Summer Brides: Bride Wanted / Hasty Wedding

“I don’t understand you,” she cried, nearly hysterical. “I’ve cheated you and lied to you. Why do you still want me? You should be glad to be rid of me.”

“You are my wife.”

It demanded all of Julia’s energy just to hold up her head. This man confused her and she lacked the resources to go on arguing.

He pulled back the sheets and rearranged the pillows on his side of the bed, making certain she understood that he wouldn’t be dissuaded.

“I can’t think clearly,” she said, holding her hands to her cheeks. “I’ll sleep in the guest bedroom.”

His disappointment was obvious. “You’re sure?”

She nodded. “For now.”

“As you wish, then.”

Listlessly she moved around the foot of the single bed. She’d made a mess of this marriage from the beginning.

“Julia.” His voice was softly accented and warmly masculine. Something in the way he said her name gave her pause.

“I’m so sorry,” she said before he could speak. She could hear the tears in her voice.

“For what?”

She shrugged. For another failure. For dragging him into a loveless marriage with a cold, unwilling wife. For countless unconfessed sins.

“You’ve spent today and many others before it fighting yourself. You’re weary of the battle, aren’t you?”

Julia nodded. He was behind her, moving closer. She should leave now, walk away from him before he started to make sense, before he convinced her there was hope. She couldn’t allow it to happen, because ultimately she would disappoint him. Even hurt him.

“I am your husband,” he whispered once more as he turned her into his arms. “Let me carry your burdens and lighten your load. I’m here to be your helpmate, your friend, your lover. Let me take care of you, Julia. Let me love you.” As he spoke, his mouth was drawing closer and closer to hers, until their breath mingled.

As hard as she tried, Julia couldn’t dredge up a single protest when his mouth settled firmly on hers. He kissed her the way a woman dreams a man will kiss her, with a tenderness that touched some long-hidden spark within her.

And then…he altered the kiss, making it hot and fierce. He buried his hands deep in her hair.

Alek sighed and her name spilled from his lips. His voice was filled with need. With unbridled desire.

“Be my wife.”

Julia’s eyes fluttered open. It took her a second to comprehend what he’d said. When she did, she stared at him, unable to speak. Her heart was pounding, tapping out a dire warning. One she should heed.

“I…need time.”

He continued to hold her gaze. “All right.”

Tears filled her eyes and she bit her lip. “You’re getting the short end of the stick with me, Alek.”

“Short end of the stick?”

She smiled softly. “It means you’re getting less than you deserve.”

“Let me be the judge of that. As I said, in time you’ll come to me of your own accord. In time you’ll want me as much as I want you.”

“There are many things you don’t know about me,” she said, her words so low he had to strain to hear.

“Tell me.”

She shook her head. “Just remember, I warned you.”

He released her, maintaining their contact as long as possible. His hands slid down the full length of her arms and, catching her fingers, he held on to the tips with his own.

“Good night, my wife,” he whispered, then turned away. “I shall be lonely without you.”

Julia left the room quickly, knowing that if she stayed a moment longer, she’d end up in the bed next to Alek.…

Julia found it surprisingly easy to avoid Alek. Their schedules were different and they drove to work in separate cars. She left for the office early, before he awoke. In the afternoons she visited her grandmother, then ate a quiet meal by herself. She was usually preparing for bed about the time Alek returned from the lab.

He was working long, hard hours, getting ready to put his latest research into production. From the weekly reports he sent her, she knew that they were speeding ahead; the marketing and distribution plans for Phoenix Paints were under way. The advertising blitz had yet to be decided, but that was coming. Everything looked promising.

But then, it had looked promising three years ago, too. Yet within the course of a single week she’d lost her father, been betrayed by the man she loved and nearly destroyed a business that had been in the family for four generations.

Julia had learned harsh but valuable lessons about promises. Probably the most painful lessons of her life. She’d come away convinced she could trust only a cherished few. Equally important, she’d learned never, ever to cash in on mere potential. The promise of a check in the mail wasn’t money in the bank.

Dear heavens, she mused as she left the office, she was becoming very philosophical. Perhaps that was what marriage did to a woman.

