Needed: One Convenient Husband(22)

Relief that she had been wrong about Elise gave way to a sick feeling  in the pit of her stomach. She had chased after Kyle in a fit of  jealousy and had ended up intruding on what must be a very private  moment. A moment that did not include her, because Kyle was not visiting  Elise or any other old girlfriend. On the day of his wedding to her, he  was visiting Nicola and Evan, the wife and child he had loved and lost.

* * *

Three hours later, hours that Eva had filled by first getting her hair  and nails done then sitting in the kitchen sipping tea, she finally  started to get ready for her wedding.

An odd, shaky relief filled her when she heard Kyle's Maserati return.  After those moments at the cemetery, her imagination had run wild and  she had half expected him to walk away from the marriage.

Although, why would he? she thought flatly. After all, to Kyle it was only a marriage of convenience.

The heat of the day grew more intense and oppressive as Eva changed  into the dress Sophie had designed for the simple church-and-garden  wedding. A strapless gown with a tight bodice and full, romantic skirt,  the dress was made even more gorgeous by the fabric, which was a soft,  pale-pink-and-rose-print silk with an ivory tulle overskirt.                       
       
           



       

Unfortunately, when she came to fasten the dress, which had about  thirty tiny cloth-covered buttons at the back, she could get so far and  no farther.

Taking a deep breath, she checked her watch. She was running to  schedule, but she hadn't considered she would need help dressing and now  she was out of time to call someone to come and help her. Another one  of the little details she should have thought of, but which, in the rush  to get things done, had escaped her.

She glanced out the window at the smooth sweep of lawn she had made  sure was mowed and manicured, to where a group of men were setting up a  white tent. Walking back to the mirror, she examined her reflection. Her  hair was perfect, falling loose and tousled down her back, the soft  waves held with hairspray. To match the dress, she had pulled a swath  back from her forehead and fastened it with a clip studded with fresh  flowers.

Turning, she tried to do up a few more buttons using the mirror, but  when the silk-covered buttons kept slipping from her fingers and her  arms began to ache, she gave up on the job. Ideally, Jacinta should have  been here to help her, but her last text had explained that she'd had  car trouble and would meet her at the church.

After checking the time again, Eva stepped out into the hall and went  in search of Kyle, hoping against hope that he hadn't left for the  church. A door swung open. Kyle emerged from his room and she drew a  breath. In a charcoal-gray morning suit, with a white shirt and a maroon  silk tie that subtly echoed the deeper color of the roses on her dress,  Kyle looked breathtaking.

She half expected him to say that he knew she had followed him that  morning, but instead his gaze simply swept her and lingered. She found  herself blushing at the soft, intense glow that seemed to make his gaze  even bluer.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to see you until the church."

"Jacinta's having car trouble, so I've lost my helper." She turned and  showed him the buttons she hadn't been able to reach and tried not to  sound too breathless and panicky.

She had always wondered why brides got so uptight and nervous. Now she  knew. There were a hundred and one things that could go wrong. Right now  she was beginning to wonder if anything would go right. "If you could  do the rest of the buttons?"

"No problem. I was going to break the rules and come and see you anyway."

Swallowing at the intent way he was looking at her and feeling utterly  confused because she had convinced herself that the attraction he had  felt for her had fizzled out, Eva led the way into the sitting room  where the light was better and waited for him to fasten the last  remaining buttons.

Kyle gently moved her hair aside. The backs of his fingers brushed her  skin, the small searing touch making her breath come in. She closed her  eyes and worked at controlling her breathing as he systematically  fastened each tiny button.

When he was finished, she opened her eyes and remembered that she was  facing a mirror and that Kyle had been able to see her face the whole  time. She blushed and hoped like mad that he had been too busy with the  buttons to notice that she was having a minor meltdown.

He met her gaze in the mirror. "I expected you to wear white."

She stiffened a little at the reference to her virginity. "I'm over the  white dress. It would have reminded me too much of my last wedding."

