Switched At The Altar

“Weren’t you?”

She didn’t miss the accusation in his tone. “No, I wasn’t.” But thanks to Kevin, she was all too aware of Alex’s displeasure at his brother’s interest in theater. It was the excuse Kevin had given her for not telling Alex the truth—that he wanted to be an actor, not an attorney. As the youngest of three girls, she knew all about putting up with older siblings who thought they knew what was best for you and ended up trying to run your life. “But if Kevin has decided to leave law school, I’d say that’s his decision and not yours.”

“Or yours?” Alex countered.

“No,” she returned, frowning. “Why on earth would you think it was my decision?”

“Why indeed. Come off it, Ms. Mason,” he said, his voice as sharp as the look he gave her. “Kevin told me when he was home during the holidays what close friends the two of you had become. I just hadn’t realized how close that relationship was. I’m sure your opinion on the subject of his attending law school would have had a great deal to do with his decision.”

Desiree pursed her lips. Evidently dear Kevin had also failed to explain the nature of their friendship to his brother. Given Alex’s reaction, she could understand why. She glanced up, read the disapproval and suspicion in his eyes. Temper spiked through her again. The heck with setting him straight. The man deserved to stew a bit, and she intended to make him do just that. “Well, you’re right about one thing. Kevin and I have become very close friends,” she said in her best imitation of a vamp’s voice.

Alex’s dark eyes grew stormy, and Desiree told herself she’d been right in her initial assessment of him. The man did have the eyes of a warrior—hard, cold, uncompromising. “But as far as law school goes, you give me far too much credit. The only opinion that really matters is Kevin’s. After all, the decision is his to make. Not yours or mine.”

The smile he gave her sent a ripple of uneasiness down Desiree’s spine. “True. But what does matter is that I’m the one who controls Kevin’s trust fund.”

“Bully for you,” she quipped, feigning indifference. Trust fund? What trust fund? She’d assumed Kevin’s family had a bit of money. Anyone with brains in their head could see that he dressed well, drove a nice car, and while he wasn’t flashy with money, he never seemed to be short of it. Besides, he was attending a prestigious and pricy law school in New Orleans. That in itself would have wiped out any scenarios about him being on the verge of poverty. Still, the way Alex had spit out the words trust fund she doubted he was talking about a few thousand dollars—which had been the most her savings book had ever managed to reflect. “I still don’t see how that affects me.”

“Don’t you?”

“No. I’d say that’s between you and Kevin. After all, it’s Kevin’s life.”

“Yes, it is,” Alex said in a deadly soft voice. “And I have no intention of standing by and letting Kevin ruin his life by marrying you.”

Shock hit her first, then her anger kicked into high gear. She strangled the stem of the bouquet in her hand and silently condemned Kevin to a slow, painful death for getting her into this fix in the first place. Tipping up her chin up, she called on her training as an actress to make her lips curve into a smile that reached her eyes. She batted her lashes in what she hoped reflected all sweetness and innocence. “Well then,” she said laying on the Southern drawl like thick maple syrup. “I guess I’ll just have to be sure to tell Kevin not to bother sending you an invitation to the wedding.”

Two

For a moment Alex couldn’t speak. He nearly choked on the fury rising inside him. “There isn’t going to be a wedding,” he finally managed to say.

Desiree arched her brow. “No? I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

“I am sure of it. Kevin is not going to marry you.”

“I believe that’s another one of those decisions that’s not yours to make.”

“Trust me, Ms. Mason. You are not going to marry my brother.” Even if he was wrong and she wasn’t a gold-digging actress with her eye on Kevin’s trust fund as he suspected, he couldn’t tolerate the thought of her being married to his brother. Not when he could all too easily imagine her with him, in his bed, with her body naked beneath his. Just the thought of being with her had him growing hard with desire—and sent guilt stabbing through him like a knife. He shoved a hand through his hair. She was involved with his brother, for pity’s sake. Yet, not even that knowledge could ease the hungry, restless ache inside him that he experienced by just looking at her.

“Like I said, that’s Kevin’s decision. And mine,” she amended a moment later, as though adding herself to the equation was an afterthought. “Now, you really will have to excuse me while I see if I can find out what happened to the actor Bernie was supposed to send over.”

She smiled at him, and Alex’s brain turned to mush. He stared at her mouth, mesmerized by the bow shape of those rose-colored lips, remembering how warm and soft they’d felt against his own.

“I believe you can find your way out.”

He watched in silence as she scooped up the train of her wedding gown and walked down the hall. For a second he tracked the enticing sway of her hips as she moved down the corridor before she disappeared into one of the rooms.

At the click of the door closing, Alex blinked. He shook his head to clear it. Muttering an oath, he started off after her. “The woman must be some kind of witch,” Alex grumbled, remembering the tales of voodoo and black magic that was supposedly still practiced in the New Orleans area. For a moment he’d been so mesmerized by her that he’d almost forgotten his reason for being here in the first place. Alex frowned at that realization. Try as he might to stop it, he couldn’t help thinking of his father.

Eddie Stone had been a dashing, debonair ladies’ man with a hearty laugh, a lust for partying and the deep pockets to pay for it. He’d also been as irresponsible as hell. He’d been about to marry wife number five when he’d been killed in a skiing accident. Otherwise, Alex might have added a few more stepmothers to his family tree. While his memories of time spent with his father were good ones, they were far too few—primarily because of his string of ex-wives, three of whom had been ladies from the South.

