A Bride Until Midnight / Something Unexpected. Wendy Warren

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СКАЧАТЬ than I expected.”

      “Did she forgive you?”

      “Who?” the petite blonde asked.

      The brunette shushed her with a nudge.

      “She made me work for it,” he said, his gaze steady on Summer. He and Summer were the only ones who knew they were referring to Harriet Ferris, and neither of them chose to explain to the others. “But eventually she warmed up,” Kyle said. “The flowers were a big help.”

      “I’m glad.” She was looking at him as if she meant it.

      Kyle wondered if anybody else in the room noticed that he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. He was interested. He was intrigued. And he hadn’t been either of those things in a while.

      “Am I interrupting something?” he asked her.

      Summer shook her head. “Chelsea is Madeline’s wedding planner. She’s been prioritizing the most pressing details for the coming week.”

      The blonde, Abby, said, “Summer’s going to be filling in for Madeline.”

      “Is that right?” He smiled at Abby, but his gaze ultimately went to Summer again, for this was the first he’d heard that.

      The weather had been unseasonably warm and humid today. It brought out the beast in a lot of people. As far as Kyle was concerned, the conditions were perfect for peeling off layers of clothing, for gliding a zipper down a slender back, for lowering the straps of a certain someone’s bra and for taking his time removing it.

      That was a good place to halt his wayward thoughts. “If you have plans to make,” he said, looking directly at Summer, “I won’t keep you from them.” Even he could hear the huskiness in his voice. “I just stopped over to talk to Riley.” Kyle nodded at all four women. He smiled last at Summer.

      He’d been accused of being vain a time or two. When he happened to look over his shoulder as he was leaving and caught four women looking at him, he knew why he’d never apologized for it.

      From the doorway, he directed a question to the official wedding planner of the group. “I’m curious about something. What does a fill-in bride do?”

      Chelsea held up the fingers of her right hand and began listing off responsibilities. “She hosts a bridal shower, samples wedding cake, chooses the menu, wears pink, the bride’s favorite color.” That was spoken with a shudder. “She helps the bride select the music, meets with the photographer and basically does whatever needs to be done, even if it means keeping the appointment with the seamstress for the final dress fitting, since, luckily, Summer and Madeline are the same size.”

      Summer was shaking her head. “Trying on someone else’s wedding gown is bad luck.”

      Obviously, this was an ongoing debate.

      “Now you sound like Madeline,” the petite blonde said. “Usually she’s the one with all the uncanny intuitions and crazy premonitions.”

      “I’m right here,” Madeline said. “And I can hear everything you’re saying, Abs.”

      Kyle couldn’t help smiling. He would have enjoyed continuing along that vein, but he said, “And what does the fill-in groom do?” He’d already spoken to Riley about this, but his brother’s answer had been sketchy at best.

      He doubted there were many women who could pull off appearing businesslike while sharing a bed with three other women, but Chelsea made an admirable attempt as she held up the fingers of her right hand again and prepared to count the ways Kyle could help this week. In the end, all her fingers remained straight.

      “I suppose the groom’s responsibility during the week prior to the wedding is to support the bride.”

      His gaze returned to Summer’s. In this instance he would be supporting the fill-in bride. “I can do that,” he said.

      Her hair had fallen across her cheek. He would have liked to brush it away. As long as he was touching her, he would glide his finger to her chin, his thumb smoothing over her lower lip. He’d let his hand trail down her neck, stopping at the little vein pulsing in the delicate hollow.

      Kyle felt the way he had earlier. Alive and aware. Especially aware. If he and Summer had been alone, there was no telling what he might have done. Instead, he reined in his hormones and smiled all around.

      “It was nice meeting both of you,” he said to Abby and Chelsea. “Take care of yourself, Madeline.” At last he spoke to the woman he couldn’t seem to stop looking at. “Summer. I guess I’ll see you at the inn.”

      Summer swore the temperature lowered ten degrees the minute the men left the room. She heard three collective sighs from the other women on the bed. Pleased to discover that her hand was still steady, she took a sip of tea.

      “Holy moly,” Madeline declared.

      “What was that?” Abby whispered.

      “That,” Chelsea declared, “was one amazing example of pure masculine appeal.”

      “That,” Summer qualified, “was Kyle Merrick being supportive.”

      Madeline was looking at Summer, one eyebrow raised. With a point of her finger, Summer said, “Don’t start.”

      Madeline grinned knowingly. And Summer thought it was going to be a long week.

      “He wants you,” Chelsea said matter-of-factly.

      “Film at eleven,” Abby piped in.

      Arguing that they were wrong would have been futile, and Summer had a feeling she needed to save her strength. For a few moments, she’d almost forgotten that Kyle was in a profession she mistrusted. For those few blessed minutes, he’d simply been someone who slept too soundly and lost track of time and made her lose track of it, too. He was someone who took a bouquet of lilacs to a kind old lady, someone who brought out yearnings Summer hadn’t expected to feel. It was too late to chide herself, for Chelsea was right.

      He wanted her.

      He hadn’t tried to hide it. She hadn’t expected that any more than she’d expected him to show up here tonight or arrive last night during that thunderstorm. But he had, and he wasn’t leaving anytime soon.

      Being wanted by a man like him was heady. It was tempting, and normally Summer didn’t tempt easily. What she didn’t know was what she was going to do about it.

       Chapter Five

      Kyle tossed the crime novel he’d been reading onto the bed. It landed facedown on the rumpled pillow beside him. Picking up the remote again, he aimed it at the small television on the nearby wall, adjusted his pillows and tried to get comfortable. He’d already caught the beginning of a comedian’s act, a portion of the race Braden had qualified for in Europe, and the end of a black and white war movie. He’d watched an infomercial selling kitchen knives, a lot of garbage, and a piece about the disappearing rain forests in South America.

      He stayed away from the news.

      Powering СКАЧАТЬ