The Bridal Chase. Darcy Maguire

didn’t want the truth…she only wanted to hear that Cade was a cheat.

      What did he see in her? Was this the real woman and he was some masochist or was she two-faced and had taken the poor guy for a ride?

      She couldn’t imagine Cade with anyone who wasn’t nice…

      Roxanne lifted her chin. Well, she would darned well give the woman what she wanted.

      She thrust the file across the desk with an invoice for her time. ‘The man had bedroom eyes,’ Roxanne blurted, meeting the client’s cold hard gaze, knowing that the tape could in no way show it. ‘And the sexiest mouth that he used to his advantage—though not a crime…’

      What was she doing?

      Giving Heather Moreton what she wanted, what the client wanted, and what every single woman in Sydney would want her to do to free up another nice guy.

      ‘He sat so close to me his fresh soap and spicy cologne filled my senses—’ She paused and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. ‘And he was radiating pure hot male just waiting for the right woman to come and sate his lust.’

      Miss Moreton straightened tall. ‘So he did proposition you?’ she said, her face softening.

      Roxanne wet her dry lips, her mind filling with visions of what it would have been like with him if Heather hadn’t been his fiancée.

      She glanced at the client who was nodding enthusiastically, her face all smiles at the supposed revelation. Would Miss Moreton hear the truth if she actually listened to the tape in her bag? Probably not with the prejudice she seemed to have.

      ‘He all but invited me to a gallery,’ she said, finding it easier to embellish the truth knowing it was what the client wanted.

      Cripes, Heather almost looked ecstatic at the news. ‘He teased me with his schedule, probably in the hopes that I’d hook up with him later.’ She bit her lip, trying to stop herself.

      ‘What else?’ Heather barked.

      She wanted more? ‘And he failed to mention his engagement to you,’ she said in a rush. ‘And I have to say that we really had a connection, and if you hadn’t come in when you did we probably would have…spent the night together.’

      She looked away, embarrassed at the insinuation she’d given. Sure, they would have. He was easy to talk to and she was sure they could have talked all night, but Heather Moreton probably didn’t want to know that.

      Miss Moreton nodded, a thin smile stretching across her face. ‘Good. Good.’ She gave the invoice a glance, bent over and wrote a cheque, her grin widening. ‘I should have known you were a professional. I was a bit worried last week but you came through.’

      ‘Here to help,’ Roxanne said tightly. This was absolutely crazy. The man was a saint and a wonderful guy…but if this woman didn’t see that, didn’t want to see that, then she didn’t deserve him.

      Cade deserved true love and happiness, not to be married to a witch who didn’t even want him.

      She leant back in her seat watching the woman, with her perfect head held high and her grin a mile wide, straighten up and saunter out of the office.

      Roxanne then stared at the cheque on the desk, gnawing on her bottom lip. She had done the world a favour. She’d saved a really nice guy from a fate worse than death and liberated a bachelor for some grateful woman somewhere who’d treasure him.

      She didn’t know what Heather Moreton’s problem was, but it was solved now. For better or for worse, Cade was free.

      Cade leant against his car, waiting for Heather. It wasn’t typical for her to change their plans, let alone bring them forward. Backward, yes. She’d done that a fair bit over the past few weeks, but she’d never made it sooner.

      He rubbed his jaw. She probably just wanted to talk about the wedding. The last-minute plans, including whether he’d done his bit in organising the honeymoon.

      She needn’t have worried. He had it all covered.

      Maybe she wanted to talk about Roxanne.

      He’d felt all last night through the meal the weight of the unsaid between them. It didn’t feel right that she could ignore what had happened.

      She’d had every opportunity to question his affection for her after seeing him with Roxanne at the bar, the same woman she’d seen him with the other day.

      Did she trust him that much?

      Did she love him that blindly? Hell, he was a fool. How could he doubt his own affection for his fiancée now…when she was obviously so in love with him, and just weeks before the wedding?

      She loved him.

      It was in everything she did. The time she spent with him and his friends. The time she took out of her busy schedule to visit his family. The time she was taking away from him to make their special day unforgettable.

      How could he even spend a moment thinking about the woman in red at the bar?

      He sighed. He couldn’t believe how the communication between him and Heather had gone awry that day. He was sure her message had been that she couldn’t make it. Then she’d turned up out of the blue.

      She must love him so much to get out of some meeting to spend time with him. And he was making an idiot out of himself.

      Maybe it was just cold feet. Nerves. The last fantasy of an engaged man…with under a fortnight to go until he walked down the aisle.

      He sucked in a deep breath and pushed down his negative thoughts. He should concentrate on spending all the time he could with Heather, focusing on her needs, helping her with their wedding plans and being her rock.

      She was doing so much for them both, and the time she spent away from him was probably as hard on her as it was for him…when they needed to spend time together and affirm their connection.

      He crossed his arms and leant back, leaning on his car, surveying the basement garage of Heather’s apartment complex. She’d probably realised it herself and needed to see him tonight…for him to hold her and tell her how much he wanted to marry her, for her to tell him how much she loved him.

      Cade sighed. No doubts and no distractions would be nice until the wedding, but he knew that life rarely worked like that.

      It had been a funny thing to meet that stunning woman again. He’d thought meeting a woman like that last week had been special, fated, a sweet reminder of all the things he had to look forward to with Heather, once they were married.

      He’d wondered about her all weekend, considering what the story might be behind her making the first move.

      There was no reason why a woman that beautiful had to go putting herself on the line to find nice men.

      Hell, were nice men blind?

      To meet the mystery woman again had been surreal. She was so different. Intriguing. And damned hard to get out of his mind.

      ‘Cade,’ Heather barked, striding towards him, stunning in a white three-piece suit, her hair curled up and her lips pulled thin.

      Cade frowned. He’d never heard that tone before—hard and icy—she must have had a rough day and needed him all the more.

      ‘Heather.’ He opened his arms for her warm embrace but she stopped two paces too short, her face sober, her eyes narrowed. ‘What’s wrong?’

      She grasped the engagement ring he’d given her, yanked it off her finger and held it out to him, her palm flat. ‘I’m afraid the engagement is off.’

      ‘Off?’ he echoed, peeling himself off his car and standing tall, staring at the ring in her hand, his mind tumbling around for the significance in her words. Was she being serious?

      ‘Off,’ she snapped, shoving the ring into his jacket pocket and shrinking back as though