Dream Wedding

They drove back to the house in virtual silence under a cold, dear sky in which each tiny star was picked out in glittering detail, and Miriam couldn't remember when she had felt more miserable in the whole of her life.

But why? she asked herself angrily a hundred times during the short journey. Reece Vance is nothing to you; his views on women and love axe sad but you hardly know the man, for crying out loud. It doesn't matter.

But it did, and by the time they reached the long, curving drive leading up to the house her nerves were as taut as piano-wire. She should have said something— anything—instead of sitting there staring at him like a small, dumb sheep, she told herself tightly as he brought the car to a halt just past the house. But she'd blown it; she'd absolutely blown it.

'Miriam.' As he cut the ignition and the powerful engine fell silent Reece turned to her in the soft darkness, one arm sliding round the back of her seat. 'I shouldn't have said all that about Barbara back there. Believe what you want to if it makes you happy; you might be right after all.' There was no chance in the world that he believed that, she thought bleakly as she looked into the hard male face watching her so intently. 'I hardly know Craig—'

'Reece, you're wrong—about anyone being incapable of love,' she said quickly before she lost her nerve. 'Even the worst monsters in history loved someone.'

'Did they?' His voice held that note which she had heard once or twice before—a thick, husky silkiness that melted her bones. 'So fierce and determined, so vulnerable…' And that he had taken her mouth in a kiss that made her shake with the sweetness of it, his lips moving coaxingly over hers as he pulled her close to him but with a gentleness that made her feel like something rare and precious in his embrace.

This was a line, just a well-practised line, she told herself helplessly as the kiss became more intimate, his mouth parting her lips with a soft sigh, but it was no good. The blood was pounding through her veins like fire and her ears were singing with a strange heat that took away all coherent thought. He wanted her—physically he wanted her very much, she told herself as the hardness in the big male body so close to hers became apparent. But that was all it was. An animal desire with no commitment, no real tenderness, no future.

But then, as his warm mouth stroked her neck and throat with a hundred fleeting kisses, she ceased to think and just let her senses feel.

His mouth moved back to hers and she realised that he had somehow slipped her coat off her shoulders, moving her slightly so that it fell beneath her waist as his hands moved up under the thin cotton of her jumper and touched the silky skin beneath. His touch was like a million volts of electricity passing right through her and she stiffened with the force of it, but then his hands began a slow, erotic massage over her soft, supple skin and the last of her defences crumbled.

She could feel her body changing to answer the call of his manhood, her softness moist and warm, and knew even in her innocence that she was issuing an invitation that was as old as time and one that his experience wouldn't miss, but it was too late for caution. All she was conscious of were the sensations that his lovemaking was drawing from her quivering body, and she didn't want them to end—ever.

'Miriam?' His voice was thick and warm against her cheek as he drew back slightly to look at her with narrowed silver eyes. 'Come in for a nightcap? In the warm.' She knew what he was asking but her head nodded anyway, her mouth making a little lost sound as the warmth of his body left hers for a brief moment before he moved round the car to open her door and pull her into his arms again, his mouth hungry and almost savage now as his fierce need took over.

She wanted him—she wanted him so badly that she couldn't believe what she was feeling, but as he moved her into him and turned to walk towards the house a harsh flare of lights blinded her for a moment, causing her head to turn into the wall of his chest.

'What the hell…?' She heard his mutter a second before tyres screeched to a halt just in front of them, and as the lights were dimmed she opened her eyes to confront a sleek red sports car and the blood turned to ice in her veins.

'Darling…' Sharon slid elegantly out of the car, her slim, stockinged legs exquisite in black silk and her silver-blonde hair loose and flowing round her slender shoulders. 'I just had to see you…' Her gaze moved slowly to Miriam, as though she had just noticed her in the crook of Reece's arm. 'Oh, dear.' She smiled slowly. 'Have I come at a bad time, sweetie?'

'Not at all.' Miriam had jerked herself free of Reece's arm before the other woman had finished speaking, her cheeks burning but her eyes wide and clear as they met the hard green gaze head-on. 'I was just leaving; my car's parked round the back.'

