Up to the penthouse suite where they would both be staying for the length of their marriage. Living with her, being near her and not touching her. For one split second, he considered calling the whole damn thing off. But he was pissed, not stupid. And he didn’t go back on his word. Not even when he was sorely tempted to.
“Yeah,” he said, watching her with a jaundiced eye. She was beautiful but dangerous. Wounded but sneaky. After a second or two pause, he said, “No worries. I’ll play my part, Melinda. I’ll be every bit the husband Steven would have been.”
Six
“He said that?” Kathy took a sip of her iced tea and reached for a cookie.
Melinda broke a cookie into tiny pieces and then broke those pieces into crumbs before she answered. It was two days since her wedding and she hadn’t spoken to Sean beyond the vague “Good morning” since she’d left him on the balcony that night.
She was miserable and tired and confused, damn it.
She could still see the look in Sean’s eyes when he spoke to her last. That flash of fury mingled with the remaining glitter of desire. And the worse part? She still wanted him.
“Yep,” she finally said. “He’ll be the husband Steven would have been. He was furious.”
“Well, duh.”
Her gaze snapped up to her friend’s. “Whose side are you on?”
“Yours, sweetie,” Kathy soothed, patting her hand briefly. “But I can see why he was mad.”
“Well, I don’t.” Melinda folded her arms over her chest and glowered quietly.
“Yeah, you can,” Kathy said with a short laugh. “You lied to him.”
“I didn’t lie, exactly.”
“You just didn’t tell him about Steven.”
“He didn’t need to know.” She shifted her gaze to the harbor where several fishing skiffs were headed back to shore. A few kids were running along the pier, laughing, throwing bread to seagulls. For Tesoro, life went on.
“Seems like he did,” Kathy said and Melinda looked at her. “No man wants to think he’s taking the place of some other guy. And please. A King?”
“Sean said the same thing, but he’s not taking Steven’s place. No one could.”
Kathy sighed heavily, but Melinda ignored it. She’d never understood her friend’s dislike of Steven and Kathy had never wanted to talk about it. Now, Melinda didn’t care to understand. It didn’t matter anymore. Steven was gone, and she was married to someone else.
“So, one thing you didn’t tell me,” Kathy said.
“What?”
“The big make-out scene on the balcony…how was it?”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Great,” Melinda admitted with another long sigh. “Amazing. Incredible.”
“Ah.” Kathy smiled knowingly.
“Exactly! How can I feel that way about anyone else?”
“Honey.” Kathy’s voice was a little less patient now. “You’re alive. Why shouldn’t you feel alive?”
She shook her head and looked back at the water, letting her gaze soften, her vision blur until the scene before her became nothing more than a wash of indistinct color. She couldn’t let herself feel anything for Sean.
That would mean that she had let Steven go, and she had promised herself that their love was forever. She couldn’t turn her back on Steven’s memories. No matter what Sean King made her feel. He would be gone in two months. Steven’s memory would last forever. The only thing she could give her late fiancé now was her loyalty.
She owed him that, didn’t she?
“Tell your grandfather I’ll have those strawberries he likes by next weekend.”
“I will, thanks Sallye,” Melinda said, giving the woman behind the counter a smile.
This early in the morning, there were only a handful of people at the outdoor produce stand. Melinda knew most of them and nodded greetings as she wandered back out to the dirt track where her car was parked.
She stepped out from under the canvas ceiling into the sunlight and tipped her face up to the cloud-filled sky. Then she looked out across the coast road at the ocean. There were a few fishing boats, a couple of pleasure craft and seagulls wheeling and diving in the air, looking for breakfast.
“Just another day in paradise,” she murmured with a wistful smile, wishing her heart didn’t feel like a lead ball in the center of her chest.
She usually enjoyed being up this early. But being awake because you hadn’t been able to fall asleep was a whole different thing. She hadn’t slept more than two hours at a stretch since she got married. Glancing down at the ring on her left finger, she sighed as the stones winked at her in the morning light.
It wasn’t supposed to have been like this, she thought. Her faux marriage should have been well, easy. Turns out, it was anything but.
During the days since the wedding, Melinda had just been going through the motions. In front of people, she played the happy newlywed. In private, she survived an uneasy truce with her new husband. Sean was painfully polite and distant, and she wished he’d just yell at her again. Then at least they’d be talking.
“Because your last talk went so well,” she muttered.
She lifted her chin in silent defiance as the memory of her wedding night rushed into her mind. After leaving Sean on the balcony, she’d headed straight for the penthouse suite that had been hers since she left college. She had showered and changed into a nightgown and then had lain in bed…waiting.
Humiliating to admit now, but she had actually hoped that Sean would come to her that night. Had thought that after what they’d shared in the moonlight—even though it had ended badly—he wouldn’t be able to stay away.
That he would be the one to break their vow so she could enjoy him and still maintain the illusion that she hadn’t wanted him. Because it was an illusion. Melinda sighed, looked out at the fishing boats as the rolling waves made them bounce and sway on the water. The truth was, she did want Sean. Badly. More than she would have thought possible. She could hardly believe it herself. She hadn’t felt the slightest bit of interest in any man since Steven’s death and she hadn’t expected to feel anything for Sean. But oh boy, did she.
Lifting one hand to her mouth as if she could still feel the burn of his kiss, Melinda tried to reconcile what she was feeling with what she knew. She had loved Steven. She didn’t love Sean. So how could she be on fire by simply thinking about the man? And how would she ever get through the next couple of months?