The Bridesmaid's Wedding

“You’re coming on with us to the nightclub, aren’t you, Ally?” Francesca asked as they stood amid the swirling crowd in the foyer.

Ally was long used to all the glances of recognition that came her way. In another minute someone would come up and ask for an autograph. Meanwhile she smiled at her cousin, anxious now to be off. She certainly didn’t want to see any more of Rafe with Lainie in tow. “I have to fly back to Sydney in the morning, Fran,” she explained. “I have a pretty hectic schedule next week.”

“What a pity. I’d have loved you to come.” Francesca couldn’t hide her disappointment even as she understood.

“So how are you getting home?” Grant, who was holding Francesca’s slender arm, turned his tawny head to see if he could catch sight of his brother. “Rafe is somewhere back there. Maybe he could give you a lift?”

“No, that’s okay.” Ally smiled back. She realised Grant, like her own brother, Brod, had never given up hope she and Rafe would some day be reunited. “I can catch a cab.”

“You can share ours.” Francesca didn’t like the idea of Ally’s going home on her own.

“You’re going the other way, love,” Ally reminded her.

“That doesn’t matter.” Francesca looked up to Grant for confirmation.

“Of course not.” He was more than happy to oblige. “We can drop Ally off then come back into town. Where is it, Ally? Some friend lent you their unit, didn’t they?”

Ally nodded. “Pam is holidaying on the Barrier Reef for a week. It seemed nicer than staying at a hotel. I like to be a bit anonymous.” Keep my whereabouts a secret, she thought a little grimly.

“Ah, there’s Rafe now. Rafe?” Grant called to his brother who was clearly enjoying something Lainie was saying to him.

“Be with you.” Rafe lifted a long arm, turning to shake the hand of a male guest who was moving off.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s a good idea if Lainie falls in love with Rafe,” Grant announced out of the blue.

“You think she might?” Fran looked like she’d never considered it for a minute.

“I’m sure she already has,” Ally confirmed, turning to a youngster who came up with a program to be autographed.

“Gee, thanks, Ally, that’s cool!” The boy, who had to be all of fourteen, whistled behind his braces.

“Does he know you?” Grant looked after the departing fan.

“No. He just thinks he does.” Ally smiled. “I’ve had complete strangers come up and start talking as though they’d known me all my life.”

“I don’t think I could get used to it,” Grant said with a slight frown. “Anyway, to get back to Lainie. Rafe isn’t flirting with her, he’s only being nice.”

“Well he’s got her up in the sky somewhere. Floating on cloud nine,” Ally offered wryly. “Mind you, Lainie is sweet. She’s entitled to her dreams.”

Grant wrinkled his broad forehead. “Just between you and me. Rafe needs a great deal more than Lainie can offer.” He laughed shortly, the tiniest spark of anger in his hazel eyes. “Do you honestly think she’s woman enough for him?” He held Ally’s gaze in his direct manner.

“Don’t ask me—it’s too close to home.”

Francesca stared from one to the other, looking thoroughly intrigued. “Are you suggesting someone should tell poor Lainie to back off, Grant, dear?”

“It might save her a lot of heartache.” Grant looked serious. “No one wants Lainie to get hurt.”

Lainie, smiling brilliantly, was starting towards them and Ally began to brace herself for what was to come.

“I’m trying to talk Rafe into joining us at the nightclub,” Lainie announced. “You have to help me.” She appealed to Ally and Fran.

“Rafe’s really not one for nightclubs, Lainie,” Grant tried to warn her.

“But on such a night.” Lainie clutched at Francesca’s arm in her enthusiastic fashion. “Quite a few of us are going on. There’s absolutely no need for him to rush off.”

“Well, I have to,” Ally told her lightly. “We start shooting very early Monday morning.”

“I’d love to get a bit part in one of your shows,” Lainie confessed. “But I suppose I’m too short.”

That struck Grant as utterly irrelevant and he said so.

“It was just a thought.” A little warily Lainie eyed Rafe’s younger brother, knowing Grant Cameron wasn’t as sweetly tolerant as Rafe was. Grant was one of those men who didn’t suffer fools gladly.

Into the group came the rangy, elegant Rafe, looking super relaxed. The overhead lighting gilded his fine features and played around the smile on his sexy curving mouth. “So is everyone off?”

“You’re coming, then?” Lainie rejoiced, all but rubbing her cheek against his slate blue jacket. “It’s wonderful to know I could persuade you.”

