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  Brendan began to shout with incoherent fury but the only reaction that Homer gave was a slight narrowing of the eyes.

  ‘How much to stay away from her?’ he said softly.

  Holly thought Jack was going to hit him. She held her breath. Her hand twisted in his in silent protest.

  Jack raised their cupped hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles reassuringly. He looked over the top of her hand at Homer. He laughed.

  That did get a reaction. Homer’s face darkened.

  ‘Oh, you’ve got yourself a real thing there, haven’t you?’ he jeered.

  Jack looked down at Holly. ‘Yes,’ he said softly. ‘Yes, I think I have.’

  Her eyes flew to his. She thought she had never seen such warmth in them. Or such pride.

  ‘Jack?’ she said uncertain, wondering, hoping against hope.

  Brendan shouted, ‘Undue influence. The kid was so crazy she’d run off with anyone. Hell, she did. I’ll have it annulled.’

  Jack hardly looked at him. His eyes were too busy scanning Holly’s softly flushed face. ‘Too late,’ he said with immense satisfaction.

  Holly’s colour deepened. But she bit back a smile and had to look away.

  He turned his head to survey the men briefly. ‘Make your mind up, Sugrue. Either it’s real or it isn’t. If it isn’t, there can’t have been undue influence. If it is, you can’t get an annulment.’ He looked back at Holly and kissed her hand again. ‘Quite apart from what Holly wants.’

  All Brendan’s spurious concern for her evaporated in a blast of pure fury.

  ‘Holly wants a good time. Any guy will do,’ he spat.

  Holly cried, ‘It’s not true—’

  But Jack was before her. He dropped the arm round her waist and put her behind him.

  ‘Yes, you’ve said that before,’ he said, in his quiet negotiating tone. ‘She’s my wife. I know which of you I believe.’

  But Brendan was feeling too vicious to be wise.

  ‘She’s wild—irresponsible—anybody’s…’

  Jack hit him. Self-controlled, diplomatic, problem-solving Jack thudded one angry blow into that bull-like body. Brendan fell to the ground.

  Holly grabbed Jack. He would hate that loss of control, she thought. His arm went round her, tight as a vice. She could feel the tremors in his muscles and knew how little it would take for him to fight Brendan in earnest.

  Brendan seemed to see it too, at last. He sprawled on the ground, glaring up at Jack nearly incoherent. He switched his gaze to Holly.

  ‘You think you know this guy?’ He was winded and spluttering with rage. ‘You don’t. False pretences…’

  It was time, thought Holly, to fight her own battle. And finish it once and for all. She looked down at him levelly.

  ‘Yes, I know Jack’s company needs money. I knew that before I even realised I would have any. When the lawyer told me—’ she hesitated, then gave a small shrug ‘—well, that’s why I came to live here in his house. I couldn’t do much for him but I thought I might be able to do that, at least. It’s nothing compared with what he’s given me.’

  Jack’s eyes left Brendan, and flew to her face. The adrenaline-fuelled trembling stopped as if a machine had switched itself off. The arm round her waist became painful.

  ‘Go away,’ Jack said. He was himself again, in control and knowing exactly what he wanted. He gazed deep into Holly’s eyes. ‘Go away, now.’

  Brendan scrambled to his feet, mouthing threats. But Homer knew when he was beaten. He drew his cousin away, still fuming. Jack and Holly hardly noticed them go.

  Jack said, ‘I want to make love to you.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I love you. I want you to know that.’

  Holly leaned against him. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Now?’ he said into her hair, urgent, uncharacteristically uncertain. ‘Please. I need to show you—’

  ‘Yes,’ said Holly.

  Later they lay in each other’s arms in the four-poster. Jack stroked her hair.

  ‘Oh, God, you are wonderful and I am so lucky.’

  She breathed in his scent, her fingers curling with pleasure. ‘Mmm.’

  ‘I love you. If you’d asked me at Easter, I’d have said I’d never say that again.’

  Holly kissed his shoulder. ‘Susana?’

  ‘Yes. I was crazy about her.’ He was shaken by a little laugh. ‘In fact I’ve realised these last few weeks that’s exactly what it was. Crazy.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Oh, who knows? The time was right, I suppose.’

