Last-Minute Bridegroom. Linda Miles

of me.’

      Temper sizzled in the black eyes. The lovely, sensuous mouth tightened ominously.

      ‘All right,’ said Chaz. ‘You’ve made your point. Satisfied?’ He stood up, thrust his hands in his pockets, and made an effort to shrug off his irritation. ‘I admit it was patronising,’ he said. ‘But we both want the same thing, after all.’ He smiled at her, running a finger over her kiss-swollen mouth. ‘Fireworks,’ he said softly. ‘Let’s go upstairs and set some off.’

      Tasha looked up at him. He was right in a way. All these years she’d despised him for being unfair to her boyfriends, for judging them by superficial standards—she was just beginning to realise that she hadn’t even understood what he was talking about. She could go upstairs and find out with a vengeance.

      But there were still other passions raging inside her. It was wonderful to have Chaz standing there, furious at her but not able to stay furious because he wanted her so badly. When would she ever have a chance like this again? Whereas if she wanted to sleep with him, she thought flippantly, she could do that any time.

      Chaz was still smiling. Of course, he could see the way she was looking at him, eyes lingering on the mouth she had kissed; how could he imagine she wouldn’t give in?

      If she were her usual self of course she would give in. But where had being her usual self got her? She knew she was behaving badly; it felt wonderful to know she was behaving badly and do it anyway. She was going to be a bad, bad, bad, bad girl.

      ‘I’d just rather not,’ said Tasha, and hugged herself at the look of blank incredulity that replaced the confident smile.

      ‘You’re actually serious about this,’ Chaz said slowly.

      ‘Of course I’m serious about it,’ said Tasha.

      A muscle twitched in his cheek. ‘I should take you over my knee and spank you for this,’ he said tightly. ‘And I’m quite serious about that, in case you’re wondering.’

      ‘I don’t know why,’ Tasha shot back. ‘You backed out and I didn’t threaten you with physical violence; why is this any different?’

      ‘The difference,’ Chaz said acidly, ‘is that you’re doing it out of sheer bloody-mindedness.’

      ‘I know,’ Tasha said with disconcerting frankness. ‘But it feels so lovely.’

      ‘Is that meant to make me feel better about it?’ asked Chaz.

      ‘I’m upset,’ said Tasha. ‘My life has been turned upside down. It may not be your fault, but you’re here. It’s not fair, but then life isn’t fair.’ She gave him a dazzling smile. ‘Anyway, who knows when I’ll have another chance to be bloody-minded to you? Whereas there’s a good chance I can sleep with you some other time if I want to. Unless, of course, you decide you want your revenge.’

      ‘Oh, for God’s sake—’ He scowled at her.

      ‘You know, we could go on like this for years,’ Tasha said blithely. ‘Next time you could proposition me and turn me down when I accept, then I could proposition you and then change my mind, then you could start to seduce me and then have a headache—’

      ‘Will you stop it?’ There was still a glint of temper in the black eyes, but a reluctant smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. ‘I don’t know whether to kiss you or kill you,’ he said exasperatedly.

      ‘Well, you’d better not kiss me,’ said Tasha. ‘I wouldn’t want you to get excited.’

      Chaz gave her a sardonic look. ‘You know, the funny thing is people have quite the wrong idea of you. Everyone thinks you’re such a nice girl.’

      ‘Yes,’ Tasha said rather bitterly. ‘That’s why they walk all over me.’

      ‘No comment,’ said Chaz. ‘I’m going to have another drink to calm my nerves.’

      He walked over to the sideboard. Tasha followed him. She could do with a drink herself. It occurred to her that she’d never been so horrible to anyone in her whole life. For some reason she liked Chaz a lot better now that she’d been so horrible to him.

      ‘I enjoyed the kiss, anyway,’ she said politely. ‘Both kisses.’

      Chaz flicked her a glance. ‘I could tell.’ An eyebrow shot up. ‘Me too. Let’s not pursue that line of thought, shall we?’

      He poured out a drink for himself, and one for Tasha.

      He lifted his glass. ‘To what might have been,’ he said.

      ‘To what might have been,’ Tasha said gloomily. She took a sip of her drink.

      For about the two-hundredth time in twenty-four hours her mind turned to composition. It was struggling with a communication which was sometimes a letter starting ‘I am sorry to say’, and sometimes a repulsively formal printed invitation retraction starting ‘Professor G.G. Merrill regrets to inform you’, but which always got bogged down at ‘that’. ‘I am sorry to say’, she began, decided again that the printed formal version worked better, decided again that it would be repulsively formal, and abandoned the debate for the two-hundredth time to try to think of a new job to try for. In a week. When she had nowhere to live and nowhere to put her things. Tasha took another sip of her drink.

      If she stored them with her father, she thought again, she would have to move them twice, and anyway he had nowhere to put them. If she stored them with her mother she would get a long lecture on scaring men away and anyway her mother had nowhere to put them because her house was full of wedding presents. Wedding presents! For the two-hundredth time she remembered that she was going to have to do something about the wedding presents. She took another sip of her drink, scowling.

      She was going to have to say something about the presents when she wrote to people so they would know they would get them back. But she would have to say that they should not expect to get them back too soon because she had to look for a new job and a place to stay. But you couldn’t say that; you just couldn’t. But she just couldn’t send them back until she had a job and a place to stay. But what if it took weeks or months and she still hadn’t sent back the presents? But what if—?

      ‘It’s going to be so horrible,’ she said. ‘I gave notice on my flat and someone else is moving in so I’ve nowhere to stay. I gave notice at work so I could work in Jeremy’s venture capital company and now I don’t have a job. On top of which we’ve invited hundreds of people to the wedding. Now I’ll have to uninvite them and send back hundreds of presents and explain and explain and explain... What is it?’

      Chaz was staring down at her with an arrested expression. ‘I’ve had an idea,’ he said. ‘Just when is this wedding?’

      ‘Next week,’ said Tasha with a grimace.

      ‘Not a problem,’ said Chaz. ‘Special licence.’

      ‘You don’t need a licence to call off a wedding,’ Tasha said wearily.

      ‘I know that,’ said Chaz. The black eyes were brilliant with amusement. ‘But I don’t think you should call it off.’

      ‘I don’t have any choice in the matter,’ Tasha said impatiently. ‘Even if Jeremy changed his mind I just couldn’t after what he said—’

      Chaz shook his head. ‘Oh, you can’t marry Jeremy,’ he said. ‘That would never do.’ He smiled at her blandly. ‘I think you should go ahead with the wedding, and marry me instead.’

      CHAPTER TWO

      ‘WHAT did you say?’ said Tasha.

      ‘You should marry me,’ said Chaz. ‘It’s obvious, really. Can’t think why I didn’t think of it before.’

      Tasha could think of about five million reasons not to marry Chaz. ‘Are you out of your mind?’ she said feebly.

      Chaz