Do you remember at Josh’s christening when Jennie…? Or Barb’s fiftieth when she…?
And that couldn’t happen to Alice and Cameron’s wedding day. If she caused a scene, nobody would remember how delicately beautiful the bride had looked or how heart-breakingly romantic the groom’s speech had been; they’d just label the day as the one when Jennie and her secret husband had given them a firework display they’d never forget.
Thankfully, Alex was her polar opposite when it came to hogging the spotlight, and she was counting on him to want somewhere quiet and civilised to say whatever he had to say.
They were almost at the doors now and she glanced over her shoulder. Why, she wasn’t sure. She didn’t need her eyes to check if Alex was following her; the prickles running up and down her back confirmed he was close enough to reach out and grab her if she was tempted to bolt. Which she was. He was a very sensible man.
She quickly turned to stare straight ahead again. There was a fire in his eyes that was anything but sensible, and then she began to worry that she’d read the whole situation wrong. He didn’t look as if he was on the verge of being quiet or civilised. Perhaps it’d be a better plan to convince him to meet her somewhere else in the morning, when they were both in a better frame of mind.
Why was he here? Why now?
Scalding anger spiralled up inside her. What gave him the right to come and capsize her life again? What more could he possibly want from her that he hadn’t already taken?
As they reached the foyer, she could see it was virtually empty, populated only by a couple of tired-looking hotel employees and a guest she didn’t recognize. Once they were through the double doors, she headed into a quiet nook, just under the shelter of the grand staircase, and turned to face Alex.
Despite her swift about-face, he didn’t bump into her. Not quite. But he stopped perilously close, only millimetres away. The prickles running up and down her spine shifted accordingly, flowing round to the front of her body, then up her neck and into her cheeks, making every follicle on her head tense. It was like being jabbed all over by a thousand acupuncture needles—and nowhere near as relaxing.
She took a step backwards and asked the question that had been clanging around her head ever since he’d materialised out of nowhere in the function room. ‘What are you doing here, Alex?’
He stood there, terrifyingly still, not even blinking. ‘Jennie, you’re my wife! Why would you think that I wouldn’t come and find you?’
Hot, salty tears burned the back of Jennie’s eyelids. This was what she’d wanted, what she’d prayed for—to hear those words in his deep, rumbling voice. When she’d run away from him, deep down in her subconscious, this was what she’d ached for. But it was only when he hadn’t followed that she’d picked her emotions apart and realised it.
But it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
In her tear-soaked daydreams he’d pulled her to him, pressed warm kisses to her face, whispered his devotion. In her dreams he’d never looked at her with such disdain. No, the words were right, but everything else was wrong, all wrong. And she couldn’t let him see how weak it made her feel.
‘Well, you found me.’ She put her hands on her hips, raised just one eyebrow. If there was one thing Alex couldn’t resist it was a challenge.
She hadn’t thought it possible for him to be more of a foreboding presence towering over her, but in his stillness he hardened further and his eyes narrowed.
‘I came for two reasons… There are things you need to know and, frankly, I think you owe me an explanation.’
An explanation. He wanted an explanation?
Her jaw muscles squeezed themselves into knots. ‘Is that all?’
She hated herself as she waited for his answer, knowing that a small part of her still wanted to hear him say he’d come for her, that he needed her. Those arctic-blue eyes looked her up and down.
‘Possibly. I’m not sure yet.’ From the look on his face, anyone would have thought he really didn’t care.
Jennie’s insides crumpled uncomfortably, as if she were a piece of paper that had been squashed into a ball and discarded. The only way she knew how to stop herself disintegrating was to unleash the rage she’d been nursing for the last few weeks.
‘Go to hell!’
At that moment Jennie wished she hadn’t been brought up so well, because she’d have dearly loved to wipe that condescending look off his face with a stinging slap, the kind that would probably have hurt her as much as it hurt him. The satisfaction at seeing him lose his cool, just for a nanosecond, would be worth it.
She turned on her stilettos and strode off in the opposite direction, no destination in mind, just needing to get as far away from him as possible.
Two things happened at once—she heard her stepmother’s disembodied voice coming from above her and a large hand shot out and shackled her wrist. Her skin burned against his as she tried to twist herself free.
Only one thought filled her mind—she wasn’t ready for this. None of it. Which was strange, because all she’d wanted for the last few weeks was to see him. She’d fantasised about it so many times. At first, she’d dreamed about throwing her arms around him and showing him enthusiastically how much she’d missed him. After that, her imagination had turned more to stamping her foot and screaming. Lastly, she’d envisioned herself looking stunning and aloof as he grovelled for forgiveness. But now she realised she wasn’t even close to being ready to see Alex. It was as if someone had reached a fist down inside of her and pulled her inside out. She needed time to put everything back in its proper place.
And she certainly wasn’t ready for her family to find out. She could imagine the look in her father’s eyes, the utter disappointment. Humiliation washed over her in a warm wave.
But Jennie knew how to pull herself together, knew how to suck all that negative energy in and turn it into something bright and glittering. It was what she did best—what people loved her for.
She looked up to see her stepmother descending the large oak staircase and, with great effort, flicked the inner switch that converted all the dross caking her insides into dazzling pure gold.
‘There you are,’ Marion said, her gaze wandering over Alex and then returning to Jennie. ‘I was just coming to find you.’
There was an awkward moment when nobody looked anybody truly in the eye, then Marion noticed Alex’s hand clamped around Jennie’s wrist and what was left of her serene smile melted away. She looked back at Jennie, a question in her eyes. Jennie did her best to send back an SOS, tempted to bat it out in Morse code with her eyelashes. Marion’s head didn’t move, but Jennie saw her agreement in a tiny blink that only went halfway.
Marion stepped forward and offered a hand to Alex, the picture of a gracious hostess—apart from her pinprick pupils. ‘I’m sorry, I know I should be able to put names to faces after all the poring over seating charts and guest lists I’ve done, but with a wedding this size it’s been hard to keep track. Are you one of Alice’s friends?’
Alex didn’t react straight away, unwilling to release his grip on his runaway bride. It was the first
