Читать книгу The Prodigal Bride - Beth Cornelison - Страница 8

Nervous jitters danced down Zoey’s spine, and she popped up from the chair in the waiting area of the I Do, I Do Wedding Chapel to pace. All of Gage’s reasoning sounded good in theory, but the reality of marrying Gage still left Zoey off balance. Wary. Terrified.

And her inability to quit staring at his five-o’clock-shadowed jaw line and buff fireman’s build left her just … confused. And flush-faced.

“Just so we’re straight on this,” she said, aiming a finger at her groom, who looked a little pale around the gills himself, “this isn’t permanent. When we both have our lives back on track—after my baby comes and I have a job, and when Elaine takes custody of Pet again—we get a simple divorce and go our separate ways, no hard feelings, no complications. Right?”

Gage’s jaw tightened, and his nostrils flared as he sucked in a deep breath. “Right.”

She paced across the room and back, acid building in her stomach as she found the courage to lay out her number-one rule. She wet her lips and squeezed her hands into fists to stop them from shaking. “And no sex. This isn’t really a marriage, and … well, we know how sex messed things up for us last time.”

His eyes darkened, and his gaze narrowed. He said nothing, but she knew he was remembering the last time, the only time they’d slept together … and the morning after.

The night of graduation filtered through her mind like an apparition, haunting her. She could still hear the cheers of her classmates as they tossed their caps, could still smell the beer and “jungle juice” Marty Haines served at his postgraduation party. But most vividly, she remembered looking for Gage, not seeing him at the party, but finding him later, waiting for her at her family’s pool house. With a black eye.

Though she’d been tipsy, she’d let him vent about his father, offered him comfort and … one thing had led to another. Zoey had compounded the drunken mistake of sleeping with her best friend with her impulsive gut reaction the next morning. In a panic and without a word to Gage, she’d fled Lagniappe for Europe—a decision that had nearly ruined their friendship.

“No sex,” she repeated. “We can’t repeat that mistake. Our friendship is more important than a night of doing the mattress tango.” She pressed a hand to her swirling stomach. “Agreed?”

Gage held her gaze, his dark stare unnerving. He cracked his knuckles, a sure sign that he wasn’t as cool and collected inside as his relaxed manner suggested. Finally, he turned a hand up in concession. “Fine. No sex. But we still respect our wedding vows. No infidelity.”

She jerked a nod. “Naturellement.”

His scowl reminded her how much he hated her speaking French, a too-raw reminder of her years away “finding herself” in Europe.

“But to keep the divorce simple, I think we should—”

Gage growled and surged to his feet. “Can we not plan every detail of our divorce now? It’s bad enough you’ve talked about nothing but how this won’t be a ‘real’ marriage—” glowering, he made quotation marks in the air with his fingers “—since the minute you put on my engagement ring. If you don’t want to marry me, just say so. Otherwise, can we try to be at least a little optimistic before we walk down the aisle?”

“Easy, Sparky.” She stepped up to him and patted his chest. His broad, hard, well-developed chest. She let her hand linger longer than she should have, and he arched an eyebrow. Leapin’ lizards. “I just want to make sure we’re on the same page before we say ‘I do.’”

She savored the warmth of his skin that seeped through his shirt and felt the reassuring thump of his heart under her hand. Strong and steady, just like Gage. Reminded of all he’d sacrificed to help her, Zoey cupped his cheek with her hand. His unshaven jaw scratched her hand, and she marveled again at the changes in him since high school. Who was this calendar-worthy hottie she was about to marry? Sure, she’d seen him since graduation. Dozens of times. But in her mind, Gage would always be the quiet, skinny boy who didn’t shave until his junior year. The lanky track-team distance runner. The geeky guy no one noticed and whose name was misspelled “Gabe” in the senior yearbook.

But women noticed him now. At the restaurant alone, she’d counted five different women who’d looked ready to jump him if he’d shown even a hint of interest. Her best friend, the late bloomer, the fireman hunk. Who’da thunk it?