“Well…” Rafe looked down a moment at her fair head. “Lainie, I find it hard to disappoint you, but I’m flying off home in the morning. Grant is staying on to line up some more business, but I have to get back to the station. As well, I promised Brod I’d keep an eye on Kimbara. You’ve got a dozen people to keep you company,” he consoled her. “Fran and Grant are going on. So is Mark Farrell. I thought you two got on rather well.” He referred to the groomsman. “And Ally must do this sort of thing all the time.”

“You obviously haven’t heard about my killing schedule,” Ally said in a wry voice. “I have to get lots of beauty sleep so I can get up the next morning without telltale bags under my eyes.”

“Bags? Not you,” Lainie retorted.

“So can I drop you off at your hotel?” Rafe looked on sardonically. “You’re staying with Fee and Francesca?”

“Not this time.” Ally shook her head. “Fee has commandeered the best suite. Davey has another.”

“I have to settle for deluxe,” Francesca smiled.

“And a friend has lent me her place while she’s away,” Ally added.

“Rafe are you sure you won’t come?” Lainie persisted, desperately wanting it to happen.

“Sorry, pet.” He gave her his maddening nonchalant smile.

“Well, that takes care of that then,” Grant said with satisfaction. “We were going to drop Ally off, Rafe, but I’m sure she’s happy for you to take over.”

“I don’t have to go,” Lainie looked about vaguely, wishing secretly Rafe would simply take her off to bed.

“Sure you do!” Grant took hold of her arm purposefully, with Francesca, blue eyes twinkling, taking the other. “Let the good times roll.”

Grant looked back at his brother and Ally and tilted a tawny eyebrow.

CHAPTER THREE

THEY were quiet in the taxi, each sitting as far away from each other as possible, but feeling the effects of their enforced intimacy coming at them in electric waves.

“Are you coming in for a moment?” Ally asked when they arrived. “You can have a nightcap. You don’t need to drive.”

He wanted to tell her no. He had already begun to shake his head, but Ally threw open the door, peering up at the apartment block. She didn’t want him to see her nervousness. She didn’t want him to know the cause of it. She moved towards the well-lit entrance, assuming Rafe was paying off the driver.

“Nice place,” the driver said to Rafe. “Beautiful woman. I’m sure I know her from someplace. Your wife?”

“She shied away from accepting me,” Rafe found himself admitting.

“Fancy that!” The driver, of Italian descent, looked amazed. This guy looked like he had it all. “I haven’t seen such a glamorous couple in a long time.”

The lift was empty, the hallway a blaze of illumination. They were quiet again until they reached the door of the unit.

“You know, Ally, you’re nervous,” Rafe observed calmly, taking the key off her and fitting it in the lock. “Not of me, surely?”

The fact was she was excited but edgy, as well. These last months had taken their toll on her. She was starting to act like someone with a real problem, which, in fact, she had. But who could hurt her with Rafe around. He was very much the man in control.

“I could do with a cup of coffee,” she admitted, giving a husky laugh.

He unlocked the door and held it open so she could precede him into the apartment. She’d left a few lamps burning as she always seemed to do these days. Now in the low rosy light she glanced automatically towards the sliding doors that led out onto the terrace with its spectacular views of the cityscape.

Something moved. She stood perfectly still, muscles tensing, adrenalin pumping into her blood.

“What is it? What’s the matter?” Rafe registered her alarm instantly, grasping her arm and staring into her stricken face. “Ally?” She looked primed for panic as though her emerald eyes saw some great wrath. “What the hell’s going on here?”

At the sound of his voice relief flooded into Ally’s face. She could diagnose her own delusion born of months of harassment. She turned to him, her heart still racing, grateful beyond words for how he filled the room with his commanding presence.

“Rafe!” It was little more than a gasp as she waited for the adrenalin in her blood to dissipate.

“For God’s sake! What did you think you saw?” he burst out, letting go of her, moving with a lithe, purposeful tread to the sliding-glass doors. Obviously she thought someone or something was out here. He saw only the night-time dazzle of the city lights and glittering towers, the graceful sweep of the Expressway spanning the broad deep river that meandered through the centre of the city in grand curves.

He turned back to her, shaking his head. “There’s nothing here. Nothing to be afraid of.”

“Good.” She gave a small delicate sigh.

