Centaur Rivalry (Touched Series Book 3) (20 page)

Drake’s voice remained quiet,
but it was absent the emotions that were coursing through him.  “If things don’t go well in Centauride next week, I’ll regret that I wasn’t able to convince you to stay in paradise with me.  That’s what I’ll regret.”

N
othing I could say would change the way he felt.  Zandra only needed to be within a hundred miles of us for her to find me.  Even if I agreed to go into hiding, eventually she’d stumble across us, and we would be in an even worse spot.  On some level I agreed with him, but there had to be a reason so much had happened to us.  Even if the worst possible scenario happened – it wouldn’t be in vain.  I stood up and tugged Drake to his feet.  “Enough of watching the waves.  Come swim with me.”

(Camille, Bungalow Outside of Cancun, Mexico)

I stood in the bedroom staring at my reflection in the mirror.  My hair was down, loose just over my shoulders.  I wore a white bikini top and a sheer white wrap at my waist that hung to just above my ankles.  Not exactly the wedding dress my mom may have wanted me in, but I couldn’t imagine a more romantic setting or a more appropriate outfit.  I looked out the window into the surf.  It was late afternoon, and the breeze off the ocean was cool.

A soft tap sounded at the bedroom door, Bianca on the other side, “Can I come in?”

“Yeah, are we all set?”

“The priest just arrived.”  Bianca looked at me and smiled.  “
Hmmm, something’s missing.”

I laughed, “Yeah, a real dress, a veil and shoes, but I
don’t think Drake will mind, and I don’t have to worry about wrinkles in this.”

“No.  If anything, we are about traditions.  Something old
:”  Bianca held out her hand, in which a pair of diamond earrings sparkled, “these were Gage’s great-grandmother’s.  He wants you to have them, so you always carry a little of Aphrodite’s magic with you.  Something new:  I think your swimsuit is new, right?”

It was
.  I bought it as soon as we had gotten off the airplane this morning.  “Definitely new.”

“Something borrowed
and something blue:” Bianca reached into her purse and pulled out a handmade necklace of beautiful turquoise and blue stones strung between seashells.  “Gage gave me this on our wedding day – so I want it back.  You’re covered for borrowed and blue.  Here, let me try one more thing.”

Bianca turned me away from the mirror and started braiding my hair.  It only took her a few minutes
.  When she was done, she turned me around, and I could hardly believe my eyes.  It looked like a style a goddess might wear.  A thick braid wove around my head with a few loose strands of hair hanging down framing my face.

“What do you think?”  I was speechless. 
My inability to answer put Bianca in panic mode, “If you don’t like it, I can take it out.  I didn’t spray it or anything.”  She reached for the pins she’d put in to hold it in place, but I grabbed her hands before she could let it loose.

“No.  It’s perfect.  Everything’s perfect.
”

Bianca checked her watch.  “We’ve got some time to kill.  What do you want to do?”

Time to kill?  If the priest was already here, what were we waiting for?  I decided it didn’t matter.  I wasn’t nervous, and spending a few minutes with Bianca was a treat.  We’d spent almost no time together, just the two of us, and I doubted I’d be able to rip myself away from Drake any time soon.

I shrugged my shoulders.  It seemed silly to stay in here.  I
t was bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding, but we’d already had more than our fair share of foul luck.  Standing in the surf, waiting to say “I do” to Drake seemed like a better idea than standing around here at the bungalow.  “Let’s go wait on the beach.”

Sharply, Bianca answered,
“No!”  Surprise at her reaction must have colored my face.  Did she have a momentary meltdown?  She cleared her throat, “I mean, no, seeing Drake before the ceremony is bad luck.”

I shook my head at her. 
“If the priest is already here, what are we waiting for?”

“Gage went to get the rings.”

The rings.  A pang of disappointment shot through me.  Why hadn’t Drake and I thought of that?  It shouldn’t matter, but it felt wrong using rings Gage had picked out.  I wanted the ring I’d wear for the rest of my life, regardless of how short or long that time might be, to be one Drake had selected.  I didn’t want Bianca to feel my disappointment, so I asked, “Why are we doing this so late in the day?”

She bit her lip.  If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was hiding something from me. 
“The priest’s schedule didn’t allow for an earlier time.”