Marriage.

Even the word sounded strange to her. She was married for better or worse. Married. After her tirade on their wedding night, when she’d pleaded, threatened and tried to reason with Alek, she’d decided he was right. There was no backing out now. They were married, for better or worse.

Her decision was prompted by a certain amount of pride. Jerry had made sure the news of their wedding was carried by the local newspapers. The business community and their acquaintances would know about her marriage. It would be acutely embarrassing to seek an annulment so soon after the ceremony.

Mentally she added vanity to her growing list of character defects.

“Julia,” Ruth said weakly when she entered the hospital room, “what are you doing here?”

Julia grinned as she leaned forward to kiss her grandmother’s pale cheek. “It’s good to see you, too.”

“Alek will never forgive me.”

“Alek is hard at work,” she assured Ruth.

“But you’re newlyweds.”

Julia’s gaze skirted past her grandmother’s. “He’s been so busy lately. I’d rather spend time with you than go home to an empty apartment.”

“I worry about you,” Ruth said, her voice growing weaker.

“Worry?” Julia repeated. “There’s no need. Our schedules are hectic just now. Coming here is the best thing for me.… That way, when Alek gets home, I’m calm and relaxed.”

“Good. He’s such a dear boy. You married well.… I so want you to be happy—it’s what you deserve. Your season of pain is past now that you have Alek.”

Julia wanted to avoid the subject of her husband. “Would you like me to read to you?”

“Please. From the book of Psalms, if you would?”

“Of course.” Julia reached for the well-worn Bible and sat in the chair next to her grandmother’s bed and began. She read long past the moment Ruth had fallen asleep. Long past the dinner hour. Long past the time she should leave for home.

The night was hot and muggy, the air heavy. Her air-conditioning system must not be working properly because it felt like the hottest night of the year. Even her skimpy, baby-doll pajamas seemed clammy and constricting.

Sleep seemed just beyond her grasp no matter how hard she tried to capture it. The night was still and dark, and she flopped from her side to her back, then onto her side once more, attempting to find the touch of a cool breeze. But there was none.

Another hour passed and she gave up the effort. Getting out of bed, she moved into the living room, standing in front of the window. A few scattered lights flickered from Puget Sound. The last ferry crossing before dawn, she guessed, on its way to Winslow on Bainbridge Island.

The lights from Alki Point gleamed in the distance.

Julia had no idea how long she stood there, looking into the still, dark night. Raising her arms high above her head, she stretched, standing on her toes. The thin fabric of her pajama top rustled. Her hair felt damp and heavy and she lifted the long tresses from the back of her neck. She shook her head, sending a spray of hair in a circle around her face.

She heard the briefest of noises behind her and whirled around to see a shadow unfold from the chair. Alek stood. He wore only the bottom half of his pajamas and his hard chest glistened in the muted light.

“Alek,” she said breathlessly.

“I couldn’t sleep, either,” he told her.

“How…long have you been here?” she demanded.

“I wasn’t spying on you, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”

“I…you startled me, that’s all.”

“Come sit with me.”

She shook her head again and watched as his jaw tightened at her refusal.

“We’re married,” he reminded her. “You can’t ignore me the rest of your life. We made a bargain, which has yet to be fulfilled.”

Why he chose to bring up the subject of their marriage now, Julia didn’t know. They’d lived peacefully together for nearly two weeks, barely seeing each other, rarely talking. She’d almost convinced herself they could continue like this forever.

“I don’t want to talk about our marriage.”

She sensed that his irritation turned to amusement. “No, I don’t imagine you do,” he said.

“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just that I didn’t realize you were here.”

“Fine. I forgive you. Now sit and we can talk.”

Julia hesitated, then decided it would do more harm than good to refuse him. She sank onto the sofa across from him. Holding a decorative pillow to her stomach helped ease her discomfort over her state of undress, although not by much.

“How is your grandmother?”

“About the same. I talked to her doctor this afternoon and he said…” She paused, biting her lip. “He said we shouldn’t expect her to return home.”

“Is she in pain?”

