Outback bride - Hart Jessica - Страница 21

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They were standing very close, marooned together in a hushed circle of awareness. The hustle and bustle of the airport faded into insignificance and there was only Mal, sliding his hands up her bare arms to her shoulders to cup her throat and tilt her face up to his. Very slowly he lowered his head, until his mouth was just brushing hers. Poised on the brink of release, Copper closed her eyes in delicious anticipation, and then the terrible, tantalising waiting was over. Mal secured her against him, his lips possessing hers in a kiss that was fierce and hard and yet achingly sweet.

Copper felt all her doubts dissolve in a golden rush of enchantment. Her hands crept up his chest and coiled around his neck as she abandoned herself to the swirl of sensation that carried her up out of time. It was bliss to feel his arms around her, to cling to the hard strength of his body and let the warmth of his mouth vanquish any last, lingering thoughts of resistance so utterly that when she sensed Mal begin to draw away, she couldn’t prevent a murmur of protest. He stopped it with another kiss, softer this time and briefer, and then another, briefer still, until the green eyes opened languorously and Copper found herself back on earth.

Mal smiled at her dazzled expression. ‘Hello,’ he said, obedient to Brett’s instructions.

‘Dad, I’ve got a pink dress!’ Megan tugged at his shirt, bored by the way they were just standing there looking at each other. She had much more exciting things to report.

Copper blinked and gave a rather shaky laugh, certain that she ought to be grateful for Megan’s interruption. Take it lightly, she told herself frantically. It wasn’t a real kiss. Mal had just been pretending because Brett was there. She had just been pretending too.

Hadn’t she?

Her legs felt as if they belonged to another body entirely, and, acting or not, she was pathetically glad when Mal took her hand again. His clasp was calming, invigorating, indescribably reassuring.

‘A pink dress?’ he was saying to Megan, holding out his other hand to her. ‘That sounds very smart.’

‘Yes, and I’ve got a friend called Kathryn,’ Megan informed him importantly. She skipped along beside them as Brett followed with the bags. ‘I’m going to play with her this afternoon.’

‘I hope you don’t mind?’ Copper moistened her lips, amazed to find that she sounded quite normal. ‘I know you haven’t seen Megan for a while, but she’s had such a lovely time playing with my cousin’s little girl.’

‘No, I don’t mind,’ said Mal as they reached the car that Copper had borrowed from her father. ‘I’m going to be taking Megan out tomorrow, while you and your mother do whatever it is women do before weddings, so I was hoping for a chance to get you on your own today.’

‘Oh?’ Hoping she didn’t sound too pleased, Copper concentrated on digging into her bag for the car key.

Megan had run around the side of the car to pull on a doorhandle. Mal glanced back at Brett, who had been diverted by a pretty girl who wanted directions, and lowered his’ voice. ‘I’ve arranged for a legal office here to draw up a contract for us,’ he said, and Copper’s fingers clenched around the key. ‘Today will be our only chance to sign it before the wedding.’

‘Fine,’ said Copper in a tight voice, feeling a fool for allowing herself even a moment’s dream that he might want to see her for herself. Well, what had she expected?

That one kiss would make any difference to Mal? He could hardly have found a better way of reminding her that their marriage was strictly business as far as he was concerned.

Megan chattered excitedly all the way back to the house and Copper was glad to concentrate on driving and on fighting down the wash of bitter disappointment. She was nervous, too, about Mal’s first meeting with her mother, who had always been very fond of Glyn and who was less convinced than her father that Copper wasn’t making a terrible mistake.

But she had forgotten how charming Mal could be when he tried. In a remarkably short space of time her mother was treating the two brothers like the sons she had never had, and by the time she had embarked on the most embarrassing stories from Copper’s childhood Copper decided that she would prefer signing the contract after all.

Dan Copley, correctly interpreting her anguished glance, hastened to change the subject. ‘I’m afraid that you’re going to have to face a family party this evening, but we thought you and Caroline might like some time alone together this afternoon as you haven’t seen each other for some time.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ said Mal. Glancing at his watch, he got to his feet. ‘Brett and I are booked into a hotel in the city centre, so we’d better go and check in. Why don’t you come with us, Copper, and I’ll take you out to lunch?’

Copper smiled stiffly, knowing that as soon as he had got rid of Brett Mal would be whisking her off not to a romantic restaurant but to a lawyer’s office, where they would sign three years of their lives away to a loveless marriage.

It didn’t take long. Briefed by Mal from Birraminda, the admirably discreet lawyer had drawn up a concise document setting out exactly the terms of the coldblooded deal they had agreed. Copper bent her head over the contract, pretending to read it through, but her eyes were shimmering with tears and when she signed her name it seemed to waver over the page.

‘Here’s your copy,’ said Mal as they left. ‘You’d better keep it safe.’

The day seemed hot and very bright after the air-conditioned cool of the office building, and Copper was glad of the excuse to hide her eyes with sunglasses. ‘Can you keep mine until after the wedding?’ she asked, rejoicing at the coolness in her voice. ‘I don’t want Mum or Dad finding it by mistake and knowing just what price I’m paying for our business to succeed.’

‘If that’s what you want.’ Mal’s face closed and he tucked the two contracts into his top pocket. ‘Well, shall we go and have some lunch, since that’s what we’re supposed to be doing?’

They walked in strained silence down to the Torrens and along to a restaurant that overlooked the river, its tables shaded beneath a vine-covered pergola. Mal had changed at the hotel, and now, in light moleskin trousers and a pale blue washed cotton shirt, he looked casual and stylish and somehow unfamiliar. Copper had expected him to look out of place in the city, and it was oddly disconcerting to find him instead as at home in this cosmopolitan setting as he was riding Red under the huge outback sky.

Mal took the contracts out of his pocket and laid them on the table between them, where they lay taunting Copper in their pristine white envelopes. She tried not to look at them and fiddled with her fork as Mal dealt with the waiters, only lifting her head in surprise when he closed the wine list and coolly ordered a bottle of the best champagne.

‘We are getting married the day after tomorrow,’ he explained, in answer to her unspoken question.

‘I know, but

well, we don’t need to pretend when we’re on our own, do we?’ said Copper with some difficulty.

‘No, but your parents might well ask you about your lunch, and I think they would expect us to have champagne, don’t you?’

‘I don’t think they need any more convincing,’ she said, concentrating on crumbling a roll between her fingers. ‘Mum thought it was a bit sudden at first, but it helped that Dad had already met you, and he didn’t seem to think there was anything odd about it at all. And they’ve both loved having Megan, so they feel as if you’re part of the family already.’ There were crumbs all over the tablecloth by now, and she brushed them into a careful pile. ‘I don’t think it’s even occurred to them that we’re not exactly what we’re pretending to be.’

‘Brett’s the same,’ said Mal. ‘He’s accepted the whole idea without question.’

Copper smiled painfully. ‘We must be better actors than we think we are.’

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