The Wedding Planners

Planning perfect weddings... finding happy endings!

It’s the biggest and most important day of a woman’s life—and it has to be perfect.

At least, that’s what The Wedding Belles believe, and that’s why they’re Boston’s top wedding planner agency. But amidst the beautiful bouquets, divine dresses and rose petal confetti, these six wedding planners long to be planning their own big day!

But first they have to find Mr Right…

This month: Melissa James THE BRIDEGROOM’S SECRET

Planner: Julie’s always been the wedding planner—will she ever be the bride…?

And don’t miss the exciting wedding planner tips and author reminiscences that accompany each book!

Melissa shares her own unique wedding and honeymoon experience with us:

‘As far as weddings go, mine was very simple. We were pretty poor, and it seemed a waste of money to me to buy an expensive dress. So I bought an ex-rental at a store for $50. We had the reception at my grandfather’s bowling club. The whole wedding cost less than $2000. We started our married life in a small apartment near a prison, and our first house, a year later, was a tiny one in a run-down area. None of this made the marriage any the worse, since we’ve now been married almost 25 years, with three children and still going strong.

‘It also seems I followed in the best tradition of The Wedding Planners authors and had an unusual start to my wedding, when a sudden storm broke out as we pulled up. It was blinding rain, and the chauffeur carried me into the church!

‘We also didn’t have the usual honeymoon destination. In a country where almost everyone chooses Bali, Fiji, The Gold Coast or the Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef, we took a driving tour along the Bushranger Roads of our state. We hid behind Captain Thunderbolt’s (“the gentleman bushranger”) Rocks, stood where his woman, Maryanne, was caught, visited his folk museum and the prison he was housed in, and where his gang holed up. We also stayed in a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere in a National Park. Romance in rustic surrounds!

‘In THE BRIDEGROOM’S SECRET, you’ll discover Julie’s hidden talent for finding unusual honeymoon destinations. This talent changes her life…thanks to Matt. Most of the places mentioned are places I’ve been blessed enough to visit in my life. Since we moved to Europe, I’ve definitely found many new and unusual places…and amazing people wherever we go. I hope you find a few of those places and people enriching the story.’

Catch up with Melissa and her latest news at www.melissajames.net

Visit http://harlequin-theweddingplanners.blogspot.com to find out more…

THE BRIDEGROOM’S SECRET

BY

MELISSA JAMES

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Julie is an aspiring honeymoon planner at The Wedding Belles—here are her ideas on ways to plan a truly memorable holiday with your husband-to-be!

A memorable honeymoon need not be expensive. So many people build their expectations so high that when the ‘perfect’ honeymoon doesn’t eventuate, tears and fights do (especially over expenses)! So think about planning for what you both like to do, instead of a traditional five-star resort on an island or on the beach. A honeymoon is only a week or two—your life together lasts much longer. So choosing the destination for you is more important than merely ‘perfect’. Your life together has already begun—if you can’t afford perfect, be happy with the reality you can afford.

Go for happy comfort over cranky glamour. Wear shoes that fit, sunscreen and hats, and protect yourself against wildlife/bugs.

Remember, like the wedding day, the honeymoon’s soon over, but the memories remain for a lifetime…good or bad. The famous saying ‘there is greater happiness in giving’ applies especially to your partner in life. You want to look back on your wedding/honeymoon and smile with love. And remember to laugh!

CHAPTER ONE

SO THIS was how it felt to be a queen….

Her engagement party was being held in Celebre, Boston’s best restaurant—the place where Matt had first proposed to her. The champagne was flowing. There were red roses by the dozen on every table, and fairy lights lit the satin-draped walls. She wore a watered-silk dress of softest silver green and the McLachlan family diamond necklace, earrings and bracelet set, all supplied by her adoring fiancé.

Given the stress of the past nine months, after Matt’s father’s death and the near collapse of both his business and hers, it felt amazing that they were here now.

Well, amazing that she was here, anyway. Matt fitted into this world perfectly.

The cream of Boston society—all childhood friends of Matt’s—filled the room and spilled out onto the terrace. Her own family hadn’t been able to make it from Sydney at such short notice. But her friends, affectionately known as The Wedding Belles, because they ran a complete-wedding-package business in Boston, were here either with their own wonderful men or working the room. They were creating new business just by being there, because they were responsible for this “wedding of the year.”

Her wedding.

Julie shook her head, as if to clear it. She, plain, publicity-shy Julie Montgomery from Rockdale, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, was the bride in what the media had dubbed Boston’s Wedding of the Year. She, just a simple general assistant for The Wedding Belles, had captured the heart of Boston’s most eligible bachelor. Why they’d chosen her wedding, she didn’t know, any more than she knew why a man like Matt had ever fallen for someone like her.

Why she’d fallen for him was no mystery. She looked across the room at him, and her heart almost burst with pride and love. Tall and lithe, he wore the tux as though he’d been born in it, which, given his family background, he probably had been. His dark hair curled just enough to look sexily mussed; she loved the light streaks of early grey about his ears and temples, which always made her fingers ache to plunge right in there. His eyes—what woman could look into that ice-blue perfection and not do what she’d done the first minute she’d seen him? Intelligent, kind and strong, he could never see someone in need without doing something about it, whether helping out at charity events or donating funds to needy causes. If she’d fallen in love with him at a glance, she’d fallen even deeper for the man beneath, the man of integrity and generosity. He worked hard, had true creative genius, and a heart that never stopped giving.

And those hands…what he could do to her with a touch!

He’d been so busy lately, and, oh, how she’d missed him. But tonight was theirs, their engagement party, and he was hers alone. Needing to be near him, she smiled and detached herself from her future mother-in-law and began to go to him.

“Miss Montgomery, could we have a minute for a few questions?”

Julie held in the sigh. This was one part of her engagement she found less than appealing. As the love interest of Matthew McLachlan, president of McLachlan Marine Industries since his father’s death, she was subject to public scrutiny. It was almost like being part of a second marriage. She could always count on the presence of the press in her life, during both the good times and definitely through the bad.

The Belles had come up with the idea of throwing them a wedding when it looked like Matt was going to lose the company after his father’s wildly unsuccessful speculations. Since then her private love story had become public entertainment. The invitation list for the quiet family wedding The Belles had planned was now up to over 150, and the simple garden venue was now the cathedral on the harbour front, which had room for media photo shoots and the live television feed. Their wedding had become an official “human interest story,” and was being followed by a top magazine, three tabloids and two TV stations covering the tristate area.

But all the media interest had also saved The Belles from going under when the high-society Vandiver wedding cancellation had left them deep in the red; so Julie’s every smile for the cameras held as much gratitude and relief as it did resentment.

