Legal Action - Box Set (46 page)

Authors: Kimball Lee

Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #Anthologies, #Contemporary, #Collections & Anthologies

West stood next to Bly, who was front and center and was so tall and astonishingly handsome in his perfectly cut tuxedo, that the guests gasped and murmured when he took his place. The shirt he wore was blue, rather than white, and the color made his startling sea-glass eyes look even more extraordinary than usual. He clasped his hands behind his back, although she could tell he wanted to brush away that errant lock of hair that fell across his brow. He looked anxious, but happy, Charlotte thought, he turned to look at her only once, and a sweet smile passed between them.

She held tightly to Finn’s arm, hard and muscled under the smooth fabric of his suit. She looked up into his eyes, and she saw her love and her world, and she prayed with all her heart that Bly and Maddie would share such love for each other.

“Alexander looks glorious, don’t you think, Charlotte?” Evangeline said, “So very handsome, and of course West is just irresistible, I do think I’ll go straight away and marry him. Heaven knows, he asks me often enough.”

“Now darlin’ you don’t want to rush into anything,” Charles Tremont told Evangeline, reaching over to squeeze her hand.

“I assume you’re married, Ambassador. I must say, it surprises me that your wife isn’t more… watchful over a virile man such as yourself,” she said, and smiled at him knowingly.

“My wife and I have an understanding,” he said, in his slow southern drawl, and Charlotte could feel trouble brewing, for sure.

The guests quieted as the music became more somber and Amanda walked down the aisle. She was lovely in a pale periwinkle-blue dress, her auburn hair piled high above her heart shaped face. She glanced at JP and they smiled at each other, and she lit up like a firefly.

As she reached the arbor and turned, the music stopped for a moment, then Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major began to play. The guests rose, and Maddie walked down the rose-petal path on her father’s arm and Charlotte’s tears flowed from the beauty of the occasion and the music and the radiant bride.

When Bly stepped forward and took Maddie’s hand, he looked so much in love that Charlotte knew he had finally surrendered to happiness. The couple recited vows they had written, and they were sweet and sentimental. Bly kissed his bride and the quartet played Mendelssohn’s triumphant wedding march as they walked up the aisle hand in hand, glowing like the sun.

All the trappings of a traditional wedding were in place, Maddie’s mother had three sons and one daughter and she had planned the wedding of a lifetime. Luncheon was served under white canvas awnings, and they were hung with chandeliers made from branches and lit with small white candles. A parquet dance floor had been laid beneath the trees, and there was dancing to both Cajun and rock bands. The bride and groom posed for pictures and Charlotte was speechless to see the famous photographer Spencer Beck. Finn asked why she was so surprised, that obviously Bly would want the best of the best. Charlotte informed him that Beck had achieved fame when he shot the photographs of her and Jorgen for American Jock, and he was also Maddie’s ex-boyfriend.

After cutting the mile-high wedding cake and toasting their happiness, the men gathered around while Bly tossed the bride’s garter.

Charlotte joined Maddie and Amanda and they made their own toasts for a long, happy marriage. They all clicked their glasses but not one of them took a sip of champagne.

“You’re not drinking champagne at your own wedding?” Amanda asked, arranging the flowing skirt of Maddie’s gown and straightening the pale blue sash at her waist.

“I can’t, I’m pregnant! I haven’t even told Alex yet,” Maddie said, and her hand fluttered to her flat stomach, “I’m due in December.”

“So am I. I’m due in December too,” Amanda squealed, “we just found out, JP is nervous as hell, but we’ve been trying nonstop, so we’re thrilled!”

They both looked at Charlotte who hadn’t said a word, she stood quietly, and there was an odd look on her face, as if she were in shock.

“You, too?” Maddie asked, with a huge grin, “no way, all of us are having babies at the same time?”

Charlotte looked down at the goose-bumps on her arms, “Yes, December,” she said, and the three of them stood with their hands on their soon to be growing bellies, “three babies the same age? This is going to be nothing but trouble,” Charlotte said, and she began to smile, “believe me, I can feel it!”

Charlotte danced with her husband, and then JP, and even West, but she avoided Bly. S
he wanted his new life to go forward without any thoughts of the past. At last she stood looking up at the grand house that belonged to her, and she could still see her grandmother hurrying down the steps to hurl such horrible, nasty words at her mother.

“Ah, Charlotte, you’re no longer the wide-eyed innocent whose face made both of us famous,” Spencer Beck said, looking closely at her. “Your face is more angular now, and more beautiful, if that’s possible.”

“How are you Spencer, I hope it won’t hurt your feelings if I admit that I barely remember you. I hear you’ve photographed the most famous women in the world since then, congratulations on your success,” she said, and turned to go.

He caught her wrist and she turned to look at him, “I’d love to photograph you again for a book I’m doing. My studio is in Los Angeles, a nicer area of L.A. of course,” he smiled, and his smile made her uneasy. “When you come to the studio I can set the camera on automatic and we can both be in the pictures…”

The next thing Spencer Beck knew, he was staring up at Charlotte from the ground and she was smiling.

Finn looked down at him and said, “If you lay a hand on my wife again, or even speak to her, for that matter, I won’t just knock you on your bloody ass. I will come to your studio and show you what Navy SEAL’s do to the bad guys, and you’ll scream so loud, you’ll wish you’d never laid eyes on her in the first place. You need to understand something, Mr. Beck, I am never surrendering Charlotte to any man.”

Charlotte took Finn’s hand and led him up the steps and onto the porch. She looked back at Spencer Beck as he stood and brushed himself off, and she said, “He means what he says, Spencer, and trust me, you could never measure up to my husband in
any
way.”

“Weddings,” Finn said, pulling her close when they stood in the entry-hall, “there’s something about them that makes me want to find an empty bedroom and ravage my wife.”

“There is that big canopy bed in my grandmother’s room, but I just know it’s haunted,” she said, letting her hand graze the front of his suit-pants as they climbed the wide stairway to the second floor bedrooms.

“My love,” he said, closing the bedroom door as she stretched out on the big bed and waited for him to join her, “I can promise you, we will make so much noise, we’ll scare all the ghosts out of this old house.”

END

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading, please leave positive reviews on Kindle if you loved this book, positive reviews mean everything to a girl like me!

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Try Kimball's other Titles:

Temptation Road – A tale of enchantment

Craving Caroline

LUC

COMING SOON:

LEGAL HEIRS: Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles Book 5 (October 18th)

TEMPTATION ROAD 2 (November 1st)