The Bridal Promise. Virginia Dove
I’m asking you to marry me.” His smile was so sad and awkward, it affected her like a blow.
“I know this is a different marriage proposal than the last one you got from me.” Restless, he turned away and moved to the mantel. His fingers automatically searched out the arrowhead he’d found one day, a lifetime ago. “It certainly will be a different marriage then the one I wanted with you,” he acknowledged. “But I’m serious about it.” His gaze remained on her face as he gripped the thin, lethal piece of tapered stone. “So if there is another man in your life, tell me now,” he demanded.
There was a long pause while she tried to get her breath. “But, we don’t know each other anymore. I’m not sure I even like you,” Perri continued with a calm totally at odds with how she felt. “And more to the point—is there a woman here in Spirit with certain expectations regarding her relationship with you?” she asked.
He gave her a blank look. She tried again. “Is there someone who would be hurt by our getting married, Matt?” Besides myself, she wondered.
Matt studied her, his eyes searching her face and body like he’d never seen her before. Suddenly he relaxed as if he’d reached a decision. Obviously, he wasn’t listening to a word she’d said. And here she was, knocking herself out to be calm, reasonable and mature.
“I’m not involved with anyone myself, at the moment, but that is not the issue.” She was going to maintain her dignity if it killed her. “If we go through with this—”
“No, there’s no one,” he said absently as he strolled back toward her. “And you’re wrong about one thing. Who you’re ‘involved’ with is most decidedly my business, as of now.”
“But you’ve made it clear that you don’t think much of me,” she looked at him in bewilderment and quickly stifled another nervous urge to yawn. Could he be any more annoying? she wondered. Knowing him, she was soon to find out.
“That’s not exactly true,” he muttered gracelessly.
Where was this leading? It was best to keep it just business if she wanted to live through it. “All right. Let’s just leave it,” she said briskly, getting a grip on her heart. She shook off the hopes and dreams of a past that was bygone.
“If this is your idea of down-home charm, it’s not working.” She paused and coolly looked him over. “And I can’t help but wonder if you knew about the conditions of the will in advance. You didn’t seem all that shocked over the idea of a marriage. Were you just getting a charge out of toying with me earlier today?” she demanded.
The skin around those cheekbones seemed to tighten at her words. “You used to be such a sweet little girl,” he said in furious tones.
“But that doesn’t mean I was stupid.” She couldn’t quite keep the smile out of her voice. Apparently Mr. Ransom was not best pleased by the question.
“I may have been a little girl, but I was at least smart enough to be in love with a decent young man. One, I might add, who was honorable enough to propose marriage and mean it.” Perri stared out the window at the nearby tree as a breeze played lightly through the leaves. Just as it had always done. It helped her get hold of herself.
“Yeah, I suppose I was a sweet little girl,” she sighed, the threat of tears receding. How could he make her want to cry and then smile in the spin of a dime? How could he make her want something that no longer existed with such reckless intensity? A recklessness that fully acknowledged how much it would hurt six months down the road. “I will think about the idea of marrying you and see if I can live with it,” she said formally. “I’ll get back to you in a day or two.”
He chucked as if he was actually beginning to enjoy that snippy tone. “Come here,” he said softly, holding out his arms. She hesitated before walking into his light embrace. “I’m sorry I worked so hard to get your goat earlier. And no, I didn’t know she had marriage in mind for us. I would have promised, at least to look out for you,” he admitted grudgingly, “if she’d asked. Truce?” His lips lightly played along her temple.
Perri relaxed slightly and smiled. “Truce,” she said.
“Good,” Matt murmured as he smoothed her hair from her shoulders. Without warning he skillfully covered her mouth with his. There was a moment when she all but tasted his frustration. Then she felt him let it go as he deepened the kiss. The tender quality changed everything.
He overwhelmed her common sense and left her totally unprepared for the sudden transfer into sweetness. His kiss became a gentle appeal rather than an angry demand and the effect was shattering. She gave more of herself than ever before.
Never had she wanted a man the way she wanted Matt at this moment. The tenderness contained such a quality of honesty between them, it almost brought tears to her eyes. She clung to his jacket and found a depth of feeling she could never have envisioned with him. Even young Matt hadn’t stirred her so acutely.
The kiss intensified and changed. His hands began to move over her, molding her to him, keeping her close. They roamed down to her hips, his thumbs playing over her protruding hipbones before he tilted her pelvis into him. She rose up to cradle his aroused flesh.
His hand traveled up to her breast. She arched into him as his thumb found her nipple already erect. “I’m going to have you, Perri,” he said softly as he lay openmouthed kisses against her throat and jaw. “We’re going to have each other and at least some kind of a marriage,” he vowed, “unless you can look me in the eye and tell me ‘no’ like you mean it.”
He kissed her deeply, as if they had all the time in the would Perri’s bones were melting as she clung to him. The mood shifted again and became more demanding. She felt herself straining toward Matt when he abruptly pulled back from the kiss.
“Now that we’ve got a truce,” he said, breathing hard, “let me state my plans.” His grip moved from her shoulders to her nape, his thumbs supporting her jaw, as he kissed her hard and fast. “You may not have heard, darlin’,” he said, “but I’ve been slap out of tact for some time, so I’ll be direct.
“We’ve got ninety days,” he reminded her. “I plan to see to it that each one is an exercise in sheer torment until you say ‘Yes, Matt, I’ll be pleased to be your wife.’ We are going to honor Gannie’s wishes, Per,” he went on. “Even though the word ‘honor’ just about sticks in my throat...”
That did it Fury lashed apart the sexy haze he’d led her toward. Perri was well and truly riled. His words and the fact that he had kissed her right out of all reason and into a stupor were too much. She started to haul off and hit him, but he had always been too quick.
Matt grabbed her and pulled her up off her feet, so that they were eye-to-eye. “I asked you nicely first.” he reminded her. His tone hardened. “Now, I’m telling you. Get ready for a wetding, ‘cause you are getting married. I’m not going to let anything or anybody build a damn condo on this property,” he vowed. “And if, by some screwup, you are responsible for such a thing ever rising out of Gledhill, I will personally take some long and very painful strips right out of your pretty hide.
“And understand this,” he added with grim determination. “I plan to see to it, Ms. Stone, that you’re my wife in every sense of the word.” He set her down sharply.
“You can say ‘yes’ now or spend the next three months looking over your shoulder,” Matt called loudly after her as she pushed past him and headed for the kitchen. “It’s up to you.”
“Miss Marlowe,” he called out with a little too much glee. The look on Perri’s face as she stalked into the kitchen had Donnie moving through the swinging doors looking for a fight. “Try to explain to your cousin from New York that it’s a done deal.
“And,” he added as he walked to the door, “please tell Ms. Stone, I’ll see her in church.” He graciously closed the front door behind him on a grim little smile.
Donnie returned to the kitchen