She turned now, with the smile that had felt more like a grimace for the past few months. “Of course… Jemima, isn’t it?”

Jemima Whittaker of Boston People Today, the magazine covering her wedding, beamed at her. “So good of you to remember.”

Remember? It was impossible not to when the woman had been in her face almost constantly for the past few months.

“So how do you feel about your fiancé’s phenomenal success in saving McLachlan Marine Industries from financial flatlining?”

Her gaze flicked to Matt, talking to some people she didn’t recognise in the centre of the room—probably more members of the press— and she felt her smile soften with the love she couldn’t hide. “I’m incredibly proud of him, of course, but I knew he could do it. He’s so dedicated to his workers and their families.”

“Your fiancé didn’t just save jobs, Miss Montgomery. The new water converter he’s invented will revolutionise the industry.” The reporter sounded one point less than smug with the information. “The new contracts with Jet Stream Industries and Red Line Marine—not to mention the giants in the motor industry showing marked interest in a land prototype— will give McLachlan’s more power and wealth than it’s known in its eighty-year history. Matt’s done more than rescue the company from the investment mistakes of his father—he’s become a multimillionaire, is being hailed as a wunderkind, and has been nominated for businessman of the year after he gave shares in the converter to every McLachlan’s worker that waited for their overdue salaries. Many of them are now well on their way to being rich. How do you feel about that?”

It took all of Julie’s willpower to not blink or frown. Matt had enjoyed so much success in the public arena, had done so much more than save the company, and he hadn’t told her? “As I said, I always knew he was a genius,” she replied with another halfway-to-grimace smile, wondering why this reporter knew so much about the importance of Matt’s invention, while she, his fiancée, knew nothing.

“I suppose you think so because he chose you instead of Sara Enderby or Elise Pettifer,” Jemima laughed, totally without spite— probably because, like Julie herself, she came from less exalted origins than most in the room. Jemima’s hand swept to where Matt stood in a crowd of people, laughing—and it was only then Julie realised that six of the eight people surrounding him were very attractive women. “You’re one secure woman, obviously. If Matthew McLachlan were my fiancé, and he had two very beautiful exes making him laugh the way those women are right now, I’d drape myself over him faster than Speedy Gonzalez.” She laughed again as she said, “Or kick them out of the way like that baby kangaroo on the cartoons.”

The two exquisite blondes on either side of him were his ex-girlfriends?

Self-control. Julie held her hands at her sides, refusing to check the current state of her French twist. Her bright-red French twist. She didn’t smooth her hands over her lightly applied makeup. She knew the freckles showed anyway.

“With Elise in particular, everyone was taking bets on the wedding date,” Jemima went on, still without malice but with a good deal of curiosity. Digging. “She’s an engineer, too, you know. In fact, I’ve heard rumours that she worked with him on the design of the water converter. They seemed the perfect match. That’s why there was such interest when he broke up with her, and was seen with you so soon after.”

A perfect match…oh, weren’t they just? The handsome, high-born genius and the beautiful, high-society woman, one of his own people, who made him laugh so easily. Perfection, side by side….

Julie had met both women earlier, but hadn’t thought much about either of them afterward. They’d seemed nice women, without any sign of cattiness in their conversation or demeanour. Not by word or act had they shown anything but kindness to her.

But then, why would they need to compete, when they were so beautiful?

Then she remembered the look in Matt’s eyes when he’d seen her tonight, and the world seemed to spin the right way again. “You’ll have to ask Matt about who he works with and why. That’s his place. Thanks for the advice, but after all, those women are in his past—I’m his future. I’m the one wearing his ring.” With a cool smile she ended the interview.

But she didn’t continue toward Matt. That might make it seem as if she didn’t trust him, which could create fodder for a speculative story about the status of their relationship. She’d had enough of that in the past few months.

Finally the night was over, his gift to Julie. Now, after all his months of work to save McLachlan’s, he could be alone with the woman he loved.

Matthew McLachlan smiled, almost bursting with the pride and love he felt. In a love story filled with obstacles—from his father’s opposition to Matt falling for an unknown Australian woman, to the intense media speculation, to the problems with his business and hers—Julie had risen to every occasion. She’d won everyone over with her quirky humour, her strength, grace and dignity. An extraordinary woman…and she was all his. His woman, his love.

He’d known she felt intimidated by the overwhelming media and social interest in their lives, especially since The Belles’ plans for their wedding had become public knowledge. He’d seen her trepidation about tonight. Then he’d given her the dress he’d bought for her on his last trip to New York and the McLachlan diamonds his mother had brought down for her, the possession of all the future McLachlan brides. He’d seen the utter delight in being so spoiled fill her face, the excitement at being the belle of the ball, as he’d jokingly called her, playing on her job at The Wedding Belles.

Though he’d also known she didn’t like all the hype, and felt she didn’t quite know what to say to his high-powered friends, he could barely hold in the pride when she was nothing but herself, without an ounce of pretentiousness or trying to fit in. She’d neither clung to him, nor hidden out with her own friends, but had spent the night circulating. His mom, who’d adored Jules from the start, hadn’t even had to show her future daughter-in-law the ropes of a society function. Julie had dealt with the press, the cattier members of high society, and won the approval of the older women, so hard to impress. “A lovely girl,” had been the consensus he’d overheard after Jules had moved on.

She’d even chatted pleasantly with two of his ex-girlfriends, Elise and Sara, asking them about themselves, as she always did. She had such an interest in people of all walks of life. And when the press had seen the women together and had taken a picture, Matt had seen the frustration on the face of the reporter, because all three women were laughing, their body language relaxed and friendly.

“What a sensational woman,” his old friend Victor had said as he left the party. “Why didn’t she fall at my feet?” he’d muttered, with true envy in his voice.

“You’re a lucky man,” his other oldest friend, Guy, had added, with a quick, wistful glance at Julie.

Secure in Julie’s love, Matt only grinned. Lucky…didn’t he know it.

Now at last they were home, Mom had gone tactfully to bed and, remembering the utter love in Julie’s eyes as she looked at him all night, he couldn’t wait anymore. “Come here, woman.” He dragged her into his arms. “Do you have any idea how incredible you looked tonight? I’ve been dying to take this off you for hours.” He lowered a strap of her dress and softly kissed her shoulder.

“Matt,” she whispered as her shoulder lifted and her head fell back in the abandoned sensuality he could arouse in her with a touch.

He felt her quiver, and smiled. Hell, yes, he was a lucky man. Every day it just got better. He’d never been so happy in his life. To have a magnificent woman like Julie crazy in love with him from first sight, before she’d known who he was or what his bank balance was, had been unbelievable to him from the start.

