Knight's Possession

Laurel frowned as she slit open the envelope. She and Giles had received many cards of congratulations since she had told people of their forthcoming engagement; but this didn’t look like one of them.

All colour drained from her cheeks as she read the short message written inside, her hands shaking so badly that she didn’t have the strength to protest when the note was taken out of her hands, Reece reading it quickly.

‘The bastard!’ He looked up at her anxiously, his arm going about her waist as she would have swayed.

‘He gave no indication,’ she mumbled into Reece’s chest. ‘Said nothing when I saw him two days ago. Oh God!’ She looked up at him with pained eyes. ‘What am I going to do with all these people? And then there’s the presents and cards that will have to be returned,’ she groaned. ‘I——’

‘Laurel, do you trust me?’ he prompted intently.

She looked up into the golden-brown eyes, unable to look away. ‘Yes,’ she answered dazedly, knowing she did trust him.

‘Then let me handle this,’ he told her.

‘But——’

‘Laurel, let me,’ he insisted tersely.

She searched the harshness of his face, the determination of his mouth and chin. ‘Yes,’ she accepted dully. ‘You do what you think best.’

He squeezed her arm reassuringly before turning and making his way to the microphone, silencing the music as he stepped forward to speak. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he greeted warmly. ‘I’m glad you could all make it tonight. I hope none of you will be too disappointed when I tell you there has been one little change in the proceedings.’ The silence in the room was deathly now as everyone waited expectantly.

Laurel groaned with humiliation, dropping down into a chair as her guests remained mesmerised by what Reece was saying. A ‘little change’, he called it; she would have described Giles defection completely differently! He had changed his mind, he had written. Couldn’t go through with it, he had added. And just as an afterthought, Could he have his grandmother’s ring back!

As soon as Reece had told everyone the engagement was off she was going to hide herself in her flat for the next twelve hours until necessity meant she had to come out to open the shop in the morning!

‘With the fascinating enchantment of all women, Laurel has changed her mind,’ Reece continued amiably.

She appreciated his help, but as she was the one at the party it was obvious she wasn’t the one to have changed her mind!

‘Much as she likes and respects Giles she has decided, for the sake of their happiness, that she can’t marry him,’ Reece went on.

She could sense the pitying looks directed at her even as she bent her head so that she shouldn’t actually see them, knew everyone must have guessed at the truth by now.

‘I hope you’ll all understand when I tell you that Laurel has realised she can’t marry Giles because it’s me she loves, and that she has accepted my request that she become my wife,’ Reece announced proudly.

Laurel’s head shot back disbelievingly. He couldn’t really have said that!

CHAPTER TWO (#uf6fae254-6f76-5f09-83b0-27c1bad1cf08)

SHE knew he had as people surged forward to offer their congratulations.

‘He’s beautiful, darling.’ Heather, one of her more outrageously outspoken friends, eyed Reece covetously as he left the microphone to cross the room to Laurel’s side. ‘I’d change my mind, too, if he asked me.’ She gave the man who had accompanied her to the party a disparaging look before walking off.

‘Gorgeous,’ Polly agreed as she bent to kiss her cheek. ‘And I fell for the “brother” routine this afternoon,’ she grimaced.

‘He’s a lucky man.’ David, Polly’s husband, hugged her warmly.

‘Behave yourself,’ Polly glared at him. ‘If I don’t hit you Reece might, and he looks a powerful man to me.’

‘Darling!’ her mother kissed her, smiling happily. ‘What a lovely surprise.’

It was a surprise, but she doubted she would ever think of it as lovely! Why on earth had Reece told these people such a lie and landed them in this mess?

He was in front of her now, his arm about her waist as he pulled her to her feet and held her at his side, the heat of his hand seeming to burn through the silky material. Laurel stood by him numbly as he charmingly accepted the congratulations still coming their way.

She felt devastated by Giles’s betrayal, knew he had to realise what an embarrassing position he would put her in by not turning up at the party they had been arranging for months. She felt alternately like sitting down and crying like a hurt child or punching him in the face! If she ever saw him again. Oh yes, she would see him again; he had said he would call around tomorrow once the shop had closed to collect the ring. If he thought she was handing that over to him as well he was in for a shock!

‘Darling?’

She looked up at Reece with blank eyes, too lost in thoughts of what a fool she had been to have kept up with the conversation.

He frowned as he saw the bewilderment in her eyes, his mouth firming before he bent his head to quickly claim her lips with his. Laurel gasped as she realised what he was about to do, her parted lips seeming like an invitation to the people watching them. It wasn’t an exploratory kiss like the one he had given her earlier at the shop; this time he demanded, and took when she didn’t freely give. His arrogant demand made her even more angry than she already was, kissing him back as roughly, her mouth swollen and bruised when he finally drew back, her eyes bright and feverish.

‘When two combustible substances meet…’ David murmured admiringly.

The indulgently amused laughter of their onlookers broke the tension, Laurel turning hastily away from the humour Reece tried to share with her. ‘Please, everyone, there’s plenty of food and drink,’ she invited. ‘We’re here to have a good time.’

‘We’ll start the dancing off.’ Reece pulled her back into his arms as the band began to play a slow haunting melody, moving gracefully to the music as he moulded Laurel to him from breast to thigh. His face nuzzled in her hair as he bent down to her. ‘Are you all right now?’ he finally asked softly.

‘You said you would handle it,’ she choked.

‘And you told me to do what I thought best,’ he reminded huskily, giving every impression of a newly engaged man, slowly caressing her as they danced. ‘If I had told them the truth you would now know the pity and embarrassment of having to return their gifts to them.’

‘And instead I’m now the envy of several of my friends,’ she said disgustedly, knowing that as far as Heather was concerned her boyfriend of the last few months came a very poor second to Reece.

He looked down at her with amused eyes. ‘Which ones?’ he teased.

Her nails dug into his neck where he had put her arms about him. ‘Behave yourself!’ she frowned.

‘I’d rather have you fighting me than see that defeated look in your eyes when you read Gilbraith’s letter,’ he said seriously.

‘I wasn’t defeated,’ she told him stiffly. ‘I was angry. I still am.’

‘Good,’ Reece nodded admiringly.

‘At you, too.’ She glared at him. ‘You——’ Reece stopped her tirade by once again putting his mouth on hers.

‘Will you stop doing that!’ She wrenched away from him.

‘Careful.’ The warmth of his smile didn’t waver for an instant. ‘We have an audience,’ he added pleasantly, once again holding her lightly against him.

Laurel turned sharply to look about them, feeling the colour darken her cheeks as she realised they were the only two people dancing, her friends standing around the dance floor watching them indulgently. She quickly turned back to Reece. ‘Oh God,’ she groaned. ‘This is awful!’

‘Smile when you say that.’ His lips moved lightly across her cheek to the edge of her mouth.

‘Reece, I feel as if I’m caught in a nightmare and can’t wake up!’ She trembled.

He laughed softly as he straightened. ‘That’s the first time any woman has described kissing me as a nightmare! I’m obviously not finding the experience of being your fiancé as unsettling as you are.’