I swallow, my throat dry. “Fine.”
“Shouldn’t you pull the veil down?” He points at my head.
“Oh, yes. The veil.” I tug it down. “I didn’t realize I’d be doing the shoot in front of all these people?”
“It was all in the contract. Come on, we don’t want to keep Mr. Harrington waiting.”
Great. Whoever this Mr. Harrington is, he sounds like a real peach.
As we get closer, a photographer starts snapping photos before I even get in the room at the end. This is unusual. Everything about this is weird. But I can’t back out now. I need to think of Horace.
The low hum of conversation stops dead as Daniel leaves me at the door and I enter a huge, wood-paneled room overlooking the garden. My stomach starts fluttering with nerves as I peek at the chairs filled with people. Whoever organized this shoot has really gone to town. There must be at least a hundred guests here.
I walk down the central aisle, glad of my lace veil, even though it makes it hard to see anything. It’s like armor protecting me from all these curious stares. An elegant-looking older woman wearing a pink dress is holding onto an enormous fluffy yellow dog from the front row. There’s a very tall, broad figure in a black suit waiting at the end. Perhaps this is the Mr. Harrington that Daniel was so worried about, or maybe it’s a male model, here to get paid, just like me.
I get to the end of the aisle and stop. The musicians bring the march to a close and there’s a moment of silence. I look up, then crane my neck further. This guy is huge.
He steps forward and I catch a delicious woody, spicy scent that makes me want to sniff the air.
I’m about to crack a joke about how much this is like a real wedding when another besuited man steps in front of us and clears his throat.
“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for choosing to be with us today to celebrate this special occasion. Today we are here to unite Kade Harrington and Minna Dawes in marriage.”
My head swims and I sway slightly.
Marriage?
I really should have read that contract.
ChapterTwo
KADE
A shiver runs through the girl standing beside me as the celebrant rambles through his opening speech. Daniel sourced this actor from a casting agency and he’s puttingeverythinghe has into his starring moment. At least he looks the part.
My fake bride’s face is invisible through that ridiculous veil she’s wearing. Not that what she looks like matters, since this is all for show. The lace dress she’s wearing is old-fashioned, but very pretty, hugging her voluptuous curves in a way that sparks my interest. Even through the suffocating odor of all these flowers, she smells a little like orange blossom. Fresh and delicate.
I inwardly curse the absolute dimwit who was handling this while Daniel was on vacation. First he found the actress who was meant to be playing my bride and then booked her for the wrong date. When she was unavailable, due to being in Los Angeles on another job, he had two days to come up with a replacement. He found this Minna girl, but after making the arrangements, failed to turn up to work the next day. Thank goodness Daniel’s taken over, although he hasn’t been able to find the emails Minna and the dimwit exchanged. All he had to go on was a number.
Thankfully Miss Dawes is here and has signed the contract. It doesn’t matter, all she has to do is smile and simper at the guests, and pretend to be in love with me. I just need to tolerate her for the next couple of days. I hope she doesn’t have an annoying laugh.
Granny winks from her position at the front. She’s holding onto Palladio’s lead and has added a bow tie to his collar. My dog looks sheepishly back at me and thumps his tail a couple of times. My grandmother, my fake bride, and Daniel are the only people who are in on the fact this is a sham; well, apart from this incompetent celebrant.
“Today, we witness the joining of two very special souls and two huge hearts together. As Victor Hugo eloquently wrote: ‘life is the flower to which love is the honey…’’
Ridiculous. I try to resist rolling my eyes and instead fix him with a stony stare. That does the trick. He clears his throat.
“So, Kade and Minna, do you come here today freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?”
“I do.” I look over at Minna.
Her voice is whisper-soft, but sweet. “I…do?”
We each repeat the vows after the celebrant. Minna sounds like she’s in a dream, her voice shaking. Perhaps she’s nervous. This room is packed. The sooner we can get this done, the better.
Daniel rises and stands beside us. He’s holding a small velvet pillow with two rings on it.
The celebrant beams. “These rings are symbols of the unbroken circle of love, signifying to all the union of this wonderful couple in marriage."