To have her love him still, through the turbulent months where he’d sold off almost everything to prevent his mother from losing her apartment, to keep McLachlan’s afloat and his workers in their jobs; to have her love him through the endless weeks when he’d been so deep in thought with the practical applications of the water converter, he’d practically forgotten she was there; to love him through a backyard engagement party and few presents, to cheerfully agree with the plans for a private wedding at City Hall to save costs—

Julie Montgomery was a walking, loving miracle, and he intended to hold on to her for life.

That’s what tonight had been about. Now that he’d returned to his place in the world, McLachlan’s was safe and all its workers secure, he wanted to thank her for everything, to show her off to the world for the extraordinary woman she was, to pronounce to the world that this was no temporary thing. Matt McLachlan was a one-woman man, and he was definitely taken.

Jules turned her face to his, kissing him softly, once, twice. But when he dropped the spaghetti-thin strap from her shoulder, she shook her head. “Your mother’s here,” she whispered.

He moved to kiss her throat in a way he knew she couldn’t resist. “She knows we’re lovers, Jules.”

She shivered again with the touch, and Matt grinned as he bent to kiss lower.

“But it doesn’t feel right,” she said softly, punctuated with kisses. “I’m sorry, darling, but I can’t—not with your mother in the house.”

With a sigh he kissed her shoulder, and put the dress back in its place. “Ah well, she’s only here for two nights. I can wait that long. You do realise I won’t sleep, don’t you? You’re a cruel woman, Montgomery.”

“Did your mother know about the importance of the water converter from the start?” she asked out of nowhere. “Or was it only when you sold it?”

Though her voice held the usual love and faith, there was a note in it—some deeper insecurity he’d never heard before—and Matt started. “What was that?”

“Your mother,” she said, still smiling but with a clear worry beneath—and he wondered who’d been talking to her. “Does she know about what the water converter is, and the contracts that did far more than pull McLachlan’s out of the red?”

Now totally diverted from his one-track course to the bedroom, he frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s nothing important, really. Just me being insecure.” She kissed him again and smiled, her eyes full of love. Almost. The diffidence was new to her, new to him, and it niggled at him. Something was wrong. “Did you tell your mother about the water converter, and what it could mean for you, for her, for McLachlan’s and all your workers, before it sold?”

Thoroughly confused now, he answered, “Well, of course. She’s my mother.” And it affected her financial future. She’d needed to know what was happening when the banks had started making threats to sell her apartment and the house to pay for the huge investment he’d made in the water converter.

Julie paled. “I see. Does she know how well it’s doing—the multimillion-dollar contracts with the marine companies, and the possibility of the giants of the motor industry wanting a land prototype?”

“Who told you that?” he asked, startled. Who’d stolen his surprise? He’d planned tonight to the last detail. He’d been itching to tell her all about his hard work and success for weeks, and tonight had seemed the perfect time.

Now someone had stolen his rights from him, and he was furious—not with Julie, but with whoever had ruined their perfect night. When he found out who…

“Jemima Whittaker from Boston People Today.” Julie turned her face, fiddling with the diamonds around her neck. “How long have you left me out of the loop about your invention and the contracts, Matt? I had to be told about this important part of your life by a magazine reporter who thought I knew. It was so hard to hide how surprised I was.” He saw her hands come together, fingers twisting hard around each other. “It was so embarrassing. Why, Matt? Why did you tell your mother, let the media know all about it, and not me?”

He felt the colour drain from his face as he saw the sign flashing in front of him: Danger Ahead, Flash Floods. “It’s been a hard time for you and The Belles during the past six months. You’ve been working overtime, and going through so much, trying to save your own business from disaster. I didn’t want to burden you, Jules.” He heard the unconvincing tone of his voice and cursed it, knowing he sounded as nervous as he felt. If that reporter had gone further, and told her the other things he’d been waiting to tell her…

“But you told your mother,” she said softly, with a sadness in her voice that smote at him, making him realise he’d never thought about how she’d take his news—as surprise or secret. A secret others knew.

“I was going to tell you tonight, sweetheart.” Tell you everything, including about Kirsten and Molly, while you were in my arms, after the best night of your life. Knowing without a single doubt how much I love you.

His best-laid plans were going awry. In that superb dress, decked out with diamonds, she’d never been lovelier—but with her drooping head and her hand jerking as she plucked at the McLachlan necklace, she looked like a wilted flower.

“We discussed this before, Matt. I want to share the bad as well as the good. I’ve told you about The Belles’ problems, and not only when I’ve needed to work overtime, but what I’d be doing, why—and with whom.”

The sadness in her tone told Matt he wasn’t just in deep water, but in a stormy sea without a life preserver…and he realised how much he’d hurt her by his silence, not just now but for the past few months. By waiting for the right moment, instead of telling her the things she deserved to know, he’d hurt the woman he loved more than life or breath.

While he tried to prevent the shock from slowing his system, her next question broad¬ sided him. “Jemima said there are rumours that Elise Pettifer helped you with the water converter. Are they true?”

Like a final premonition of disaster, the name echoed around and around in his head. “Elise?” Damn, oh, damn…

“Yes, she told me that you dated her, too, if that’s what’s making you look so worried.” Julie bit her lip. “Jemima said you dated her for almost a year. She’s really nice, Matt. Well- bred, beautiful, and she’s a fellow engineer to boot. Everyone was so shocked when you apparently ditched her for someone like me. They were waiting for the wedding date to be announced.” Her eyes darkened with an emotion he didn’t dare name. “So how long has she been working with you on the water converter?”

Matt broke out in a cold sweat. Dear God, she knew about his past with Elise, that he’d been working with her on a secret project, and he hadn’t been the one to tell her about it. “My relationship with Elise was nothing like me and you,” he said tightly. “We—damn it, it was a convenient thing. Neither of us had anyone and our parents kept throwing us together. We drifted into dating, but there was nothing there, Jules. We both agreed that if we met someone else, we’d part friends. And that’s what happened.”

“And she hasn’t met anyone since you broke up with her—a beautiful, intelligent and lovely woman like Elise?” From gentle and trusting, Julie’s voice had become brittle, and he knew he was in deep trouble.

Matt sighed. Given the way she adored him, Julie would never believe Elise didn’t love him the way she did—and worse still, given her past with cheating men, she’d have a hard time believing that he’d fallen for her while dating Elise; but he couldn’t let that affect him. It was time to tell her the truth.

“Elise is an old friend, and an excellent engineer. When I couldn’t get my head around a major part of the job, I did ask her opinion, and she came up with a way to make it work. From there, it just—well, it all fell into place, really. We work well together but that’s all.”

