flint-hard, cold as ice.
‘She must have. That slut, that-’
‘Stop. Right now. You’re talking about my wife!’
Wife.
The word acted like a wall of ice water. Charles flinched. And stared.
‘It’s not possible. Peta… Your wife? Why would you want to marry
Somehow Marcus managed to hold himself in check. Just. ‘You’re being offensive.’
‘It’s she who’s being offensive,’ Charles spat. ‘She’s just doing this to rob me of what rightfully belongs to me. The farm’s mine. I went to all the trouble to drag the old lady back here-’
Enough.
‘Get out.’ Marcus turned to the official who was standing, mouth agape, staring in stunned amazement. ‘Do you have security guards in the building?’
‘I was invited,’ Charles hissed.
‘The invitation is rescinded.’
‘So’s your marriage. Marriage? This marriage is a mockery. It’s illegal. You can’t just marry her and walk away with my property. I’ll have it annulled.’
‘I have no intention of marrying Peta and walking away,’ Marcus said, deliberately misunderstanding him. ‘I’m taking Peta back to Australia.’ Then, as Peta pushed her way out from behind him, Marcus put his arm around her and pulled her in to him. They stood arm in arm. Man and wife.
‘I’m taking Peta home,’ he said gently, his eyes on Charles’s face. ‘In all honour.’
‘You’ve never… You’ll never…’
‘I am. Get used to it.’ He looked across at Darrell. ‘Darrell, if there aren’t security guards to deal with
‘With pleasure,’ Darrell told him.
‘I’ll help,’ Ruby added.
‘Hey, me, too,’ Peta put in. ‘He’s my cousin. I should get to slug him.’
‘Brides don’t slug,’ Marcus told her and she managed a smile. Albeit a shaky one.
‘Not?’
‘Definitely not.’
‘Rats.’
‘You have something else to do,’ Ruby reminded her. ‘Something important.’ Marcus’s assistant glanced at Charles as if he was of no significance at all. ‘If you’ve quite finished?’
‘I haven’t.’ Charles backed to the door as Darrell took a measured step towards him. ‘You’ll hear from my lawyers.’
‘I hope they have better party manners than you do,’ Marcus told him. Then he deliberately turned away from the man and faced Ruby. ‘What has my bride forgotten to do?’
My bride… It sounded strange. It was a declaration of intention-a declaration that, come what may, Charles’s lawyers couldn’t hurt her.
It was a gesture of pure protection and, as he made it, Marcus thought, whoa, where am I going? But he couldn’t unsay it. He couldn’t unfeel it.
He looked down into her face and, as Darrell slammed the door behind her obnoxious cousin, he could see that she was as confused as he was. He was offering protection, but to Peta protection seemed an unknown sensation. She’d fought her own battles, he thought, and somehow, he knew her battles had been just as hard as his own.
The knowledge intensified the sensation. It made him feel even more at sea. More…helpless?
This was an illusion, he told himself. The way he felt about her. The way he held her, pulling her in to his body. It was a facade put on to convince Charles that here was a real marriage.
But Charles had gone now. There was no one here they had to fool, yet Marcus was still holding her and there was no way he was releasing her. No way!
‘What’s she forgotten to do?’ Marcus asked again, and it was Ruby who pulled them all together, Ruby who collected herself. She looked to the official who was still standing in astonishment that the wedding could be so rudely interrupted. But this was a senior official who’d obviously overseen some very strange marriages in his time. He rose to the occasion as a good official should.
‘Can we continue?’ Ruby prodded, and the man stopped staring at the closed door and managed a smile.
‘Right. Where was I? Goodness me. I know. I now pronounce you man and wife.’ He took a deep breath and beamed at the pair of them, from Marcus to Peta and back again. The interruption might have been strange and unsettling, but standing before him were a couple whose body language said they belonged. Someone else may have tried to ruin this occasion but Henry Richard Waterhouse, officiating for the City of New York, was here to marry these people and marry them he would.
‘That’s it, folks,’ he said. He closed his book. ‘Except for the last bit. The best bit. My favourite part of the day. And here it comes.’ His beam widened. ‘You may now kiss the bride.’
No.
The word rose unbidden. No. But he didn’t say it. Somehow he managed to cut it off. Somehow…
Marcus stared down at Peta and, for heaven’s sake, he saw panic there. It was the same panic he felt himself.
They were staring at each other, stunned, as if neither could believe it had come to this. That this wild planning had suddenly landed them in this place, where there was nothing to do but for Marcus to lift his hand, to tilt her chin, for his eyes to lock with hers.
And for his mouth to lower on to hers.
He didn’t want to do it. He didn’t…
He lied. He wanted to do it more than anything in the world.
And it was only a kiss, he told himself fiercely. It meant no more than their signatures on a piece of paper.
It was only a kiss.
But then his lips touched hers and it was much, much more.
