Breaking/Making Up: Something BorrowedVendetta

by Miranda Lee

  Ashleigh stopped and stared at her friend.

  ‘Now don’t go giving me one of those looks of yours,’ Kate huffed.

  ‘What looks?’

  ‘Oh, your “one must keep one’s feet firmly on the ground” looks. Life is meant to be lived, Ashleigh. And I’m not so sure I want to live the rest of mine in good old Glenbrook! Oh, forget it,’ she grumbled. ‘You wouldn’t understand. Not only do you have a rewarding career, but you’ve just married a great bloke whom it’s quite clear you’re mad about—and who’s mad about you—so what would you know about frustration?’

  Suddenly she smiled, a sort of brave, sad smile that caught at Ashleigh’s heart. She hadn’t realised her dear friend was so unhappy. One would never have guessed. She so wished there was something she could do.

  ‘Just listen to me,’ Kate laughed, but it had a brittle edge to it. ‘As if this is the right moment to be pouring out all my worries and woes. Now come along and sit down before I get into trouble for not doing as his lord and master commanded. Heavens, if I didn’t know different I might have thought it was Jake telling me what to do. Remember how he used to boss us around at school?’

  ‘Yes, Kate,’ Ashleigh said stiffly. ‘I haven’t forgotten. But I’m trying to.’

  ‘Oh...oh, sorry, love. God, me and my big mouth. Is your headache very bad? I guess I haven’t made it any better by my whingeing then bringing up ancient history. Truly, Ashleigh, I’m a real clot. Forgive me?’

  Ashleigh patted her friend’s hand. ‘Of course, but I would rather you not talk about Jake, especially in front of James. It’s rather a sore point between us, I’m afraid.’

  ‘I won’t, believe me. The James I’m seeing today might just bite my head off. Aah...here he is now...’

  ‘Nurse Hargraves to the rescue,’ he said mockingly, and pressed the glass of iced water he was carrying into her free hand. ‘Now...give me that infernal bouquet and hold out your other hand,’ he commanded.

  She did, and he dropped two white tablets into her palm.

  ‘Swallow them up straight away. I know you medical people. Great at dosing others but rotten at taking things yourself. Gone? Good. Look, I’m sorry, but we’ll have to make an appearance in the marquee. Mother is making unhappy noises.’

  Ashleigh was surprised to find she quite enjoyed the feeling of being cosseted, not having had that experience since her mother died. Leaving the empty glass behind on the garden seat, she allowed James to walk herself and Kate over to the marquee, a lovely, warm sensation spreading in the pit of her stomach at having his solicitous arm around her waist.

  If this was what being married to James was going to be like then she was all for it. Being married to her seemed to be good for him too. As Kate had rightly observed, James wasn’t usually so quick to take control of situations, to taking the role of leader. Yes, he certainly was coming out from under the shadow of his brother and being his own man. And suddenly Ashleigh no longer minded.

  ‘Oh-oh,’ James whispered in her ear. ‘Brace yourself. Here come the aunts and uncles and various assorted cousins to tell you how beautiful you are and how lucky I am. You’ll have to kiss the men too. Convention, you know. And we must uphold all the social conventions,’ he added quite testily. ‘Mother would have a seizure if we didn’t!’

  It wasn’t till they’d finally taken their adjoining seats at the main bridal table under the huge tent that a puzzling thought struck Ashleigh. James never called his mother ‘Mother’. He always called her Nancy. Neither was he in the habit of using that caustic, almost cutting tone when speaking about her foibles.

  A deep frown settled on to her high, wide forehead as she tried to fathom out why she was so bothered by that, since the reason for it was clear enough. Mother and son had clearly had an argument that morning about Jake’s letter—hence Nancy’s agitation and tears—and James was taking his anger out on her by being disdainful and aloof.

  Yet it did bother her. Quite considerably. Perhaps because she wanted her wedding-day to be a really happy occasion.

  ‘James,’ she whispered, and he leant her way, pressing his whole side against hers.

  A shivery charge zoomed through her body. ‘Please don’t be cross with your mother,’ she said thickly.

  The muscles along his arm stiffened. ‘What makes you think I’m cross with her?’