Perturbed himself now, Rafe unlocked the doors, slid them open and walked out onto the terrace. Nothing disturbed the peace. There was a collection of potted plants, a white wrought-iron table with two chairs. Quietly alert he walked to the balcony. Looked over. Directly below him five floors down a young couple was entering the building. They were laughing, hand in hand, eyes only for one another.

Ally watched him come inside, feeling slightly ashamed now of her instinctive reaction. The moment of panic. “Just a trick of the lighting,” she offered by way of explanation. “I thought I saw something move.”

“Something or someone?” His arresting face framed by that burning gold hair was etched with hard concern. Obviously she wasn’t telling him the whole story but he intended to get it out of her. He could see she still looked scared when the Ally he knew was the least nervous of women. She had never jumped at shadows. It made him angry suddenly that life in the city should have made her so. He recognised what he felt was possessiveness. Possessiveness permeated with a sense of powerlessness. She wasn’t his Ally any more.

“It was nothing, Rafe.” Ally tried to shrug the moment off. “Stop looking like you want to pummel someone. I have an overactive imagination.” She turned quickly towards the galley kitchen. “I’m having coffee, would you prefer Scotch?”

“Coffee will be fine.” He began to roam around the open-plan entrance, living/dining room, furnished quietly but comfortably with one stunning piece of art dominating. “This must be like living in a birdcage,” he muttered, a big man in a small, confined space.

“Not everyone can afford grand houses,” Ally pointed out, “and vast open spaces. Actually this is quite an expensive piece of real estate.”

“I imagine it would be with that view.” He glanced back at the sparkling multicoloured lights reflected in the indigo river, then walked nearer the kitchen looking over the counter to where Ally was measuring coffee into a plunger. “Your hand is shaking.” How beautiful her fingers were, long and elegant, the nails gleaming with a polish that matched her gown. Ringless. He still had the engagement ring he had planned to give her.

“So it is,” she agreed wryly. She wanted to tell him everything. How awful it had been for her. But he might see it as a deliberate play for his sympathy.

“Why, exactly,” he persisted, his lean powerful body tensing as it might against a threat.

“It’s been that sort of a day.”

“Something is really bothering you.” He watched her closely, all his old protective feelings coming into play.

“Lord, Rafe, I’m just a little tired. And overexcited. Sit down and I’ll bring the coffee over.”

“It might make sense to tell me,” he remarked, his face reflecting his concern. “Do you mind if I have a quick look through the place?”

“Be my guest,” she answered a little weakly. Her heart was still quaking. “Two bedrooms, one used as a study, two bathrooms, a laundry.”

“My God!” He sounded amazed anyone could live like that. The cattle baron with his million wild acres.

Rafe walked down the narrow corridor checking each room in turn. He even looked inside the built-in wardrobes, accepting now some terror large or small was preying on her mind.

“Well?” She arched a brow. So hard to believe he was here. So wondrous. So real.

“Everything in order.” He crossed to one of the couches upholstered in some light green fabric and removed a few of the overabundant cushions. “I bet this is nothing like where you live in Sydney?” Ally had tremendous flair. They had spent a lot of time walking round the homestead on Opal planning what they would do to refurbish it after they were married. Opal Downs boasted a marvellous old homestead like Kimbara, but whereas Kimbara homestead had been constantly refurbished and updated, Opal had been caught in a time warp. Nothing much had been changed since his grandfather’s time. His mother had been contemplating a lot of changes in the months before she and his father along with six other passengers, had been killed when the light aircraft they had been travelling in crashed into a hillside in the New Guinea highlands.

He couldn’t bear to remember that terrible time. The shock and the grief. The last time he and Grant had seen their parents alive they had been laughing and full of life, waving from the charter plane that had taken them away from Opal. Forever.

“I’ve decorated my apartment. We all do our own things. You’ve gone very quiet.” Ally, as sensitive to him as he was to her, set the tray down on the coffee table.

“Memories. They come on you without warning.”

“Yes, they’re the very devil!” Ally agreed, remembering all the times she had to push her own back. “I’m glad we can have this quiet time together, Rafe.”

She was a siren seducing him into her arms. He could smell the perfume that clung to her, stirring his blood. He had lived almost like a monk for years. The odd go-nowhere affair. But there was a huge difference between having sex and making love to the woman who aroused his every longing. Ally belonged to the category of women one would have to call unforgettable. He was mad to touch her. But he didn’t move, instead saying quietly, “Your hand isn’t shaking any more.”

“You’re here,” she said, her eyes alive with emerald light. “Stay for a while.” Rafe always had been an intensely strong and reassuring presence.

