“Have you changed your mind?” she asked hopefully.
“Ah, beautiful,” he said roguishly, “what’s the difference if you marry me twice, as long as the end result is what you want?”
“You mean whatyouwant!”
He chuckled, and Sharisse sat back stonily, determined to ignore him. The rest of the ride progressed in silence, with Sharisse fuming and Lucas absorbed in watching her. He took her outside the city, to a small church. He had made arrangements beforehand, and the minister was waiting, along with two parishioners who would act as witnesses.
Sharisse went along with it all in the same stony silence until, halfway through the ceremony, the minister addressed Lucas by a name she hadn’t expected to hear.
Before she could protest aloud, he whispered to her, “Don’t worry. An oversight, but it makes no difference.”
“But—”
“If you don’t want to go through with this, thereisthe alternative.”
Sharisse clamped her mouth shut.
Lucas anticipated further objection over the signing, but Sharisse surprised him. He didn’t know it, but she didn’t remember signing her first wedding paper, so the fact the minister hadn’t yet written in their names didn’t alarm her. She didn’t comment, either, when he insisted she sign her maiden name. She just did it, then stalked out of the church to wait for him in the carriage.
When he joined her in the carriage, he dropped the completed document in her lap and sat back and waited. He didn’t have long to wait.
Sharisse read no further than Slade’s name and glared at Lucas. “You said his saying the wrong name was an oversight. But you signed ‘Slade,’ too!” She threw the paper at him.
He looked at her but said nothing.
“How could you do this to me, Lucas? You have married me to your brother!”
“No. I have married you to me, legally this time. Isn’t that clear to you yet?”
She allowed all her questions to run through her mind, then came up with some answers. “You really are Slade, aren’t you? You only pretended to be Lucas to trick me! And what the devil do you meanthis time?” He smiled, and she cried, “Oh, it wasyouwho married me before. You came back that day and let me believe you were Lucas so you could…If the preacher hadn’t arrived when he did, then you would have—no wonder Lucas was so furious. You married me to him without his knowing!”
“You have some of that right, beautiful, some. You want to hear the rest of it or do you want to keep on sputtering?”
“What can you tell me that will excuse what you’ve done?” she said, furious. How dare he be so high-handed? “I’m not married to both of you, am I?”
“No. Your first marriage wasn’t legal.”
At least she wasn’t a bigamist, though that was a small relief.
“I don’t know what you think you’ve accomplished by all this trickery, Slade.YouI will divorce—with pleasure. You’ve got nothing.”
“Will you divorce me, beautiful?”
“Immediately,” she assured him.
Sharisse turned away. The matter was settled. They returned to her house in silence, as they had left it, and then he amazed her by saying, “Go and pack some of your things, Sharisse. You’re moving in with me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Slade.” She moved to step out of the carriage.
“I didn’t marry you just for the hell of it. I had no legal rights over you before, but now I do, and I intend to keep it that way. Do what you’re told.”
She was horrified. “But I won’t stay married to you! I won’t!”
She ran into the house, slamming the door behind her, but in a moment he threw the door open.
“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”
She faced him, enraged. “Get out!”