  ‘You don’t usually call her “Mother” like that, for one thing. And you were...well, you were sarcastic when talking about her. That’s not like you.’

  ‘I see,’ he murmured thoughtfully. ‘And what would you like me to do about it?’

  ‘Go and talk to her and make up. She looks so unhappy.’ Which the woman did, not a smile having passing Nancy’s thinnish lips all day.

  ‘Mmmm...well, we can’t have that, can we?’ he muttered in a voice that didn’t sound as conciliatory as Ashleigh might have hoped.

  He got to his feet and strode off in the direction of his mother, leaving Ashleigh feeling oddly perturbed.

  ‘God, it is good to be sitting down,’ Kate pronounced from her right-hand side. ‘Where’s James off to?’

  ‘Has to see his mother about something,’ came her suitably vague answer.

  ‘I have to give Mrs Hargraves credit where credit it due,’ Kate said. ‘This is all top-drawer stuff. Genuine lace tablecloths, real silver cutlery, candelabras, the finest crystal glasses. We might be out under a circus tent—if you can recognise canvas through the decorations—but it could well be a king’s banquet table, judging by the accoutrements.’

  Ashleigh agreed that Nancy had pulled out all stops in making sure that her son’s wedding had no equal in the history of Glenbrook. Right at this moment two hundred happy, suitably intoxicated guests were busy finding their silver-embossed place-names at one of the twenty lace-covered tables, while a small orchestra played subtle wedding music and silver, white and burgundy streamers and balloons fluttered over their heads. A four-tier wedding cake stood proudly on its own table to one side, patiently awaiting its part in the celebration that was about to start. The caterers were hovering, clearly wanting to serve the first course of the meal.

  Ashleigh was still glancing around when her eyes landed on James talking to his mother in a far corner. They were too far away for her to see the expressions in their eyes, but their body language reeked of a barely controlled anger, Nancy making sharp movements with her head and hands while she spoke. James’s fists were balled at his side, his broad shoulders held stiffly while he stood silently and listened. Suddenly James launched into speech, and Nancy’s head rocked back, as though his words were like a physical blow. She stared back at him while he raved on, her face frozen.

  At last he finished speaking and they simply stood there, eyeing each other, both still obviously livid, each one seemingly waiting for the other to break first.

  It wasn’t James.

  Quite abruptly Nancy leant forward and kissed her son on the cheek, after which she plastered a smile on her face and went about her hostess duties with the sort of serenely smiling look on her face one might have expected from Nancy, but which had been absent all afternoon.

  The whole incident rattled Ashleigh, especially with James making his way swiftly across the room towards her with a black look still on his face. What on earth was going on with those two? She could understand that initially James wasn’t pleased with his mother’s having taken a returned gift from his brother to his bride on her wedding-day, especially when that same bride had once been besotted with that brother.

  But surely, with her having discarded the locket, James could see that Jake was not going to be a threat to their relationship? Why couldn’t he forgive and forget? But no, she thought irritably, he was a typical male, whose anger was not allowed to be so quickly discarded.

  Ashleigh was initially astonished when, just as suddenly as his mother, James appeared to pull himself together and adopt a more pleasant expression. Yet as he drew closer there was no mistaking the h
ard glint remaining in his eyes, or the tension in his stiffly held arms and shoulders. Though, once he became aware of Ashleigh’s reproachful eyes upon him, he shrugged and smiled.

  ‘I’m afraid she’s still not pleased with me,’ he confessed on sitting down beside her, ‘but she’s agreed to play her part a bit more convincingly.’

  ‘Play her part?’ Ashleigh repeated, frowning. ‘Isn’t that an odd way of putting it? Your mother loves you, James. She wouldn’t want there to be bad feeling between you. She—’

  ‘For God’s sake, don’t start worrying about her,’ he suddenly snapped. ‘She’ll survive.’

  Ashleigh fell silent, truly shocked by his manner.

  ‘Hell,’ he muttered. ‘This is even harder than I thought it’d be.’

  Ashleigh stared at him. ‘What...what do you mean?’ she asked, totally perplexed.

