Scarlet Nights (26 page)

“What did Tess say?”

“That if she were here, she’d have Rams draw up a contract saying that if you and I divorce, you get Merlin’s Farm.”

Sara managed a smile. And she remembered the way Tess had protected her from Greg’s greed. How she missed her friend! But Sara’s mind was too full to feel much else. On top of the horror of finding out the truth about Brian and about the man she’d almost married, was how close she’d come to being murdered. And now she was at last getting married, not because of love, but to save her own life. Mike’s marriage proposal had talked of secrecy and living separately, and of not staying married. She’d never imagined words so cold.

When they reached her parents’ house, Dr. Shaw was outside,
waiting for them. He put his arm around his daughter’s shoulders and led her inside.

Mike stood outside in the dark. “Okay, Newland,” he said aloud. “Straighten up and be strong. You’re about to get
married
.”

Mike waited for the shudder to come, but it didn’t. The truth was, he wanted to get this done with before Sara came to her senses and told him to get lost.

19

B
Y THE TIME
they got into the house, Sara’s sober mood began to leave her. By rights she knew she should be miserable. She’d just found out about Brian’s death and that Greg wanted to murder her. To further complicate things, she was marrying a man she’d known for only a few days and the marriage would probably end in divorce.

All in all, she knew she should be sad, but she wasn’t. Instead, she looked at Mike and felt warmth spread through her. It didn’t make sense, but what she was doing felt
right
.

“Where’s Mom?” Sara asked her father.

“Already at Edilean Manor. After Mike’s call, she went into action—and you know what that means.”

“Orders,” Sara said.

“Exactly. She said you’re to put on Lissie’s dress here and I’m to drive you to Luke’s house.”

When Sara and her father turned to look at Mike, he didn’t know what they wanted. “Oh. Right. I’ll meet you there. Sara—”

She couldn’t bear hearing another apology. “Go! Get your suit on and meet me at the house. And remember …”

“What?”

“If you chicken out I’ll be obliged to marry Greg.”

Mike smiled at her. “Yeah. Good. Okay.” He couldn’t seem to make a complete sentence. He went to his car, and minutes later he was outside Edilean Manor. The house was ablaze with light and he could hear voices inside.

Luke threw open the front door, a glass of champagne in his hand. “I have a houseful of excited women. Well, really only two women, but they’re making enough noise that it sounds like New Year’s Eve.”

“Luke!” Sara’s mother called. “We need you.”

“I suggest you slip over to Tess’s house to change. I’ll come and get you when it’s time. Okay if I’m your best man?” When Mike nodded, Luke said, “If you come in here, they’ll put you to work.”

“Doing what?” he asked, but Luke had already shut the door.

Mike went to his sister’s apartment, showered, shaved, and dressed.

In his pocket were two new platinum wedding bands that Sara’s mother had given him when he’d gone to them to arrange the marriage. He’d thought they would protest his outrageous plan, but they hadn’t. Mike had told them that Greg was a criminal and he wanted something from Sara that he could only get by marrying her. To Mike’s surprise, neither of them had questioned his story. Ellie said, “What can we do to help?” When Mike told them
he
wanted to marry Sara that night, he’d hardly finished the sentence before Ellie went into action. As for Dr. Shaw, for a second there were tears in his eyes, then he jumped up and went to work helping his wife make arrangements.

“From Kimberly?” Mike had asked when she’d handed the rings to her. “No questions asked?”

Ellie smiled. “You fit into Edilean very well,” she said as she left the room.

“You’ve done it now, boy,” Dr. Shaw said. “Once they accept you, they don’t ever let you leave this town.” He made sounds of eerie music.

“I heard that,” Ellie called from down the hall.

Now, in Tess’s apartment and dressing for his wedding, surprisingly, Mike felt good. As he waited for Luke to come and get him, he again called Tess. Her pills hadn’t worn off, and combined with the hormones of pregnancy and having just told Rams about the baby, she did little but cry.

“I wish I were there,” she kept saying. “I wanted to see you get married. And Sara …”

Rams took the phone and asked Mike to let Tess listen to the ceremony.

“Of course,” Mike said, then looked up to see Luke in the doorway. It was time. He followed Luke to the main part of the big, old house.

