Bride By Design. Leigh Michaels

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СКАЧАТЬ illusion that their marriage would ever be anything verging on romance, there would be no need to pretend or to be on guard against a slip of the tongue or an action that might be misinterpreted.

      Not even Henry was unrealistic enough to hope that they had fallen in love at first sight. Or that they’d do so any other time along the way, either. And though he’d no doubt be saddened when he realized, somewhere down the road, that the heir he hoped for wasn’t going to materialize—well, even the most intimate of marriages didn’t always produce offspring. Being childless didn’t prove anything.

      The arrangement was perfect, Eve told herself. And the case of nerves that she was suffering was nothing more than any woman felt on taking such an irrevocable action. It didn’t indicate doubt.

      In fact, she wished that she’d been able to convince Henry to hold the wedding tonight and have it over with. What was the sense of waiting any longer?

      Another stream of passengers strode by, but Eve was paying no attention. She was watching a man in a dark blue uniform who had just taken up his stance at the edge of the waiting area, holding a sign that said Elliot. The limo driver, right on time.

      It would be pretty funny, Eve thought, if David spotted the driver but walked right past her. For a moment, she toyed with the idea of staying where she was, her magazine hiding her face, and waiting until they’d gone. She could always tell Henry that she’d missed David in all the airport traffic….

      A passenger stopped abruptly beside her, momentarily blocking the man behind him and making him dodge and swear, but Eve didn’t notice him at all until he spoke softly. “Eve?”

      She jerked around to face him. That voice, she thought. It can’t be— “Travis?”

      “Eve,” he said, and there was a tremor in his usually smooth voice. “My darling Eve. How did you know…from my secretary, of course. That’s how you found out I’d be coming in today. I didn’t know you were keeping in touch with her.”

      She shook her head. But she couldn’t keep herself from looking at him, drinking in the sight of him. He looked more elegant than ever, she thought, his tailoring perfect and every white-blond hair in place, with a trench coat slung casually over his arm and a slim alligator-skin sample case in one hand.

      “I didn’t dare to hope,” he said, and his voice cracked. “I’ve longed for you so, my darling. I’ve tried to do as you asked. I’ve tried so hard, but it simply hasn’t worked. I can’t stop thinking of you, dreaming of you, wanting you. And you obviously can’t forget me either, or you wouldn’t be here to meet me.” He sounded triumphant. “Let me hear you say it, Eve. Tell me you’re here because you’ve changed your mind.”

      If only I could change my mind, she thought, but I can’t—because nothing is different. She summoned every ounce of courage and self-control she possessed. “I’m not here to meet you, Travis.”

      He seemed to falter for an instant before regaining his conviction. “But of course you are. Why else would you be sitting here?” He put out an arm as if to draw her against him. “It’s not exactly the hot spot of the city.”

      The agony and the uncertainty and the self-questioning that had haunted Eve in the days while she was making her decision swept over her again in waves. It was all starting over again, she thought in despair. She felt herself wavering, moved by the way his voice had trembled with earnestness. Perhaps she’d been wrong after all to turn her back on what they’d shared, to deny them the chance at a life together….

      No, she told herself firmly. Her decision, made with such grief and pain and logic, could not have been wrong. This momentary vacillation was the madness.

      But how was she going to convince Travis of that, when she was having trouble persuading herself?

      Something beyond Travis caught her eye, and she looked over his shoulder at a passenger who was coming down the concourse. A tall, broad-shouldered, ever-so-slightly rumpled passenger—but then David wasn’t in the habit, as Travis was, of spending hours every day on airliners.

      David, she thought, and relief surged through her.

      She tossed aside the magazine she’d been holding, ducked past Travis, and ran to meet David. She saw his eyebrows go up slightly just as she flung herself against him with her face lifted to his. “Kiss me,” she said in an urgent undertone.

      He dropped his briefcase, his arms closed around her, and his mouth came down, hard and demanding, on hers.

      This is a good man to have around in an emergency, Eve thought. No questions, no hesitation, just prompt and effective action.

      His first kiss was long and deep and hot, the assured embrace of a lover who hadn’t the slightest doubt that his caress would be welcomed and encouraged. Very effective action, in fact. Eve was feeling a little shaky herself, and she couldn’t begin to imagine what this must look like to a casual observer.

      David ended the kiss, held her a fraction of an inch away from him for a moment, and then, as if she had stirred a hunger that wouldn’t allow him to let her go, pulled her even closer, wrapping her more tightly in his arms, and kissed her as if the first caress had been only a casual greeting.

      By the time he finally raised his head, Eve’s brain was as full of static as a badly tuned radio. She could hear bits of conversation from people in the concourse, but she was having trouble making sense of the words. “Lucky guy,” one man observed in a low tone. “That’s quite a welcome home, buddy.” And a woman sniffed and said to her companion, “Really! Did you see where he’d put his hands? These young people—don’t they realize others aren’t interested in watching their bedroom acrobatics in public?”

      That at least answered her question about how their display had appeared to bystanders, Eve thought philosophically.

      Trying not to be obvious about it, she glanced over her shoulder, but she couldn’t catch sight of Travis.

      “If you’re looking for the guy you were talking to,” David said, “he stuck around to watch for a bit, then he just melted away. I’m assuming, of course, that was the desired effect.”

      He sounded as calm as if he’d just given her a peck on the cheek. And he still had hold of her arm, as if he was afraid she’d collapse if he let go.

      “I’m perfectly capable of standing up on my own,” Eve said.

      He immediately let go of her and stooped to pick up the thick, well-worn briefcase he’d dropped when she flung herself against him. “Don’t forget your magazine.”

      “What? Oh, it’s not mine.”

      “Really? When I first caught sight of you, you were holding it as if you were defending it with your life. Or maybe more like it was a shield to protect you. I don’t suppose you’d like to tell me what that little scene was all about.”

      No, Eve thought, and almost said so before she realized that it was absolutely necessary to give him some kind of explanation. “It was just…” She stopped. “He was just somebody that I thought shouldn’t know about our…our…”

      “Our little agreement,” David said helpfully. “You know, I was already starting to wonder whether you weren’t being too optimistic about how much of a public image we’ll have to maintain in order to be convincing as a married couple. Merely sharing СКАЧАТЬ