“Yes, sometimes, although she tries to hide it from me. Listen, do you mind if we don’t talk about Ruth, either?”

“Of course not. I didn’t mean to bring up a subject that causes you distress.”

Julia lowered her eyes. “It’s just that…she’s so important to me. Ruth’s all the family Jerry and I have left.”

“Your mother died years ago, didn’t she?”

Julia wasn’t surprised he knew that, since he and Jerry had been friends since her brother’s college days, when they’d met in Europe. “When I was fifteen, and as you probably recall, my father,” she added, “died three years ago…shortly after the fire.”

Silence stretched between them. Julia’s pressure on the pillow increased. Even in the darkened room, she could feel his smoldering gaze move caressingly over her. He wanted her and was growing impatient. Her heart pounded with dread and some other emotion. Regret? Perhaps…yearning?

“Please don’t look at me like that,” she begged. It seemed as if his eyes were about to devour her. He wanted her to know how much he longed to make love to her. The memory of his kisses returned to haunt her and she tried to dispel the image before it took root in her mind and her heart.

“You’re very beautiful.”

She’d heard those meaningless words before. Beauty was fleeting and counted for little of real value in life. Being outwardly attractive hadn’t made her a better judge of character. It didn’t do one iota of good as far as her grandmother’s health was concerned. If anything, it had been a curse, because it attracted the wrong kind of man.

“This makes you sad?”

She shrugged. “Beauty means nothing.”

“You are wise to recognize that.”

“Then why do you mention it?”

“Because you were not beautiful, not in the same way, when we first met. It’s only recently that I’ve come to appreciate that you are a real woman.”

A real woman. Julia nearly laughed aloud. “This is what makes being married to you and not sleeping with you so difficult. Have you reconsidered yet, my love? Come with me, share my bed.”

“I…can’t, please don’t ask me.” Her response was immediate. Tossing the pillow aside, she leapt to her feet, needing to escape. “Good night, Alek.”

He didn’t answer and she didn’t look back as she rushed to her room. Her heart was roaring in her ears when she reached the bed. Not for the first time she felt like the fox in an English hunt, and the baying of the hounds was closing in on her.

“Julia.”

She nearly fell off the bed when she looked up and found Alek framed in her doorway. Her breath froze in her lungs.

“Someday you won’t run from me.”

“I wasn’t running from you.” It was a lie and they both knew it, yet Julia persisted in claiming otherwise.

His smile was more than a little cocky. “Someday you will come to me voluntarily.”

She wasn’t going to argue with him. He watched her closely in the muted moonlight and she studied him with equal intensity. She suddenly realized her top had inched up and exposed her breasts. Furiously she tugged it down, glaring at him as though he’d purposely arranged the immodest display.

He smiled roguishly at her. “As I said earlier, you are very beautiful.” Then he turned and left.

After a sleepless, frustrating night, Julia was in no mood to deal with a long list of complicated problems. Virginia, her middle-aged assistant, looked apologetic when Julia arrived at the office early the next morning.

“Please get my brother on the line when you can,” Julia said. Her mind was made up. She wanted out of this farce of a marriage.

“He’s already called for you.” Virginia hugged a file folder against her chest. “He asked that you call him the moment you got here.”

Julia reached for her phone and punched out the extension. Jerry answered on the first ring. “Come down to my office,” he said impatiently.

“Now?”

“Right now.”

“What’s wrong?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

This morning was quickly going from bad to worse, much like her life. She paused, catching herself. Her thoughts hadn’t always been this negative. When had it started? The wedding? No, she decided—long before then. Three years before… She wondered why she was so aware of it now.

She rounded the corner that led to the suite of offices her brother occupied on the floor below her own.

“Jerry, what’s this all about?” she asked before she noticed Alek. She halted when she saw her husband sitting in one of the visitor’s chairs, waiting for her.

“Sit down.” Her brother motioned toward Alek.

Julia did as he asked. Jerry paced back and forth behind his desk. “I was contacted this morning by the Immigration people. I knew this would happen, I just didn’t expect it to be quite so soon.”