“Thanks again for coming to my rescue. Now I don’t have to go home to face my parents unwed, penniless, pregnant and deserted.” She quirked a wry grin. “Just penniless and pregnant.”

He shrugged. As if driving fifteen hundred miles without sleeping, as if putting his life on hold so her baby would have a name, as if saving her from being homeless were nothing.

He wrapped his fingers around hers and moved them from his cheek to brush a soft kiss across her knuckles. A sensation like tiny bubbles tickled down her spine.

“What are friends for? I wouldn’t have survived high school if not for you and your family. Consider this payback.”

The doors to the chapel opened, and a man wearing a sparkly suit that Liberace would envy called, “Powell-Bancroft?”

Gage and Zoey looked from Mr. Sparkles to each other. She saw the get-a-load-of-him grin Gage fought to hide and had to bite the inside of her own cheek so she wouldn’t laugh. “Are you sure this is the wedding chapel and not the Salute to Siegfried and Roy?” she whispered.

Gage’s cheek twitched, and his gaze lit with humor. “Just in case, keep an eye out for tigers in there, okay?” He offered her his arm. “Shall we?”

Her stomach swirled, and her burger-and-fries lunch rebelled. “Is this the right thing to do, Gage? I mean, the last thing I want is to do anything that will hurt our friendship.”

His dark eyebrows lowered, his expression cautious. “I’m sure. I thought about all the pros and cons driving out here. But if you’re not sure, if you need more time to think—”

“That would be so not me. Right?” She raked her hair back with her fingers and gave him a nervous laugh. “Impulsive is my middle name. Isn’t that what my mother says?” She hooked her arm in his and squared her shoulders. “Let’s do this.”

A tinny organ played the Wagner wedding march, and Zoey squeezed Gage’s hand as they strode down the aisle to the vaudevillesque minister. Her stomach seesawed, her lip sweated and her knees trembled. This was hardly how she pictured her wedding day as a little girl.

She swallowed hard, forcing down the bile that rose in her throat when the minister, a show-perfect smile in place, intoned, “We’re gathered here today to join Zoey and Gabe—”

“Gage,” her groom corrected.

The pearly-white smile faltered. “Oh, uh … Zoey and Gage in the legal bonds of marriage.”

Her heart thundered, and she thought she might throw up. Maybe the hot peppers on her burger had been a mistake … but she’d had a strange craving for them and—

“Zoey, do you take Gage to be your husband? To love and cherish in sickness and—” The minister’s voice faded to a drone as she faced her groom. Her groom. Leapin’ lizards! She’d spent her whole life making rash decisions, screwing up, hurting the people she loved. How could she live with herself if, in trying to dig herself out of the hole she’d created with Derek, she was making matters worse by marrying Gage?

She was ready to turn and run when she met Gage’s eyes. Warm, genuine, encouraging. He flashed her one of his crooked grins and, as if David Copperfield had waved his hands and snatched away a silky veil, her jitters vanished. Poof! Gage had been her rock, her refuge, her home base for more than eleven years. With him, she was safe, anchored.

“—until death do you part?” the showman minister finished grandly.

A niggle of guilt poked her. Their marriage would be temporary, not until death, but the confidence in Gage’s eyes filled her with a calm assurance she was doing the right thing. Warmth filled her chest. “Yeah, I do.”

Relief to have her vows over with buzzed through Zoey as the Liberace double repeated the vows for Gage. In response, Gage’s expression warmed. “Absolutely, positively.”

Zoey quirked an eyebrow. His answer seemed over-the-top, when a simple “I do” would have sufficed. But maybe Gage was getting caught up in the whole Las Vegas flash and dazzle. Or maybe he was trying to make her laugh at the absurdity of their tying the knot in Vegas like something from an episode of Friends. He surprised her again by producing from his pocket a plain band to slip on her finger at the appointed time. When she gave him a curious look, he only winked and turned to face the minister. They signed the marriage license to make it official, and the tinny organ tuned up again with “Going to the Chapel of Love.”