“I understand,” was all she said at first—but the pain in her voice gave him no relief, only a sinking feeling. “Were you really dating her when I kissed you that first day?” she asked, so softly he had to strain to hear her.

The spear of guilt hit him again. He wheeled away, trying to justify what was, to him, unjustifiable. “I went straight to her and told her I’d met you. We parted amicably, Jules. It was never serious between us.” Could he explain that he’d never even taken Elise to bed because it felt almost like she was a sister, a cousin? He’d known her since before kindergarten; their mothers were like sisters. It just hadn’t been there for him the way it was with Jules.

“Is she part of the contracts that will put McLachlan’s on a worldwide map? Has she worked with you on the motoring deal?”

Palpitations, cold sweat, clenching stomach—he hadn’t known extreme fear mimicked the symptoms of a heart attack until now. “Sweetheart…” He turned back to face her, knowing he might as well tell her the rest, and trust in her love to get them through. “She’s an old and trusted friend, and she put thousands of dollars into the prototype that I didn’t have at the time. You know how far McLachlan’s had crashed. I could barely afford to pay my workers for three months. She deserved the partnership, so I got a contract made up. She owns forty percent.”

“And your workers own how much?” she whispered. “Ms. Whittaker also told me your workers knew about your invention, and the deals, and have shares. It appears I’m the only one without any share in it at all.” She wrapped her arms around her waist and seemed to shrink inside herself.

Dear God. Matt’s stomach churned. Could this get any worse?

“Who else knows about you and Elise?” she said softly, her voice filled with a world of pain. “Who else knows about the contracts? How much time were you spending with her when you weren’t with me?”

From a faded flower, she’d become like a kicked puppy—a woman thinking she was scorned. Oh, God help him, what to say? How to make this right? “Julie, I’ve done nothing to earn this level of distrust from you. Okay, so I’ve spent some time with Elise over the past few months,” he admitted, thinking of the days and nights in Elise’s company, “but it was purely business.” His chin kicked up. “I don’t want her, Jules, and she doesn’t want me—not anymore.”

“Any more?” she pounced on his words. “I thought you said it was only ever friendship.”

He resisted the impulse to close his eyes. “Look, I don’t know why, but I couldn’t feel anything deeper for her—and if she had feelings for me for a little while, friendship is all we feel now. When I told her about you, she was happy for me, for us. We decided we would always have been better as friends. I haven’t touched her from that day—except a hug or two of jubilation when the water converter worked.”

She whitened further, and he could have shoved a gym bag full of dirty socks in his stupid mouth for saying that. Hadn’t he learned the lesson yet? Never give away too much, son. Women only want to know enough to make them happy.

He reached for her. “I don’t even know why we’re having this conversation. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for us—for our future.”

She moved away, shaking her head. “Future?” she whispered. “A future of what, Matt? More secrets? More months and years in which you do these amazing things, and your mother, your ex and your workers share your life and I know nothing about it?”

Anger began to surge through him. “Tonight was our engagement party. I did all this for you. What else do I have to do to prove you’re the only one for me? You must know that by now.”

She moved out of his touch and spoke so softly he could barely hear her. “It seems there’s a lot I don’t know.”

Matt turned her around and looked into her eyes. “Maybe I made a mistake in waiting until tonight to tell you everything at once—but we’re getting married, Jules. You either trust me by now or you don’t.”

She just looked at him with deep, unblinking eyes, but he could see she wasn’t truly with him. She’d slipped into the past, remembering another man, an unfaithful man who’d said the same thing.

He didn’t have a chance in hell, unless he took control right now.

Taking her hands in his, he looked into her eyes and said, with what he hoped was quiet strength, “Sit down and listen to me, Jules, and I’ll tell you everything. I was going to tell you tonight, anyway. I’d planned it all.”

“You mean there’s more?” she whispered, sounding horrified. “Not…not now, Matt. No more now…”

One look at her white face and dilated eyes told him what he’d done to her. He knew there was no way he could tell her his final secret tonight, he couldn’t let her down again. It would break her.

There was only one thing he could think to say. “I love you, Jules.”

She didn’t answer in words; she even refused to look at him now. Finally, after what seemed hours, she spoke. “I don’t know you…”

He couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t even breathe. He was about to lose the love of his life because of a damned reporter!

When she spoke, it had nothing to do with what he’d just said. Or maybe it did. “Thank you for making me feel like a queen tonight.” She looked up then, and he saw her eyes glimmering with tears. She kissed his cheek, and it froze him through with its gentle good manners and definite farewell. “Spend time with your mother while she’s here. Tell her about your inventions, and the deals you’re making. Or you can talk to Elise. She seems a lovely person, and wouldn’t just accept ‘it’s only work, I wouldn’t want to bore you with the technical details.’”

He might have been angered further still by her mirroring of his words if he hadn’t heard the truth inside them…that he’d done more than merely hurt her by his months of silence. The slight hiccupping rasp at the end of each sentence was a sure sign Jules was close to tears, if she wasn’t crying already.

Though emotional by nature, Julie never cried for effect. She didn’t know how to manipulate him. She was crystal clear, impulsive and giving, funny and adorable—

And walking out the door.

He ran after her. “Julie, I won’t let you leave now, not like this. We have to talk.”

She kept walking. “I can’t take any more tonight.”

He grabbed her by the wrist to stop her walking out, but she pushed at him with her free hand. “I need time, Matt. You gave me the night of my life—the best and the worst. I’m feeling pretty betrayed right about now. I need to get my head around it.”

Shock held him immobile, rendered him speechless. As death knells to love went, betrayed ranked among the worst words.

And then she was gone.

He was wrenching her car door open before he knew he’d followed her. “Don’t do this to us, Julie! Damn it, Elise is only a friend—she was only ever a friend. I never loved her. She knows that. Ask her! I love you, only you!”

She stared up at him and hiccupped again. “How can you love me, if you don’t trust me with your life?”

God help me. “It wasn’t like that. Please don’t go, Jules. Stay. Talk to me,” he said, dropping his voice for the last sentence, suddenly conscious of his mother in the house behind them.

But the tears streaming down Julie’s face told him that talking was the last thing she wanted to do now. At least with him.

Gently, with finality, she closed the car door to her little compact and drove away. No wrenching gears, no racing out. She just left.

She left, and Matt stood there staring after her, reading his future in the past fifteen minutes and without a single clue what to do about it.

CHAPTER TWO

Eight Weeks Later

NEVER in his life had Matt thought he’d be reduced to fighting this dirty. But here he stood outside The Wedding Belles, Julie’s place of work, ready to—

Stop thinking about it. Just do it.

