Switched At The Altar. Metsy Hingle

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      Even if he didn’t have a genius IQ, Alex fumed, it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to figure out that the scheming Ms. Desiree Mason had gotten her hooks firmly into his kid brother.

      Well, he’d see how anxious the little gold digger was to marry Kevin once she found out that he was the one who controlled his trust fund.

      Where the devil is everyone? Five seconds stretched into ten, obliterating what little patience he had left. Annoyed, Alex slapped the bell on the desk again.

      Nothing. No one.

      “Aw, the hell with it,” he muttered. “I’ll find Kevin myself.” And when he did, he was through being a marshmallow where his younger brother was concerned. He’d been making that mistake from the day a nine-year-old Kevin had been deposited on his doorstep while their respective parents went off with their next set of spouses. In the thirteen years since then, he’d fought any and all objections to send Kevin away to military school, had even suffered their grandfather’s anger for refusing to do so. But he’d been determined, hell-bent, on providing his brother with some semblance of a normal family, to give him a more nurturing childhood than the one he’d known.

      And you’ve certainly done a fine job of it, Alex admonished himself silently. Look what a mess Kevin had gotten himself into now. And it was, at least partially, his fault. He should have known something like this would happen. Should have expected it. Kevin was a good-looking, wealthy young man—and far too easily swayed by a pretty face. Just as their father had been, Alex admitted. By giving in to Kevin’s request to attend law school down south, he’d all but thrown Kevin to the wolves. And he’d allowed his brother to become the target of every sweet, magnolia vamp south of the Mason-Dixon line trying to land herself a rich husband.

      And evidently Ms. Desiree Mason had scored a bull’s-eye.

      Alex gritted his teeth. The woman’s name alone should have set off alarm bells the first time Kevin had mentioned her. His kid brother was no match for some conniving, Southern belle with a honey-voiced accent. Well, Ms. Desiree Mason would have to find herself some other young fool to marry, because he had no intention of letting his brother make the biggest mistake of his life.

      As of right now, Kevin was going to be made to toe the line. And he was going to start by going back to law school—in Boston, not New Orleans—and forgetting any foolish thoughts he might have about marrying Desiree Mason. With that idea in mind, Alex started down the hall in search of his brother. He froze mid-stride at the sound of an all-too-familiar tune. It was the one song that he had sworn both of his parents had adopted as their personal favorite, the one song that still made him break out in a cold sweat whenever he heard it.

      The wedding march!

      Panic sent adrenaline rushing through his body, and Alex sped down the length of the hall toward the sound of the music. The last cords of the tune faded just as he jerked open the massive double doors to a ballroom.

      “Dearly beloved...”

      Alex bit back an oath at the sight of bridesmaids, groomsmen, a minister holding a bible. His gaze darted to the back of the shapely redhead in the wedding dress and stared at bare shoulders, the color of rich cream, that flirted beneath a whisper of lace. Swallowing hard, Alex dragged his gaze from the bride to the groom standing beside her. His heart stopped and then started again as he looked at the familiar back of the tall, dark-haired man about to be married—his brother, Kevin.

      “We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in the sacrament of holy matrimony,” the minister continued. “Marriage is a—”

      “Stop,” Alex shouted. Heedless of the surprised gasps and curious looks directed at him, he raced down the aisle. “I demand you stop this wedding at once!”

      The bride whipped around. Her blue-green eyes widened with shock. Twin spots of color climbed her cheeks. Alex stared at those rose-colored lips rounded in surprise. Crazily, for the space of a heartbeat, he wondered what it would be like to sample that mouth.

      “How dare you?” she demanded.

      “Quite easily,” Alex shot back, shaking off his strange reaction to the woman. He curled his hands into fists at his sides as he realized that in another two minutes he would have been too late. “There’s no way I’m going to allow you to marry my brother.”

      Dismissing the round of gasps that went up and the furious look the bride cast his way, Alex shifted his attention to his brother. He waited, braced for Kevin’s outburst.

      “Oh, that was perfect!”

      Alex yanked his attention back to the bride at the same time that she launched herself at him. Not stopping to think, he caught her in his arms, holding on to her at the waist. But instead of hitting him as he expected, she proceeded to curl her arms around his neck.

      He snagged her wrists, sure she was intent on strangling him. “Listen, lady—”

      She cut off his protest with her mouth. Alex sucked in a breath at the feel of those soft lips brushing against his own. Desire—unexpected and unwanted—put fire in his belly, raced to his loins.

      Suddenly she was pulling her mouth free and staring at him. Judging by her stunned expression and the confusion in those blue-green eyes of hers, he wasn’t the only one who’d felt as though he’d just been whacked by a thunderbolt. It was insane, Alex told himself. But he couldn’t stop himself from sliding his gaze to that ripe, lush mouth of hers again. Desire, sweet and aching, bit at him once more.

      As though sensing his thoughts, she tugged her wrists free and eased back one step, then another. She gave him a lazy smile and followed with a single “Wow!”

      “Wow” was right, Alex thought. Still reeling from the unexpected kiss and its effect on him, he shook his head to clear the sensuous fog that seemed to have ensnared him.

      “Hey, that was pretty good,” one of the bridesmaids called out.

      Good? Good didn’t even come close to describing that kiss or the strange way it had made him feel. And since when does a bridesmaid critique a kiss delivered to the intended bride by a stranger?

      The bride spun around, presenting him with another view of her back and more cream-colored skin where her dress dipped along her shoulders. She headed toward the critiquing bridesmaid. “Didn’t I tell you guys that Bernie would come through for us?” she exclaimed in a voice that was decidedly huskier than it had been a few moments ago.

      A voice that reminded him of sultry summer nights and hot sex, Alex decided. He sucked in a breath. What in the hell was wrong with him? Lusting after the little gold digger who’d been about to marry his brother.

      His brother! Alex nearly groaned. Oh, Lord, he’d forgotten about Kevin. He jerked his attention back to his brother. But instead of getting ready to charge over and tear into him for interfering, Kevin had one arm draped around his kissing bride and the other one around a bridesmaid and was chatting with them as though nothing had happened. Frowning, Alex started toward him. “Kev—”

      The minister blocked his path. “You cut in too soon,” the reverend admonished, pointing an accusing finger in his face. “Why didn’t you wait for me to give you your cue?”

      Alex frowned at the portly clergyman. His cue?

      “Yeah. СКАЧАТЬ