Mike was shocked at the sheer quantity of flowers that draped the entrance of the house.

“They’re for a wedding that’s to happen tomorrow,” Luke said from beside him. “We figure no one will know if the flowers spend a few hours here.” They were standing in front of the big parlor fireplace, which had been made into an altar, with an archway of roses and ferns. Big bouquets of white roses with blue ribbons dangling from them made a pathway through the room.

“Nervous?” Luke asked.

Mike nodded. “I was calmer that time I faced two men with automatic rifles.”

“We really need to talk about your life. How’d you get out of that one?”

“Knives. I always carry—” He stopped talking because music began to play over a stereo system, and Luke hurried back down the aisle. Moments later he reappeared with his hugely pregnant wife in a wheelchair.

There were only three couples there, just six people, but the music and the flowers and the beautiful house made it feel like a true ceremony.

When the wedding march began to play and Sara appeared in the doorway on the arm of her father, Mike knew he’d never seen anyone so beautiful in his life. Her dress was of lace over satin, very old-fashioned-looking, and fit her perfectly, smoothing down over her hips to flow out gently into a skirt. She had on a traditional veil that covered her face, and Mike couldn’t help feeling pleased that he’d get to lift it. It almost made the wedding seem real.

When she reached the little altar, Dr. Shaw gave Sara’s hand to Mike and he squeezed it. Under the veil, he could see her smile.

Beside them, Luke dialed Tess and Rams to let them hear everything over the speakerphone.

Mike and Sara turned to her mother, who stood there in a long white robe, a Bible in her hands. When she’d told Mike she was ordained to conduct wedding ceremonies, he hadn’t been surprised.

Now, Ellie’s eyes were red, and her nose swollen from crying.

“Dearly beloved,” she began, then had to stop to blow her nose. “We are gathered here today—” She stopped again because her tears were dripping.

“Daddy!” Sara hissed at her father, who was standing behind Joce in her wheelchair.

Chuckling, Dr. Shaw went to help his wife get through the ceremony.

When Mike slipped a ring on her finger, Sara looked at him in surprise, and when he handed her a ring for him, there was a smile of gratitude on her face.

Given his background, Mike had thought he’d hesitate over the promises he was to make to Sara. But he didn’t. He answered the questions and made the vows without so much as a pause.

Sara said everything with so much happiness in her voice that he could almost believe what she was saying.

“I now pronounce you—” Ellie began, but dissolved into tears so copious that she couldn’t speak.

“Really, Mother!” Sara said.

Dr. Shaw pronounced them man and wife, and Ellie nodded in agreement. “You may kiss her now, son,” he said to Mike.

Smiling, Mike lifted Sara’s veil and looked at her beautiful face. Gently, he took her in his arms and kissed her—and flashbulbs went off.

Laughing, blinking, they broke apart and smiled for all four cameras that were aimed at them.

“Cake,” Dr. Shaw said. “I demand cake and champagne.”

In the dining room were more flowers and in the center was a three-tiered wedding cake with white icing and about a hundred roses in different shades of pink. It was an extraordinary creation.

Dr. Shaw raised his glass. “To the Whitley-Cooper wedding in gratitude for the flowers and cake that they gave us.” He lowered his voice. “And may the Lord be with us tomorrow when the bride is told that her cake was eaten during the night.”

Luke was the first to laugh, and the others joined him—but they all knew that Ellie would spend the rest of the night remaking the cake. She would never let a bride under her care go without.

They insisted that Mike and Sara feed each other while they snapped more pictures.

Thirty minutes later, Luke told Mike that Joce was exhausted. “And if we’re to keep this wedding a secret, we have to clear all this stuff out before dawn.”

“Yeah, sure,” Mike said and glanced at Sara. She was dancing with her father, her head on his shoulder, and he didn’t want to break them up.

But minutes later, the music stopped and Sara looked at Mike. He nodded. It was time to leave.

As Mike and Sara stood in the doorway, Ellie started crying again as she kissed her daughter and slipped something into her hand.

“She thought I’d never catch a man,” Sara said under her breath to Mike as they kissed everyone good-bye, but Mike knew that Ellie’s tears were from relief that her daughter wasn’t going to marry Greg. She’d always felt there was more wrong with the man than just a bad temper.

