Savage Destiny by Amanda Browning

Author:Amanda Browning
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1993-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE wedding took place two days later. It was, by circumstance, a quiet affair, with only her mother and a friend of Pierce’s in attendance. Alix wouldn’t have had it any other way, because to her mind the fact that they were getting married at all made a mockery of what she had always believed to be a sacred institution. The only way she knew she would get through it at all was to think of her father.

The civil ceremony was short. Alix had chosen to wear an ivory silk suit and matching pillbox hat, complete with a pearl-dotted veil, on her head. She also, very reluctantly, carried a small posy of flowers which her mother had pressed on her when she arrived. Her main memory of the service was the surprising strength of Pierce’s responses. He managed to make it sound as if the vows they exchanged meant something to him, which she knew couldn’t possibly be true. Superstitiously, it sent a chill down her spine.

The photographer came as a surprise when, as husband and wife, they once more walked into the sunshine. She should have known Pierce wouldn’t let the event go by unrecorded, but a cold lump lodged under her heart as it only seemed to add to the sham. Fortunately, there was to be no reception. It was an ideal arrangement as far as Alix was concerned, for she doubted if she could hide for very much longer that the bride and groom were barely on speaking terms. Since their last confrontation, the atmosphere between them had been chilly almost to the point of frostbite.

‘I’ll just have one of you kissing the bride,’ the photographer directed, either not catching the atmosphere or choosing to ignore it.

Alix would have liked to refuse, but with her mother watching, and the small crowd of onlookers—which a wedding always seemed to draw—looking on, didn’t dare. Obediently she turned her face up to her husband’s.

‘I feel like a performing seal!’ she muttered tersely, as Pierce’s hand steadied her chin.

‘Maybe, but a very beautiful one,’ he returned huskily.

Her breath caught at something that flickered momentarily in his eyes, but before she could analyse it his mouth was on hers and her lashes fluttered down helplessly. It was the strangest kiss she had ever received from him, and all the more staggering for that. No passion, or possession, but rather an amalgam of elation and relief, so that when he raised his head again she could only stare up at him in confusion. That clearly satisfied him, because Pierce merely smiled and released her.

‘That’s enough,’ he declared, cutting off the photographer in mid-flow, and turned to his new mother-in-law. ‘If we don’t get going, we’ll miss our flight. Take care of yourself, Emily, and tell Stephen not to worry while we’re away. There’s a good team in charge, so all he has to do is concentrate on getting well.’

Emily Petrakos made some sort of watery response as she kissed his cheek, then turned to her daughter and hugged her.

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