chosen for their wedding reception was a converted Edwardian mansion that was simply huge, with polished wooden floors just made for dancing.
‘You’re a good teacher,’ Mike said, glancing up from his feet at last.
‘You’re a fast learner. Now you can take your girlfriend out dancing.’
‘Don’t have one at the moment.’
‘Oh? That’s not like you.’
‘Been working too hard.’
‘On anything special?’
‘A new anti-virus, anti-spy program. It’s going to make me a fortune. Or it will,’ he added, ‘if and when I can get the right company to market and distribute it.’
‘What about your own company?’ Alanna knew that Mike’s software company had been very successful. Reece had shares in it. So did Richard.
‘Not big enough. I need a top international company. American, preferably. With plenty of clout. I’ll ask Richard to do the negotiating for me, once I decide who to approach. He’s much better at that type of thing then I am.’
‘But he’ll be away on his honeymoon for the next month,’ Alanna pointed out. ‘He’s taking Holly to Europe.’
‘No sweat. The program’s not quite ready. It needs more testing. Make sure there aren’t any bugs.’
‘I see.’ Sort of. Alanna was no dummy, and she was competent enough on a computer. She used to use a computer every day at work. Although she’d given up her job in public relations after marrying Reece—being Mrs Reece Diamond was a full-time career—she still paid all the housekeeping bills over the Internet. Nevertheless, she had no idea how computers really worked.
‘I don’t think Reece is too happy with you dancing with me,’ Mike suddenly muttered under his breath.
‘What?’ Surprise sent Alanna’s eyes darting around the room till she found her husband, who was still dancing with Sara. Even with his back towards her, he was easy to spot with his being so tall and having fair hair. When he turned around enough for their eyes to meet, Alanna was taken aback by the angry expression on his very handsome and usually cheerful face.
‘Yep. He’s jealous,’ Mike repeated.
Alanna’s hackles rose instinctively. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped. ‘Reece doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body.’
‘Come on, Alanna. Get real. You are one drop-dead gorgeous woman. If you were my wife, I’d be jealous of you being in another man’s arms. Just because you two have a different sort of marriage doesn’t mean a damned thing. You’re Reece’s wife and I’m a single guy with a certain reputation. It’s only natural for him to feel threatened, even though it doesn’t say too much for our friendship. He should know that you’d be the last woman on earth that I’d hit on. You and Holly.’
Despite Mike’s explanation, Alanna still could not conceive of Reece being jealous of her in any way, shape or form. She’d danced with lots of men in front of him before, and wearing a whole lot less than she was today.
Not once had Reece ever criticised, commented, or cared.
As for feeling threatened by Mike…
That idea was equally ludicrous. Alanna had never met any man as confident or as self-assured as her husband. And he had every reason to be. Not only was he very good-looking and very successful, his personality outshone everyone else’s. When Reece walked into a room, he became the sun around which the rest of the world revolved. Frankly, Alanna had never met another man quite like him.
‘I don’t believe he’s jealous at all,’ she pronounced firmly. ‘Sara must have said something to annoy him.’
‘Want to put it to the test?’
‘What do you mean?’
Mike’s hand in the small of her back suddenly pressed Alanna close against his hard male body, making her gasp.
The reaction in her husband’s face was instantaneous.
His nostrils flared. His blue eyes narrowed.
Alanna’s reaction to her husband’s jealousy was also instantaneous. Chaos, inside. Chaos and panic.
‘I don’t believe this,’ she whispered shakily. ‘Reece is never jealous.’
‘He’s a man, Alanna. It comes with the territory.’ Mike abruptly lifted the pressure on his hand and Alanna moved back to a more discreet distance.
‘But he’s never been jealous before!’ she protested. ‘You’ve seen some of the dresses he likes me to wear. Would a jealous man buy such dresses for his wife?’
‘That depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On why he wanted you to wear such dresses in the first place.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Don’t you?’
Alanna was taken aback. ‘You’ll have to be a bit more specific.’
‘What do you know about your husband’s past?’ came the blunt question.
Alanna frowned. ‘A fair bit. I know he’s the eldest son of a family of three boys. I know his father died in an electrical accident when he was in high school. I know he worked weekends selling real estate from the time he was seventeen and was so successful he abandoned his plans to go to university. He told me he made his first million by the time he was twenty-one.’
‘That’s not what I meant. What do you know about his more immediate past, the years just before he met and married you?’
‘Well, I know he went through a horror patch, financially, a few years back. He told me he would have gone to the wall if Richard hadn’t helped him out. But I suppose you’re referring to his ex-fiancée, Kristine. Reece told me how she dumped him for some wealthy older guy during that time.’
Which was why, Reece had explained the first night they’d met, he was no more interested in romance than she was. He’d been madly in love, and been hurt, as she had. And he didn’t want to go there any more.
Of course, Reece thought her hurt came from her beloved husband’s tragic death in a car crash. Alanna couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth about Darko.
Which made her wonder if Reece had been totally honest with her as well. Did Mike know something she didn’t know?
‘So Reece did tell you all about Kristine,’ he said.
‘He told me everything about her.’ How beautiful she was. How she desperately wanted to be an actress. How they were only three weeks from their wedding when she left him.
‘I doubt it, Alanna. No man tells his wife everything, especially about a previous woman who did the dirty on him the way she did. Men have their pride, you