“You feel the need to be protected?”

“Believe it.” She gave a brittle laugh.

Rafe took a quick gulp of the fragrant black coffee, hot and strong the way he liked it, then set the cup down. “I’m picking up a lot of bad vibes here, Ally. You’re not going to tell me you’re being harassed by some crank? I know it happens to people in the public eye.”

She was struck by his perception. She knew she flushed.

“You mean that sort of thing is happening?” he asked, almost incredulously.

“On and off.” She tried to appear unfazed.

“Keep talking,” he ordered, his strong handsome face turning grim.

She sank back into the sofa opposite him, the light glancing off her beautiful satin dress, making all the little crystals on the strapless bodice twinkle like stars. “I’ve had letters, phone calls. The calls must be made from public phones. The police can’t get a trace on them.”

“Someone speaks? A man?” He gave a dark, forbidding frown.

“I’m afraid so, though he seems to use a device to disguise his voice. It’s really rather scary.”

He stared at her, decidedly the object of any man’s desire. “Scary? I’d like to get my hands on him.” His voice rasped. “Does Brod know?”

Vigorously she shook her sable head. “You think I’d spoil his wedding? His honeymoon? No way! It’s not like this creep is actually doing anything. I’ve never been stalked. At least I don’t think I have.” She realised her characteristic blithe self-confidence was breaking down.

For a split second Rafe felt even he couldn’t cope with it. “When did it start?” he asked very quietly, his eyes pinned to her expressive face.

Of course she knew exactly. “Four months ago. The channel is very good to me. They’ve arranged security for me. I have someone to see me to my car.”

He let out a hard, tight breath. “No wonder you nearly jump out of your skin when you imagine you see a man’s reflection.”

“Maybe I’m not quite sober.” She tried to make light of it. “I had rather a lot of champagne at the reception. I’m not afraid.”

“I think you’ve proved you are. And why not? This modern world is turning into a jungle. Have you told Fee?”

She rubbed her arms. “I’ve told no one in the family. Only you. It’s an occupational hazard, Rafe. I have to live with it.”

His expression was formidable. “This is really bad, Ally. I don’t like it at all.”

Her mouth trembled. So he still cared something for her. “I have hundreds, maybe thousands of fans who only wish me well, but this guy is something else.”

A gust of wind came up and moved the plants on the terrace, causing Ally to lift her hands to her temples. “I thought I’d prefer to stay here rather than a hotel where I’d be recognised.” She leapt to her feet. “Now I’m not so sure. I expect I’m feeling a bit more vulnerable after such an emotional day.”

“Sit down again,” Rafe said. “Let’s face it, Ally, there’s a decision to be made. You don’t have to spend a single night feeling threatened. Not while I’m around. You mightn’t be my Ally anymore but the Kinrosses and the Camerons go back a whole lot of years.” Brod looked to him to oversee the running of Kimbara in his absence, the idea that his only sister was in any danger would upset him greatly.

“What I’m offering, Ally, is friendship allied to the age-old tradition of man as a protector. It’s the way of the Outback.” He tossed off the rest of his coffee, watching her slide back on the couch. “I think what I should do, what Brod would want me to do, is stay overnight. I can sleep on this sofa. Maybe shove the two of them together.”

She didn’t know what to say, a thousand sensations crystallising into a feeling of great warmth. She also remembered Rafe’s tenderness. “Rafe, I don’t want you to do that.”

“The lady protesteth,” he raised an eyebrow, “but I can see relief in those beautiful almond eyes. I don’t want to hear any more about it. I’m staying. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.”

“I imagine it would upset Lainie for days on end.” Her gaze flickered to his. Found it sardonic.

“I’m not sure what you’re on about as regards Lainie, and I don’t actually care. You’re nervous about staying here and I don’t blame you. I’d just like to run into this guy who’s been giving you such a bad time. Are you sure it’s not someone you know?”

The police had said the same thing. “You mean, someone I work with? One of the actors, one of the crew?”

“Take it easy,” he soothed, watching her reaction. “Tell me the sort of things he writes. What he says on the phone.”

“Rafe, you wouldn’t want to hear it.” She slid her heavy hair back from her face.

“So it’s a sexual thing?”

“Of course.” She glanced away, her high cheekbones stained with colour. “He claims he’s in love with me. He can give me everything I need. He likes to say how he’s going to do it. I crash the phone down. I’ve had three different ex-directory numbers but he always finds out. That’s not easy to do.”

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