Wedded in Passion (2 page)

“
You look beautiful in
your dress.” Char’s voice broke into my thoughts.

Focusing on him again, I said, “Thank you.
You look good without the glasses.”

The elevator dinged.

“
Lasik. About eight months
ago.” He winked at me as the doors to the elevator
opened.

I stepped out first then he exited carrying
his garment bag and a small handbag.

He stared at the panel with arrows and
numbers to the rooms. “I’m in 726, so that is left.”

We didn’t have far to go. As soon as Michael
had the card in the lock I heard my Aunt Macy’s loud voice echoing
along the corridor. I quickly went inside the room.

Char’s entry was a lot more casual as he
closed and bolted the door behind him. “You truly are trying to
hide out.”

“
Oh, yes.” I let out a
heavy sigh. My head was starting to throb painfully. I began
rubbing my temples. I hated getting headaches. Especially a tension
one that ached across my forehead and behind my eyes. I’d been
getting them a lot over the last few months. My meds were now in my
suite with the lying bitch and cheating asshole.

“
Well, why don’t you have
a seat on the couch and I’ll make you some tea and see if I can
find some pain relievers in my bag.” He moved beyond the sitting
area and into the double doors of the bedroom.

From where I stood, I could see the
king-size bed that encompassed most of the room and the door
leading to the bathroom. Char was now out of my sight at the closet
putting his things away, I assumed. I glanced away, not needing to
think about the fact I was in a hotel room alone with a man. This
was Char, he was my best friend from childhood. We shared tents
when we were kids when our parents took us camping every Fourth of
July in the Appalachian Mountains. Granted, his sister and brother
were also in the tent with us, but he and I always put our sleeping
bags next to each other. We would stay up late whispering about
things while the others slept.

Char was different.

We had both been nerds in school. Social
outcasts. He was into science and technology while I loved business
and marketing. It was no wonder he’d ended up a neuro-radiologist
and I’d become a marketing graphics consultant. The joke was, I was
a consultant to fashion magazines and I knew nothing about
designers and things. Michael and Lenzy had no problem reminding me
of that often. Michael loved to call me his ‘little project’.

Thinking about that nickname pissed me off
and made me want to march back up the stairs and beat the shit out
of him with the $900 heels he had convinced me I had to have to go
with my wedding dress.

I shook my head in disgust. I may not know
fashion, but I was a master at helping magazine’s set it up for
high consumer sales. All companies truly worried about was the
bottom line—money.

Plopping down on the couch, no reason to be
concerned with the state of my dress, I tried not to think about my
job or the two people who betrayed me. Leaning my head back, I
closed my eyes and just tried to breathe for a moment and hoped the
tightness in my chest would ease some.

“
Here, Katy, take these.”
Char’s voice caused me to open my eyes.

I sat up and held my hand out. He shook
three pills into my palm and handed me a cup of tea.

I realized I must have drifted off for a
moment since I had not even heard him making the tea.

“
I think I’m exceeding the
recommended dose, doc.” I offered him a small smile as I popped the
pills into my mouth.

“
True, but I figured if
you’re traipsing around the hotel in your wedding dress, not caring
who sees you in it, then you’re sporting a doozy of a headache.”
After he placed the bottle on the table, he sat down on the other
end of the couch and shifted so he faced me.

Good. He looked and smelled so good. Char
was different from Michael. It took Michael’s high-dollar clothing
to make him attractive, when Char could put on a department store
polo shirt and slacks and take a woman’s breath away.

Wow, Katy, where did that
thought come from?
Char had never been the
breath-stealing kind of guy—in high school or college.

Lowering my eyes from his gaze, I sipped the
tea and swallowed all three pills. The beverage was hot but not
scalding. I realized he must have added a little cold water to it
so I could drink it immediately.

I drank more, enjoying the mild unsweetened
tea. “You remembered I don’t like my tea with sugar.”

He chuckled. “I did. Hard to forget. It
always amazed me how someone that loved sweets so much could take
their tea and coffee straight.”

Shrugging my shoulder, I said, “I don’t know
why I like it that way either. But it always seemed like I was
ruining the hard work of the people making the blends if I tainted
it with sugar.”

“
Taint…enhance. The
sweeter the better.”

We fell silent as I continued to drink. When
the cup was empty, I sat it on the table.

“
Would you like some
more?”

“
No, thank you.” I looked
around the room, anywhere but at him.

“
Your mom always said tea
makes everything better or puts things into
perspective.”

I nodded. “She does say that. Mom always
liked you.”

“
That’s because I’m a
likable guy.” He patted his chest.

More time stretched.

“
Are we going to discuss
the elephant in the room or are we just going to study the paint on
the wall?”

That was Char, blunt and direct. He never
was one to beat around the bush.

“
I’d rather talk about the
paint or why you’re here.” I glanced back to him.

“
That’s not as
important.”

My mind wondered for a moment about his
presence. I hadn’t invited him to my wedding. Char was a big ‘no
no’ in Michael’s book. His parents weren’t even invited because my
mom told me they would be in Cincinnati; Char’s sister was having
her first baby; rather babies—twins. His parents had moved there
temporarily once Vera, Char’s sister, had hit her six-month
mark.

“
Where would you like to
start? Why I’m wearing my wedding dress or how I caught Michael
fucking Lenzy?”

Char’s blink was quick, as if prompted from
the shock of my words.

“
Shit… you kidding me,
Katy?”

“
Oh, Char…the only joke is
the one played on me for two years.” I grabbed the pillow behind my
back then pressed it against my chest.

“
That ass.” He glanced
away and shoved his fingers through his thick hair.