The minister gave Gage a sly grin. “You can kiss her now.”

Zoey sputtered, heat creeping to her cheeks. “Naw. See, we’re not really—”

Gage caught her wrist and reeled her close with a firm tug. “You heard the man, Zee. Shut up and kiss me.”

Her stomach swooped in anticipation. To cover, she pulled a face and buzzed her lips in dismissal. “Yeah, right. We’re not—”

Capturing her nape with one hand, Gage anchored her against his long, lean body with his other arm. He silenced her startled gasp with a kiss that was far from platonic. His warm mouth covered hers, drawing on it with gentle but insistent persuasion. Zoey clutched at his T-shirt to steady herself as his tongue traced the seam of her lips and her head spun dizzily. A sensation like hot maple syrup flowed through her veins, sweet and indulgent, while Gage’s skillful lips teased and tantalized hers. Around her, the chapel lost focus, and the organ was drowned out by the whoosh of blood in her ears.

When he angled his head to deepen the kiss, she surrendered to the heady pleasure that swamped her and answered the tug of his mouth with her own fervor. Gage massaged her neck with his fingers, his caress seductive and hypnotizing. Heat and need coiled low in her belly as she melted into him. His kiss was commanding yet tender, powerful, romantic—and unexpectedly erotic.

When he backed away, leaving her shaking and breathless, Gage’s grin was cocky, his dark eyes on fire. “And don’t you forget it.”

Weak-kneed, she blinked at him—stunned, confused … and aroused. Aroused by Gage? What was happening to her?

“Leapin’ lizards,” she rasped, touching her fingers to her lips, half expecting to find them ablaze. “What was that?”

“That, Mrs. Powell—” Gage took a step back, rolled his shoulders and twisted his mouth in regret “—is just a taste of what you’ll be missing.” He laced their fingers and nudged her down the aisle with her arm tucked under his. Giving her a side glance, he arched an eyebrow. “So … how do you feel about your no-sex rule now?”

Gage loaded the last of Zoey’s belongings into the back of his Ford Escape—or rather Elaine’s Escape. He was using the SUV while his sister was in rehab and he had Pet. He slammed the back end of the vehicle closed and glanced up to the door of the motel room where Zoey emerged with her purse and a backpack. Having never officially checked out, due to her lack of funds, Zoey was still technically renting the room. So they’d returned long enough for Gage to get a shower and a nap before hitting the road.

She’d been unusually quiet since the wedding ceremony, and Gage mentally kicked himself for kissing her so passionately. A chaste kiss to seal the union would have been enough. Or no kiss, as Zoey had wanted, would have been safest. But all her talk about how their marriage wouldn’t be real, how they couldn’t have sex, how sleeping together their only time had been a mistake had frustrated him.

And, yeah, he knew that harboring any hope that living as man and wife, sharing the same roof, renewing the bonds that had made them so close in high school would eventually change her feelings for him was a recipe for disaster and heartache. But maybe a little of Zoey’s recklessness had rubbed off on him because, damn it, he still clung to the shred of hope that someday Zoey would see what she meant to him and return his feelings. The kiss at the I Do, I Do Wedding Chapel just demonstrated that they had chemistry beyond friendship. His body temperature rose just remembering the heat in Zoey’s kiss. The way her raspberry lips had parted in surprise and a pink blush had crept over her cheeks. She’d made a beautiful bride.

For whatever reason, Zoey was scared to recognize that attraction and embrace it. He’d known that ever since he woke up alone the morning after graduation. Kissing her today had been stupid. He couldn’t push her, or he risked having her run from him again as she had six years ago. He couldn’t risk hurting her while she was vulnerable, couldn’t risk frightening her away when she was still reeling from Derek’s desertion. She needed him to be her friend while she dealt with the mess she was in and got her feet under her again.

Gage dragged a hand down his face and sighed. Patience, buddy. Just have patience.

