The Mistress Bride

'And you look ridiculous with your trousers round yo

ur shoes,' Evie countered tauntingly.

But he just grinned, all slashing white teeth and pure male arrogance. Even in a situation like this, Raschid knew he looked devastatingly sexy. He was still inside her, his hands holding her against the cradle of his lean hips while his eyes ran tenderly over her love-softened face.

'I adore you, you know ... ' he softly informed her. 'If the world stopped turning at this precise moment, I could die a happy man.'

Evie almost told him then. Almost... Almost tested that statement with words that would surely make his world stand still. But No.

The need to get through what was left of today without causing a major disaster was paramount. So, 'Your five minutes are up,' she said, and felt his soft laugh vibrate in the very essence of her before he ruefully and reluctantly drew away. He helped her to dress, smoothly drawing up the zip on the gold silk gown then standing back to watch her with darkly possessive eyes as she twisted up her hair, then sat down to replenish her make-up. Getting up to slip her feet into the strappy gold shoes, Evie then turned towards him to announce she was ready. Seeing a question written in his love-sated eyes, she smiled her answer.

No more compromising for the sake of her mother. They would go down to the ball together and damn the consequences. For this could be the last time she would be able to show herself in public with him like this.

Julian and Christina were dancing the first waltz when they entered the ballroom. The lights had been dimmed, and a single spotlight followed the bride and groom around while everyone was standing around the dance floor, thankfully too busy clapping and teasing the newly-weds to notice Evie and Raschid's arrival.

With her hand resting in the crook of Raschid's arm, Evie watched from the sidelines as gradually other couples began to join the newly-weds. Lord Beverley with his wife, Robert Malvern gallantly inviting Evie's mother to dance. 'Shall we?' Raschid murmured.

'Why not?' she replied, but there was a lot of bravado in her tone and he arched his sleek black eyebrows at her as he drew her into his arms then danced off with a lightness of foot that secretly made her breathless.

'You're good at this,' she remarked, keeping her eyes fixed on his face so she didn't have to see the kind of looks they would be receiving.

'It is expected of a dashing Arab prince,' he blandly mocked himself. 'I can jive too, and I'm not bad at the Gay Gordon.'

'You don't have a modest bone in your body, either,' Evie tagged on dryly.

'Thank you.' Arrogant as always, he took the remark as a compliment. 'Of course, a lack of modesty forces me to say that I am also dancing with the most beautiful woman in the room.'

Her mother danced close by, and Evie stiffened slightly at the glowering look she received. 'Stop it,' Raschid admonished. 'Or I will take you back upstairs again.'

'Fate worse than death,' she quipped.

'So you found her, Raschid.'

Julian and Christina swished up beside them. Christina looked radiant, her gentle eyes sparkling.

'As you directed,' Raschid replied. 'I turned to the east and walked on to the end of the earth.'

Immediately the spark went out of Christina's eyes. 'I'm so sorry about your room, Evie,' she cried in mortification. 'I didn't know until Julian told me!'

'Don't be silly, the room is fine!" Evie assured her. 'And maybe she deserved it after all,' her brother put in. 'Since she couldn't even bring herself to appear in one small photograph with us!'

Raschid's eyes narrowed. Evie's cheeks flushed. The information was obviously new to him. 'Why not?' he demanded.

'Because she didn't like the company,' Julian suggested tauntingly.

'Don't be cruel, Ju,' his new bride scolded him. 'You know why Evie did it!'

'Then perhaps you would like to explain it to me, Christina,' Raschid drawled. 'Excuse me, Julian, for I am about to steal your bride for a little while.' And as deftly as that Raschid swapped partners, and was dancing off with a blushing bride clinging to his tall, lean, elegant frame, leaving sister and brother staring ruefully after them.

'I think he's angry,' Julian remarked.

'That makes two of you, obviously,' his sister wearily replied.

'Three actually,' Julian said, then sighed as he tugged her into his arms and danced after the other two. 'Mother came by your room earlier,' he told her.

'What?' Appalled, Evie's voice left her throat as a half hysterical squeak. 'I hope you're teasing me, Julian!' she gasped out shakily.

'Why, what were you doing?' he asked. Then grinned a typically rakish male grin when Evie blushed from breast to hairline. 'Oh, wow. No wonder she's on the warpath again,' he said. 'I hope you had the sense to lock the door. . .'