"The Dolphin Bay extravaganza."

"Which, luckily, paid for the dress."

He produced a case that he must have set down on a side table while he dealt with the buttons. "You should wear these today."

Still off-balance at her response to Kyle, she opened the box and went  still inside when she saw a pair of diamond studs and a pendant that  matched her engagement ring. "I can't accept these."

"You're an Atraeus bride and these are wedding jewels, a tradition in  the Messena and Atraeus families. Mario would have given you a set if he  had been alive, and Constantine will expect it." His expression  softened. "Aside from that, I want you to have them."

A blush of pleasure went through her that Kyle wanted to give her a  special wedding gift, even if he had tacked that bit on the end. The  mention of Mario and of Constantine Atraeus, the formidable head of the  Atraeus family and CEO of The Atraeus Group, made her feel even more  strained. Family was important and celebrated in the Atraeus clan, even  if she had never been quite sure that she had been accepted.

Kyle took the pendant from the case and unclipped it. "You don't have to wear them for me. Wear them for Mario."

"That's not fair."

"It wasn't meant to be. Turn around."

She turned and found herself once again facing the large mirror that  sat over the mantel of the fireplace. As Kyle fastened the pendant, her  heart turned over in her chest. Framed by the carved gilt frame of the  mirror, they could have been two people who belonged in another era,  another time. She touched the pretty jewel where it hung suspended in  the faint hollow of her breasts. Such a small thing, yet it added an  indefinable air of nurturing and belonging that made her throat close  up. Like the engagement ring, she loved the pendant, not because of its  value, but because of what it said about hers. "It's beautiful. Thank  you."                       
       
           



       

Feeling strained and a little misty-eyed, she took the diamond studs  when Kyle handed them to her. After removing the pretty pearl studs she  had inserted earlier, she fastened them in place. As she did so, she  couldn't help being fiercely glad that the wedding to Jeremy had not  gone ahead.

Kyle had been right. For all Jeremy's plusses in terms of a convenient  marriage, he had been superficial and utterly self-centered. He would  never have offered to buy her even a token engagement ring, and he had  expected her to pay for the wedding rings and a new wardrobe for him.  "This is turning out to be an expensive wedding for you."

Kyle grinned as he checked his watch. "Lucky for me I have a bank."

* * *

Half an hour later, the limousine Eva had ordered arrived. Still  feeling flustered but relieved, she attached the ivory tulle veil that  slid in just above her rose clip, picked up the bouquets for herself and  Jacinta that she'd ordered from her favorite florist, grabbed her  handbag with her cell and strolled out to the car.

A tall dark man was leaning down, speaking to the limousine driver. He  straightened and half turned and she went into shock all over again as  she recognized one of her Atraeus cousins. "Constantine. What are you  doing here?"

Normally, Constantine was based on Medinos, the Eastern Mediterranean  island that was home to the Atraeus, Messena and Ambrosi families.  Occasionally, he and his wife, Sienna, spent time in Sydney, where The  Atraeus Group had an office, but he seldom came to New Zealand.

Constantine grinned. "I heard there was a wedding, so I came to give you away."

She was glad she had thought to remember her handbag because now she  needed a handkerchief. Juggling the bouquets, she found one and tried to  delicately blow her nose so her makeup wouldn't be spoiled. "Who told  you?"

"Kyle rang a couple of days ago, so I cleared my schedule. Sienna and  Amber came with me. Lucas and Carla and Zane and Lilah were in Sydney,  so they hitched a ride in the jet."

Meaning that quite a large chunk of the Atreaus family, with almost no  notice, had dropped what they were doing in their high-powered,  fast-paced lives to be at her wedding. Eva sniffed, abruptly  overwhelmed. With Mario's death, she had been feeling more and more cast  adrift, and her natural instinct was to cut ties and minimize the hurt.  But it seemed that the more she tried to walk away from this family,  the more they found ways to tie her to them.