'Miriam?' As she turned to make what she had hoped would be a dignified exit Reece caught hold of her arm, totally ignoring Sharon. 'I thought you were coming in for coffee?'

'Some other time.' She forced the hurt and anger that she was feeling inside to the back of her mind as she gave him a brittle, bright smile and carefully extracted her arm from his hold. 'I've masses to do tomorrow and some paperwork to finish tonight before I call it a day.'

'Please don't leave on my account,' Sharon drawled sweetly as she drew her long, expensive coat round her slim shape before slamming the driver's door shut. 'Reece is used to my dropping by whenever the need takes me, aren't you, sweetie?' She raised brilliant green eyes to Reece's face and then froze for a second before glancing hastily at Miriam again.

'I'm leaving because I have work to do,' Miriam said expressionlessly, knowing that she had to get away before she said something she'd regret for the rest of her life. 'Goodnight.' She turned to Reece and saw that his face was stony-hard, the silver-grey eyes lethal. 'Goodnight,' she said again breathlessly as she ducked her head and began walking, fast.

She heard his deep, cold voice say something to Sharon but couldn't make out the words through the pounding in her ears, and then, mercifully, she was round the side of the house and scurrying like a small rabbit to its hole as she neared her car.

'Start, please start; tonight of all nights, start,' she begged the cold engine frantically as she turned the ignition, hearing the cough and sneeze as it spluttered into life with a feeling of deep gratitude.

She went through the motions of reversing the car automatically, her mind buzzing with a thousand screaming recriminations, and then roared off down the drive far too quickly towards the main road, executing what virtually constituted an emergency stop before turning onto the main highway with her palms damp and her face wet.

She was a fool, such a fool, she told herself fiercely as the little car skidded through the traffic. To allow him such liberties when he had just told her that any sort of emotional commitment was anathema to him. She wiped the hot tears off her face with the back of her hand and ground her teeth loudly in the darkness. Fool, fool, fool.

She shook her head and then heard the blaring of a horn just behind her and realised that she had veered halfway across the outside lane. She'd have to pull over; she wasn't safe to drive like this. She managed to get off the dual carriageway at the next turn-off and drove along a quiet residential street before turning into an empty bus pull-in and switching off the ignition with shaking fingers.

The urge to cry had gone now, to be replaced with a stunned, icy-cold desperation that chilled her very bones. She was a fool, the biggest one ever born, she realised, because she suddenly understood the season for her total weakness where Reece Vance was concerned. It wasn't just physical attraction, a chemistry explosion of the senses, although those things were very real. She loved him.

She groaned out loud and hit her fist against the inoffensive steering wheel. How it had happened, when, she wasn't quite sure but it was a fact. She loved a man who didn't even understand the meaning of the word and, what was more, had a host of women, one of whom he was with now, who could outshine her in every way.

How long she sat there she didn't know, but when, after a long, long time, she started the car again her mind was calm if painfully savaged. She loved him. She was achingly sorry for all the hurt and pain he had suffered in the past, but one thing was crystal-clear. She had to protect herself, raise a barrier between Reece Vance and herself that was impenetrable, because he had the power to destroy her—to rip her to shreds and then walk away without even knowing he had done so. Perhaps Sharon and the others could take the terms he offered and be satisfied with physical gratification and material gain but she couldn't.

She pictured his big, lean body and hard-planed male face and felt a sense of loss that was indescribable. Was it possible to mourn what you'd never had? She nodded to herself bitterly. Too true.

She didn't sleep at all that night, and when morning sent the first pink rays of a new day over the horizon she forced herself to shower and dress, eating breakfast mechanically as she watched the sky change from pink-streaked grey to light-washed blue.

She didn't want to see him ever again and yet she did, desperately. Was it possible to fall in love with someone so hard so quickly? She shook her head at her own stupidity. Why was she asking herself that question when she knew the answer only too well? And Reece thought love was an illusion. Her mouth straight