The Sweetest Revenge Part 15

Panic seized Barbie. She had to give him the right opening, make this chance different to the last one.

'I did it all wrong, using a false name. I know I did. And I'm sorry I messed everything up between us,' she pleaded anxiously. 'My only excuse is...as Barbie Lamb, I felt so...so vulnerable, Nick.'

His chest rose and fell and she felt his sigh waft warmly through her hair. Then came the low, regretful words- 'I moved too fast. I cursed myself for it afterwards. If I'd let you go on as Anne Shepherd, you might have learnt to trust me.'

He was thinking back, not forward. She didn't hear hope in his voice, only sadness for mistakes made, and Barbie felt a dark weight descending on her heart. He didn't believe they could recover what had been lost.

The music stopped.

Nick released her from his embrace, and for one terrible moment, Barbie felt the most devastating despair. It was over. There was no chance. Then he grasped her hand again and into her shattered mind swam his command, 'Come with me!'

He pulled her with him, weaving past the party guests who were now responding to the second music track, loudly singing 'Happy Birthday' to Nick's mother. He slid open a gla.s.s door which led onto a patio and drew her outside, quickly shutting the door behind them. They walked to the end of the patio, around a corner of the house, into a pool of darkness.

'We should be private here,' he muttered, dropping her hand and moving away a few paces, establishing distance between them before turning to face her.

Barbie was beyond knowing what his actions meant. A fragile hope whispered he was still with her, though standing apart. He wanted to talk, if nothing else, and talking might help. But her mind was incapable of producing anything to say.

'The issue was always one of trust, wasn't it?' he declared, shaking his head as though in torment. 'I broke it so badly nine years ago...'

'Let's not revisit that time, Nick,' she begged, craving only a future with him.

'I have to make you understand, Barbie. We can't paper over this,' he said vehemently. 'I need you to know you were special to me. Even when you were just a little girl, you had this way of looking at me...your eyes so full of innocent trust...like you believed nothing bad could happen to you because I was there to look after you.'

'It's called hero-worship, Nick,' she said derisively, wanting to stop him from looking back, frightened that it couldn't lead anywhere good.

'No, it was more. No one else ever gave me that sense of...a pure love. It made me want to live up to it. I guess you could say I fed on it, Barbie, until I came to realise how selfish that was. I convinced myself I was giving you something-a broader life-when I forced the break. But what I broke was your trust in me.'

It was true love, Barbie wanted to cry, but she bit her lips, not brave enough to speak that truth.

'I hated having done it, having lost it,' he went on. 'And I knew it could never be recaptured. So when I recognised Barbie Lamb in Anne Shepherd...it hit me hard, the knowledge of breaking your trust. I wanted you to give it to me again, and when you didn't, I began not to trust you instead of facing up to what I'd done and the repercussions of it.'

He spread his hands in an urgent gesture of appeal. 'I swear this is true, Barbie. I've been in a kind of wilderness of the heart these past nine years. None of the relationships I've had ever felt really important or vital to me. Then, just a week ago...'

He moved back to her, slowly, his hands lightly curling around her shoulders, his eyes darkly watchful, seeking, wanting to know her heart. '...I met a fairy princess,' he continued gruffly. 'And when she kissed me, it was like magic pouring through my whole body.'

'Mine, too, Nick,' she whispered. 'That's why I came dressed like this tonight, hoping it could be so again.'

'Barbie...'

He sucked in a quick breath and kissed her, and she responded with all the pa.s.sionate urgency of wanting everything to be right between them, for the magic to burst forth and dispel the shadows that had plagued both of them. The past didn't matter. Only now mattered. Now with Nick. And the journey they could take from here.

It was so good...feeling him wanting her, feeling free to want him right back, knowing she was as special to him as he was to her, the glorious sense of a long, long wilderness ending at last for both of them.

'I'll do everything I can to earn your trust again. Just give me the chance, Barbie,' he breathed into her ear.

'Hold on to me, Nick. Don't let me go.'

'Never!' he swore. 'Never!'

And he kissed her with that vow on his lips, in his heart, and her own heart pounded in unison with his, swelling with the love that had always been there for him.

'Nick?... Barbie...?' Carole's voice calling.

Nick ended their kiss on a ragged sigh. 'Yes...what?' he answered reluctantly.

'I'm about to bring in the cake for Mum. I want you in here with the rest of us.'

'Be there in a minute,' he promised. He eased back, lifting his hands to gently cup Barbie's face. 'Are you okay with this...facing my family with me?'

'Are you?'

'No problem for me. I'm only too happy to have you at my side and let everyone know it's where I want to be.'

'Then I'm happy with that, too.'

His thumb tenderly fanned her cheek. 'I will look after you, Barbie.'

'I do trust you to do that, Nick,' she a.s.sured him.

His smile was loaded with joyful relief. 'This is the start of us being really together.'

'Yes,' she agreed, smiling her own joyful relief.

And together they walked back into the house-arm in arm-leaving the darkness behind.

There was no place for darkness in their hearts.

They carried magic with them.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

'HAPPY days, Nick.' Leon grinned at him as he lifted his gla.s.s of champagne. 'And nights.'

Nick grinned back. 'You've got that right.'

