Chapter Eight
He could see the exact moment when her entire countenance changed. She had seen her family sitting in the front row of the wedding, and it was like all the life had been drained from her.
He had thought it would be a given that her family would come to the wedding.
When he had turned over the task of who to invite to one of the administrators in the office, he had told her to include people who might be connected to Verity.
She had been like a robot throughout the entire ceremony, and then had gone into hiding for about fifteen minutes before finally appearing at the reception.
She had a sparkling smile on her face, but there was something odd about it. Something frozen and stuck, not her usual applied neutrality, but a sort of manic false joy that made him feel ill at ease.
The guests, however, did not seem aware of the situation.
When she joined him at their banquet table, he leaned in toward her. “Is something wrong?”
“Of course not,” she said. “Nothing is wrong.”
He could see that half her focus was devoted to watching her family.
They didn’t approach the table, nor did they socialize with other guests.
But he supposed they were very much out of place at the event.
Nearly everyone was a business contact of his, and the primary language being spoken around the room was Greek so it was not entirely strange that her family might be keeping to themselves.
“You’re welcome to mingle,” he said.
She laughed. “Am I? Well, that’s fantastic. I wasn’t certain what the rules were.”
“Rules?”
“Yes. Rules. Of course there are rules.” She lowered her voice. “This is your game, not mine, and I’m not a real bride.”
“Be careful,” he said, warning her because it was very important they didn’t disrupt the facade, but part of him found that wasn’t even his primary concern. She was acting strangely, but he couldn’t pinpoint why, and he found that disconcerting.
“Yes. Of course. I don’t think you have any idea how careful I’ll be for the whole rest of the evening.”
Dinner was served, and she spent the entire meal eating while staring blandly ahead with the same sort of serene smile on her face.
As soon as she was finished, she stood up and made her way over to her family’s table.
Her posture was straight, her smile only growing brighter.
She laughed too loudly at everything her brother said, and every time her father asked for something she moved quickly to see it done.
He had a steady stream of well-wishers moving to speak to him, but he finally excused himself and made his way over to Verity’s family. “Pleased to meet you,” he said. “I’m Alex.”
“It’s very nice to meet you,” said Verity’s mother. “I’m Dorothy. It’s shocking, really, that Verity has found herself in such a grand position.”
“Is it?” he asked.
“Well, she was such a terribly average child. When she took off to Greece it was a surprise.”
The smile on Verity’s face looked like it might shatter. “It surprised me too. But opportunity was calling. And apparently Alex. Everything worked out exactly like it was supposed to. Amazing.”
“You could always thank your old man for paying for your college,” her dad said. It was not spoken with familial warmth, and Alex didn’t need to be an expert on family to recognize that.
“Of course I’m grateful,” Verity said. “I am exceedingly thankful for everything you’ve done for me. All of you. Without you I wouldn’t be here. Of course. Marrying Alex. Which is my dream come true.”
The doors opened, and revealed a cake on a rolling cart being brought over to the banquet table.
“Excuse us,” Verity said. “It’s time to cut the cake.”
She cut the cake with the same sort of manic energy she was doing everything else.
After that it was time for them to dance, and where there had been an erotic edge to their touching the last time he’d held her in his arms, it didn’t exist now.
She was practically vibrating with unrest. After the dance, she went back to her family, where she spent the rest of the evening.
It was like watching a vaudevillian show.
She was performing with so much effort that he could feel the force of it from across the room.
He knew that anyone else would just think she was smiling, happy even. But this wasn’t Verity. He knew her. He could feel her.
And he also knew enough to know this wasn’t a terribly normal family dynamic, but he couldn’t read exactly what it was either. It took him an hour to realize she was counting the amount of drinks her mother and father were having, and attempting to slow the amount of alcohol being served to them.
He wondered if the issue was she was afraid they would recognize that this wasn’t a real relationship. That they weren’t a real couple. Nobody knew Alex, but of course her family knew her.
Nothing happened. Not a single outburst or moment of unpleasantness.
And soon, the wedding was over, and it was time for the two of them to go up to the honeymoon suite.
It was a room large enough for him to take his space and her to have hers.
As soon as they walked out of the ballroom, cheers echoing behind them, and entered the foyer of the castle, at the foot of the stairs, she pulled away from him.
“What is it?”
“How dare you?” She spoke in a voice that wasn’t familiar to him. It was vibrating with rage, low and trembling.
“How dare I what?”
“You invited my family to the wedding, and you didn’t ask me. You didn’t tell me. I wasn’t prepared.”
“I’m sorry. If you are afraid that they might identify that this wasn’t—”
“You think I’m worried about the fake wedding?” She laughed. “I’m not worried about that. And believe me, they would never be able to identify whether this was real or not. They would have to have the slightest bit of insight into me, and I guarantee you they don’t.”
They reached the top of the stairs, and she stormed ahead, pushing open the door to the bridal suite, and slamming the door in his face. He caught it with his hand and pushed it open. “Tell me what the problem is.”
“The problem is that you don’t know me. At all.
And not only that, you haven’t even taken the slightest bit of effort to get to know me.
If you had, then you would know that my mother, father, brother and sister being here is quite literally my worst nightmare.
” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter how much I try, does it?