And now Kevin thought he was in love with Desiree Mason, another Southern belle. He conjured up an image of the green-eyed beauty in his mind and frowned. Maybe it was something in the water that drew men to women like her. Alex hesitated in front of the room he’d seen Desiree go into. Or maybe it was a weak gene in the Stone men that made them susceptible to a woman with a honeyed voice and magnolia-soft skin.

Whatever the reason, Alex decided, he had no intention of allowing himself to fall under Desiree Mason’s or any woman’s spell. With that thought in mind, he rapped his knuckles on the door.

“It’s open,” she called out in a distant, somewhat muf fled voice.

Alex pushed the door open and stepped inside only to discover the room was empty. “Ms. Mason?”

“Be right with you,” Desiree called out from an adjoining room.

As he waited, Alex took the opportunity to study the room. Just like the rest of the house, this room boasted high ceilings that were accented by crown molding. Ivory silk wall coverings flecked with gold ran from ceiling to floor. What he suspected was either a genuine Aubusson rug or a good imitation covered the center of a wooden floor that was in dire need of polishing. A lovely watercolor of Magnolia House and the grounds, painted during earlier and obviously more prosperous times, hung crookedly on one wall alongside several framed theater posters of plays that he’d never heard of, let alone seen.

On another wall damask drapes, in a faded shade of what once had probably been mint, were swept back from a massive window that served as a home to a half dozen flowering plants.

Alex fingered a purple bloom on one of the plants and caught the fragrant scent. Wisteria. It brought back vague memories of a house with a yard and a huge tree with a swing. He could remember sitting in that swing as a little boy, urging his mother to push him higher. He’d wanted to reach the tree’s limbs and capture one of the purple flowers from the vine tangled in its branches. It had been the first and only time he’d lived with his parents—before they’d divorced, before they’d left him with his grand-father and gone on to their new lives—lives without him.

Pushing the melancholy thought aside, Alex prowled the room while he waited for Desiree. The place was a mess, Alex decided as he looked at the beautiful Queen Anne desk covered with stacks of papers, magazines and bound copies of what were evidently plays. A battered-looking computer sat haphazardly on a desk blotter. Framed photographs took up what little space was left. Alex picked up one of the snapshots of a much-younger Desiree flanked by a timid-looking blonde and a serious-eyed brunette—all dressed in toy soldier costumes and tap shoes. He grinned at the way Desiree mugged for the camera despite two missing front teeth.

“That was one of my first starring roles,” Desiree told him from the doorway. “You’re looking at the Mason Sisters Trio. Tap dance recital for four- to six-year-olds,” she explained.

She was still wearing the wedding dress, but the veil and flowers were gone. Most of her hair had escaped from its combs, leaving long strands of red shot with gold trailing along her neck and cheeks. “Must have been quite a performance,” Alex replied.

“Oh, believe me, it was.”

She walked toward him, the sound of her skirt swishing as she moved, and his eyes immediately zeroed in on those sashaying hips.

“My sister Lorelei—she’s the blonde—lost her dinner in front of the entire audience before we even got to the first ‘ball-change’ in the dance routine. Stage fright,” she said as though that explained everything.

“And my sister Clea—” she pointed to the brunette “—she’s the perfectionist. She was so miffed at Lorelei for ruining our act, she walked off the stage in the middle of our number and hung up her tap shoes for good. I’m afraid it ruined any hopes my parents might have been harboring that we’d be a dancing version of the Lennon Sisters.”

“What about you? What did you do when your sisters dropped out of the show?”

“The Mason Sisters Trio quickly became a group of one. They had to yank me off the stage because I insisted on completing the number by doing everyone’s part.”

Alex heard the smile in her voice even before she looked up from the photograph he was holding and he saw it on her lips. “And you’ve been dancing ever since.”

“And acting.” She took the picture from his hands, stroked the edges of the frame lovingly before returning it to her desk. She glanced up at him. “But I’m sure you didn’t really follow me in here to hear about my sisters and our failed attempt at show business, now, did you?”

“No.” He hadn’t, and Alex tamped down the urge to ask her to tell him more about herself and her family. Once more the lady had distracted him from his purpose. “I’m here because we didn’t finish our conversation about you and Kevin.”

“We did as far as I’m concerned. There’s nothing further to discuss.” Desiree turned around, offering him her back. “Do me a favor, will you? Unhook the back of this thing so I can get out of this dress.”

Alex stared at her bare shoulders and tried to ignore the faint hint of flowers that seemed to emanate from her skin. His gaze strayed to a heart-shaped mole just above her left shoulder. He had an incredible urge to run his fingertip across it.

“I had Mindy—she was one of the bridesmaids—help me get into this getup, but she’s already gone, and now I can’t get the thing off by myself. I can’t imagine why a designer would make a dress with all those tiny buttons down the back. How do they expect you to get the thing off?”

“Since it’s a wedding dress, I suspect the designer assumed the bride’s husband would be helping her to take it off.”

Desiree stilled a moment, and then he heard her laughter. “Kevin said you tended to take things literally. He was right.” She looked at him over her shoulder again. Her green eyes sparkled, a mischievous grin curved her mouth. “Well, since my groom isn’t here at the moment, maybe you could do the honors for him. Or is that a problem?”