Yet another small voice, an echo from the past, whispered to him, You’re a dope if you think she’ll ever want you. She’s going to run again. She’s going to hurt you. That’s who she is and what she does. You can’t change her.

“I think that’s everything.” Zoey opened a back door and tossed in her backpack. “Did you pay the motel manager?”

Gage shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. “Yeah. We’re good to go.”

Zoey gnawed her bottom lip. “I’m going to pay you back. All of it. I hate that you got stuck settling my debts.”

“Forget it.”

She frowned. “Never. I’m gonna pay you back. I am.”

“Zoey?” The voice came from behind Gage, and even before he turned, he saw Zoey’s expression and knew who it was.

“What the hell are you doing here, Derek?” Her tone was brittle, hurt.

Gage bristled and stepped in front of Derek when he tried to approach Zoey. “Beat it, dude. She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

Derek ignored Gage and leaned sideways to see past him. “I just want a minute, Red. We gotta talk.”

“I have nothing to say to you.” She snatched open the passenger door of the Escape and dropped her purse on the seat. “Ready, Gage?”

“Gage?” Derek cocked his head and studied him. “You’re her friend from school.”

Squaring his shoulders, Gage narrowed a defensive glare on the man who’d used Zoey and discarded her like yesterday’s news. “Actually, I’m her husband now. And I’m taking her home. So beat it.”

Derek’s eyebrows shot up, and he coughed a laugh. “Her husband? You know she’s pregnant, right?”

Gage’s blood pressure spiked, and he balled his fists. “Yeah, I know,” he growled through gritted teeth. “And I know you weren’t man enough to take responsibility for your baby. But I care about Zoey, and I will protect her from you and anyone else who tries to hurt her or her baby.”

Derek raised his hands. “Easy, man, I don’t want to hurt her. I just gotta talk to her.” Turning toward Zoey again, his expression turned beseeching and somewhat desperate. “If you’re married now and going home, then you must have access to some money again. I need your help, Red. Please.”

She scoffed. “Get real.”

“C’mon, Zoey. Viper’s breathing down my neck. I gotta get him his money soon or things could get ugly.”

She pointed to her bruised eye. “They already got ugly. Viper tried to squeeze the money from me. But I’m done being your ATM. Haven’t you stolen enough from me?”

Derek sidled around Gage and approached Zoey. “You can’t do this to me, Zoey! I need that money. Do it for what we had.” He paused and got a gleam in his eye. “Do it for our kid.”

She stiffened. “You lost any right to speak of our baby when you told me not to keep it!”

“I’m sorry about that. Really. I just panicked.” He paused and hung his head, turning his palms up in a pleading gesture. “Please, I just need a little cash.”

“What you need is professional help. You’re a gambling addict, Derek.” Whirling away, she slid into the front seat and slammed the Escape’s door. Gage took his cue and headed toward the driver’s side, but when Derek jerked Zoey’s door open to confront her again, he detoured.

“Please, Zoey. I need money! I’ll get help. I will, but please, don’t do this …”

Gage grabbed the back of Derek’s shirt and hauled him away from Zoey. He could smell the desperation that rolled off Derek in waves. Pitiful. With a firm thrust, he shoved Derek to the pavement. “I’m warning you, if you ever come near her again or try to steal money from her in any way, I will hurt you worse than any loan shark ever could.”

Without looking back, Gage stormed around the front fender and climbed behind the wheel. Protective rage seethed inside him as he gunned the engine.

Derek staggered to his feet and smacked the side of the SUV as Gage peeled out of the motel parking lot. “You haven’t heard the last of me, Red! You owe me!”

In the passenger seat, Zoey shuddered and squeezed her eyes shut. Gage wrapped his hand around the fist she balled in her lap. “I won’t let him hurt you, Zee. I swear it.”

She cast a green-eyed glance at him, full of trust, apology and appreciation, and his heart kicked. He’d keep his promise to protect Zoey and her baby, no matter what. And somehow he’d find a way to guard his heart.