The Final Seduction

Just then the front doorbell chimed and when Shelley went to answer it she found Jennie and Jamie standing on the doorstep. Jamie was holding Ellie and looking terribly pleased with himself while Jennie looked as though she was just bursting to tell them something.

‘What are you doing here?’ Drew asked suspiciously.

‘Have you lost something?’ asked Jamie airily.

‘Like…?’

‘Like this stash of cash?’ questioned Jamie triumphantly, bringing his spare hand from behind his back and waving the wad of cash in the air.

‘Where the hell did you get that?’

‘Jamie saw it sitting on your table!’ said Jennie, taking it from Jamie and handing it over to Shelley. ‘And came and told me. We decided that it was too risky to leave it there. So we let ourselves in with the spare key you gave me, and took it home to keep it safe for you.’

Drew looked at Jamie for a long moment. ‘Thanks, mate,’ he said simply, and held his hand out.

Jennie began to tut as the two men shook hands. ‘I couldn’t believe it! I thought, Surely not Drew! I mean, what a crazy, irresponsible thing to do—to leave that much money lying around. Whatever were you thinking of?’

Shelley and Drew looked into each other’s eyes and burst out laughing. ‘Sorry,’ said Drew as he drew her into his arms. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to draw a veil over that! And while we’re on the subject of veils…’

‘Yes?’ queried Jennie incredulously.

‘Go away, Jennie,’ he grumbled. ‘I’m talking to Shelley.’

Shelley stared at him, oblivious to the fact that other people were present. ‘Say that again.’

‘What, veils?’

‘What kind of veils?’

‘Well, I’d sort of thought wedding veils.’

Her eyes were like saucers. ‘You mean…marriage?’

He grinned. What had he said about passion dominating logic? ‘I do. Oh, I do!’

And Shelley repeated those same words when they were married the following springtime—when the last of the winter chill had thawed away. The bride wore a pearl-white sheath sent with delight by Marco and his partner, and Shelley felt incandescent with joy as she made her wedding vows to the man she had loved for most of her life.

For two weeks they honeymooned almost exclusively at the Westward, barely setting foot outside the Lilac Suite—because, as Drew had told her, he had spent long enough imagining what it would be like to seduce her there. ‘And the reality far exceeds the fantasy,’ he had drawled.

In fact, she was of one mind with her husband on nearly everything, but especially when he looked at her with such tender love and smiled, and said that the best things in life were worth waiting for.