“We’re being investigated?” Alek murmured.

Jerry nodded. “The two of you are going to have to convince them you’re madly in love. Do you think you can do it?”

Julia saw that he focused his gaze on her. “Ah…”

“Yes,” Alek responded without hesitation.

“Julia, what about you?”

“Ah…” She’d never been good with pretense.

“She’ll convince them.” Alek revealed far more confidence in her than she had in herself. “It won’t take much effort.” He reached for her hand, gripping it in his own. “All we need is a little practice, isn’t that right, Julia?”

Five

Only seconds earlier Julia had decided she wanted to end this charade of a marriage, no matter what the price. Just when it seemed that very thing was about to happen, she discovered herself willing to do whatever was necessary to keep their relationship intact.

Counseling. That was what she needed, Julia thought. Intensive counseling. She wasn’t an indecisive woman; that would be a death knell for someone in her position. Generally she knew what she wanted and went after it with a determination that left everyone in her wake shaking their heads in wonder.

It was Aleksandr who managed to discomfit and confuse her. It was Alek who made her feel as though she was walking through quicksand.

“Julia?” Jerry turned the full force of his attention on her. “Can you do it?”

Both men were studying her. Could she pretend to be in love with Alek? Pretend her happiness hinged on spending the rest of her life with him? Could she?

“I…I don’t know.”

“Shall I repeat what’s at stake here?” Jerry muttered.

It wasn’t necessary; he’d gone over the consequences of their actions when he’d proposed the idea of marrying Alek in the first place. The government did much more than frown upon such unions. There was the possibility of jail time if they weren’t able to persuade the Immigration department of their sincerity.

“Julia knows,” Alek assured Jerry calmly. “Isn’t that right?”

She lowered her eyes. “I’m fully aware of what could happen.”

“That’s fine and dandy, but can you be convincing enough to satisfy the Immigration people?” Jerry demanded.

She nodded slowly, thoughtfully. It wasn’t just a question of being able to pull this off with the finesse required; it also meant lowering her guard, opening her heart to the truth. She was attracted to him, both physically and emotionally. Otherwise she wouldn’t have participated in or enjoyed the few times they’d kissed. The most important factor wasn’t her ability to fool Immigration, but resurrecting the shield protecting her against the pull she felt toward Alek.

To complicate matters, the attachment she felt was growing stronger every day. She often found herself thinking about him. Hard as it was to admit, Julia had discovered she enjoyed his company and looked forward to the short time they spent together in the evenings.

“You’re sure?” Jerry asked, sounding as if he thought she was anything but.

“Positive,” she said, chancing a look in Alek’s direction. He caught her eye and smiled reassuringly. Taking her hand, he squeezed her fingers.

“We’ll do just fine,” Alek said to Jerry. “Wait and see. What both of you fail to realize is that Julia and I did marry for love.”

“Stop pacing,” Alek said, more testily than he intended. The Immigration officer was due in fifteen minutes and Julia was understandably nervous. Unable to sit still, she stalked the living room.

“Walking helps take my mind off the interview,” Julia snapped back.

The tension between them was thick enough to slice and serve for dinner. That would hurt their case more than anything they said or did. The man or woman doing the interview would sense the strain immediately and count it against them.

“You should know more about me,” Julia said, whirling around to face him as if this was a new thought. “The brand of toothpaste I use and stuff like that.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not…. That’s exactly the kind of questions he’ll ask.”

“Julia, my love,” he said patiently, “a man doesn’t pay attention to such things. Now relax.”

“How can you be so calm?” Julia shrugged, raising both hands. “Our future hinges on the outcome of this meeting. There’s a very real possibility I could go to jail for involving myself in this…marriage.” Her arms seemed to have lost their purpose and fell lifelessly to her sides. “I’m not the only one who has a lot at stake with this. Your mother and sister’s plans depend on the outcome, as well. Didn’t you mention you’ve already seen to the necessary paperwork for them?”

“I’m aware of the consequences.”

“Then how can you be so calm?”

“Very simple, my love.” He said this evenly and without emotion as he leaned forward, clasped her around the waist and brought her down into his lap.

