Chapter One #2
“Ginger’s up the duff,” Yardley said with enthusiasm for sharing a dirty secret.
“She wouldn’t tell Giselle who got her that way.
Gigi says she probably doesn’t know. She has a reputation.
” His brows went up in amused superiority.
“Her father is furious. Bought her a husband to cover it up. Reggie Snell of all people. You’ll remember his brother from our year.
Poor twit. He’s a gambling addict so he thinks he’s won the jackpot, having his debts cleared, but I wouldn’t want a man like Noel Atbridge thinking I owed him favors. ”
Luca’s assistant nodded to indicate the meeting was about to start. He excused himself from Yardley and delayed long enough to quietly pass the names Yardley had mentioned to his assistant, asking her to find out what she could.
She was very good at her job. Twenty minutes later, she interrupted him to advise that the wedding would start in three hours. Today.
So here he was, abandoning his meetings again to barge into a church like a fool, reliving those weeks of uncertainty from so many years ago.
His thoughts were crashing into each other like thunderclouds, sending streaks of conflicted lightning through him: anticipation, guilt, a crushing sense of duty.
Meanwhile, a more rational side of his brain insisted this whole thing would incinerate into nothing, the way it had the last time.
He couldn’t ignore the possibility the baby was his, though. He had to know.
That’s all he wanted, he told himself as he strode past the wedding-in-progress sign. He wanted an answer.
But as Jade turned to stare at him with eyes that grew wider as he approached, his lungs seized and his heart fishtailed in his chest.
Dio. He’d forgotten how striking she was with her bright orange hair and green eyes and her shoulders and arms heavily spattered with pale brown freckles.
Her strapless gown exposed millions of them before hugging her ample breasts.
He didn’t remember her being quite so voluptuous.
The gown shaped her waist before flaring into a full skirt and the whole confection was covered in a layer of shimmering lace patterned with flowers, leaves and twining ivy.
She was stunning.
And stunned. She blinked in astonishment. The bouquet she held quivered.
He stared at that arrangement of pale pink roses and baby’s breath, trying to see through it, trying to gauge whether there was a faint bump in her middle and how far along that put her.
“What the hell are you doing?” A middle-aged man in a morning suit rose from the front pew. “You’re interrupting a wedding.”
“Did you hear me?” Luca ignored him and bared his teeth at the bride. How in hell did this happen to one man twice in a lifetime? “Is that baby mine?” he repeated slowly.
Jade continued to flutter her lashes, expression blank. Trying to look innocent? Her painted lips moved wordlessly.
“Is it yours?” Luca demanded of the groom, recalling all that Yardley had said. “You’re sure of that?”
“I know it’s not, mate.” The groom put his hands up as though he was being mugged. “I’ve never touched her.”
“Well?” Luca swung his infuriated gaze back to Jade. “Answer me. Do you even know?”
She dropped her bouquet. Her eyes rolled and her head lolled on her neck—
He swore and caught her as she slumped.
Catching an unconscious person, even one who wasn’t particularly tall or stalwart, was like catching a bag of wet cement. Luca didn’t so much “catch” her as break her fall by throwing his arms around her and going down with her.
His knees hit the stone floor hard enough to send a ring of pain all the way to the top of his skull. His arms stayed locked around her while he caught a handful of cascading curls and sprigs of flowers, pressing her face to his shoulder so she wouldn’t injure her neck.
“Jade!” the man in the morning suit barked. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Noel.” The woman in the wheelchair used a placating voice. “I told you she fainted at work. That happens sometimes when a woman is pregnant.”
“Bloody convenient,” Noel huffed.
He thought she was faking? If she was, she ought to win an award. Her entire body was so limp across Luca’s arms and thighs, it caused an unsettling fear to clench in his gut.
“Let me check her pulse,” a smaller woman said as she pressed her fingertips onto Jade’s neck. She had the efficient air of a nurse, lifting one of Jade’s eyelids, then nodding reassuringly. “Just a faint. The floor is cold. Could we move her onto this pew?” She glanced at the men.
Luca waved off the best man, who started to pick up Jade’s ankles. The useless groom only gawked. Noel hovered like a vulture, lip curled with antagonism.
Luca shifted his hold on Jade so his arm was under her knees and he could firmly cradle her to his chest. He bit back a grunt as he got one foot, then the other, under him and stood.
She didn’t weigh as much as she looked. She was mostly gown.
He gently set her on the pew and picked up the arm that dropped off the edge, holding her cold fingers.
“You’re the father? You’re responsible for this?” Noel asked.