Standing next to his car, Matt tightened his jaw and flipped open his phone. “Hey, Callie, I’m outside. Is everything ready?”

“All systems up and running,” The Wedding Belles’ florist, Callie, replied, with a low laugh. Then, after a short silence, she whispered, “I’m used to doing… unusual things, and this has to be the most romantic way I’ve ever helped out a friend. But are you sure about this? This really is a federal offence.”

“Not if she’s willing, and since she’s my fiancée, I think we can assume she will be,” he replied lightly enough to reassure Callie. But inside, the gripping of his stomach, clenching over and over, signaled his desperation. Would Julie be willing once she knew what this was really about?

He’d pushed her to the edge over the past few months, been a fool to keep so many secrets from her—but he knew this one last secret could destroy them. He’d been trying to tell her for weeks, but after the night of their engagement party, even the thought of telling her made him freeze inside. His tongue glued to his mouth, he retreated behind his old friend and ally, silence.

A real man bears his burdens and mistakes alone. And he puts them right alone. His grandfather’s words.

After everything he’d put her through, to tell her now could be the end of them. But damn it, he wouldn’t let her walk out on him. Whatever it took, he’d keep her with him.

Callie’s voice started him out of his morbid thoughts. “Personally, I love what you’re doing. I wish Jared had thought about doing this to me,” she laughed, “but a couple of the girls are scared about becoming accessories to some kind of felony. And Jared’s worried, too.”

He didn’t blame Callie’s husband…in fact, he couldn’t blame any of them. “I won’t force her into anything she doesn’t want to do,” he said. But it was the biggest lie he’d ever told. He’d keep her in the car, in his house, in his life. Whatever it took to win her, he’d do it, short of a real abduction. He wasn’t that crazy.

He was just a man about to lose the woman he adored with a dozen words, and desperate enough to take the biggest risk of his life.

He’d spent a score of sleepless nights during the past eight weeks since the engagement-party disaster, trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat, searching for the elusive miracle that would allow him to tell her what he should have told her at the start. But he’d been so lost in the happiness he’d never known before meeting Julie that the right time and the right words had never come.

Now it was too late.

At exactly 4:47 this morning, as the first threads of dawn had stretched their fingers across the sky, he’d squared his shoulders and faced the fact that he’d screwed up. Big-time. He should have told her about this long before he’d asked her to marry him, even before he’d found out McLachlan’s was in trouble. Now she didn’t want to know.

He’d thought giving her time would help. He’d crossed the country on a six-week nonstop selling tour after the fatal night of the engagement party, showing off the land prototype of his converter, and had sold its practical applications to two major players. Finally McLachlan’s was safe for future generations. Now his mother could have the comfortable retirement she deserved…and his workers and their families were secure.

He was finally free to tell Julie everything— to make her hear it. He’d been coming over to The Wedding Belles’, to her office apartment, and calling every day, from wherever he’d been—but she was now the one fobbing him off. She’d been avoiding him since the night of the party, and was using his own defence of “Don’t worry, it’s just work” against him.

The games would stop today. Julie would forgive him when she knew the truth. He refused to accept anything less. She was his life blood, his soul, and he’d fight for what was his. The rest of the plans he’d made with The Belles—the changes for their wedding—would prove that to Julie, when she was ready to hear them.

Hiding the grim resolution, he said to Callie, “So send her out. Let Julie’s kidnapping begin!”

Surely every bride feels this same need to bolt as the wedding gets close….

But Julie knew the stats. She’d reassured hundreds of nervous grooms, but only a few nervous brides in the three years she’d been working at The Wedding Belles.

What was wrong with her? She had everything— a dream wedding, Mr. Right…

Or so she’d thought, and that was the trouble. Since the night of their engagement party, she’d begun to wonder if he’d ever loved her, or if he was merely doing the right thing, the gentlemanly thing, rewarding her for standing by him during the dark times for McLachlan’s.

She knew it was paranoid, but whenever he was in town and came to see her, or when he called, she could hear it—he had something he needed to tell her, but it was bad. His obvious unhappiness at needing to tell her spoke for itself.

He’d been distracted for weeks before the party. She’d thought it was to do with the creation and marketing of the water converter that not only saved McLachlan’s but made him rich again.

Matt and Elise, that was.

She couldn’t face him. Couldn’t let him touch her. She’d never been able to resist him when his hands were on her, and there were too many doubts…not to mention that the wedding had become bigger than either of them. It resembled a runaway train careering downhill at a breakneck pace, and gaining speed by the second.

“Am I missing something, or has the hallway become more fascinating than it was half an hour ago?”

Julie smiled at Callie, the cheeky Belle. She used to use humour to hide her emotions from others; now, ecstatically wed to her high-school buddy turned sweetheart, Jared, whom they’d dubbed “My Favourite Geek”, Callie used humour to dig.

“Uniformity can be a good thing now and then,” she quipped back, hoping the joke didn’t fall flat. Hoping Callie didn’t keep digging. Her friends had all been trying to get her to talk to them for weeks now—since a few days after the engagement party—and it was obvious she was tense whenever she had to be with Matt for another interview or photo shoot. It was so tiring trying to act the happy bride-to-be, especially when every other Belle was a happy new bride or bride-to-be—or ecstatic new wife, in Regina’s case.

But until she’d spoken to Matt, it would be a betrayal.

The trouble was what to say. Three months ago she’d been certain Matt was the love of her life. Now she didn’t feel sure of anything.

“Change can be even better.” Callie said, braking in on Julie’s gloomy thoughts with a mysterious air…and a little wink.

Julie stared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Callie shrugged just as Regina and Serena came out of their respective offices, and with conspiratorial smiles, each took one of Julie’s arms. “All work and no play has made Julie a very uptight girl lately. It’s time you had some fun.”

“And we know just the man you should be having fun with…” Regina said, with a mock- demure air.

Natalie and Audra joined the others. Since there were no arms left to take, Audra loosened Julie’s hair from its tight braid—her latest attempt to tame her wretched red curls—and Natalie put her hand firmly between Julie’s shoulder blades, pushing her toward the entryway.

“What have you done?” Julie asked, torn between laughter, dread and a sudden sense of gladness, a soaring hope.

Stupid woman. What are you expecting, hoping for?

Serena, another ecstatic newlywed, laughed. “We’re merely walking you out the door, darling. Welcome to your kidnapping. You’re off to the airport. He arranged everything, and you’d better go along with it!”

Matt had done this? What had he arranged…? Julie’s heartbeat fluttered as anticipation took wings. Was this what they needed? What had he arranged? Flowers perhaps, champagne, an island in the Caribbean? A week or two of the romance that had been stolen from them during the near collapse of McLachlan Industries, and the high- society, very public cancellation that had almost destroyed The Wedding Belles…?