I was so afraid to be angry at you. I’m so afraid to be angry at anyone.
I spent the entire night performing to try and make them happy.
I left this behind, I wasn’t supposed to have to do it again.
I wasn’t ready to. There were digs every few minutes.
About how this is above me, and now I’m above them, about what I owed them.
And I just have to take it on the chin. I have to pretend that I don’t hear it.
” She took a deep breath, and tried to steady herself.
Then she continued. “You don’t have a family, so you don’t understand what a nightmare they can be.”
“You didn’t tell me you had an issue with your family,” he said, surprised that her mention of his lack sparked his temper the way that it did. “It seemed like an entirely reasonable thing to make sure they were invited.”
“If they’re around then I can guarantee I will spend the entire time trying to keep my feelings from getting hurt, while I try to keep them from making a scene.
If my parents end up drinking, then they will end up screaming at each other.
Or a waiter. Or someone who happens to look at them wrong.
Though, usually it’s me. Because my brother and sister learned how to fight back, and I spent all of my time trying to fix everything.
That makes me the referee. It makes me everything that I don’t want to be.
And this is why I have to live in a different country. This is why I...”
She stood there, breathing hard, her breasts rising and falling with the motion.
And suddenly, she threw her head back and let out a feral scream.
“This is why I’m scared to have any feeling that isn’t.
..conciliatory.” She shook her head. “This is why I didn’t have your head for getting me involved in this.
..this farce. I can’t believe you did this.
I can’t believe you railroaded me into it.
You used the promise of financial freedom to lure me here.
And for what? So you can have more. More and more.
I don’t matter to you at all. You could’ve asked any random woman who passed you on the street to pretend to be your wife and it would’ve worked just as well. ”
“That isn’t true,” he said. “Everyone loves you.”
He knew immediately that was the wrong thing to say. Even if he didn’t know why. Because her face turned red.
“Yes. Everyone loves me. Because I have a lifetime of practice at making everyone else happy. I have a lifetime of managing all that. And I turned around and I did it with you. I do it with everyone at the company. I do it all the time. And I can’t.
.. I don’t even know who I am. I’m afraid of the stupidest things.
Scared to make a mistake. Scared to make people angry.
I’m always walking on my tiptoes. I’m tired of it. I can’t do this anymore.”
Her breathing got faster and faster. “I can’t... I can’t breathe.” She reached around behind herself and she unzipped the wedding dress, tearing at it, shoving it down to the floor, leaving her standing there in nothing but white lace undergarments that left little to the imagination.
It was a rare thing for Alex to be surprised. But this had caught him entirely off guard, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do now. Another rarity.
“What has it gotten me?” she asked, standing there in half-naked fury, her blond hair a wild ride around her shoulders, her breasts rising and falling with each outraged breath.
“Absolutely nothing. Saddled with this ridiculous situation, and I don’t matter.
Not to anyone. My parents came to seek spectacle, undoubtedly they came to see if they could get any money from you.
Or maybe they just wanted to make this difficult for me.
Maybe they don’t even know that they make things difficult for me.
Maybe they’ve never thought about my perspective even one time.
” She laughed. “I think that’s it. I think they never thought even one time about how they made me feel. Exactly like you.”
She shook her head. “You never think about how I feel.”
Anger galvanized him now. He growled, and moved toward her. “That’s not true. I didn’t coerce you into this. You agreed.”
“You released a statement before you ever spoke to me.”
“What have I asked of you?”
“You asked me to marry you. You forced me to.”
“I offered you good money to marry me, and if you didn’t want the money, you could’ve said no.”
“Everyone wants the money. And now you see why I wanted it. It’s to never have to go back to that. Ever.”
“There’s a lot of space between that and the sort of riches that I’ve given you. Don’t turn me into the enemy because you’re angry at your father.”
“Oh I’m plenty angry at him, and I know well that I am. But I’m angry at you too.”
“You have given me no credit for all that I’ve done for you. For the way that I protected you.”
“Protected me? Protecting me would have been to ask the basic question of whether or not I had moved halfway across the world to get away from my parents, rather than just making assumptions.”
“Yes, I have protected you.”
“How?” She took a step toward him, all fire and glory. “By bringing my worst nightmare to me on my fake wedding day?”
It was his turn to move toward her, and he had been paying attention to where they were in the room, but it brought her back up against one of the ornately carved wooden posts on the stately canopy bed at the center of the room.
“Yes,” he ground out. “I have protected you. I did my level best to keep this as professional as possible.”
“You married me.”
“You know what I mean,” he said, all restraint flooding out of him.
She had no idea. He was not the sort of man who wanted something and didn’t get it.
No. That had been his entire childhood, and as an adult he didn’t do that.
With her, he had made an exception. With her, he had observed best practices.
He had been a good man where she had been concerned, and she was acting like he was the very monster from the Black Lagoon for bringing her parents to see her.
“No. I don’t.”
He lifted his hand, and reached out and touched her face. Dragging his finger slowly along her cheekbone, down to her jaw. That silenced her. She drew a sharp breath, her eyes going glossy. “You don’t know?”
“No,” she whispered.
“Then I will have to show you.”
And then he lowered his head and claimed her mouth with his own.