Touch Me

Happy tears seemed like the appropriate response.

"What do you mean, the wedding is scheduled in two hours?"

Thea felt hysteria rising like a tidal wave inside her. Married? Today? She grabbed frantically at the doorjamb to her room. It felt solid enough. She hadn't dreamed the loud knocking and Drake's demand for an audience from the other side. She truly was standing in the doorway to her room wearing nothing but a nightrail and wrapper while Drake informed her that they were scheduled to marry in less than two hours.

"You've gone mad. We can't get married this morning. The banns haven't been read. I don't have a dress. Nothing has been planned. It is impossible."

Drake smiled at her with the devil's own charm and waved a piece of white parchment in front of her face. "This is a special license. It says that we can marry today. You cannot tell me with the numerous new dresses you have bought, you don't have one suitable for a small wedding."

She interrupted before he could go on. "For someone else's small wedding, not my own."

"Don't whine, Thea. You are the one who told me you cared nothing for clothes."

"I didn't say nothing, or maybe I did, but I didn't mean I cared not a whit what I wore to my wedding."

He had the unmitigated gall to shrug. "You will look beautiful in whatever you choose."

He refused to understand.

She ground her teeth in an effort not to scream. "What of a wedding breakfast?"

"Lady Upworth has planned a small gathering at her home."

"You told my aunt about our wedding before you told me?"

"You don't need to shout, sweetheart. I'm standing right here. Of course I told her, or how could she have planned the breakfast? Now stop being difficult and get ready." He pulled his watch from his waistcoat pocket, flipped it open, and looked at it. "You have an hour and forty-five minutes before we have to leave."

He sounded so bloody logical, except what he was saying made no sense. The blackguard.

"I think that if you wanted to be guaranteed of my cooperation, you would not have waited to spring my wedding on me as a fait accompli with less than two hours to prepare."

An expression of guilt crossed his features, and then she understood. That was the whole point. Drake still wasn't certain of her and he believed this was the way to ensure she showed up at her own wedding. Give her no time to talk herself out of it. His next words confirmed her suspicions.

"What would you have had me do? Wait for the banns to be read and risk you changing your mind? Marriage makes you more skittish than a newborn foal. Once the deed is done, I'm sure your nerves will settle."

She wasn't positive that she agreed with him, but one thing was certain—he would settle down once the deed was done. He had been acting all over strange since she'd agreed to marry him three days ago. Not only did he make himself a complete nuisance wanting her to put her feet up, rest, and other such nonsense supposedly good for a woman in her delicate condition, but he had spent the last three days recounting the benefits of the wedded state. Just last night at dinner, he had informed her that married women lived longer. Just look at the evidence of his aunt and Lady Upworth. Why, they were practically in their dotage and both had been married.

She could only be grateful that her morning sickness had not come back the last two mornings. She was positive she had enough on her plate without the awful nausea.

"You should have told me about the wedding. A woman wants more than a single bloody hour to prepare for such an event. Sacre bleu."

His brows drew together and she knew that his patience was slipping. "Thea, you've spent most of your life thinking you wouldn't get married. Our child will be in leading strings before you are ready."

"I'm talking about the things that go along with a wedding, not my mental preparation." She wanted to shake him, but knew from experience that he was immovable. "As for my not being ready to marry, I already agreed to do so. Do you doubt my word?"

He wrapped his fingers around hers over the doorjamb and moved forward until their lips met in a soft, lingering kiss. She closed her eyes, savoring the sensation. When it ended, he pulled his mouth away from hers, but remained close. She opened her eyes and met his watchful gaze.

"I trust your word. Knowing that you already agreed to marry me, I convinced myself that you would be pleased about a surprise wedding. It would take the advance worry out of the event for you."

She sighed. She was beaten and she knew it. She had given him her word. What's more, she actually wanted to marry the dratted man.

"I'll be ready in two hours and not one minute less. I'll be late to my wedding, but I won't get married looking like I just rolled out of bed."

His smile made her small sacrifice seem worth it.

Married.

The single word continued to resound through her mind with the force of a town crier, despite the innocuous conversations she engaged in during her wedding breakfast.