Just an opportunity to talk—

What do we talk about? The secrets he’d been keeping? Elise?

Sudden panic gripped her. She didn’t know if she was ready to hear what he had to say. She tried to gather her thoughts, marshal arguments, but all she could think was time alone for the first time in a long time…with Matt. “But…my desk…”

“Is manned adequately and doin’ just fine, darlin’,” came the ladylike twang of the original Belle. “I haven’t done this in a long while. It’ll be fun. You’ve been a rock here since things started going downhill with the Vandiver cancellation. It’s our turn to give to you. You officially have two weeks off.”

“I already have next month off for the wedding and honeymoon,” she protested, feeling her throat closing up in protest and her heart, her stupid heart doing double time, whispering, Matt, Matt…

“We know,” Regina said gently, and kissed her cheek. “Consider this our prewedding present to you. You’ve covered for us during the past few months while we’ve fallen in love, beaten you to the altar or reconciled.” She smiled with quiet happiness, and Julie tried hard not to feel eaten up with envy, knowing each of the Belles deserved what they had. “And you never once complained.”

“So go.” Belle waved a hand with the Southern grace that allowed no room for dissent. “Get out that door, feel the sunshine and wind on your face and enjoy some time with that good-looking young man of yours.”

“It was your love story that helped us all find ours,” Callie said softly as they all marched her down the front passageway to the outside door. “We owe you, girl, big-time. Nobody deserves some happy time more than you and Matt. Now go.”

They pushed her gently through to the front of the building that housed The Wedding Belles. And beside the simple sedan he’d bought when he’d sold his beloved Jaguar to pay for her engagement ring, stood a tall, dark- haired man with touches of grey threaded through it, eyes like Antarctic ice, and a mouth so beautifully formed, so male, she ached to kiss him, long, slow and hot, until the fire blasted to life and she forgot the world existed.

Just as always.

The man of her daydreams, and more recently, her day-nightmares. Matt.

And, just like her daydream, he had flowers in one hand—but though he grinned and winked at the Belles, it was the expression hiding in his eyes that caught her breath in her throat. Bleak. Haunted. Resolute.

Nothing had changed.

It was time…and she definitely wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say.

After Matt handed Julie into the car with his customary courtesy, the remaining Belles sighed and looked at each other with a mixture of uneasiness and determination.

“I hope we did the right thing,” Natalie said quietly.

All of the Belles nodded. Not one of them had been truly fooled by Matt’s “kidnap” plan. Things had been strained between Julie and Matt for too long to be fixed with a quick romantic getaway, and Matt was far from stupid.

And they, too, had seen the look in his eyes.

Callie bit her lip. “I know how it feels to be with the wrong man. What if we just helped push Julie the wrong way?”

Audra sighed and looked bleak. Serena frowned, shading her eyes as she gazed after the departing car. “No. She loves Matt. I know she does…”

But her voice lacked its customary briskness and confidence.

Oddly enough, it was Regina, the least confident Belle unless she was behind her camera, who ended the indecision. “If Julie’s lost her faith, girls, we have to have it for her. No fears shown. No hesitation or uncertainty. I nearly lost Dell because of a lack of faith. I kept everything a secret, from him more so than from you, but all of you as well.”

“Me, too, with Kane,” Serena added soberly.

“Pride, fear and embarrassment can be a recipe for disaster,” Audra sighed.

“I believe we all met for a reason, and that Julie came to us for a reason. And I believe it’s partly because of Julie and Matt that we’re all so happy now. It’s our turn to give.” Regina looked around at each of her dearest friends. “I think Belle’s right. If Julie won’t share her worries with us, then we’ll keep throwing her together with Matt and see what happens. And believe the best will happen for them both, because we love them. Now, I don’t know about you girls, but I have a four-thirty about to come in and I have to turn the studio into a Carnivale in fourteen and a half minutes.”

The others smiled at Regina, still with the same uneasiness, but turned and walked into the building.

He was about to lose the entire contents of his stomach. Or maybe it was his heart that was coming up. It sure felt as if it was in his mouth about now.

Despite his plans to win her over, all the things he’d worked out to say, he barely spoke until he took the turnoff to the airport. He couldn’t make the words form. All he could think to say was, Do you still love me? But how could he, when he was almost sure he knew the answer and there was no way in hell he was prepared to hear it?

The clock was ticking. He had less than ninety minutes left to tell her, and trust that she’d be the strong, understanding woman he’d fallen in love with. The woman he’d relied on through the worst time of his life. His beautiful Julie…

“So,” she said, holding her flowers with fingers about to snap the stems, her voice over-bright. “The girls said we’re going to the airport. I hope you had things packed for me? Where are we heading—skiing? The Caribbean islands?” The final two words bordered on sarcastic. Obviously, his silence had given away that this wasn’t the kind of surprise it seemed.

She’d given him the opening he needed, but he refused to jump in and say it, to shock her that way. “Jules, you know I’ve been trying to get you alone since the day after our engagement party. I need to tell you something important, but you’ve been—” he paused so she’d get the full sense of his meaning “—very busy. But I knew you wouldn’t say no to the Belles if they helped me arrange time off for you.”

She flushed, as he’d expected she would. Julie’s honesty compelled her to say what came next. “I know it seems like I’ve been avoiding you…”

“Seems like?” He heard the rip-roaring fury in his voice, and knew it came from months of hurt. “You have avoided me, for almost two months now. You don’t call me or come to see me. When we have to be together, you only touch me in front of the cameras or to reassure your friends.” He held up a hand as she began to speak, her face filled with weary resentment. “And I’m sick to death of hearing that it’s the job. I see the other Belles spending time with their men, so stop making excuses.”

“So you’re more intelligent than me,” she snapped. “I believed your excuses for months on end. And your work never came in a prettier package than Elise.”

He refused to dignify that with a retort. Surely she must know he’d been faithful to her! Her problem had come from finding out about his work arrangements from a stranger. “You’re right about my making excuses. I have done that, but not for the reasons you think.” Once he’d turned onto the freeway leading to Logan International Airport, he said, “Time’s run out, Julie. It’s time for us to be honest—both of us.”

Beside him, he felt her freeze. “So, I gather this isn’t the romantic getaway the girls believed it was when they helped you?”

“No.” He kept his gaze on traffic. “But you already knew that.”

“So you lied to them, to our friends?”

He shrugged. “They drew their own conclusions. I didn’t correct them.”

“Sliding out of the truth is lying in my book,” she said, her tone left sarcasm behind, and headed straight into belligerence.