“Oh, that makes sense.  Is he the same priest who married you and Gage?”

She smiled, “Yes.  We wandered into his chapel down by the ocean right after we arrived from the airport.  You’ll like him.”

“What names are on the marriage license
, anyway?”  Drake and I had flown in with the fake passports Will had gotten for us before we left for Ireland.

“Your real names.”

Just to clarify, “Benning and Nash, right?”

Bianca nodded, “Yes.  Why didn’t you
ever change your name to Strayer or Chiron?”

I smiled, “Yeah, with all the abundance of free time I’ve had lately, standing in line at a court house to file legal documents should have been higher on my
priority list.”

“I’m sure your father could have had his lawyer do it for you.”

I didn’t like the way I’d left things with Will the last time we spoke.  So much had happened in South Dakota that I couldn’t be sure if Will and Zandra were in cahoots with each other or not.  Since I found Drake, I’d only talked to Will on the phone long enough to let him know we were safe.  From what Brent told me, he and Gretchen went into hiding just days after we spoke on the phone.

I shook my head,
“It doesn’t matter.  I’ll be Mrs. Nash in an hour.”

“Um, if you do, you’ll be the only Chiron Centauride in history to take on her husband’s name.”

“Call me a trend-setter.  My mom was Angela Benning my whole life.  That was one she picked out of thin air, so taking Drake’s name shouldn’t be a big deal.”

Bianca’s eyes went to the floor. 
Now I
knew
she was hiding something from me.  “What?  What aren’t you telling me?”

“Normally I wouldn’t say anything, but I think Gage is ready for you to switch last names.  At least not to be a Benning anymore.”

“What are you talking about?  I’ve always been Camille Benning.  That’s the name on my birth certificate.”

“
You know Gage’s Dad, Kyle, hid your mom, right?”

“Yes, but that’s not a big secret anymore.
  Everyone knows that.”

“
Gage’s dad was in the Army for a while.  Did you know?”  I shook my head that I didn’t.  “He was stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia.  He bought Angela a small house on the outskirts of the base.  After she disappeared,” Bianca did air quotation marks, “he went to see her there a few times – but they decided it was too dangerous for both of them.  She left for California, and that’s when she changed her last name to Benning.  She told him it was so she’d never forget the few weeks of happiness he’d given her after he helped her escape.”

I couldn’t believe that
Bianca would know this about Mom and I wouldn’t.  There was more I didn’t know about her than what I did, or the parts I thought I knew turned out to be lies.

Another tap
on the door:  this time it was Gage.  He let himself in and closed the door behind him.  “Okay, we’re just about ready for you.  Any last minute jitters I need to calm down?”

That was just like him.  Gage and I
had nearly been married; in fact, Bianca, Drake and I escaped the day before Gage and I were to walk down the aisle together.  If we had been human, a friendship between the two couples after everything that had happened would be no more likely than hitting the lottery.

“No jitters.  I’m ready.” 
I wondered why Mom and Kyle’s relationship bothered Gage?  It happened way before either one of us was born.  As long as we had some time to kill, it wouldn’t hurt to find out a little more about my mom.  “Gage, Bianca told me your dad and my mom hid in Georgia for a while.  What else don’t I know about her?”

Gage gave Bianca a confused look.  “I’m not sure what all
Bianca told you.”  Gage shrugged his shoulders, “I heard stories about Angela most of my life.  She was more than a crush to my father.  Truth be told, I’m glad things worked out the way they did with the four of us.  You look so much like her that I don’t think his sanity would have survived having you as a daughter-in-law.”  Gage smirked, then added, “Mom heard all the same stories I did about Angela, and she would not have been the best possible mother-in-law for you, either.”

I didn’t want to pry
, but so many questions had bothered me since Zandra’s.  Gage might be the only one with real answers.  “If he loved her so much, why didn’t he just marry her and keep her away from Zandra?”

“I asked Dad the same question lots of times.  She needed to escape more than just Zandra’s home.  She didn’t want anything to do with being the Chiron Centauride.  She didn’t want to oversee the Centaur Council.  She didn’t want every decision she made scrutinized.  She didn’t want people to pretend to like her because of her lineage.  The one thing she wanted
more than anything else was freedom from Zandra.  Dad couldn’t deny her after everything she’d gone through.  He gave her the freedom she wanted and, in the process, tucked his love for her away.”

