Here Comes the Bride by Gayle Kasper Page B

her body.
    He sighed and tried to get a grip. “We missed you at Auntie’s.”
He
missed her at Auntie’s. Very much. Had expected to see her there. And when he didn’t, when Walter said she wasn’t coming, disappointment, all-pervasive and swift, settled over him.
    Not a good omen, not for a man who believed he didn’t need a woman, one special woman, in his life. He could only hope it was a need that would pass.
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “I hope Winnie’s not offended, but I just needed some time alone.”
    “Alone?” He didn’t like to think of her being alone. Or more honestly, he didn’t like to think that Fiona preferred being alone to being with him. That she didn’t need to see him as much as he needed to see her.
    “I could come over,” he said, then cursed himself for the words. If he got within ten feet of her, saw her looking soft and inviting and warm, he’d want to make love to her. “I mean, what are you going to do about dinner?”
    “I’d planned to order up something from room service.”
    “Oh.” For the second time that night he tasted swift disappointment. He really had to get a grip.
    “Nick …”
    “Yes?” His answer was too quick, telltale quick. He hoped she was going to say that she’d changed her mind, that she wanted to see him.
    He realized he was holding his breath. Like some adolescent schoolboy who’d asked the prettiest girl in class to the prom and was praying she’d smile at him and say she’d go.
    Never before had a woman had this kind of hold on him.
    “I was going to say …”
    She had him on tenterhooks.
    “I was going to say I had a talk with my father today and—”
    “A talk with Walter?”
    “Yes.”
    It was back to business, the business of their wayward relatives. Was that what had occupied the better part of her thoughts today? The wedding? Not him? Not what was happening between them?
    “And how did it go? The talk with your father?”
    “Nick, he says they’re in love, that—”
    Fiona heard Nick’s derisive snort on the other end of the line. He clearly didn’t believe for a moment that they were in love. After spending the day consulting on another divorce case, his cynicism would be running high.
    Maybe he had a right to be cynical. Marriagewas a risky proposition these days and Nick was in a position to know that. “My father seems so sure everything will work out.”
    “Yeah, well, I’m not so sure.”
    Fiona didn’t know how she felt anymore. All she knew was that just the sound of Nick’s voice as it purled over the phone line made her heart thump faster, made her wish he was here so she could see him … touch him.
    Then she remembered her resolve, the reason she’d stayed away from dinner at Winnie’s. She needed to keep her distance from Nick.
    Before she did something foolish like fall in love with him. A man who didn’t believe in love.
    “I’m just a little down after my day,” he said. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to inflict that on you. I know you’re worried.”
    “You didn’t inflict anything on me, Nick. I understand how you feel.”
    Neither of them spoke for a moment.
    Fiona didn’t want the conversation to end. She wanted to hear his voice, its velvet timbre that did such dangerous things to her senses.
    She fluffed the pillow at her back and leaned against its softness, drinking in the knowledge that Nick was there. Close—yet a safe distance away.
    “I don’t know if it’ll do any good or not,but I’ll have a talk with Auntie,” he said finally.
    “Thanks, Nick.”
    Nick didn’t want to end the conversation, didn’t want to let Fiona go, but there was nothing else to say. He didn’t understand what it was that was happening to him with this woman, but he knew he was playing with fire.
    “I … I’d better go. I’ll call you in the morning and let you know if I had any luck with Auntie.”

EIGHT
    Nick did not call the next morning. Instead he showed up. Fiona opened the door to her