It was hard indeed to sound nonchalant. “Go on, darling,” Angel teased. “I’m sure Genni tried to tell you. I know you really care about her but you don’t show her much tenderness. The truth is your father’s daunting manner spilled over on you. Genni fell head over heels in love with Colin. The only person who didn’t know about it was you.” Angel gave her tinkling laugh that held quite an edge.
It was Bernard the society photographer who halted Blaine’s searing retort. “Pardon me?” Bernard called, struggling with his own radar. “It’s your turn now, mother of the bride.” He bowed gracefully in Angel’s direction, though he hadn’t taken to her one bit, “and the bride’s very distinguished cousin, the well-known cattle baron, Mr. Blaine Courtland. I can’t let you get away.”
“God!” Blaine muttered beneath his breath, feeling Angel’s small hand sneak into his as though he was too, too dear to her. In a few minutes he would have Genni alone in the car. He would be as gentle as he knew how with her. Angel’s reference to his “lack of tenderness” had really stung. It was deserved. He was desperate now to get Genni to reveal her heart. He knew precisely how he felt. Every atom of his being was steeled against giving her away. If his instincts were correct beneath that exquisite bridal exterior Genni was screaming for help.
Inside the stretch limousine Genni sat very quietly in all her wedding finery, the billowing silk skirt stretched out over the seat, her veil arranged to one side lying in a foaming cloud atop it, looking determinedly out the window. If she dared to chance a look at Blaine sitting opposite her, he would recognise her despair. Even now she was fighting hard to keep the tears from welling into her eyes.
“Blaine,” she said soundlessly over and over, trying to draw strength from just his name “I love you. I’ll always love you.” The knowledge was like a physical blow to the heart. Without food—she hadn’t been able to eat a bite of breakfast—she felt dizzy and disoriented, caught up in a scenario Angel might well have written. I can’t do this to myself. I can’t do this to Colin, Genni agonised. He mightn’t adore the ground I walk on but he deserves better than a wife who doesn’t love him.
She started violently when Blaine suddenly reached over and caught her hand. “God, Genni. You’d think you were a winter bride. Your hands are freezing.” He began to rub them, warming them in no time because her blood caught fire. “Angel took me to task back at the house. She told me a truth about myself I had to hear. I haven’t been terribly kind to you of late, have I? As your mother put it, I haven’t shown you much tenderness.”
The admission nearly annihilated her. There was such a sparkle of tears behind her eyelids. “I haven’t been very nice, either,” she whispered. “The strange thing is, I don’t have a temper with anyone else but you. You make me fly apart.”
“That much, cherub, is obvious,” he said dryly. “I know I’m too high-handed, too dismissive of what seems to me frivolous stuff. You have to make allowances for me. The thing is, Genni, I’m committed to something really important. Your happiness. No, don’t shrink away from me,” he begged as she leaned back and shut her eyes so aware of him she felt he was invading her. Body and soul. “I know you, Genni. I used to know you, anyway,” he added wryly, with that irresistible sparkle in his beautiful eyes she so loved. “Just tell me once more—the last time, I promise—tell me you love Colin. That your dearest wish is to marry him?”
Such was her emotional state Genni had difficulty remembering Colin’s face. “Please, Blaine, can you stop asking me?”
“No.” He shook his dark head. “If you’re frightened you must go through with this, just tell me. I’ll take care of everything,” he told her with that hard masculine authority. “It’ll be a nine-day wonder but there will be life after.”
Will there? Genni’s thoughts went back to Sally Fenwick. “Hilary told me you and Sally are coming around to setting your own wedding date?” Once more she averted her head, looking sightlessly out the window.
Blaine turned her head back to him, loving and hating the sight of her in her glorious wedding dress. “Is that what Hilary said to you last night?” he demanded, his tanned skin lit by anger.
“She might have.” Genni, too, was flushed; upset enough to jump out of the car. “Please, Blaine, don’t torment me. It would mean everything to me if you could respect how I feel.”
“When your heart is racing? When I can gauge what you feel through my palm?” His laugh was low and savage. “If it weren’t so goddam lunatic I’d believe you’re trying to get back at me for kissing you. There’s no one, but no one like you for doing that.”
“Then why did you?” Her breath trembled in her throat. “It shocked me so much I nearly fainted.”
“I remember,” he reminded her bitterly. “I was there.”
“Why, Blaine?” She stared at him with her violet eyes, the urge to know consuming her. “You changed everything in a few moments.” The power and the cruelty of the man!
“Did I?” He put his hands to either side of her, making her a prisoner. “You think about that, Genni. With my mouth on yours it didn’t feel like you didn’t want it.”
Overwhelmed, she looked down. “And you betrayed Sally!”
He made a sound of complete exasperation. “Don’t be so damned silly. Sally is a friend. A good friend, but she’s not a woman I’d dream about. I’ve never cared about anyone like I care about you.”
“Yes, as your little pet. Not a grown-up woman.”
“We’re not back to that again, are we?”
He drew away from her, his luminous eyes pure silver.
“Not ever. You’ve got some idea I can’t live without you. But I’ve got news for you.” Her words shrilled and trembled so, she was grateful for the glass panel that separated them from the chauffeur. “I’m going to marry Colin.” Even as she said it she despised herself.
“And make a mess of your life?”
“You’re so nasty, so…caustic…”
“Sad to say I am, just as you’re so provocative. You know the dark depths in me, Genevieve. You’re as used to my outbursts as I am to yours. I don’t know about the chauffeur, if he can hear us. I haven’t handled you particularly well of recent times. For that I genuinely apologise. It has all come out so badly because I couldn’t seem to reach you. You were dead set on defying me at every turn. In fact you gave me hell.”
There was truth at the heart of it. She could see it clearly now. “Don’t. I love you,” she admitted passionately. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Am I making any sense at all?”
“I’m afraid not.” His answer was crisp. “You’re not happy. That’s obvious. You need a man who can set you alight. Do you think I haven’t seen you incandescent? Women are such strange creatures. I’ll never understand them.” He said it like it might have been a curse.
Forlornly, Genevieve touched the exquisitely decorated bodice of her wedding gown. “Why did you never tell me you were paying for all this?”
He closed his eyes against the surge of hot anger. “I wish to God your mother could keep her mouth shut.”
“I feel seared by shame.”
“How ridiculous!” He sounded thoroughly stirred up. “You’re family.” God, that’s wrong. For a moment he couldn’t speak. Then as he glanced out the window he was shocked to see they had arrived at the church. Media photographers were in attendance, standing slightly apart from the crowd of onlookers that had gathered to see a bride well known