‘You don’t have to marry me,’ she pointed out. ‘No one is forcing you to.’
‘Believe me, I have to marry you. This longing for you is driving me insane. I’ve never before let any woman interfere with my work, but you—well, you enter my head at the most inopportune moments possible. And every time I look at Matt and James I see them touching you. I can’t take that any more.’
‘And how long are you expecting our marriage to last?’ She waited with bated breath for his answer.
He shrugged. ‘As long as it takes.’
‘For you to tire of me,’ she assessed.
‘Or until you tire of looking at that gold band that seems to mean so much to you at the moment. Talking of which, hadn’t we better go and see about getting you an engagement ring? We may as well get your wedding ring at the same time.’
‘I don’t want an engagement ring.’
‘What you want doesn’t come into it. We’re going to see my mother later today and she’ll expect to see you wearing an engagement ring. So you’re having one.’
‘Y-your mother?’ she queried nervously. ‘We’re going to see your mother?’
‘Haven’t I just said so?’ he said impatiently.
‘But I— We— Does she live in England?’
He gave that mocking smile of his. ‘Well, we’re not flying over to the States to see her, if that’s what you mean.’
‘But I—I had no idea. I naturally assumed—’
‘My mother is English,’ he supplied. ‘She came back to England when my father died five years ago. She now lives in a particularly beautiful part of Hampshire. I called her earlier and told her we’d be over this evening.’
‘Was she surprised? About the wedding, I mean.’
‘My mother tries never to be surprised by anything I do. Otherwise she would be old before her time.’
‘I can imagine.’
He gave a slight smile. ‘Do you have any family we should go and see?’
The only family Kate had was already going to be at the wedding, but he didn’t know that. Dear James, it was all very worrying for him. But she was determined to make this marriage work, determined to make Damien love her as she already loved him. Once they were married and she was more sure of him she would tell him the circumstances behind James being her brother. And he would understand. He would have to!
‘No,’ she answered finally. ‘I don’t have any family who would be in the least interested in my getting married.’
CHAPTER TEN
‘YOU look lovely, Kate.’ Sarah Savage kissed her warmly on the cheek. ‘Much too young and beautiful to be married to this disreputable son of mine!’
Damien glanced at Kate as she stood beside him. ‘It’s a little late to be warning her against marrying me.’ He held her firmly against his side. ‘Married an hour or a lifetime, she’s mine now.’
Kate laughed nervously at the possessiveness in his voice, attempting to lighten his mood. ‘Are all the Savage men this possessive?’
‘All of them.’ Sarah squeezed her hand reassuringly. ‘The reception is going very well. If you want to sneak off now I’m sure I can say all your goodbyes for you.’
‘An excellent idea,’ her son agreed readily.
Kate looked down ruefully at her wedding gown. ‘Can I change first? I don’t really want to leave looking like this.’
They hadn’t invited nearly as many people to their wedding as Sheri and James had, nevertheless a lot of people seemed to have turned up, most of them uninvited. The only guests really invited by Kate had been Josie and Paul, and Sheri and James. She had arrived at the register office with her brother and Sheri, mainly at James’ insistence that this was the proper thing to do.
Today was actually her wedding day! It had been a strange dreamlike day so far, and it was far from over. Tonight she was to become Damien’s wife in the fullest sense of the word, and the thought of that was quite frightening to her.
The reason for this was that there hadn’t been too much affection shown towards her during the week of their engagement. At first she had put this down the the fact that they were so busy arranging the wedding, but now she wasn’t so sure. Damien had been even cooler towards her today, making her all the more nervous of tonight.
‘Go right ahead,’ he told her. ‘You can use the room put aside for you on the first floor.’
‘Excuse me,’ she smiled shyly at her brand new mother-in-law. ‘I won’t be long, Damien.’ She looked at him almost pleadingly, longing for a softening towards her in those harsh features, and finding none, ‘Damien?’
‘I’ll be waiting for you down here,’ he said impatiently.
She looked hurriedly away from the remoteness of his face. This wasn’t her idea of how a bridegroom should behave, and she wondered just what she had let herself in for. She supposed she should have realised just how autocratic he was going to be when he had cancelled her college course without even asking her. When challenged about it he had calmly informed her he had no intention of letting his wife work.
But now even his desire for her seemed to have lessened. When he had expressed such longings for her she had at least thought there was a chance for them, but his attitude now gave her little hope. He didn’t even show casual interest in her any more.
The small case with her change of clothing was waiting for her in the hotel room. They were only going back to Damien’s apartment. He had to be back on the set on Monday morning, which didn’t allow for them to go away on a honeymoon.
‘All right, Kate?’ Sheri came into the room after a brief knock.
A smile quivered and died on her lips. ‘How do you think the wedding went?’
‘It was lovely. James had been more nervous about this than he was over ours.’ She looked at her young sister-in-law
