The Reluctant Bride (Montana Born Brides) (7 page)

“
He’s my fiancé,” Risa said.

“
Uh, what? Why didn’t you mention that?” Annie asked as she took a sip of her drink.

She shook her head.
“I didn’t know when he’d be coming to town.”

“
Hell, girl, you should have said. Carson and Lane have been working nonstop to get the barn ready for him. Do you like it?”

Oh, great.
Now she had to lie about something that she had no idea about.

“
She hasn’t seen it yet, Annie,” Monty said, coming up behind her. He dropped his arm casually around her shoulder and took the cocktail glass from her hand, draining it in one swallow.

“
Dancing is thirsty work.”

“
That it is. I’m hoping to convince Carson to join me on the dance floor, but so far, he’s managed to avoid it,” Annie said. “But I’ve asked the band to play a song that I know will get him out of his seat.”

Sienna drifted over, looking very frail but still lovely.
Her marriage was on the rocks, something that she had mentioned only after she’d had a few too many glasses of wine at last week’s book club.

“
Good luck with that, Annie. Scott men don’t do anything they don’t want to,” Sienna said. “You look pretty tonight, Risa.”

“
Thank you,” Risa said. “Is that what’s going on between you and Alec?”

“
Stubborn muleheadness is what’s going on between us,” Sienna said. “Side effects of him being a jackass.”

Risa sympathized.
It wasn’t that Alec Scott had ever been a jerk to her. It was simply that she understood how a hard-headed man could mess a woman up. “I’ll drink to that.”

“
What do you have against Alec?” Monty asked.

“
Nothing. I’ve never even met him. I was toasting hard-headed men in general.”

“
Do you mean me?”

“
Of course not, honey bunny. I’d never talk bad about you,” she said, linking their arms together and stealing back her empty cocktail glass.

“
Aren’t you two cute?” Sienna said. “Why didn’t you mention Monty before tonight?”

She looked over at Monty, but he just smiled at her.

“Yes, love muffin, why didn’t you mention me?” he asked.

“
I was waiting for him. Didn’t want to spoil the surprise. In fact, he surprised me by showing up tonight,” she said. “He rescued me when I had some car problems.”

“
He did? That’s sweet. How perfect that he showed up when you needed him,” Annie said.

“
He’s a Marine. Riding in to save the day is his thing.”

The band started to play Blake Shelton
’s “God Gave Me You”. Annie smiled as Carson left the bar area, where he’d been talking to Alec and Lane, and waved her over. “Later.”

Sienna sighed.
“I’m so happy for them.”

But she sounded like she was going to cry.

“You okay?”

“
Yeah. I’ve got to go,” Sienna said, turning and walking toward the door.

Risa tried to pull her arm from Monty
’s but he held her fast. “Not yet, love muffin. I want to hear what else you’ve been telling people.”

Mocking her.
She knew he was mad and this just reinforced it. “Nothing. You heard them say I hadn’t mentioned you.”

“
But then you did. So what’s your story?” he asked her.

She gave him a hard stare but he wasn
’t budging until he got the answers he wanted, and she knew she couldn’t move him. “Just that you surprised me by showing up when you did. I think we should say we were planning to meet up, just weren’t sure when.”

“
I guess the surprise part is true enough.”

“
Don’t be a pain. I already said I was sorry for leaving the way I did.”

“
So. That doesn’t mean I have to accept your apology,” he said.

“
You do. Otherwise you’ll be a jackass. And if I know anything about you, Montgomery Davison, it’s that you like being the hero. So that means you’re going to have to forgive me.”

At least that was what she hoped he
’d have to do. She didn’t want to have Monty as her enemy. Not while she was dealing with wedding fever and her own crazy emotions.

Jealousy. There it was. Of all the emotions he didn’t want to admit to feeling, that was the one that was strongest right now. And it had nothing to do with the woman standing next to him, trying not to look like she wanted to cry and suddenly tugging her hand and trying to escape him.

What he wanted was what he
’d just glimpsed in Annie and Carson. That moment where, no matter what he was doing, he’d go to his woman. He’d given this one his ring but she still wasn’t his.

“
Dammit, love muffin, you’ve made a mess of things.”

“
Okay, you can stop calling me that now.”

“
No way. You started it.”

“
Really? You want me to call you honey bunny all the time?”

He shrugged.
“I don’t think my wants have much to do with any decision you make.”

“
Stop it. We have to move on,” she said.

