0373134266 (R)

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  ‘Not so far but I’m working on it,’ Flynn said with an enigmatic smile.

  ‘Better get your skates on, mate,’ Julius said. ‘You’ve only got a month and a bit. The party’s in January.’

  ‘Leave Kat Winwood to me,’ Flynn said. ‘I know how to handle a feisty Scotswoman.’

  ‘I bet you’ve handled a few in your time,’ Jake said.

  ‘You can talk,’ Flynn said with another grin. ‘How come you haven’t handled anyone since Jaz?’

  Good question. Why hadn’t he? Because he couldn’t bear to wipe out the memory of her touch with someone else. He didn’t want anyone else. But Jaz wanted marriage and kids. He had never seen himself as a dad. He had always found it so...terrifying to be responsible for someone else. He was better off alone. Single and loving it, that was his credo.

  Jake put his untouched beer bottle down. ‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘I’m going to have an early night. See you lot in church.’

  * * *

  ‘You look amazing, Holly,’ Jaz said outside the church just before they were to enter for Julius and Holly’s wedding. ‘Doesn’t she, Miranda?’

  Miranda was wiping at her eyes with a tissue. ‘Capital A amazing. Gosh, I’ve got to get control of myself. My make-up is running. If I’m like this as a bridesmaid, what I am going to be like as a bride?’

  Holly smiled at both of them. She was a radiant bride, no two ways about that. But happiness did that to you, Jaz thought. There could be no happier couple than Julius and Holly... Well, there was Miranda and Leandro, who were also nauseatingly happy. It was downright painful to be surrounded by so many blissfully happy people.

  But Jaz was resolved. She wasn’t settling for anything but the real deal. Love without limits. That was what she wanted. Love that would last a lifetime.

  Love that was authentic and real, not pretend.

  As Jaz led the way down the aisle she saw Jake standing next to Julius. It was surreal to see them both dressed in tuxedos looking exactly the same. No one could tell them apart, except for the way Julius was looking at Holly coming behind Miranda. Had a man ever looked at a woman with such love? Yes, Jaz thought when she caught a glimpse of Leandro, who was standing next to Jake looking at Miranda as if she was the most adorable girl in the world. Which she was, but that was beside the point. It was so hard not to be jealous.

  Why couldn’t Jake look at her like that?

  Jaz caught his eye. He was looking a little green about the gills. Her own stomach lurched. Her heart contracted. Had he hooked up with someone last night after Julius’s stag night? Had he had a one-nighter with someone? Several someones? She hadn’t heard anything much in the press about him since they had announced they’d ended their ‘engagement’. But then she had been far too busy with getting Holly’s dress done on time to be reading gossip columns.

  Miranda had let slip that Jake had left the stag night early. Did that mean he had hooked up with someone? One of the barmaids at the wine bar the boys had gone to? Why else would he leave early? He was the party boy who was usually the last man standing. It didn’t bear thinking about. It would only make the knot of jealousy tighten even more in the pit of her stomach. She had to put a brave face on. She couldn’t let her feelings about Jake interfere with Julius and Holly’s big day.

  Jaz smiled at Elisabetta and Richard Ravensdale, who were sitting together and giving every appearance of being a solid couple, but that just showed what excellent actors they both were. Elisabetta had dressed the part, as she always did. She would have outshone the bride but Jaz had made sure Holly’s dress was a show-stopper. Holly looked like a fairy-tale princess. Which was how it should be, as she’d had a pretty ghastly life up until she’d met Julius, which kind of made Jaz feel hopeful that dreams did come true...at least sometimes.

  The service began and Jaz tried not to look at Jake too much. She didn’t want people speculating or commenting on her single status. Or worse—pitying her. Would she ever be seen as anything other than the charity case? The gardener’s daughter who’d made good only by the wonderful largesse of the Ravensdales?

  Even the business plan Jake had drawn up for her was another example of how much she owed them. He wouldn’t take a penny for his time. He hadn’t stayed for a coffee or anything once he’d talked her through the plan. He hadn’t even kissed her on the cheek or touched her in any way.

  But looking at him now brought it all back. How much she missed him. How much she loved him. Why couldn’t he love her?

  Young Emma was right—they were perfect together. Jake made her feel safe. He watched out for her the way she longed for a partner to do. He stood up to her and stood up for her. How could she settle for anyone else? She would never be happy with anyone else. It wouldn’t matter how many times she got engaged, no one would ever replace Jake. Nor would she want them to.

  Jake was her soul mate because only with him could she truly be herself.

  The vows were exchanged and for the first time in her life Jaz saw Julius blinking away tears. He was always so strong, steady and in charge of his emotions. He was the dependable twin. The one everyone went to when things were dire. Seeing him so happy made her chest feel tight. She wanted that same happiness for herself. She wanted it so badly it took her breath away to see others experiencing it.