Julia struggled at first. “Stop,” she said, wriggling against him. “What are you trying to do?”

He let her struggle, but her efforts were weak. His arms were around her and he felt her yielding. Taking advantage of her acquiescence, he brushed his face against her hair. She’d left it down, at his request, and he gathered the length of it in his hands, loving its clean jasmine scent.

“Alek, are you insane?”

He dropped a trail of moist kisses along her throat and shoulder. “That’s better,” he whispered as her tight muscles relaxed. “Much better.”

“I…I don’t think we should be doing this.”

“What?” he asked as his hand caressed her back in a slow, soothing motion. “This?” He eased her against the chair until her hair spilled over his arm. A sigh escaped her as he pressed his lips to hers.

Julia felt hot, then cold and shaky in his embrace, but no more so than he. They’d kissed a handful of times and each had been a battle for him. His wife had balked at his touch in the beginning, then gradually she’d opened herself to him until he was so needy he ached.

This time the skirmish between them was over even before it started. Julia accepted his kiss with little more than a token protest. Perhaps she was ready for more.…

He broke off the kiss and told her how badly he needed her. He pleaded with her as only a man who needs his wife can implore. It wasn’t until he saw the confusion in her eyes that he realized he’d spoken in his native tongue. His English was hopeless just then.

Julia’s fingers were digging into his shoulders. He felt the rapid beat of her heart and heard the ragged echo of her breath as it rasped in his ear.

The doorbell chimed and Alek would have ignored it if Julia hadn’t frozen and then jumped from his lap as though she’d caught fire.

“Oh, my goodness,” she cried. Her face was a rich shade of red as she swept back her hair. “The interviewer is here.” She stared at him as if he had the magical power to make everything right.

“That would be my guess.”

“Alek.” Her voice shook as she quickly adjusted her clothes. “I’m scared.”

“Don’t be. Everything will be fine,” he said. He gave her a moment to fuss with her hair before he stood, kissed her lightly on the lips and answered the door.

Although Alek appeared outwardly composed, he was as shaken as Julia. And not because their future hung in the balance. His head reeled with the aftershock of their kissing. A few kisses, he’d thought, to take the edge off their nervousness. In another five minutes, he would’ve carried her to his bed.…

“Hello,” Alek said, opening the door to admit a lanky, official-looking gentleman. He wore a crisp business suit and from the tight set of his mouth, Alek guessed he would brook no foolishness. His expression was sharp and unfriendly.

“Patrick O’Dell,” he said.

“My name is Alek and this is my wife, Julia,” Alek said.

Julia stood on the far side of the room, her smile fleeting and strained. “Welcome to our home, Mr. O’Dell. Would you care to sit down?”

“Thank you.” He moved into the living room and didn’t pause to look at the view. Indeed, there might not have been one for all the notice O’Dell took. He sat on the recliner they’d recently vacated and set his briefcase on the coffee table.

Alek walked over to Julia’s side and held her hand in his. Together they ventured to the sofa opposite the interviewer and sat down.

Mr. O’Dell removed a file from his briefcase. He scanned the contents, then frowned with clear disapproval. “How did you two meet?”

“Through my brother,” Julia said quickly. “He’d met Alek several years earlier while he was in Europe. They corresponded for a number of years and then after the fire…” She hesitated and turned to Alek.

“Jerry offered me a job in this country almost three years ago. I’ve lived here for the past two.”

“Tell me about your work.”

Alek answered the questions thoroughly, while minimizing his importance to Conrad Industries. No need to raise suspicions.

“Alek is a gifted biochemist,” Julia added with unnecessary enthusiasm. “The company was nearly ruined a few years back following the fire I mentioned. I don’t know what would’ve become of us if it hadn’t been for Alek.”

Although he smiled, Alek was groaning inwardly. Julia was offering far more information than necessary. He wished now that they’d gone over what they planned to say. Jerry had advised them to do so, but Alek had felt spontaneity would serve them better than a series of practiced responses.

“In other words, you needed Mr. Berinski.”

“Yes, very much so.” Julia was nothing if not honest.