“
I want to, Ri, I really do, but then I see those couples out there dancing, so damned in love and I feel like I’ve been robbed of something important.”

She stopped pulling against his hold and turned to face him in her pretty party dress.
“I’m just saying let’s give it some time.”

Some time.
He got it. No, he didn’t. Maybe it would all be clearer after they chatted tomorrow. He had never in his life been one hundred percent on anything at any time. “Every time I’ve made the big choices, I’ve had a knot of ice in my stomach, but they’ve always paid off.”

She looked at him, really looked up at him and he saw the emotions in her eyes.
Fear. Hope. Maybe a little bit of mischief. She seemed more like the Risa he’d fallen for in that moment than she had all night.

“
I thought you’d be more inclined to want some heat between us,” she said.

Always careful to dance around honesty, he thought.
She kept him on his toes by letting him believe just enough of what he wanted. He dropped her hand and thought, the hell with pride and losing faith. At a certain point a man had to cut his losses, and for him it was this moment.

Sure he wanted her.
He was pretty damned sure he might still love her, but he couldn’t be her puppet. He needed her to at least meet him halfway and always give him the truth.

He walked away without looking back.
Nodded a goodbye to Lane as he headed to the coat check to retrieve his. He had an early-morning video conference call with some prospective employers in Europe for a security job. Marine Corps Reserves were only one weekend a month. Not a real job. And ranching had never been his cup of tea. Maybe it was time to say goodbye to his dreams of a wife and family, and concentrate on building a career outside of the military.

The woman behind the coat check handed him his coat, but as he reached for it, he smelled Risa
’s perfume and a moment later she stepped between him and the counter. “He’s staying.”

“
Am I?”

“
Yes. We are going to dance and talk, and I’m going to make you remember why you are my fiancé.”

“
I’m too tired to play games anymore,” he admitted.

“
Me too. I’m just as scared as I was when I left Vegas, but I don’t want to watch you leave me. Not tonight.”

He stopped worrying if it was pride.
He couldn’t tell anymore. He just knew he wanted to spend the night in her arms. Claim the reward he’d earned by being a hero and fighting for his country.

“
Okay. Tonight we’re just an engaged couple reunited.”

“
Agreed. Tomorrow we’ll figure out the rest of our lives,” she said. She led him to the dance floor, and the song had changed to an up-tempo song and she danced around him like she had no fear. And for once he felt young and alive. But he knew this was pretend.

Every once in a while through the evening, he caught a glimpse of the fear in her eyes.
She introduced him to the other Wedding Giveaway sponsors and most of them seemed surprised to meet him. He wondered if they’d thought she was just wearing an engagement ring but didn’t have a guy.

“
What’s the point of this?”

“
A chance to enjoy life,” she said. “We’re young and we’ve been apart for a long time.”

“
Whose fault is that?”

“
Mine,” she said. “But I’m making up for it tonight. I have struggled to forget you, Monty. I’ve been watching all these couples come in and order flowers for their special day, and in my heart I wished that you were here with me.”

He pulled her into his arms and backed her up behind some decoratively draped tulle and a lighted fake tree. When he was sure no one could see them, he put his hands on the wall behind her head and leaned in, so that their bodies weren
’t touching but there wasn’t much space in between them, either.

He heard her breath catch in her throat, felt her strong exhalation across his neck.
“Enough playing games. What is this about?”

“
I wanted to make sure we still had a connection.”

“
Didn’t that kiss earlier convince you?” he asked, softly, lifting one finger to rub it over her bottom lip. Life would be so much easier if she had thin lips. Then he wouldn’t spend most of their time together wanting to kiss her.

“
That was revenge and we both know it. You wanted to get some of your own back.”

“
Well—”

She put her finger over his lips.
“I don’t blame you. But I wanted to see if we even still liked each other before I put us both through finding out if we could still spend the rest of our lives together. If we both even wanted to.”

“
Is that all? One night is supposed to do all that,” he said.

She nodded.

Her hand stayed on his mouth, her fingers moving slowly back and forth, turning him on and making him forget anger, revenge and pride. All the things that he realized had been responsible for his actions tonight. Right now, he just wanted to be a boy with a very special girl.

But what did Risa want?

Would he ever really know? And how could he deny her this one night, when it was the very thing he’d wanted for a long, long time?

Standing so close to him with her hand on his mouth, she almost believed that this night was real.
That nothing had changed in the last seven months and that her life had found its center and balance again. But she knew this was another mirage. Another moment where her fantasies were busy weaving a story that wasn’t hers.