  He turned to lock eyes with her, his gaze penetrating and deep. ‘Do you trust me, Ashleigh?’ he rasped, his voice low and husky.

  A dark, quivery sensation fluttered in her stomach.

  ‘Of...of course...’

  ‘Then don’t give my mother’s attitude a second thought. Take no notice of anything she says or does. Believe me when I say she isn’t concerned for your happiness. Or mine. That’s all you have to remember.’

  ‘But...but...that doesn’t make any sense.’ Which it didn’t. Nancy adored James. He’d always been the apple of her eye.

  ‘I know. That’s why I asked for your trust. Do I have it?’ he demanded to know.

  ‘I...’

  ‘Do I have it?’ he repeated in an urgent tone.

  Ashleigh’s heart started to pound and she knew that, with her answer, her fate would be sealed, irrevocably. Her mind flew to what she’d told Kate earlier that day, about not believing in destiny or one’s fate being outside a person’s own control. She still believed that. Her husband, in asking her for blind trust, was really testing her love for him, as well as her faith in the person he was.

  There was really only one answer she could give.

  ‘Yes,’ she said firmly.

  ‘Then just do as I ask,’ came James’s harsh answer.

  Ashleigh was to remember later that night that she had deliberately chosen to place her future in this man’s hands. So she had nobody else to blame but herself.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘FANCY Kate catching my bouquet,’ Ashleigh laughed as James drove down the hill away from the Hargraves home. ‘You know what else? I think she and your friend, Rhys, really hit it off. They were chatting away together all evening.’

  ‘I wouldn’t be getting my hopes up about Kate and Rhys if I were you,’ James returned drily. ‘He’s an incorrigible chatter-upper of women.’

  ‘Oh?’ Ashleigh frowned, a tinge of worry in her voice.

  ‘And I wouldn’t worry about your Kate either. If ever there was a female who can take care of herself it’s that one!’

  ‘I suppose so...’

  ‘You don’t sound convinced.’

  ‘Kate’s rather vulnerable at the moment.’

  ‘Aren’t we all?’ he muttered. ‘Aren’t we all?’

  A strained silence fell between them at this darkly cryptic remark, with James putting his foot down more solidly. The powerful car hurtled into the night, eating up the miles between Glenbrook and their destination.

  Ashleigh found herself with time to ponder the not so subtle difference in James today. He was far moodier than his usual easygoing self, far more uptight. Originally she’d put it down to wedding-day jitters, plus irritation at Jake’s last-minute correspondence, not to mention his doubts over his bride’s really loving him or not.

  But now that the reception was over and they were off on their honeymoon Ashleigh began to wonder if there was a far more basic reason. Perhaps he was worried about tonight, about how sex between them would turn out. Was he concerned, perhaps, that she would compare his lovemaking with Jake’s? And, more to the point...would she?

  She honestly didn’t know. All day her sexual response to James had surprised and pleased her. But it was one thing to feel a few heart flutters, quite another to experience the sort of abandon during total intimacy that she had experienced with Jake.

  Not that it would overly concern her if they didn’t achieve sexual perfection straight away. Ashleigh was a realist. She knew these things could take time. They had, even with Jake! But she had the awful feeling James would be cut to the quick if he didn’t satisfy her tonight, if he thought for a moment he had failed her in bed.

  Thinking about his possible disappointment and unhappiness began twisting her insides into knots. Before she could stop it a quavering sigh escaped her lips.

  Hard blue eyes snapped her way. ‘What’s that sigh supposed to mean?’ he asked in a definitely suspicious tone.

  ‘Nothing. I...’ Suddenly she sat up straight and blinked rapidly. ‘James! What...what are you doing?’ she gasped.

  What he was doing was obvious! He was turning into a motel, a rather cheap-looking highway motel into which they were definitely not booked. They were supposed to be on their way to a five-star luxury hotel on the Gold Coast.

  ‘I’m afraid this won’t wait, Ashleigh,’ he ground out.

  Ashleigh turned to stare with wide eyes at the man sitting beside her. How determined he sounded. How...forceful.

