Dream Wedding

by Susan Mallery

  He knew he probably shouldn’t ask, but he couldn’t help himself. “What fantasy?”

  “No, you’ll laugh.”

  “I promise I won’t.”

  Her gaze skittered away from his and he sensed her sudden tension. More intrigued than he had the right to be, he leaned toward her and pressed for a reply. “I really won’t laugh. Tell me. What is your fantasy?”

  She drew in a deep breath. “The Bradley family has this magic nightgown.”

  Ryan stared at her, certain he’d misunderstood. “A what?”

  “A magic nightgown. A long time ago, there was this gypsy woman. She was being attacked by a mob of drunken men.”

  He listened while she explained the legend of the nightgown. “I don’t know what to say,” he told her when she’d finished. “I’ve never heard anything like this before.”

  “I know it sounds strange, but I can show you the nightgown.”

  “No, that’s not necessary. I’m sure it exists.”

  She ducked her head. “At least you didn’t laugh.”

  He didn’t know about spells and gypsy promises, but he did know that Cassie had just shared something very important to her. “Why would I? Just because I don’t have a similar family tradition to tell you about doesn’t mean that I’d make fun of yours. So you’re counting on this legend?”

  She nodded quickly. “I want the legacy to be true for me. I want to wear the nightgown on my twenty-fifth birthday and I want to dream about the man I’m supposed to marry. Chloe wore it and dreamed about Arizona. They met the next day and if it wasn’t love at first sight, it was the next best thing. I want that, even though I’m afraid it’s not going to happen.”

  Magic nightgowns and a promise of happily-ever-after. She really was an innocent. “Why wouldn’t it happen for you?”

  “I’m not a real Bradley,” she reminded him. “I’m adopted. I have high hopes, of course, and Aunt Charity says believing is enough, but I don’t know.”

  He wanted to tell her it was going to be fine, that she would have her special dream on her special night and everything would work out the way she wanted. But what did he know?

  “What does Joel think about all this?” he asked, wondering how any fiancé would feel about the possibility of being usurped by a mystery suitor.

  She finished her brandy and placed the snifter on the coffee table. “Not much. He’s very low-key about the whole thing. Joel believes I’m going to dream about him. I suppose he’s right, but sometimes I wish…” Her voice trailed off.

  Ryan knew exactly what she was thinking. “Sometimes you wish he would be a little worried, and other times you wish you could dream about someone else.”

  Her eyes widened. “How did you know?” She leaned forward and covered her face with her hands. “I don’t want to know what you’re thinking. I know that’s horribly disloyal and makes me an awful person.”

  He moved toward her and placed his hand on her forearm. “Don’t think that for a second, Cassie. You’re a sweet, good young woman. Why shouldn’t you have a few dreams? You said yourself that you and Joel were waiting until you were sure. Doesn’t that mean considering other possibilities? Besides, it’s not as if you’re acting on these thoughts. I don’t see you out dating other men.” Even though you should, he added silently, thinking that he would like to go to the top of that list.

  He pushed the inappropriate desire away. “Don’t feel guilty about what you want. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

  She raised her head and looked at him. Her smile trembled a little at the corners, but it was still pretty. She had a lovely smile. Had he noticed that before?

  “Thank you,” she told him. “You’re very kind.”

  Kind. There was a word every man was just dying to have applied to himself. Kind. Maybe she could throw in loyal and trustworthy. Then he could feel really macho.

  This was a mistake, he thought grimly. He was getting involved in something that didn’t concern him. Cassie was his employee, nothing more. They shouldn’t be having this personal conversation.

  “Have you ever been married?” she asked.

  He’d been about to stand up and excuse himself, but her question was as effective as a seat belt at keeping him in his chair. “No,” he told her.

  “Why not?”

  “I never wanted to.”

  She looked shocked. “Are you saying you’ve never fallen in love?”

  The truth was, he hadn’t. But admitting that made him feel that there was something wrong with him. “I never had the time,” he answered instead. “I was too involved with work, then with starting my company. There was no room for much of a personal life.”

  “I see.” Her gaze was steady on his face and he wondered what exactly it was she saw.

  “That’s going to have to be different now,” she said. “I’m not suggesting you marry for Sasha’s sake, but you are going to have to be around to spend time with her.”

  “I know.” Everything was changing—he could feel it. Somehow when he wasn’t looking, his life had taken an unexpected turn. “What about you?” he asked. “What’s next? Marriage to Joel? To be honest, I’m surprised he’s been willing to wait so long. If I were him I would be worried about that magic nightgown and I would want to sweep you off your feet.”

  “As nice as that sounds, Joel isn’t the sweeping kind.”

  She made the statement matter-of-factly, but Ryan thought he could read between the lines. Perhaps Cassie wasn’t waiting for her twenty-fifth birthday and the promise of the family legend as much as she was waiting for romance. She wanted Joel to want her enough to be unhappy about any delay. How else was Joel letting her down?

