Last-Minute Bridegroom. Linda Miles

Chaz. ‘Just for a year or two. Everyone will be expecting it to break up, so they won’t be surprised—the only thing that they’ll be surprised about is that we married in the first place.’

      ‘Exactly,’ said Tasha. ‘Because it’s a ridiculous idea.’

      Chaz raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re not thinking,’ he said. ‘If you call off the wedding you don’t have to give the guests the real reason, but you’ll have to explain to your father, no?’

      ‘Yes,’ said Tasha.

      ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’

      Tasha stared at him. Ever since she’d talked to Jeremy the only thing she’d been able to think of was her father—of throwing herself into his arms and crying her heart out and explaining what had gone wrong. Now, for the first time, she thought of her father’s reaction to hearing the reason for the break-up. What if he felt guilty for not giving her more money? What if he thought she was blaming him for not giving her more money?

      Tasha bit her lip.

      ‘Quite,’ said Chaz. ‘It’s a pretty big burden to ask him to bear. This way we can give the same story to everyone. We ran into each other somewhere and fell madly in love; you broke off your engagement with Jeremy and decided to marry me instead. We knew it was short notice but since the wedding had already been planned we decided to go ahead with it.’

      He grinned at her. ‘The beauty of it is in the arrangements. Knowing you, I’ll bet you’ve ended up inviting all five of my fractional families—which means the groom’s guests are already taken care of apart from a few friends. That just leaves Jeremy’s side. Well, they’re his guests—let him uninvite them. If any of them happen to show up we’ll simply make them welcome—we can afford to be generous on our big day.’

      Tasha was giggling in spite of herself. The thought of various of Jeremy’s repulsive relations sitting in their pews and seeing Chaz at her side appealed to the nasty side of her nature which she hadn’t known she had.

      “That is a temptation,’ she admitted. ‘In fact, it would be quite helpful, because then they could pick up their gifts on the way out.’

      Chaz laughed. ‘That’s the spirit. Then you can come to New York with me, and file for a divorce in a year.’

      Tasha sighed. ‘I wish it were that simple.’

      Chaz flicked up an eyebrow. ‘What’s complicated? The most important thing is not to upset your father. The second most important thing is to make things easy for yourself. Well, you’ve done all the work for the wedding, it’s easier to go ahead than do all the extra work of calling it off.’ He smiled at her. ‘I know it may be a bit hard for you to go through it as a charade when you thought it would be for real, but I’ll see you through it. It won’t be as bad as you think. And afterwards you can just leave everything behind. Spend a year in New York, where there’s nothing to remind you of Jeremy or the things you planned to do. At the end of the year make up your mind what to do next.’

      Tasha ran a hand absent-mindedly through her hair. For the first time she considered the preposterous suggestion as a serious possibility. There was no doubt about it; it would be far simpler to go through with things at this stage than to pull back. But how could she marry Chaz?

      ‘Even if all that’s true,’ she said at last, ‘why would you do such a thing? You can’t possibly want to be married. It’ll put a terrible cramp in your style.’

      Chaz shrugged. ‘True enough.’ The black eyes were thoughtful. ‘But your father’s been pretty decent to me. He’s certainly the nearest thing I’ve ever had to a father, and I don’t have many chances to do something for him.’ His mouth quirked up. ‘Besides, Tash, you’ve always been the most amusing of all my ragbag of sort-of relations, and there’s not much I won’t do for people who don’t bore me.’

      Tasha stared at him. ‘But you hate me,’ she protested.

      ‘You hate me,’ Chaz corrected her gently. ‘But your passion is unrequited.’ He gave her a gleaming glance. ‘And, if I may say so, misplaced. You don’t have to put me in your top ten for this, but I expect you to give me credit, for once, for doing something not purely out of self-interest.’

      Tasha still had her drink in her hand. She finished the glass absent-mindedly and set it down.

      She frowned. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I’ve never slept with anyone I wasn’t in love with. I know I said I was going to a little while ago but I’m not really myself today. I have a feeling when I’m myself again it will just seem impossible again. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.’

      She glanced up again, forcing herself to meet his eyes. Chaz gave her a rather wry smile. ‘I don’t have the wrong idea,’ he said. ‘I always said it wasn’t your style. It’s an unconditional offer, Tash; you don’t have to sleep with me if you don’t want to.’ An amused eyebrow shot up as a thought struck him. ‘Anyway, if I start committing adultery a couple of weeks after the wedding it’ll give you ironclad grounds for divorce, and God knows the temptation will be there—all the women I didn’t marry will have their hatchets out for you, darling, and be only too happy to remind me of what I let slip.’

      Tasha realised that she was feeling unreasonably annoyed by this remark. It was completely ridiculous. If she went through with it she couldn’t expect Chaz to remain celibate for a year to honour a paper marriage, and she had absolutely no right to be jealous of him. The comment was the type of cynical, sophisticated remark that had always irritated her, but the chances were his assessment of the situation was actually right; it was ridiculous to hold it against him for knowing his world. The bottom line was that he was being very generous, offering her a way out of a nightmarish situation without asking anything in return.

      Without asking anything in return? Chaz?

      ‘Well, if you don’t want sex what do you want?’ asked Tasha.

      Chaz grinned. ‘I didn’t say I didn’t want it, darling. I just said you didn’t have to oblige.’

      ‘Exactly,’ said Tasha. ‘So what do you expect from me? Is it enough to know you’re protecting Daddy from something you think he shouldn’t know? Or do you want something more?’

      Chaz paused for thought. ‘Well, if we split up I want half the wedding presents,’ he said. ‘I’ve always wanted to run a five-toaster flat; I reckon we can count on a good ten even without Jeremy’s side.’

      ‘I did have a wedding list,’ Tasha pointed out.

      ‘Did you? How disappointing. Well, bags the toaster if we only get one.’

      Tasha smiled in spite of herself. ‘Will you be serious?’ she asked. ‘I just want to know what I’m getting into. If there’s something you want out of this I’d rather know now.’

      Chaz shrugged. ‘No strings attached, if that’s what you mean. When I say unconditional I mean unconditional. You could keep me company at a few boring dinners, but if you can’t face it I shan’t mind. You don’t have to pretend to be in love with me when we’re out together in public. Half the women I know married for money; no one will think the worse of you if they think you did—they’ll just think you did well for yourself to get someone who wasn’t physically repulsive into the bargain.’

      Tasha grimaced. ‘But that’s horrible,’ she said. ‘How can you stand it?’

      ‘Stand what?’

      ‘Living with all those miserable people,’ said Tasha.

      Chaz raised a sardonic eyebrow. ‘Who says they’re miserable? They sell the one thing they have for the one thing they want—it’s not a bad deal.’

      Tasha shuddered. What was the use of all that money, she thought, if someone had a whole life without love? But she certainly wasn’t going to argue about that with Chaz.

      ‘So