  She raised herself onto her elbows. ‘Tell?’

  He caressed the curve of her eyebrow. ‘She surprised me—how much she meant to me. I’d had my fun but I was always rather cold-blooded. With women, I mean.’

  Holly suppressed a chuckle. He flicked her nose.

  ‘Sexpot,’ he said peacefully.

  She wriggled with appreciation. ‘All your doing. Tell me about Susana.’

  ‘She was a translator who worked with me. It was a terrible time: revolution and earthquake simultaneously. When I knew her she was legally separated because her husband beat her up. He was in hiding and she was responsible for her younger brothers and sister and half of his family as well. I wanted to take care of her. We had a weekend in the hills.’

  Holly stared down at him, her smile dying. ‘One weekend? That’s all?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And on the basis of that you decided she was the love of your life?’

  She was horrified. How could she compete with an attraction like that? All her insecurities, which his lovemaking had banished, came back to flay her.

  Jack cupped her cheek. ‘I hadn’t met you then. I didn’t know what it could be like,’ he said soberly.

  But Holly was too shaken to be reassured. He sat up, carrying her with him, and propped her possessively against his chest.

  ‘Holly, listen, my love. You don’t know what I was like. My parents were good people but they shouldn’t have had children. We didn’t kiss in our house; we saluted. Susana felt so much; and what she felt she talked about. It was a fairytale, a fantasy. I thought I could take care of her and of course I couldn’t. That’s why it ended. Because she would not leave all the people she loved and I couldn’t see why.’ He brushed his cheek against her hair. ‘Do you understand?’

  ‘So she broke your heart?’

  He grimaced. ‘That’s a very female way of looking at it.’

  ‘I am female,’ said Holly, her confidence returning. ‘You were still carrying a torch for her when we met.’

  ‘No,’ he said slowly. ‘Not really. It was all so long ago. What still hurt was the fact that I hadn’t been able to rescue her.’

  ‘So I was your second attempt at the damsel in distress?’

  ‘Maybe a little.’ His arms tightened. ‘You were so afraid of Sugrue. Nobody should be that afraid.’

  ‘I was very young and he’s a bully,’ Holly excused herself. ‘But the person who really scared me was Homer. He seemed to have no feelings. Nothing I could say made any difference.’

  ‘I’ve seen dead fish with more expression,’ agreed Jack.

  ‘Until this morning. You scared him,’ said Holly with satisfaction.

  Jack was startled. ‘I—er—got carried away there,’ he admitted. ‘I know you don’t like violence. But when Sugrue said that, I just saw red. Sorry.’

  Holly turned her face against his chest. Her voice was muffled. ‘Didn’t you believe him? Not a bit?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘I’ve lived with you. I’ve worked with you. I’ve made love with you,’ he said quietly. ‘Whatever you do, you do from the heart.’

  ‘Oh.’ She breathed in his scent as if it were the life force. ‘Not wild? Not—’ she forced herself to say it ‘—anybody’s?’

  He was forceful. ‘Never. You were too self-contained, if anything. It took me for ever to get you to let me in,’ he added ruefu
lly.

  She looked up, startled by the look on his face. ‘I was afraid,’ she said excusingly.

  ‘Not afraid any more?’

  Holly kissed him. ‘No. Got myself pretty straight now, with your help. Consider me rescued.’

  But he did not laugh. ‘You were so young. There were a couple of times I thought you were afraid of me, too.’

  Holly shook her head slowly. ‘Not you. How you felt, maybe.’ She had a sudden, vivid vision of that surging frustration, that inflammable mixture below the cool surface, that she had sensed in him that day in the grubby room in Montmartre. ‘How you made me feel.’

  ‘And now?’

  She moved against him with deliberate provocation. ‘What does it feel like?’

  ‘Heaven,’ said Jack, taking her back under the sheet with him. ‘Absolute heaven.’

  EPILOGUE

  THE group of international journalists was in an exceptionally mellow mood. The conference speakers had been brief, the stories dramatic and the Sugar Island venue unusually exotic. Now Armour Disaster Recovery was hosting a champagne reception complete with steel band.

