The Marriage Contract

“Brides are supposed to be nervous. Your wedding wouldn’t feel real if you weren’t. Can I tell the minister you’re ready?”

“The moment Leota takes her seat.”

“Let me peek outside and make sure the judge is ready to give you away. Oh, you look so lovely. I can’t help thinking of my own wedding.”

Clair slid a finger under her left eye, where a tear burned. Would she ever love a man enough to marry and mean it? Was she capable of real love?

Selina beckoned from the door. “Come on.”

“You’d have made a great matron of honor.”

“You don’t need me.”

“Not true.” Clair hugged her mother’s friend—her friend. “Thanks for your help. The church is beautiful.” She grinned. “The judge is beautiful.”

“Make him use his hanky if he cries.”

Selina slipped out. Clair and Nick had agreed to forgo attendants except for the judge. She waited for Selina to take her place in a pew before she stepped into the aisle and took the judge’s proudly offered arm. Clair returned his warm smile, but faltered as she looked at the man who waited for her at the altar. She hadn’t prepared herself for Nick in a tux and candlelight.

He looked gorgeous. No other word for it. His black hair gleamed. His suit embraced him, defined the lines of the tall, strong body to which she was about to pledge her troth. The determination in his gaze pulled her up the aisle.

The music she’d chosen, a piece from Massenet’s Thais, overwhelmed her. The traditional “Wedding March” hadn’t seemed appropriate, but she loved this music. It seemed to flow into her body, making her powerful and womanly. She should have gone for the traditional. It might have been another lie, but it wouldn’t have meant so much to her.

Nick came forward, and the judge pressed their hands together.

The minister spoke. Clair clung to Nick’s heat, wary of her own pounding pulse. During a small silence, she realized the minister had asked if anyone knew why she and Nick shouldn’t be married. She looked into Nick’s dark boundless eyes. No one answered, and the minister went on. Nick took her other hand.

A physical connection vibrated between them, startling Clair, increasing her uncomfortable awareness of him at her side. Dreading the kiss they had to share, she stole a glance at his full, firm mouth. In truth, she wanted to feel him against her, wanted to know how he tasted.

The minister gave his permission, and Nick slid his hands up her waist. As he grazed the swell of her left breast, Clair stopped breathing. He brushed his cool lips against hers. With a surprised breath that felt hot against her mouth, he pulled her closer.

“I give you Dr. and Mrs. Dylan.”

Amid more whispers, the church doors banged open, and two men rushed inside. “Fire!” one shouted. Everyone froze. “Fire!” he yelled again.

Men and women in their Sunday best began to pour toward the exits.

“Here?” someone demanded.

“Where?”

“Whose house?” a woman shouted.

The first man answered, just loudly enough to make everyone stop and listen. “The Atherton house.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“I’VE NEVER SEEN a place burn down around its own door before.” Ernest Fosdyke nudged Clair, smearing soot across the sleeve of her waterlogged wedding dress. “But doesn’t that oak door your granddaddy carved still look fine?”

Clair peered from the black streak at her elbow to the golden oak door standing tall in wet rubble. She turned blankly to the fire chief, blinding herself in his truck’s headlights. “I’ve lost everything I loved most.”

“Nonsense. You just married the man you love.” Prodding his big silver hat back on his forehead, the chief squinted with relief at someone beyond her shoulder. “Dr. Dylan, over here! I found Clair, but she’s not talking sense.”

Nick. She’d tried not to think of him for the past eighty minutes. She’d married him for her house, and now her house had burned down.

He draped his heavy black overcoat across her shoulders and caught her arm, offering comfort Clair couldn’t afford to accept. The unexpected passion they’d shared for that brief, confusing moment in the church threatened to change the way she looked at Nick. She was too smart to give in to physical need.