She sat on Morgan's lap and they fed each other the food between kisses, cocooned in a couple of blankets the nurse had kindly brought them. They didn't talk about the past or the future; that could come later. They had time now, for everything. But tonight only the present mattered; being in each other's arms, able to kiss and touch and breathe the other's warmth.
If this wasn't heaven, it was close enough, Willow thought as she snuggled against his chest and shut her eyes. Thank goodness for Beth wanting her tonight, thank goodness for the snow and her car not starting and the fact it was the weekend and Morgan had been home; thank goodness that against all the odds she had found the one man who could release her from the past and make her life complete.
She settled herself more comfortably within the circle of Morgan's arms and within moments she was asleep, a half-smile on her lips and her body curled trustingly into his.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THEY got married on Christmas Eve at the little parish church in the village. How Morgan managed to pull everything together so quickly, Willow didn't know. It wasn't just the paperwork and legal stuff, but persuading the vicar to fit in the marriage service between the three carol concerts the church was holding that day that amazed her. She suspected a hefty donation towards the church-roof fund might have had something to do with it. Certainly the vicar seemed happy enough.
Willow wore a mermaid-style dress in pale gold guipure lace with a fake-fur-lined matching cloak and hood, and carried a Christmas bouquet. Peter was giving her away and as they reached the church and heard the organ music as they stood outside she gripped his arm tightly. 'Oh, Peter.'
'Everything's going to be fine,' he reassured her softly, 'and you look beautiful. You'll take his breath away.'
She smiled at him tremulously. She had no doubts about what she was doing but she suddenly felt so emotional as she looked at the arch of Christmas garlands hung round the church door. The December day was bitterly cold but sparkling with sunshine and the winter sky was as blue as Morgan's eyes. She hoped her parents knew how happy she was, how happy both she and Beth were. She hoped they knew they had their first grandchild, and that she was thinking of them on this special day. She hoped … oh, lots of things.
'Ready?' Peter smiled down at her and she nodded. As they stepped into the church's tiny inner porch the music changed, announcing her arrival, and just for a second she remembered that other wedding. She'd worn a full meringue-style dress in white satin with a long veil that day and they'd had nearly three hundred guests to the reception. Piers had insisted on a very formal and grand affair and her five bridesmaids and two flower girls had been schooled by him-as had she-not to put a foot wrong. She'd felt nervous and tense all day and the dress had been too tight, the speeches too long and she'd developed a blinding headache before the day was half through. Piers, on the other hand, had been in his element.
This was so different. Their seventy guests were all close friends and family and Kitty had put on a magnificent spread at home. This was an impromptu wedding filled with love.
Slowly and gracefully she began to walk down the aisle towards the tall dark man standing beside Jim at the front of the church. Morgan turned to watch her and the blue eyes were glittering with tears as she reached him. With no respect of etiquette he bent and kissed her as he took her cold little hand in his, and immediately his warmth and love surrounded her. She smiled up at him, all her adoration in her eyes.
He kept tight hold of her hand as the minister began the service, and when the time came to say their vows his voice was strong and clear for all to hear. By then the brief poignant sadness outside the church had gone and she was glowing with happiness. She was with Morgan. Where she belonged. And she knew that, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, until death did them part, they would be there for each other, strong in their love.
When the vicar beamingly declared them man and wife Morgan lifted her off her feet and swung her round to cheers from the congregation, kissing her soundly as she clung to him, her cheeks rosy pink and her eyes shining. Beth and Kitty cried along with the rest of the women in the church, and there was even the odd male guest who had a surreptitious dab at his eyes, but Willow and Morgan were smiling as they walked down the aisle together looking radiant. Which made Beth cry still more.
A friend of Morgan's who was also a professional photographer took relaxed, natural pictures throughout the afternoon and even little David Peter beamed toothlessly into the camera. The food was delicious, the champagne flowed and everyone got a little tiddly by evening when the dancing started in the huge, heated marquee in the garden, which was decorated with Christmas garlands.
Willow felt she was floating in a dream when she and Morgan had the first dance, their guests gathered in a smiling circle around them. It had been the perfect day. She glanced at the rose-gold wedding band nestling next to the diamond engagement ring Morgan had bought her the day after he'd proposed. Her hand was resting on his shoulder and he caught her glance, his voice deep and husky when he said, 'It's there for life, sweetheart.'
'I know.' She smiled up at her brand-new husband, thinking he was the most handsome, sexy, delicious man in the world as he whirled her round the dance floor.
'Don't look at me like that,' he whispered in her ear, his warm breath tickling her cheek, 'or we won't finish this dance, let alone the rest of the evening, before I take you upstairs and rip that dress off.'
'It cost a fortune,' she protested laughingly. 'You have to undo all the little buttons down the back.'
He groaned. 'What's wrong with a good old-fashioned zip?'
'Morgan, this is a designer wedding dress,' she said with mock severity.
'Exactly.' He grinned down at her. 'And the designer should have known better.'
She touched his face with her fingertips. He had insisted they would wait until their wedding night-hence the swift arrangements and bribe to the vicar-because he wanted it to be special with her, different from all those other women he had bedded so casually. She respected him for that and understood his reasoning, but she had seen what his restraint had cost him over the last weeks. But now the time for restraint was over and she wanted him every little bit as much as he wanted her. Beneath the guipure lace she was wearing a low-cut sexy bra, positively indecent see-through briefs and stockings, her pièce de résistance a naughty little garter.
Beth's eyes had nearly popped out of her head when she'd helped her dress in her wedding finery that morning. 'Willow!' her sister had shrieked. 'You dark horse, you.'
Her cheeks scarlet, Willow had muttered, 'What is it with you and horses, Beth? And I don't usually go for this sort of underwear,' she'd added as Beth had laboured over the host of tiny buttons at the back of the gown. 'But I wanted to surprise him. To let him know how much I want him.'
'You will. Oh, you will.'
The memory of that conversation brought her mouth turning upwards now, and as the dance finished and they were joined by other couples Morgan murmured, 'What is it?'
Feeling deliciously like a wanton hussy, she murmured back, 'I've got a surprise for you later.' She might not be able to match those other women he'd known in expertise or a knowledge of all the little tricks a woman could use to please a man of the world like Morgan, but she had something none of them had had. His love.
The first guests began to leave about eleven, and by midnight they waved the last straggler off. Kitty and Jim had retired to their flat above the garages long ago and Kitty had promised she wouldn't disturb them until she called them for Christmas Day lunch at one o'clock the next afternoon. The day after that they were flying to Hawaii for a month's honeymoon. Morgan had booked a little villa right on the beach.
They stood wrapped in each other's arms on the doorstep as the lights of the car faded down the drive. A million stars twinkled in a clear velvet sky and the frost glittered like diamond dust on the ground, thick and white. The dogs had gone out as they'd seen their guests off and now filed past them into the warmth of the house, sensing it was their bedtime at last. They'd accepted her presence in Morgan's life completely.
Morgan grinned at her. 'We've been keeping them up. I think they were ready for bed long before this.'