  ‘Great stuff,’ said an English foreign correspondent.

  ‘Great company,’ said a German financial journalist. ‘That new capital last year has really made them a force to be reckoned with.’

  ‘Great family,’ said American Rita Caruso, pointing her camera.

  The object of her attention waved to her. Jack Armour was commanding in a tuxedo while Holly looked delectable in Caribbean print. Her golden-brown hair was swept up for the occasion and she was wearing the long diamond drops that Jack had given her when the third member of the group was born.

  ‘Oh, you’re too young for this,’ Jack had said, torn between a new father’s pride and unexpected remorse.

  ‘Anyone would be too young for that baby,’ retorted Holly, startled by the new arrival’s competence.

  Now Anthony Francis Armour, known as Einstein, waved fat arms in the direction of a passing champagne flute.

  ‘No,’ said Jack, steering the waiter out of his son’s range. He relieved Holly of the wriggling burden. ‘Want to talk to Caruso?’

  She shook her head. ‘She’s a nice woman. But I thought you would never forgive me when she wrote that article calling you romantic.’

  Jack’s eyes glinted down at her over his son’s dark head.

  ‘Are you saying I’m not romantic?’

  Holly glinted a laugh back up at him. ‘Heaven forbid.’

  ‘Or that I should be ashamed of it?’

  ‘Never.’

  ‘So why don’t you want to talk to Caruso?’

  ‘Pure jealousy,’ said Holly with calm. She nodded to Paula Vincent, who was showing a suffering Ramon several hundred photographs of the midnight wedding. ‘She thinks you’re a hunk.’

  Jack’s eyes lit with that private laughter that turned her bones to water even now. ‘So I am,’ he said outrageously. ‘Your hunk. What’s your problem?’

  Holly dropped her head against his shoulder. ‘No problem.’

  He bent his head. ‘Happy?’ he said in a voice that was meant only for her.

  ‘Mmm.’

  ‘Can I do anything to make you happier?’

  Holly was seized by a naughty impulse. ‘We-ell…’

  Jack raised a wicked eyebrow.

  ‘We got married on that beach. But we never—’

  He laughed aloud. ‘You want to make love on a Caribbean beach? A respectable wife and mother like you?’

  Holly sighed. ‘I suppose it’s a silly idea.’

  He raised an imperious finger. Paula Vincent detached herself from Ramon, to his great relief.

  ‘It’s a wonderful idea,’ Jack said calmly. ‘Which is why Paula has added a full baby-sitting service to her range.’

  Holly’s conscience was uneasy. ‘But Einstein doesn’t know her.’

  ‘Einstein likes to party,’ said Jack unanswerably, as his son stuck an exploratory finger in someone’s rum punch and sucked it thoughtfully. He transferred the baby to Paula. ‘That’s my boy. See you for breakfast, Paula. Come on, honey, let me take you away from all this.’

  Paula sighed romantically and waved them off.

  ‘You,’ said Holly in the beach-buggy beside him, her hair blowing free from its pins, ‘are a tyrant.’

  ‘Because I arranged for you to do what you want to do?’

  ‘Before I said I wanted it.’

  ‘That just makes me a sensitive and empathic individual,’ said Jack with odious complacency.

  Holly laughed but it was breathless.

  ‘Besides, I want it, too.’

  She gave a pleasurable little shiver. ‘Do you?’

  ‘Until I met you, I would have stayed at that party and networked. Probably made a couple of contacts, then gone home and written up think pieces for their breakfast mail. Thanks to you, I’m now the sort of man who kidnaps respectable women and carries them off to empty beaches to ravish them.’

  ‘Wow. Is that what you’re going to do?’

  ‘Right now,’ said Jack, his voice uneven in spite of the laughter, ‘all I can think of is taking your hair down and your clothes off and making love to you until you scream loud enough to frighten the fish.’

  Holly looked at him in the shadows. He was her husband, her sparring partner, her friend and the father of her child. And her lover.

  ‘Yes, please,’ she said.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-6537-3

  MIDNIGHT WEDDING

  First North American Publication 2001.

  Copyright © 2000 by Sophie Weston.

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