Once they were outside, the cool night air felt good. He was glad when the others stayed inside and left them alone. Mike started to go to Tess’s apartment, but Sara turned toward her own and he followed her.

“So what did your mother give you?”

Sara held up a small bottle to the moonlight. “Scarlet Nights perfume. I told her you liked it.”

“Wasted on us,” Mike said as he opened the door to Sara’s apartment.

“What does that mean?” She went in ahead of him, and he shut the door behind them.

“Nothing.” He yawned. “I need to leave as early as possible in the morning.” He looked at his watch, then smiled at Sara. “It’s been a long day.” Bending, he kissed her cheek and turned toward the guest bedroom.

From behind him, Sara said, “I don’t get a wedding night?”

Mike stopped in the hallway, but he didn’t turn around.

“What is it about me that men don’t like?”

Mike turned to look at her. “Men like you too much.”

Sara lifted her hands in frustration as she went into the kitchen. “Do you know how long I knew Brian before he made love to me? Six months. We dated for four whole years, but he didn’t ask me to marry him. Then Greg came along and he talked about nothing but marriage and our fabulous future together. Today I found out that he was actually plotting my death.

“So now I’m
married
to some gorgeous hunk who seems to have slept with half the universe but he won’t touch
me
.” She glared at Mike. “What happened to real
men
?” Angry, she turned to go to her bedroom.

Mike caught her arm before she took a step and for a moment he looked into her eyes.

Sara tried to jerk away from him, but he held fast and pulled her to him with a jolt that almost knocked the breath out of her.

Mike had kissed her before, but they’d always been sedate kisses, chaste and pure. But not now. His mouth opened over hers and his tongue assaulted hers with a force that nearly made Sara collapse. Her mind was full of the sight of his body and she wanted to touch it, to run her mouth over every inch of it.

Mike seemed to be thinking the same thing as he reached for the shoulder of her wedding gown.

“Tear it and I’ll never forgive you,” she murmured, her lips on his cheek.

“You’ve dealt with too many boys,” Mike said and two minutes later her dress fell to her feet. She couldn’t imagine how he’d so quickly and deftly unfastened all the satin buttons down the back.

When Mike saw her without the dress, he drew in his breath. Joce had overseen Sara’s undergarments, so she wore a pale pink corset of silk and lace, and a garter belt with pink hose that reached to midthigh. Her white heels were at least four inches tall.

“Sara,” he whispered, and for the first time she saw his face without its guarded expression. He wore a look of desire so strong that Sara felt her body grow weak.

In the next second, Mike waved his arm across the little kitchen table and everything on it went flying. He lifted Sara up onto it, her long, slim legs, still in the stockings, hanging down, while Mike ripped off his own clothes. As his skin was exposed, Sara’s eyes widened. She’d seen his nude back, but the front of him was even better. He had strong pecs above a stomach that looked like a terrain map.

Reaching out, she put her hand on his warm skin and felt the rock hard contours while he removed his trousers and her underpants.

A moment later she saw that his chest wasn’t the only part of him that was “rock hard.” He entered her with all the pent-up desire he’d felt since he met her. And Sara clung to him, her mouth on his, searching, exploring. Her hands roamed over his body as she felt all the incredible muscle on him. She’d rarely seen bodies like his and certainly never touched one.

His low voice turned husky, and he told her how good she felt to him, how much he’d wanted her since the first. His voice and his lips excited her—all while he was sliding into her with long, deep, gentle strokes that gradually increased in strength and speed.

Sara’s arms went back against the wall, her hands made into claws, as Mike moved harder and faster. Faster and harder.

“Okay, baby?” he asked, his lips on her ear.

All Sara could do was moan.

When Mike slipped his hands under her bottom and lifted her so he could go deeper, Sara would have screamed if he hadn’t put his mouth over hers.

When she came, it was as though lava erupted from the center of her and flowed into her veins. Her whole body shook, and Mike held her to him, his arms around her as he also shuddered.

For Sara, she didn’t think she could have walked if her life depended on it, so Mike slid her forward on the table, keeping them attached in their most vital areas, and wrapped her legs around his hips. She clung to him, their sweaty skin pressed together. He carried her to Sara’s bedroom, where he dropped her onto her bed.