‘We could show them how to dance on the sand.’
She laughed, shaking her head. ‘It’s not our time to shine today. We’re here to complement the starring couple.’
He wrapped his hand around hers, squeezing it possessively. ‘I want you to have your day to shine, Tamalyn, and sooner or later I’ll make it happen.’
‘Oh? What is that supposed to mean?’ she queried, surprised by the intensity of purpose in his voice.
He gave her a quirky little smile. ‘It means I’m going to have my way with you, and I’ll start by dancing you off your feet after the official wedding program ends and the party starts.’
She gave him an arch look. ‘I seem to remember you had that attitude at your sister’s wedding.’
‘Ah, but I didn’t know what I was dealing with then.’
‘And you do now?’
‘Intimately,’ he declared with his old arrogant confidence.
She heaved a mock sigh. ‘I preferred being challenging.’
He laughed. ‘Believe me, I’m acutely aware of how challenging you still are, but I’m determined on winning in the end.’
The photographer called out for them to oblige him with some action poses and Tammy was left mystified by what Fletcher wanted to win in the end. She wondered about it as they mixed with the others but there was virtually no chance to pursue the question privately. The gang was intent on having fun and swept Tammy and Fletcher along with them.
It wasn’t until the bridal waltz—many hours later—that they were alone together again and Tammy was happy simply to be dancing with Fletcher. The big reception room which stretched along the top floor of the Surf Club had a large dance floor—room enough to twirl around and indulge in fancy steps with a masterful partner who took as much sensual pleasure in every move as she did.
The official waltz was followed by many other dances—the DJ pumping out one music track after another. After leading her through a particularly wicked cha-cha which left them both panting with excitement, Fletcher curled a protective arm around her waist and negotiated their way through the crowd towards one of the arches that led to the balcony overlooking the beach.
They reached the balcony wall and he hugged her closer to him as they stood enjoying the refreshing coolness of the salt-tanged breeze from the ocean. Neither of them spoke, content with the intimacy of their togetherness. After a while Fletcher rubbed his cheek against the silky fall of her hair and murmured, ‘Happy?’
‘Yes,’ she answered on a heartfelt sigh.
‘Happy with me?’
She turned to him with a smile. ‘You know I am.’
His eyes glittered with the intensity of purpose she had felt coming from him when they’d been on the beach. ‘Happy enough to be my bride, Tamalyn?’
‘Your bride?’ she queried, not understanding what was in his mind.
He drew her into his embrace and his voice was furred with deep emotion as he explained. ‘We’re legally married but I know you didn’t enter into our contract with a happy heart. You didn’t feel right about where we were then, so you wouldn’t have a wedding. Listening to Hannah and Grant today, making their vows to love and cherish each other for the rest of their lives, I understood what you felt. You didn’t believe I loved and cherished you. And in all honesty, I can’t say I did at that point.’
Did he now?
If eyes were the windows to one’s soul, his were too dark for her to see that far, but she fiercely hoped he was leading her there.
‘It was like I had to have you. Right from our first meeting you incited that compulsion and, as much as I tried to dismiss it, nothing I did or said to myself would make it go away. And the hell of it was, I couldn’t fit you into any frame I was familiar with, couldn’t nail you down because you wouldn’t be nailed. Once the initial shock of your pregnancy wore off, I was actually elated by it because it gave me the power to get what I wanted—you and our child.’
She understood the compulsion. It had driven her, too, completely beyond the dictates of any normal common sense. Was it some primal instinct insisting this is the man…this is the woman? A chemistry that neither of them could control? Or was it one soul calling to another, ignoring the barriers of different life experiences, recognising only that they fitted together, if the fit could be found?
Maybe it was all of those things.
The only certainty Tammy had was she loved this man—for better or for worse—and she longed to hear…
‘But you must know I do love you, Tamalyn,’ he said, as though his mind was tuned into hers. ‘Very deeply,’ he fervently assured her. ‘And I cherish the person you are, all you’ve given me of yourself, drawing me into appreciating a world of people who didn’t deserve a cynical dismissal. You’ve made me see things very differently.’
He reached up and stroked her cheek with featherlight fingers, giving her the sense of being so precious he was awed by her. ‘Most of all I see you, Tamalyn. Not just as the most desirable woman I could ever have in my bed, but the woman who makes my life worth living, the woman I love having as the mother of my child…the woman I love for everything she is. I can say that vow—“forsaking all others”—with complete sincerity, because for me there is only you.’
Her heart overflowed with happiness. A huge welling of emotion pushed tears into her eyes. She’d waited so long to hear this from him, hoping for it but never sure it would come. ‘I love you, too,’ she confided without hesitation, her arms winding around his waist, hugging him tightly as she buried her face against the strong warm column of his throat and spilled out more of her feelings. ‘You’ve been the only man for me ever since we met. The night of Kirsty’s wedding, I wanted you to be my first lover, my only lover, Fletcher. And when we were on Lord Howe I thought you loved me, but you only wanted to use me then.’
‘No.’ His hand threaded through her hair and gently cupped the back of her head. She felt his voice rumbling from his throat as he explained further. ‘Not “use,” Tamalyn. I wanted to keep you with me, and I thought the power of my wealth was enough to do it. Even as I was acquiring the apartment and the car before proposing marriage to you, I was still thinking it. But I know now it never was enough, never would be. I had to change my views and you were the force that changed them. I don’t think I knew what love was then. I only knew I couldn’t bear to lose you.’