Exotic Affairs(122)

‘Let’s go somewhere where we can talk in private,’ he said flatly. ‘I have something I want to say to you…’

Caroline wanted to talk to Luiz. She needed to talk to Luiz. But the juggernaut called her wedding was now rolling ahead at full speed, and Luiz, she assumed, was already waiting for her at the tiny church in the centre of the village where, since her father had arrived, so had gathered the full Vazquez family, to witness the event taking place.

‘You look beautiful, señorita,’ Abril’s gentle voice brought Caroline’s anxious eyes into focus on the mirror she was standing in front of.

The ankle-length ivory crêpe gown was quite simply sensational, even if she did think so herself. The corset-like bodice skimmed her slender ribcage and scooped low over the creamy slopes of her breasts, and the little off-the-shoulder sleeves added just the right touch of vulnerable charm to a bride who was about to walk down a church aisle towards her bridegroom.

To add a final touch, her full-length veil was secured to her head by a delicate diamond tiara. The overall effect was simplicity itself—her style, her way of doing things.

Her wedding.

Luiz, she told her amethyst eyes via the mirror. You are about to marry Luiz.

But how could Luiz want to marry her, knowing how badly she misjudged him seven years ago?

Luiz never said he wanted to marry you, only that he needed to marry someone, she reminded those anxious amethyst eyes. And all you’ve been doing these last few days is pretending that this is a marriage made in heaven. For all you know, Luiz could be planning to cast you aside once he’s fulfilled the legal requirements of his father’s will.

The perfect formula for revenge? He walks away from you the way you walked away from him seven years ago?

Her stomach wanted to perform somersaults. She wanted to run to the bathroom to be sick in the nearest receptacle. She knew Luiz; she knew what he was capable of. And she suddenly remembered his scorpion. It was sitting there right in front of her now, crawling down the mirror as if ready to strike.

‘Señorita?’ Abril’s voice sounded concerned. Could she see that Caroline was about to lose every ounce of courage she possessed in one huge wave of guilt?

‘Señorita…’ A gentle hand covered her forearm, the fingers small and brown against her own pale skin. ‘You are shivering,’ the little maid murmured worriedly. ‘Are you frightened, señorita? Please don’t be frightened,’ she urged her comfortingly. ‘El conde is a good man. Everyone in the valley says so. He reminds them of his grandpa, Don Angeles. He was a good man also. A strong man.’

‘I’m okay.’ Caroline managed to push out the whisper. ‘I just…’ She shivered again, as if something scaly had walked over her flesh.

With a blink she attempted to pull herself together, shifting her gaze to her little maid of honour, who was standing beside her in a simple gown of virginal white. She looked enchanting. The perfect foil for a fair-skinned bride, with her black hair and black doe-like eyes and her beautiful olive skin.

‘I’m fine,’ she assured her for a second time, and even managed a smile.

Reassured, Abril handed Caroline her small bouquet of ivory roses, picked only an hour ago from the garden and woven together by Abril herself.

Her father was pacing restlessly in the great hall when he first saw her. He stopped dead and watched as she came down the stairs towards him. ‘Goodness, Caro,’ he murmured thickly, and that was all. The rest was written in his eyes.

She was surprised to find that it wasn’t Vito who was going to drive her to the village, since Vito rarely left her side. But this time it was a stranger who drove Luiz’s black BMW. She discovered why Vito had forsaken her only when she entered the church on her father’s arm.

For Vito was standing next to Luiz. A Luiz who filled her heart with tears of relief when she saw him standing there in his black tuxedo, his dark head lowered and with a waiting tension clamped across his broad shoulders that made her want to sob with relief—because surely that tension meant this moment was important to him—that she was important?

There was a stir as people began glancing round at her; the stir brought up his head. He turned, looked at her—and that was the last thing she remembered for most of the long service. For no man could look at a woman like that unless he was seeing the only person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. And his hand when it accepted hers from her father was even trembling slightly.

They made their vows in a hushed atmosphere where no one present seemed to breathe. But when Luiz slid not one but two rings onto her wedding finger she blinked, focused for the first time in ages, and saw a simple but exquisite diamond ring resting next to a finely sculptured gold band. She felt her eyes fill with tears.