  Jake was still looking a little worse for wear. What was wrong with him? Didn’t he have the decency to pull himself together for his brother’s wedding? Or maybe it was the actual wedding that was making him look so white and pinched. He hated commitment. It had been bad enough at the wedding expo, although she had to admit he’d put on a good front. Maybe some of that Ravensdale acting talent had turned up in his genes after all. He could certainly do with some of it now. The very least he could do was look happy for his twin brother. He fumbled over handing Julius the wedding rings. He had to search in his pocket three times. But at least he had remembered to bring them.

  Jaz decided to have a word with him while they were out with the bride and groom for the signing of the register. If she could put on a brave front, then so could he. He would spoil the wedding photos if he didn’t get his act together. She wasn’t going to let anyone ruin Julius and Holly’s big day. No way.

  * * *

  Jake couldn’t take his eyes off Jaz. She looked amazing in her bridesmaid dress. It was robin’s-egg blue and the colour made her eyes pop and her creamy skin glow. How he wanted to touch that skin, to feel it against his own. His fingers ached; his whole body ached to pull her into his arms and kiss her, to show her how much he missed her. Missed what they’d had together.

  Seeing his identical twin standing at the altar as his bride came towards him made Jake feel like he was seeing another version of himself. It was like seeing what he might have been. What he could have if he were a better man. A more settled man—a man who could be relied on; a man who could love, not just physically, but emotionally. A man who could commit to a woman because he could see no future without her by his side. A man who could be mature enough to raise a family and support them and his wife through everything that life threw at them.

  That was the sort of man his twin was.

  Why wasn’t he like that?

  Or was he like that in the part of his soul he didn’t let anyone see? Apart from Jaz, of course. She had seen it. And commented on it.

  Jake gave himself a mental shake. No wonder he hated weddings. They made him antsy. Restless.

  Frightened.

  For once he didn’t shove the thought back where it came from. It wasn’t going back in any case. It was front and centre in his brain. He was frightened. Frightened he wouldn’t be good enough. Frightened he would love and not be loved in return. Frightened of feeling so deeply for someone, allowing someone to have control over him, of making himself vulnerable in case they took it upon themselves to leave.

  He loved Jaz.

  Hadn’t he always loved her? Firstly as a surrogate sister and then, when she’d morphed into the go
rgeous teenager with those bedroom eyes, he had been knocked sideways. But she had been too young and he hadn’t been ready to admit he needed someone the way he needed her.

  But he was an adult now. He’d had a taste of what they could be together—a solid team who complemented each other perfectly. She was his equal. He admired her tenacity, her drive, her passion, her talent. She was everything he wanted in a partner.

  Wasn’t that why he’d been carrying the engagement ring she had given back to him everywhere he went? It was like a talisman. The ring of truth. He loved Jaz and always would.

  How could he have thought he could be happy without her? He had been nothing short of morose since they’d ended their fling. He was the physical embodiment of a wet weekend: gloomy, miserable, boring as hell. He had been dragging himself through each day. He hadn’t dated. He hadn’t even looked at anyone. He couldn’t bear the thought of going through the old routine of chatting some woman up only so he could have sex with her. He was tired of no-strings sex. No-strings sex was boring. He wanted emotional sex, the sort of sex that spoke to his soul, the kind of sex that made him feel alive and fulfilled as a man.

  He had to talk to Jaz. He had to get her alone. How long was this wretched service going to take? Oh, they were going to sign the wedding register. Great. He might be able to nudge Jaz to one side so he could tell her the words he had told no one before.

  * * *

  Jaz wasted no time in sidling up to Jake when Julius and Holly were occupied with signing the register. ‘What is wrong with you?’ she said in an undertone.

  ‘I have to talk to you,’ he said, pulling at his bow tie as if it were choking him.

  She rolled her eyes. ‘Look, I know this is torture for you, but can you just allow your brother his big day without drawing attention to yourself? It’s just a bow tie, for pity’s sake.’

  He took her by the hand, his eyes looking suspiciously moist. Did he have an allergy? There were certainly a lot of flowers about. But then the service had been pretty emotional. Maybe it was a twin thing. If Julius cried, Jake would too, although she had never seen it before.

  ‘I love you,’ he said.

  Jaz’s eyelashes flickered at him in shock. ‘What?’

  His midnight-blue eyes looked so amazingly soft she had to remind herself it was actually Jake looking at her, not Julius looking at Holly. ‘Not just as a friend,’ he said. ‘And not just as a lover, but as a life partner. Marry me, Jaz. Please?’

  Jaz’s heart bumped against her breastbone. ‘You can’t ask me to marry you in the middle of your brother’s wedding!’

  He grinned. ‘I just did. What do you say?’

  She gazed at him, wondering if wedding fever had got to her so bad she was hallucinating. Was he really telling her he loved her and wanted to marry her? Was he really looking at her as if she was the only woman in the world who could ever make him completely happy? ‘You’re not doing this as some sort of joke, are you?’ she asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. It would be just like him to want to have a laugh to counter all the emotion, to tone down all the seriousness, responsibility and formality.

