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“Take me away,” Shanal implored.
It was the last thing Raif expected the bride to say in the middle of her wedding ceremony.
“Take me far away, right now.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Just, please, get me out of here,” she begged, her bewitching pale green eyes shining with unshed tears.
It was the tears that undid him. A taxi rounded the corner. Raif secured Shanal’s small hand in his and pulled the runaway bride to her feet.
“C’mon,” he said, as he bolted for the sidewalk, towing Shanal along behind him.
He raised his hand to get the cabbie’s attention. Eyes round as saucers and his mouth hanging open, the cabbie stopped and Raif yanked open the back door and guided Shanal inside.
Shanal sat next to him, pale but finally more composed, as they pulled away from the curb and down the street.
Raif cast one look through the back window. The crowd on the sidewalk outside the cathedral had grown.
In its midst stood the groom, his eyes fixed on the retreating cab. Even from this distance Raif felt a prickle of unease. Burton, understandably, did not look happy.
But Raif was getting exactly what he wanted.
* * *
The Wedding Bargain is part of The Master Vintners series: Tangled vines, tangled lives.
The Wedding Bargain
Yvonne Lindsay
A typical Piscean, USA TODAY bestselling author YVONNE LINDSAY has always preferred her imagination to the real world. Married to her blind date hero and with two adult children, she spends her days crafting the stories of her heart, and in her spare time she can be found with her nose in a book reliving the power of love, or knitting socks and daydreaming. Contact her via her website: www.yvonnelindsay.com.
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Thank you for making my work shine.
Contents
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Epilogue
“We are gathered here today...”
The priest’s perfectly modulated voice filled the cathedral as sunlight filtered through the stained-glass windows, bathing the hallowed space with jeweled tones. The heady scent of the gardenias in Shanal’s bridal bouquet, imported specifically at Burton’s request, wafted up to fill her senses—and left her feeling slightly suffocated.
“...to join together Burton and Shanal in matrimony...”
Was this what she really wanted above all things? She looked across to her groom. Burton Rogers, so handsome, so intelligent, so successful. So rich. He was a good guy, no, a great guy. And she liked him, she really did.
Like. Such an insipid expression, really.
“...which is an honorable and solemn estate and therefore is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently and soberly.”
Words she’d spoken to her best friend, Ethan Masters, only a year ago, echoed in her mind.