  Ryan remembered her few dates with Joel since she’d been in his employ. She’d been back before eleven each time. It wasn’t his place to speculate and he was probably wrong about everything, but he couldn’t help wondering what that meant. Didn’t Joel know what a prize he held? On the heels of that thought came the realization that he would side with Cassie’s sister any day. To his mind, Cassie was settling.

  “You’ve been with Joel for years,” he said. “You were very young when you started dating him. Maybe you should go out and explore the world before getting married.”

  “You don’t actually mean the world,” she said. “You think I should date other men.”

  “I think you should be very sure.”

  She rose to her feet and crossed to the bay window. The lights from the room made the glass reflect images like a mirror. He could see her face, her thoughtful expression. She folded her arms over her chest as if to protect herself from danger.

  “I’ve had this exact conversation with myself,” she admitted. “Sometimes I’m completely sure and others…” Her voice trailed off.

  “How do you know?” she asked softly. “I love Joel, but I don’t know what kind of love we share. He’s easy for me to be around. I like him. I respect him. But sometimes I’m afraid I love him more like a brother than a husband.” She drew in a breath. “We’re long on conversation but short on passion. I tell myself that shouldn’t matter, but I’m just not sure.”

  Ryan felt vindicated. So he’d been right about Cassie’s feelings of uncertainty. Unfortunately, he didn’t have an answer to her dilemma.

  “I tell myself there’s more to life than passion,” she continued. “Do I have the right to want more? Who am I to think I deserve it all?”

  Ryan stood up and crossed to stand behind her. Their gazes met in the reflection of the window. “Everyone deserves it all,” he said. She more than most, although he wasn’t about to speak the last part aloud.

  She turned to face him. “I want to believe you. Sometimes I feel so guilty for not being more grateful to have Joel in my life.”

  “You like and respect him. T
hat’s what we’re supposed to do with friends. But you don’t have to pretend to love him if that’s not what you feel. You don’t have to marry him if you’re not sure.”

  They were standing too close, he thought suddenly. He could inhale her sweetness and feel the heat from her body. She wore a sweater over jeans, but somehow the simple clothes had become provocative, calling to him, making him want to touch her. Dear God, what was he thinking? This was all wrong.

  He told himself to back off. Cassie wasn’t interested in him that way. She saw him as an old man…or at the very least an older man. She worked for him. He had no right to want her, to want to take her in his arms and kiss her.

  Cassie raised her chin slightly. “I’m not sure,” she whispered.

  He’d waited long enough. Whatever control he’d had disappeared. There was only the night, the woman standing so close to him, and his need. Telling himself it was wrong didn’t help. Telling himself she deserved better than he could ever offer was completely true, but it didn’t give him the strength to turn away.

  “Cassie, I can’t—”

  His sentence ended in a strangled sound. Cassie stared at Ryan. He was obviously trying to tell her something, although she couldn’t figure out what. She wasn’t even sure it mattered. After all, fire filled his magical green eyes. A fire that burned so hot, she felt herself going up in flames.

  She told herself she should be afraid, that Ryan wasn’t like Joel and that she had somehow become tangled in a situation she had neither the experience nor the skills to handle. But she didn’t care. This was Ryan and she trusted him as much as she’d ever trusted anyone. Besides, she couldn’t move even if she wanted to. Something had happened to her will. Her legs were too heavy to carry her away. She couldn’t think, she couldn’t move, she could only wait helpless for something to happen…something wonderful.

  He placed his hand on her shoulder. “You should head up to bed.”

  She nodded. “I should.” But she wasn’t going to. Not until…well, she couldn’t say until what, but she wasn’t leaving anytime soon.

  “I mean it, Cassie. If you stand here any longer I’m going to have to—” He broke off and swore under his breath.

  “You’re going to have to what?”

  He placed his free hand on her waist and drew her closer. So close that her thighs brushed against his. Instantly heat poured through her. Her legs went from heavy to melting. Her breasts ached and swelled and pushed against her bra. She raised her hands and rested them on his upper arms. She could feel the tension in him, the rock-hard strength of his muscles.

  “Ryan,” she breathed. Dear Lord, if she didn’t know better, she might think the man was going to kiss her. Right here in his office, in front of a window, on Halloween. It was magic. It was perfect. He was perfect, trying to warn her away and all. Even now she could see the conflict in his eyes as he attempted to talk himself out of the moment.

  It surprised her that there was even a question. After all, she wasn’t like Chloe. Men had never found her irresistible. But she loved the fact that Ryan, of all men, seemed to think her so. His breathing was harsh, his body tense, his eyes questioning.

  She thought about raising herself on tiptoe, just to take enough of the initiative so that he didn’t have to feel badly about what he was doing. But she didn’t want to. This was her fantasy, after all, and in all the books she’d ever read, the guy was the one who kissed first.

  So she waited…and waited…until it seemed as if he was never going to do it.

  Finally, when she was sure he was going to come to his senses and realize who she was and know that he could never really want her that way, he lowered his head to hers.

  “Tell me to stop if you don’t want this.”

  Those were his last words. She vaguely heard him utter them and had a split second in which to think that was so not going to happen. Then his mouth touched her lips and she couldn’t think at all.