  He gripped her by the hands, almost crushing her bridesmaid’s bouquet in the process. ‘It’s no joke,’ he said. ‘I love you and want to spend the rest of my life proving it to you. The last three weeks have been awful without you. You’re all I think about. I’m like a lovesick teenager. I can’t get you out of my head. As soon as I saw you walking down the aisle, I realised I couldn’t let another day—another minute—go by without telling you how I feel. I want to be with you. Only you. Marry me, my darling girl.’

  Jaz was still not sure she could believe what she was hearing. And nor, apparently, could the bridal party as they had stalled in the process of signing the register to watch on with beaming faces. ‘But what about kids?’ she said.

  ‘I love kids. I’m a big kid myself. Remember how great I was with you and Miranda when you were kids? I reckon I’ll be a great dad. How many do you want?’

  Jaz remembered all too well. He had been fantastic with her and Miranda, making them laugh until their sides had ached. It was her dream coming to life in front of her eyes. Jake wanted to marry her and he wanted to have babies with her. ‘Two at least,’ she said.

  He pulled her closer, smiling at her with twinkling eyes. ‘I should warn you that twins run in my family.’

  Jaz smiled back. ‘I’ll take the risk.’

  ‘So you’ll marry me?’

  Could a heart burst with happiness? Jaz wondered. It certainly felt like hers was going to. But, even better, it looked like Jake was feeling exactly the same way. ‘Yes.’

  Jake bent his head to kiss her mouth with such heart-warming tenderness it made Jaz’s eyes tear up. When he finally lifted his head, she saw similar moisture in his eyes. ‘I was making myself sick with worry you might say no,’ he said.

  She stroked his jaw with a gentle hand, her heart now feeling so full it was making it hard for her to breathe. ‘You’re not an easy person to say no to.’

  He brushed her cheek with his fingers as if to test she was real and not a figment of his imagination. ‘How quickly can you whip up a wedding dress?’

  She looked at him in delighted surprise. ‘You want to get married sooner rather than later?’

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead, each of her eyelids, both of her cheeks and the tip of her nose. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘As soon as it can be arranged. I don’t even mind if it’s in church or a garden, on the top of Big Ben or twenty leagues under the sea. I won’t be happy until I can officially call you my wife.’

  ‘Ahem.’ Julius spoke from behind them. ‘We’re the ones trying to get married here.’

  Jake turned to grin at his brother. ‘We should’ve made it a double wedding.’

  Julius smiled from ear to ear. ‘Congratulations to both of you. Nothing could have made my and Holly’s day more special than this.’

  Miranda was dabbing at her eyes as she came rushing over to give Jaz a bone- and bouquet-crushing hug. ‘I’m so happy for you. We’re finally going to be sisters. Yay!’

  Jaz blinked back tears as she saw Leandro looking at Miranda just the way Jake was looking at her—with love that knew no bounds. With love that would last a lifetime.

  She turned back to Jake. ‘Do you still have that engagement ring?’

  Jake reached into his inside jacket pocket, his eyes gleaming. ‘I almost gave it to Julius instead of the wedding rings.’ He took it out and slipped it on her finger. ‘There. That’s got to stay there now. No taking it off. Ever. Understood?’

  Jaz wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled up at him in blissful joy. ‘I’m going to keep it on for ever.’

  * * * * *

  Look out for the dramatic conclusion of

  THE RAVENSDALE SCANDALS

  THE MOST SCANDALOUS RAVENSDALE

  Available May 2016

  And if you missed where it all started, check out

  RAVENSDALE’S DEFIANT CAPTIVE

  AWAKENING THE RAVENSDALE HEIRESS

  Available now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from SEDUCED INTO HER BOSS’S SERVICE by Cathy Williams.

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  Seduced into Her Boss’s Service

  by Cathy Williams

  CHAPTER ONE

  ‘HE’S HERE!’

  Sunny looked up from where she was buried in a mound of paperwork and reference books. The paperwork was to be filed, the reference books to be consulted for precedents on a complex tax issue which her boss was working on.

  With a workload that barely gave her time to escape to the bathroom, she had still not been able to ignore the fever-pitch excitement that had gripped Marshall, Jones and Jones ever since they had learned that Stefano Gunn was going to be throwing some business their way.

  Literally, Sunny had thought, throwing business, in much the same way as someone might throw a bone for a dog. Marshall, Jones and Jones was a recent addition to the legal scene in London. Yes, some really bright lights had been poached from a couple of the bigger firms but essentially it was still just a fledgling medium-sized firm without the decades of experience a man like Stefano Gunn would be looking for.

  But he had thrown some business in their direction and speculation was rife.

  Even lodged in the smallest honeycomb of rooms at the furthest end of the building, with her head firmly in her work and her body language projecting all sorts of not interested in rumours signs, rumours had still trickled down to her.