“
Yup, he is.” My fingers
played with the tassel on the corner of the pillow.

“
Let’s start with what I
hope is the easier part, why are you in your wedding
dress?”

I sighed. “We might as well. In some way, I
think the two things are combined.”

“
How?”

“
We had the rehearsal
dinner tonight. My mom and I had plans to go and tour the church
and the ballroom where we were going to have the reception with the
wedding planner.”

“
Is that
standard?”

Tilting my head I waited for him to
clarify.

“
You know, the bride
running around the night before her wedding? Isn’t that what the
planner is for?”

Flipping the pillow flat onto my lap, I
nodded. “Yes. Normally.” I exhaled hard. “However, I’ve been really
stressing about the wedding…wanting everything to be perfect…afraid
something would go wrong.”

“
Hm.”

“
Guess it did.” Horribly
wrong.

“
So, how was
everything?”

“
I never made it. I told
Michael I was going, but by the time mom and I got to the garage
and my planner’s car, my head was starting to hurt. I told my mom
and—”

“
She suggested you have a
cup of tea and lay down.”

I laughed. “Yes, she did. She said she would
go with Wendy, my planner. That everything would be fine.”

“
I assume you went to your
room.”

“
Yes. I did lie down, sans
the tea, and napped for about an hour. I thought I was alone in the
suite. Lenzy’s room was on the other side, but she had said
something about needing to run an errand and I didn’t think she was
back. I really didn’t want to be around anyone, anyway.”

“
That’s understandable.
Tomorrow you will be around hundreds of people for hours. You
deserve some alone time.” He stretched an arm across the back of
the couch, his long blunt fingers now close to me. The urge to
reach up and stroke my fingers over them, feeling the hairs on the
back of his hand it tickle my fingers assailed me.

I quickly looked away.

“
Then what
happened.”

Lifting my bare shoulder, I let it drop.
“Nothing really. I saw my dress hanging on the closet door. I
couldn’t resist pulling it out of the protective bag. I loved it
from the moment I saw it. I just wanted to try it on again.”

“
You only get to wear it
once. For as much as they cost I think a woman should be able to
wear it for the first month of their marriage or at least every
Saturday of the first year.”

I laughed. “Exactly. See that’s more
practical and fits the price.”

He smiled, those sexy lips pulling wide, and
my heart pounded hard in my chest.

Shit. First he was a
breath stealer now sexy lips? Get it together, Katy.
I realized the stress of the last hour must truly
be creeping in on me.

Maybe I shouldn’t have
withheld sex from Michael after the engagement.
It had to be my hormones. Michael had said it was a silly
idea since we’d been doing the deed regularly after we’d dated for
six months. I knew he was right, but I’d still imposed a no-sex
rule. Now that I knew he was a cheat, I was glad I did.

“
So, you put it
on…”

“
Oh, umm.” I struggled for
a moment as I got myself together and returned to my prior train of
thought. “I got into the dress and while I was standing there,
profiling in the mirror I heard something.”

“
Lenzy came in?” he
asked.

“
That’s what I thought.
However, when I opened my door I didn’t see anyone. I thought it
must have been something from the hall, but when I turned to go
back into my room and get out of the dress I heard more noise and
voices. So, I—”

My throat tightened and broke off my words.
I could feel burning behind my eyes. Biting down hard on my lips I
fought the tears and focused instead on the rage of betrayal.

“
Went to investigate I’m
sure.”

I nodded, still unable to speak.

“
And found them.” Char
filled in. His hand along the back of the couch balled into a fist.
“How long had it been going on?”

“
Th-ey.” I swallowed,
pulling myself together. “They had apparently been fuck buddies
before Lenzy introduced us and claimed they hadn’t been together
since he and I started seeing each other…” I punched the pillow
hard. “Michael tried to tell me it was some good-bye fuck and
didn’t mean anything.”

“
That asshole.” He shoved
up from the couch. “What’s your suite number? I’d like to explain
to him
physically
the meaning of commitment.”

I had never seen Char fight. Normally he was
too laid back and calm to even be at the level of hitting anyone.
Seeing him now, a fierce presence surrounding him, made me see my
old friend in a new light. As an only child, I’d never had anyone
but my parents to defend me; now Char had become my avenger.

“
There’s no need. I think
the mark my nails left on his face is proof of that to him.
Besides, I don’t want to see either of them again. I just want it
all to go away.”

I realized how absurd that sounded while I
sat in my wedding dress with less than twelve hours until I had to
stand before a church full of people and tell them the wedding was
off.

Sitting down again, closer to me, he said,
“Come here.” He opened his arms wide.

Dropping the pillow, I scooted across the
cushion that was between us and leaned into him. His arms folded
around me. In his embrace, a man I’d spent my childhood playing
with and debating various issues, was like being home.

“
The piece of shit doesn’t
deserve you, Katy.” There was still tension in his words, but his
caress along my back was gentle.

I didn’t respond as I sat there, my body
humming and drunk on his aura. This combination of peace and
excitement was something I’d never experienced with Michael. Around
my ex-fiancé I had only felt anxiety and insecurity. That alone
should have been my clue that the superstar model was not for me. I
could kick myself for allowing myself to become a weak and hapless
woman, one who acted like she didn’t know her own mind. I would
have thought I was too smart for something like that. Apparently, I
could fall susceptible to glitz and glamour and a pretty face.

“
I was such a fool, Char.
It was like I stopped thinking for myself. Stopped being
myself.”

He squeezed me tight
against him. “Not a fool. Lenzy and Michael are part of a different
world. You were out of your element. Hell, everyone in that
business is not really
themselves
anyway. They all wear false masks. It’s their
damn profession.”