There was something else in this whole “hiding scenario” that bothered me, “So, if Mom did all this with your dad’s help, why was there a Blood Debt?  How come he was going to make me marry you?”

“Only Angela and Dad knew it.  I heard stories about Angela growing up, but he didn’t tell me about hiding her until after Zandra took you.  When he found out you were there, he sat me down and told me everything.”

“
All those years, he wrote her off.  He never tried to rekindle anything with her.”

“That’s the part of the story you’re missing.
”  Gage looked at Bianca as if arguing about whether or not to let me in on his father’s secret.  “Dad pledged your mom.”

Now I was really confused. 
Drake told me the betrothal pledge was sacred.  A centaur could only give it once, and if the Centauride changed her mind and broke the betrothal, the Centaur was still bound to her for eternity.  Gage must not have known that I understood what it meant because he explained, “It doesn’t matter that he married my mom and had a family.  When he reaches the pasture, Angela will be waiting.”

“Wait, so they could communicate telepathically?  The same way I do with Drake?”

“Yes and no.  When they were relatively close, he in South Carolina and she in Georgia, they probably could.  But after she moved to the west coast, no.  That was too far away.”

“How far can two be away from each other and still communicate?
”

Gage wound his fingers around Bianca’s, “We’
ve been more than 50 miles apart and still been able to talk, but we haven’t been further apart than that.”

“Further after you were married?”

“Uh, no, it doesn’t work like that.  The betrothal pledge is what ties the souls together.  Being married doesn’t act like an amplifier for the pledge if that’s what you’re asking.”

It still didn’t make sense to me.  Mom and Kyle loved each other.  He’d tied his soul to hers by giving her his betrothal pledge.  Why would she go into hiding
, and, more than that, why would he help her stay hidden?  “I still don’t understand why he let her go.”

“
All I know is I’m glad you’re marrying Drake so Mom doesn’t have to be reminded of Angela every time she sees me for the rest of her life.  She already knows she’ll spend eternity alone.”  I’d never met Gage’s mom, but I could only imagine her pain.  Drake had told me most Centaurs were in loveless marriages; it sounds like the Richardsons were no exception.

Gage watched me as my confusion refused to subside.  He leaned over and gave my arm a gentle squeeze.  “
I wish I had all the answers for you.  If it’s important to you, maybe you can talk to Dad about it one day.  But right now you have a couple people waiting for you on the beach.  One Centaur in particular is getting pretty antsy.  You ready?”

I was.  I pushed all the thoughts of Kyle and Mom out of my mind.  Whatever stupid decisions they’d made when they were young had no bearing on me today.

Gage held out his elbow to escort me down to the beach.  He leaned down and whispered, “By the way, you look beautiful.  I’m glad history didn’t repeat, and we both got our happily-ever-after.”

I squeezed his arm,
“Me, too.”

Bianca trailed us out of the cottage.  She had heard
us and added telepathically, “
Me three.
”

In the same place Drake and I had sunbathed earlier
, Drake stood next to the priest waiting for me.  Drake looked amazing.  He stood in a loose fitting white button-down shirt and baggy cargo shorts, bare-footed with his toes buried in the sand.  Drake’s blue eyes were fixed on mine as Gage led me to the beach.

This was it.  I never
imagined myself married at twenty-three, but I wasn’t nervous.  I didn’t question my decision or worry that I’d regret it later.  The certainty that washed over me was surreal.  I carefully stepped across the hot sand, on the way to my awaiting destiny – Drake.

I did
n’t notice anything but Drake standing in front of me, waiting patiently with an enormous smile.  His eyes looked brighter in the sun, his skin a dark contrast to the sand beneath him.  Someone cleared his throat behind me, but I didn’t break eye contact with Drake to see who it was.  A hand stretched out from behind a tall palm tree, stopping Gage and me.  I looked to see who it was attached to, and my heart nearly stopped.  “Gage, thanks for standing in for me.  If it’s all right with Camille, I’d like to be the one to give her away.”