  She swallowed, her mind filling with all those moments today when she’d glimpsed a James she had never seen before, a James simmering with unleashed passion. Clearly he couldn’t bear to wait any longer to make love to her. She found his impatience to have her in his arms both flattering and arousing, her pulse-rate accelerating into overdrive, an excited heat flushing her cheeks.

  ‘This isn’t like you, James,’ she laughed softly as he braked to an abrupt halt in front of the motel office.

  His sidewards glance was sardonic. ‘I realise that, believe me. Wait here,’ he ordered brusquely, and climbed out from behind the wheel. ‘I won’t be long.’

  She watched James stride purposefully into the office to book in, thinking to herself that he had a very attractive walk. Funny, she had never thought that about James before. But as he came back through the door, key in hand, her eyes were drawn to his very male and undeniably impressive body, lingering on the breadth of his shoulders before slowly working her way downwards. She didn’t have to wonder what he would look like naked. Mother nature had assured that, as an identical twin, he would have the same well-shaped, muscular, virile body as Jake.

  A quivering started deep in her stomach and she knew beyond a doubt that nothing was going to go wrong between them. It was going to be right. Very right. Exquisitely right. Suddenly she was as anxious as he was to be in bed together, to have the right to touch his hard naked flesh at will, to lie back and accept his body into hers as many times as it would take to assuage her rapidly soaring desire.

  She smiled at him when he climbed in behind the wheel, her smile the smile of a siren. It stopped him in his tracks, his eyes glittering blue pools as they locked with hers. ‘You shouldn’t look at me like that,’ he rasped.

  ‘Why not?’ she said thickly. ‘You’re my husband, aren’ t you? I love you and want you. I’m not ashamed of that.’

  His groan startled her, as did his hands, reaching out to pull her towards him, his mouth covering hers with a raw moan of passion. His kiss only lasted a few seconds, but those few seconds burnt an indelible fact in Ashleigh’s brain.

  This was the man she loved and wanted. Not Jake. James.

  They were both gasping when he tore his mouth away, both astonished at what had transpired between them. But somehow James did not seem as happy about it as Ashleigh was. Why that was so she couldn’t work out.

  He muttered something unintelligible, then whirled away to restart the engine and drive the car round to the motel units behind the main building, parking in front of door number eight. Getting out straight away, he walked briskly around to open the passenger door and
help her our.

  Ashleigh was slightly disconcerted when his eyes refused to meet hers, also at the way he once again turned away from her quite sharply to insert the key in the door. Pushing it open, he waved her inside.

  ‘But what about our luggage?’ she asked, staying where she was.

  He went to say something, but just then another car made its way around the back. Shrugging, he went over, opened the boot and brought the two suitcases inside, Ashleigh trailing behind with a frown on her face but a defiant resolve in her heart. As keen as she was for James to make love to her, she was not about to abandon her whole dream of a truly romantic wedding-night.

  ‘I won’t be a moment,’ she said, snatching up her suitcase and disappearing into the adjoining bathroom. As she closed the door she had a fleeing glimpse of James, standing open-mouthed and exasperated beside the bed.

  She was more than a moment. She was a good fifteen minutes, having a shower, powdering and perfuming her body, taking down and brushing out her shoulder-length blonde waves, then finally slipping on the ivory satin full-length nightie.

  ‘Goodness,’ she murmured to herself in the en suite bathroom’s vanity mirror. It hadn’t looked quite this sexy in the lingerie shop. But then she hadn’t had her hair down that day, and neither had her breasts strained against the moulded bodice with nipples like hard round pebbles jutting suggestively through the satin.

  Drawing the matching lace and satin robe up her long arms and over her slender shoulders didn’t make the underlying nightwear any less sensuous. If anything, half covering up her full-breasted figure made the revealing garment underneath even more tantalising. She was sure that, when she walked, the overlay would flap teasingly open while the satin nightie underneath would cling to her naked stomach and thighs.

  Just thinking about how James would look at her in this rig-out had Ashleigh’s heart slamming madly against her ribs. But she wanted to send him wild with need and desire, wanted him to think of nothing but fusing his body with hers, of thrusting his hardness deep inside her already moistening flesh, of giving himself up to the pleasure she could give him.