  For a heartbeat there was nothing. Just the sensation of his skin against hers. Then it hit. The heat, the need, the hunger, the incredible desire to be closer, to have their mouths forever joined.

  He kept the contact light, which drove her crazy. His hands didn’t move. He continued to touch her shoulder and her waist, while a voice in her head screamed for him to put his hands everywhere. Tremors started at her neck and worked their way through her body. Her nipples tightened and ached, while between her legs damp heat made her fear she really was melting from the inside out.

  His head tilted slightly so their lips could press together more firmly. She clung to him, afraid he would pull back. Her hands moved from his upper arms to his shoulders, then wrapped around his neck. She couldn’t get close enough. She needed more. Desperately.

  “Cassie.” His voice was low, thick and strangled.

  She uttered two words she’d never before in her life said to a man.

  “Don’t stop.”

  He groaned, parted his lips and plunged his tongue inside her mouth.

  She welcomed his assault, meeting him with one of her own. They touched and stroked, exploring each other, finding pleasure and heat and madness. She worried a little about her enthusiasm until she realized he was holding on to her just as tightly and that the hand on her waist had dropped to her rear and pulled her hard against him.

  Speaking of hard…he was. She could feel the ridge of his need pressing against her belly. She’d never felt Joel’s arousal before. Of course they’d never stood this close or kissed with such passion.

  He broke the kiss, but only to press his lips against her cheeks, her jaw, then down her throat. Her breathing came in gasps. She didn’t know how much longer she was going to be able to remain standing.

  “Ryan,” she whispered.

  “I know,” he answered. “I feel it, too.”

  So this was passion, she thought through a fog of desire as he reclaimed her mouth. This was the sensation that sparked the books and songs and poems. It all made sense now. For the past several years she’d thought everyone was lying to her and that this sort of thing didn’t really exist. But it did.

  Unfortunately, she didn’t have any right to be experiencing it with this particular man.

  She broke the kiss, turned on her heel and ran from the room.

  CHAPTER NINE

  RYAN LEANED AGAINST the windowsill and closed his eyes. He could still feel the heat of Cassie’s body pressed against his and taste her sweetness on his tongue. A tremor ripped through him. It didn’t matter that he was fifteen different kinds of bastard, the wanting inside of him was the most powerful force he’d ever experienced.

  The sound of her footsteps died away. There was a moment of silence, followed by a door closing on the second floor. She’d run from him. He hated that she’d done that, but he couldn’t blame her. What the hell had he been thinking?

  He crossed over to his desk and sank into the leather chair. His breathing still came in gasps and his arousal ached. He had a bad feeling he was going to spend the next several hours in a lot of pain. Still, none of that mattered. The real problem was that he hadn’t been thinking. He’d been feeling and reacting.

  The questions of right and wrong, of what was proper and decent hadn’t occurred to him. One minute they’d been talking and the next she’d been so damn close that he couldn’t help himself.

  He’d lost control. He, Ryan Lawford, who always played the mating game by the rules, had lost control with a young woman who didn’t understand there was a game in progress. He’d been blindsided by a virtual innocent. Joel had been the only man in her life, so she should have been the one in over her head. Instead he’d been the one to plunge headlong into passion.

  Guilt crept through him, seeping into the cells of his body, replacing the wanting with something cold and ugly.

  He’d had
no right to touch her. She worked for him. He swore again and wondered what had gone wrong. He’d never once flirted with an employee, let alone dated or kissed one. He’d always been able to separate business from pleasure. To be honest, in the past he’d never been tempted to cross the line. The fact that he’d only done it once didn’t make him feel any better. What he’d done was wrong. Cassie not only worked for him, she worked for him in his house. She was completely vulnerable and at his mercy by virtue of her living under the same roof. He owed her respect. He owed her a work environment in which she felt safe. He owed her the right to get through her day without worrying that she was going to be groped at every turn.

  But that wasn’t his only sin. There was also the issue of her involvement with Joel. Cassie was practically engaged to the younger man. He, Ryan, had no business trying to seduce her. If she’d been unattached it still would have been wrong, but this made it unforgivable.

  What had happened? Why her? She wasn’t his type. He ignored the voice inside that whispered he didn’t have a type. She was too young, too inexperienced, too different from the women who regularly drifted through his world.

  He leaned back in his chair. It didn’t matter, he realized. Right type or not, engaged or not, working for him or not, he wanted her. Something had happened between them. Not just tonight, although the kiss had been glorious, but before. He’d noticed her. He’d seen that she was a bright, funny, pretty, charming woman and he’d wanted her. Now he didn’t know how to change his feelings so that he didn’t get excited every time he saw her or thought about her.

  The realization confused him. Something was happening to him—he was changing. He was no longer the man he’d been when he’d first arrived in Bradley to clear up his brother’s estate. Some of the changes had come about because of Sasha. He was growing to care about the little girl. But some of the changes were about Cassie’s influence on him.

  What was happening to him and how could he make it stop? He’d done so well for so long by ignoring his feelings. He didn’t want to have to deal with them now. Unfortunately, he wasn’t being given a choice.