“Celeste did the upsweep for me. Do you like it?”
No. Having the wild mass of red curls tied at the top of her head made the almost-teen look much too old and far more sophisticated than she was. Nonetheless…
“You look enchanting,” she said truthfully.
“Hey, Mom, I need help with this zipper. It’s stuck.”
Celeste burst through the door, the hem of her skirt pulled to her waist. Her shiny brown hair fell in straight but silky strands halfway down her back. Her attire was the same as Katie’s except her blouson was deep purple and fell over flat breasts instead of Katie’s developing ones.
Still my little girl, but not for long, Dani thought as she took over the task of freeing the metal zipper teeth from the gauzy fabric.
“Coming here is the neatest thing we’ve done in like forever,” Celeste said as the zipper pulled free and the skirt fell to her ankles. “I can’t wait to see what the entertainment is like tonight. I bet those jugglers will be part of it.”
“Yeah, they were good. I want to get my picture with them so I can show the girls at school. I bet nobody in our class has ever been to a Renaissance wedding.”
“Right, not even snobby Samantha Cotter, and she’s been everywhere.”
“But her mother is not nearly as pretty as you are, Ms. Baxter. She’d never score a date with a hot cowboy she’d just met like you did.”
“I told you it’s not a date,” Dani stressed. “Marcus was going to the party anyway, and he just offered to escort us so that we wouldn’t have to drive back alone tonight on those dark, narrow roads.”
“No, he’s hot for you,” Celeste said. “I could tell. He knows you’re fun.”
Fun? Dani felt like she’d been anything but lately. That had to change. She needed this weekend to go well, for her sake and Celeste’s. She touched the amulet at her neck and thought of Marcus and his teasing smile.
The tenseness started to ease, and her customary confidence picked up steam. They were here to celebrate with Bethany Sue, and it was foolish to keep worrying about things she could do nothing about.
A knock at the door captured all their attention. Celeste swung it open, and there stood Marcus, dressed in hiphugging jeans, boots and his black Stetson—and looking even sexier than he had been this morning. Who’d have thought that was possible?
Their eyes met, and the temperature in the room seemed to jump a few dozen degrees. Not a date. This time she reminded herself of that fact. It did nothing to still the heated anticipation that was fast turning her insides to molten gold.
Chapter Four
Marcus struggled to keep his eyes focused straight ahead and his mind and body from drowning in unadulterated lust as he drove the meandering blacktop roads to the festival grounds. If it weren’t for the two youthful chaperones in the backseat, he might have sneaked an arm around Dani’s beautiful shoulders and let his thumb ride the stately column of her neck.
Talk about totally inappropriate behavior for a man being paid to protect.
He was beginning to wonder if some other far more trusting guy had crawled into his skin. Not that he wasn’t as susceptible as the next male when it came to getting turned on by a shapely body and a pretty face. He’d been attracted to Dani from the moment she’d sashayed by him and into the dress shop this morning. He just didn’t usually let his urges get as out of control as they were right now.
But Dani Baxter, with her sultry, Southern charm and striking Elizabethan gown, defied the odds. She had an almost mystical quality about her tonight. The effect was magnified a thousand times when she touched her long, manicured fingers to the delicate charm resting just above the swell of her breasts and their intoxicating cleavage.
He forced his concentration back to the road and tightened his grip on the steering wheel, determined to rein in his libido. If he wasn’t careful, he’d lose the instincts he’d developed as a cowboy and refined to the nth degree as a frogman.
The cowboy elements of his personality kept him sane. The SEAL qualities kept him on the fighting edge, aware of every nuance of change in his environment and the people around him.
In spite of Dani’s attempts at lightheartedness since he’d picked her up, he knew she was still dealing with the same demons he’d seen reflected in the deep cinnamon pools of her eyes this morning.
Unfortunately, merely knowing that was not enough information for him to do his job well. He planned to get a lot more facts out of her the second they were out of the girls’ earshot.
For one thing, he didn’t see Dani Baxter as the swoon-and-faint type. She seemed a lot more like a take-charge filly. Self-assured. Spunky. But something had definitely spooked her today.
By the time they reached the festival grounds, he was firmly back in his operational frogman mode, detached from emotion and ready for anything the night threw at him.
That lasted until they reached the gate, and she linked her arm with his, just as a muscle-bound king and voluptuous queen rushed toward them.
“The bride and I’m guessing the groom,” Dani murmured, and then let go of his arm to plunge into a bear hug with the queen.
They exchanged introductions all around. He liked Bethany Sue instantly. She had a naive, girlish quality about her that made her enthusiasm seem genuine.
The groom was still up for debate. His muscles knotted all the way up to his thick neck, but strength did not always equate with toughness. Marcus knew that well from his stint with the SEALs. Some of the bravest, hard-hitting frogmen he’d known were half Arnie’s size.
“I thought you said you weren’t bringing a date,” Bethany Sue said. “And then you show up with this hunky cowboy.”
“Change of plans at the last minute,” Dani replied, trying to brush off the interest. “And you said the more the merrier.”
“Absolutely. You look stunning, girlfriend. That gown is to die for.”
“I owe full credit to Celeste and Katie. They picked it out.”
“Ohmigod,” Bethany said, as if she’d just spied the girls. “You two look like confections in a candy shop. Love those shimmering skirts.”
“This is such a cool idea for a wedding,” Celeste said.
“Yeah,” Katie agreed. “Way better than just walking down a plain old church aisle.”
“The ceremony will be in a wedding chapel,” Bethany Sue said. “There are several of them right here on the grounds.”
“Wow. Perfect,” Katie said.
“This was all Arnie’s idea,” Bethany explained. “He has friends who travel the Renaissance circuit a few months out of every year. You’ll meet them later tonight. They operate a couple of concessions at the festival—one who sells antiquestyle jewelry and one who deals in knives and swords.”
Marcus listened to the rest of the conversation, hoping for verbal clues as to what had led to Dani’s hiring him for the evening. He probably came across as less than attentive, but he was absorbing a dozen things at once.
The chatter. The setup for tonight’s dinner and entertainment. The lighting. The location of security cameras. Pockets of darkness. Basically, he wanted a blueprint in his mind of any and everything that would affect his providing protection for Dani and the girls.
When Arnie and Bethany Sue moved on to a group of new arrivals, he maneuvered Dani and the girls toward a face-painting booth set up near the tables