You ought to know, you’ve been doing it for months, he almost said; but an innate sense of honesty made him admit she was right: she’d only followed his example.

She’d been flashing her anger as bright as sunlight. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. She didn’t want to know. Avoiding him had been all she could do to stop this final confrontation from happening—and time was up. Luring him into a fight was her last stand against the end.

“It wasn’t their place to know, Julie. I had to tell you first. After today, everyone will know anyway.”

The blood drained from her face, making her freckles stand out in sharper contrast. “I see,” she whispered. Her head lowered to where her thumbnails scratched at her index fingers. One of a legion of nervous habits he’d learned to read: she was nervous as hell and hiding it with belligerence.

But why? Why didn’t she take the opening he’d given her, and ask him to stop the car so she could get out, or just throw the ring back in his face?

The Belles. She’s staying in this engagement for her friends’ sake.

Since the Vandiver cancellation, the mammoth event that had gone belly-up without payment, the whole business had been on the rocks. Proud and fiercely independent, the women of The Wedding Belles wouldn’t take a cent from their men to stay afloat. But when it had hit the media rounds that The Belles, in debt themselves, were giving Julie and Matt the best wedding they could afford, Julie Montgomery and Matt McLachlan were suddenly hailed as the love match of the year, and the Belles as “wedding planners with heart.” Since then, brides and their mothers had flocked to The Wedding Belles to book their weddings…but, as ever with this kind of business, payments were slow to come in. They couldn’t afford a single cancellation now.

The Belles couldn’t afford to lose the McLachlan-Montgomery wedding.

He couldn’t be angry with her for caring about her friends, no matter how it hurt, no matter how damn rejected he felt, how alone in a love story he’d believed was forever.

What he had to say, to ask, was far too important to blurt out in anger, or in retaliation for whatever she threw at him. Given what he’d put her through, he deserved it.

“You haven’t asked why we’re headed to the airport,” he said abruptly.

Her mouth was half-open, ready for a retort, but then it closed. As she thought, her lower lip pushed out, almost like pouting but far sexier because it was natural. Like her sensuality, it was so much a part of her she didn’t think about it.

Suddenly his body reminded him that it had been a long time since she’d shown him the full extent of that loving sensuality. He ached with the need for her touch, for the beauty of their union—and even more he ached for the connection that, to him, meant he’d found his one and only, the commitment to forever he’d made in his heart the night she’d said the words he’d cherish all his life. “All I want is you.”

A shaft of pain pierced him like a gunshot, as he thought of the way she’d loved him right from the moment she’d tripped and landed at his feet the first day. She’d looked up, laughing at her clumsiness, willing to share the joke against herself in a way he’d come to know was uniquely Julie. Then the look in her eyes turned to wonder as she saw him. “Here’s my number,” she’d said within a minute in that adorable accent of hers, writing with a permanent marker on his hand. “And here’re my lips,” she’d whispered when she’d finished writing. She’d kissed him with a sweetness and desire he’d never known in his life. It was so amazing he’d forgotten they were in the middle of a milling crowd on a busy city street. He’d forgotten he was in a convenient, please-the-parents relationship with Elise, and he’d vowed never to cheat on a woman in his life. He hadn’t been able to think beyond the moment, the woman whose name he hadn’t even known. He’d drawn her into his arms and kissed her right back.

She hadn’t known his name, either. For the first time a woman hadn’t known he was Matthew McLachlan of McLachlan Marine Industries, one of Boston’s most eligible bachelors. And when on their second date he’d told her, she’d said, “Oh?”, with a semblance of polite interest when she so obviously didn’t care that it had made him laugh out loud, something he’d rarely done in his lifetime. “So does that mean I don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay for dinner?”

And she’d stood by him after his father’s sudden death eight weeks later, and he’d discovered how deep the problems at McLachlan’s ran. The mess in which his father had left the business with schemes and investments that had failed time after time.

“I never had wealth in my life to care about, Matt,” she’d said, holding him close. “I care if it hurts you—but whether you want to save the business or you want to start over—no matter what, I’ll still be here.” And then she’d said those beautiful words he’d never forget. “All I want is you.”

He was about to test “no matter what,” and “all I want is you” to their limits. Would she still be here tomorrow? Would he still be all she wanted? Would she want him at all?

“So, why are we going to the airport?”

In their fourteen months together, he’d never heard such a distant tone from her.

He exited onto the airport turnoff. They were almost there. He swallowed the bitter bile rising in his throat and said the words he’d rehearsed ever since he’d recruited The Belles to help him “kidnap” her. “I realise this is terrible timing. I wouldn’t blame you if you never want to see me again. But I’m asking you not to walk away, not today. I need you, Julie.”

After a few moments, she asked, simply, “Why?”

There was nothing else to do but blurt it out. “My ex, Kirsten, was married on Saturday—”

“You…you were married?” The shock, the pain of quick jealousy in her voice made him want to hit himself, and yet a small part of him rejoiced. What a stupid jerk to shock her like that—but she wouldn’t feel any pain, surely, unless she still cared?

“No,” he was quick to reassure her. “We never married. Kirsten’s my ex-girlfriend. But that isn’t the point. We had—have a child together. Molly’s seven, and she’s on her way to stay with me for two weeks while Kirsten and Dan are on their honeymoon. Her plane lands in an hour.”

CHAPTER THREE

ONE moment passed, then two, before Julie made a small, choking sound, then another and another. “You…you…?” Further words were impossible, as she doubled over herself, coughing and spluttering.

But as she choked on her words, she couldn’t stop them going round and round in her head. He has a daughter?

She must have spoken them aloud at some point, for he answered in a restrained, polite tone that made her long to biff him over the head. “Yes. I should have told you about Molly long ago. I didn’t. There’s no excuse I can give you.”

Somehow she found her voice, even if it came out as a croak half-lost in a cough. “Just like that?” The words came out strangled as she coughed again and again, choking on saliva.

He must have pulled the car over sometime in the past minute, because she felt the stillness around her, and a gentle hand patting her back. He didn’t speak until her fit subsided. “What do you want me to say?”

“Maybe an apology, an excuse, a reason?” was all she managed in reply.

He frowned at her, as if she’d said something stupid. “What reason could I have? What excuse would work? Would an apology help you feel better, or make me any less of a jerk for not telling you about Molly before?”

Strangely his admission that he’d acted badly only made her angrier with him. “Maybe not— though it might have helped to have had some preparation time to meet her, say, a bit more than an hour?” She coughed a final few times and finally felt clear—at least in her throat and lungs. “You’re right, nothing could make you less of a jerk now, but it doesn’t mean I don’t deserve an apology, does it?”