They stood outside the marquee on Observatory Hill, taking a short breather from the crowd of family and friends within. Barbie and Sue had gone to 'freshen up' and Nick didn't want to circulate amongst the wedding guests without his bride at his side.

'Right woman, right time, right place,' Leon went on approvingly, then c.o.c.ked a teasing eyebrow. 'Don't know about the date though. You do realise this is the Ides of March, the day that Julius Caesar fell.'

Nick laughed. 'Big Julie was after the crown of Rome. Me... I'd give up any crown to have Barbie as my wife. This was the first available date we could get to have the wedding here and I wasn't waiting any longer.'

'It's only been four months,' Leon reminded him.

Nick shook his head. He'd been waiting all his life for her.

'Sue keeps muttering you charge like a bull, rushing everything.'

'Well, I don't notice the gra.s.s growing much under your feet, my friend,' Nick tossed back at him. 'That's some emerald Sue is flashing on her engagement finger.'

'I don't aim to lose that lady. But there's a lot to be said for a long courtship. I'm relishing every minute of it.'

'Each to his own, Leon.'

'Can't disagree with that. We're both coming out winners and we're not even thirty-one yet,' Leon declared with immense satisfaction.

Nick laughed at his friend's habit of always crunching numbers. Age had nothing to do with how he felt about Barbie. She lit up his life in so many ways, he could only marvel at how lucky he was she'd taken her vengeance on him on this very hill four months ago-the sweetest revenge, reviving as it had the unique bond between them. It was indeed fitting to have their wedding here, Nick thought, because magic had been wrought that night and this would always be a special place to both of them.

'Hey! What are you doing out here?'

They both turned to Danny who was proudly carrying out his role of groomsman to Nick.

'Waiting for our women,' Leon answered. 'They've left us to powder their noses.'

'And very pretty noses they are,' Danny commented, grinning at both men. 'Got to say you guys have won prizes with Barbie and Sue.'

Nick suddenly felt impelled to ask, 'No hard feelings, Danny?'

He looked startled. Comprehension dawned slowly and moved into a quizzical frown. 'Over Barbie?'

'You were very stuck on her.'

'Youthful obsession,' Danny dismissed as though it were nothing. 'I've fished in many waters since and I'm sure as h.e.l.l not ready to settle down.'

That wasn't exactly the point, Nick thought, but didn't want to make an issue of it.

Danny picked up on the doubt and gestured an appeal for understanding. 'Fact is, I'm really glad you two have got together. Wish I hadn't been such a pain about Barbie only having eyes for you back in the old days. I didn't realise I was mucking up something special. But I can see it is now, Nick, really special, and I truly am happy for both of you.' He stepped forward, smiling and offering his hand, 'Peace, brother.'

Nick clasped it warmly. 'Thanks, Danny.'

Barbie and Sue came around the corner of the marquee and spotted the three men together. 'Leon,' Sue called, pointing to the entrance, 'the band is playing a great rock beat. Can we dance?'

'We sure can, babe.'

He thrust his gla.s.s of champagne into Danny's hand and rock-and-rolled straight over to Sue, who shimmied seductively, the silvery green bridesmaid's dress emphasising her femininity. Leon swung her into the marquee with great panache, and their pleasure in each other left the other three smiling.

'Do you want to dance, too?' Nick asked as Barbie resumed walking towards him.

'I'd rather steal a few quiet moments with you,' she answered.

'Right!' said Danny, plucking the champagne gla.s.s out of Nick's hand. 'A good groomsman knows how to look after the bride's and groom's needs. I shall see that you're left alone.'

And off he marched, pausing only to say to Barbie, 'Best thing Nick's ever done, bringing you into the family. You two really belong together.'

'Thank you, Danny.' She watched him enter the marquee, then looked inquiringly at Nick.

'Just clearing up where he stands. No problem for Danny. He's happy for us,' Nick a.s.sured her.

She sighed. 'He only ever was, and is, your brother to me.'

'I know.'

The sense of how very, very lucky he was swelled through him as he watched her come the rest of the way to where he stood waiting for her...so breathtakingly beautiful in her wedding gown, like the fairy princess dress, soft and gauzy, clinging to her curves and glittering with silver bugle beads, and her hair like gleaming silk, rippling down over her shoulders. But what shone out of her eyes was more wondrous to Nick than anything else...the love she held for him in her heart...and the trust he'd won back.

He held out his arms and she walked straight into his embrace, curling her own arms around his neck. 'You're wearing the watch I gave you,' she said, a whimsical question in her eyes. 'I didn't notice it until the speeches and you made a toast to my parents.'

'It felt right to wear it today. I love you, Barbie. There never will be anyone else for me.'

'Nor me,' she murmured. 'You were always the one...the love of my life.'

And that was the most magical thing of all, Nick thought as he kissed her, that she'd still been waiting for him when Fate crossed their paths and gave him the chance to realise that she was the one for him.

The only one.

His wife...his soul mate...the love of his life.

ISBN: 978-1-4592-0287-0.

Books by Emma Darcy.

HARLEQUIN PRESENTS.

2110-THE CATTLE KING'S MISTRESS*

2116-THE PLAYBOY KING'S WIFE*

2122-THE PLEASURE KING'S BRIDE*

2157-THE MARRIAGE RISK