Olivero's Outrageous Proposal by Kate Walker

Author:Kate Walker [Walker, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-02-28T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

‘YOU LOOK LOVELY!’

‘Thank you, Dad.’

Alyse managed to respond to her father’s comment with a smile that frayed slightly at the edges. She had to be thankful that her father was smiling too, and he seemed almost ten years younger than he had done two weeks ago. With the huge debt he’d owed completely paid, and the threat of imprisonment now only a bad memory, he looked as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. No tears now, but Ellen had already been sniffing sentimentally into a handkerchief before she had left for the church. But at least they had been happy tears and there had been a new lightness in her step as she’d headed for the car.

‘You are sure—you’re happy?’ he asked now, his expression grave as he searched her face for the truth. ‘It is all very sudden.’

Now he asked! Now he was concerned! The words stung at Alyse’s brain and she had to bite down hard on her lower lip to stop herself from letting them escape.

‘Sudden but right!’ she said as warmly as she could.

She hoped she hid it well, and that her smile was convincing. She had made Dario agree that they would let her parents think that this love affair was real, if sudden and overwhelming. The rush to get married was because of the passionate way they felt about each other—and Dario had determined to show his love for his prospective bride by paying off her family’s debts.

But the truth was that none of this felt real to Alyse. It was as if she was functioning on the other side of a huge sheet of plate glass so that she could see her parents, talk to them, hear their responses, but she wasn’t really with them. She could no longer see them as she had done before. Once she’d realised the truth about the way that they had both been involved in almost forcing her into a marriage to Marcus she didn’t want, she had seemed to step back from them, putting a distance between them that right now she couldn’t bridge. At the same time, Dario was the one person who felt fully real to her. He was the person she had chosen, the one with whom she had thrown in her lot. Her future lay with him for as long as it lasted.

Already she was moving away from her parents towards a life that was at last her own. Or at least the one she had chosen for now. It might be just a business arrangement, but Dario hadn’t realised how important a gift he was giving her in her freedom.

‘Yes, it’s a lightning romance, Dad, but sometimes that happens. You’d only known Mum for a month but you always told me that...’

‘I knew she was the one for me.’ Her father nodded his agreement.

‘So there you are—lightning strikes and you are left with no choice.’ Alyse slid her arm through his, grateful for the strength and support.

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