“No. I should have told you earlier, Julie. I’m sorry.”

She kept her gaze on her hands, formed into fists on her lap. She mumbled, “Of course you are. Such a gentleman.” The words sounded sarcastic, even to her ears. She’d expected the words—but right now, she didn’t feel like forgiving him.

As if in echo of her thoughts, he said, “Don’t think it, Julie. Say it. Say what you’re feeling, about Molly—and about me.”

That was the trouble. There were too many things she wanted to say, to ask. Would he know the answers? Did she want to hear them?

Suddenly she felt tired of living in this limbo. She hated feeling so cold, so numb inside, filled with fear and regret, not knowing what was going on between them or why. Even the shock running through her veins was better than the nothingness. It was time. She had to know.

“Is that where you went when you flew out of Boston those few times, and didn’t want me to come?”

He nodded. “I don’t see enough of Molly, but I fly down to spend time with her whenever I can. I want her to know who her father is, that I care about her. I want her to be sure her dad didn’t just abandon her.”

Filled with the strangest mixture of fury, betrayal and relief, she turned away. Glad to just feel, words slipped out she never meant to speak. “I wondered, especially the fourth time two months back…”

A short silence. “You thought I had another woman?” He spoke slowly, as if he’d just come to the realisation. The shock in his voice was clear.

She noticed her thumbnail was in her mouth. Chewing her nails under stress was a habit she thought she’d broken when she was seventeen. Pulling it out, she made herself shrug. “What would you have thought had it been me taking off for parts unknown, making obvious excuses for you not to come—especially when you went just ten days before the party? What would you think if I had a male working partner—an ex-lover, no less—and I’d disappeared for a week just before our engagement party?”

After another long stretch of quiet, he answered in a curt tone. “Maybe I’d have thought the same things you obviously did— but I would have asked you about it. If I was given a chance to see you alone, or you allowed me to speak to you, that is.” No longer polite, his voice sounded cold, furious.

“So if you’d seen me alone in the past ten months—since you started disappearing without explanation—and I’d asked if you had another lover, would you have told me about your daughter?” she challenged, turning to face him with a fury to match his. “You wouldn’t have said ‘it’s just work’ again? You might have actually trusted me with something about your life the magazines don’t know?”

His jaw tightened. “You’ve thought that for ten months?”

She sighed. “You should know I would never have become your lover, let alone become engaged to you, if I’d thought it back then.”

He was pale, his face remote, untouchable. “Well, you should know I don’t cheat. I’ve never cheated on a woman in my life. Except the day you kissed me,” he finished with a hard irony that made her feel…feel—“and I went straight to her and told her I’d met you, and ended it. After fourteen months together, you should know better than to accuse me of that. Sneaking around behind someone’s back, saying one thing to one woman and promising the other something else, lying and manipulating and hurting everyone is the act of a selfish loser and pathetic coward.”

There was no way he was lying; but the fury in his eyes—the shadows of something in the past—told her this was a wound he wouldn’t let her touch.

Another door he’d closed in her face.

“I went to see Molly that time because she called to tell me about her mom getting married. It sounded like she needed me,” he informed her, his tone, so restrained and polite, hitting her like a whiplash. “But it was only a week before our engagement party, and it seemed the wrong time to tell you I have a daughter. But right now it feels as if any time would have been a bad time. If you can’t believe I was faithful to you, I was always going to be in the wrong, no matter what I did.”

She felt the heat stain her cheeks, an unspoken acknowledgement that he was right—but it only made her angrier. He had no right to be right…correct—oh, to hell with semantics! He had to be in the wrong now!

“So you think I wouldn’t have understood if you’d told me at the start of our relationship?” she challenged. “Why was it a bad time then? Was it always going to be a bad time to tell me?” A shaft of uncertainty lanced through her. “Am I so hard to confide in? Am I so…so non-understanding? Why was it so intimidating to tell me about Molly?” Or about anything else, it seems…

He shook his head and sighed. “It wasn’t like that. You have your ways of making it hard to confide, but not in the way you mean.”

“I see,” she whispered, looking at her hands again.

“No, I don’t think you do.” His hands gripped the steering wheel. His face was pale and set, looking forward, out to the passing traffic. Shutting another door in her face. Making it impossible to ask what he meant.

“Does Molly know about me? That you have a fiancée?” she asked after a while, but knew the answer before it came.

“Not yet.” Again, no apology. No excuse.

Rebellion rose higher in her throat. She wanted the truth. She needed to hear the answers. She had to know. And she wanted to deck him!

But did she hit first or ask first? She was too furious to ask the question that had been hovering in her mind for months. Why should she ask if he’d ever loved her in truth, or was marrying her to avoid public humiliation on both their parts? He’d only give the perfect reassurance. And he might even believe it was the truth…but she wouldn’t believe it. She wasn’t the trusting fool she’d been a few months ago.

“I don’t know you,” she finally said, and felt a massive sense of relief fill her. That was it, exactly what worried her the most. Worse still, the anger that had sustained her over the past few minutes was fading, leaving her vulnerable. She couldn’t attack him, couldn’t maintain the emotion that kept a distance from him. Truth was all she had left.

The cool, well-bred look disappeared from his face. “What?” His voice rang with disbelief.

“I don’t know you.” She wanted to look away, to put up a barrier against the utter stupidity of the situation, but she forced herself to keep looking at him. “I don’t think I ever did.”

The bewilderment in his eyes told her that it was the last thing he’d expected to hear from her. “How can you say that? You know me better than anyone.”

She shook her head, seeing he honestly believed it. “Tell me how I know you that well—or at all—when you’ve never told me anything that was close to your heart.”

His jaw clenched shut. His eyes were hard chips of ice. It was obvious he wasn’t going to answer, if he had an answer to give.

She sighed. “We’ve been together fourteen months, engaged for five months, and you never told me about your daughter. You never told her about me. What does that say about how much you trust me? If you can’t tell your daughter about me until the day I’m going to meet her, four weeks before our wedding, what does it say about how much you love and trust me?”

His hands gripped the steering wheel until the knuckles showed white. “It wasn’t like that. You’re misinterpreting—”

“How else could I interpret it?” Suddenly she was fighting tears. “The omissions—all of them—speak more than a thousand words. I’m good enough to take to bed, to get a ring and pretty words, but you didn’t tell me one of the most treasured parts of your life. You didn’t want me to meet your own child.” She bit her lip but said it. “You don’t love me, Matt. I don’t think you ever did.”

A long silence, so dark it touched her heart, wounded her like a knife. “This has nothing to do with how I feel for you. Not all families are close, or treasure each other as yours does, Julie.”

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