Marrying Marcus. Laurey Bright

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      Chapter One

      Anticipation sizzling in her blood, Jenna Harper scanned the passengers from the recently landed Los-Angeles-to-Auckland flight. Backpackers in jeans and boots, business people in tailored suits, parents with tired-eyed children, a middle-aged couple whose grandchildren swarmed to them as they appeared from the customs area.

      Among those waiting at the arrivals gate, Pacific Islanders in flower-patterned prints, and an Indian woman’s butterfly-wing sari, created splashes of early-morning color.

      By Jenna’s side her best friend, Katie Crossan, shifted impatiently from one foot to the other. Katie’s sister, Jane, hitched her youngest into her arms while her husband restrained the older two, who were becoming restless.

      “When’s Uncle Dean coming?” the four-year-old demanded.

      “Soon,” his grandmother assured her.

      The entire Crossan family had turned out to welcome Dean home. Even Marcus, his elder brother.

      Jenna wondered if Marcus would have come if Katie hadn’t begged him to drive her and Jenna to the airport at Mangere.

      He stood a little aside from the rest of the tightly knit group, taller than any of them, including his father. Dark hair was ruthlessly combed back from his angular, intelligent face; his hands were thrust into the pockets of gray-green trousers, which he wore with a cream shirt.

      He turned his head a fraction and caught Jenna looking at him. One black brow lifted slightly, and then a corner of his long, firm mouth. His storm-cloud eyes were disconcertingly penetrating.

      Jenna gave him a nervous smile, flicked a strand of fine, light-brown hair from her cheek to behind her ear and looked away, searching the next wave of arrivals.

      Marcus was older than Katie and Dean, the twins who were born when he was nearly six and Jane five.

      Katie and Jenna had agreed that although they’d miss Dean like crazy, the scholarship that had taken him away for four years to America would give him the chance to move out of Marcus’s formidable shadow. But the waiting had been hard.

      Marcus saw him first. “Here he comes.”

      Katie broke away from the group, shrieking Dean’s name before her arms circled his neck and he caught her, swinging her off her feet.

      The children, suddenly shy of this stranger, hung about Jane, impeding her and her husband as they too pressed forward.

      Jenna couldn’t help a smile of pure joy, bubbles of it bursting inside her like champagne, but she made herself wait. As soon as the family greetings were over, Dean would look for her. And she enjoyed just drinking in the sight of him.

      He was not as tall as his brother, but his hair was nearly as dark and had a nice wave. His features were regular and his eyes a warm blue. Film-star looks. And when he saw his family, his face showed unashamed affection that to Jenna’s eyes made him even more handsome.

      Mr. Crossan gave him a quick hug, Mrs. Crossan wiped a tear after hugging him in her turn, the three children clustered around Jane as she kissed her younger brother’s cheek, and her husband clapped him on the shoulder.

      Jenna took a step forward, then halted when the tall, tanned blonde behind Dean, whom she had assumed was another passenger patiently waiting for the family to move out of the way, went to his side. Unbelievably he turned to put an arm about her.

      It was like a slow-motion movie. Jenna’s mouth dried, her blood froze. She was almost suffocating, standing immovable as a puzzled hush settled on the group just yards away.

      Dean smiled down at the girl and said happily to his family, “This is Callie—we’re getting married.”