His Black Sheep Bride Read Free Page A

conditions—including the existence of a sad-sack boyfriend.
    When the music faded away, Tamara made to pull away, and he let her break free of his hold.
    â€œWe’re done,” she said, a challenge in her voice.
    He let one side of his mouth quirk up. “Not nearly, but it’s been a pleasure so far.”
    He watched as her green eyes widened. Then she whirled away and stalked off.

Two
    T he three-way conference call might as well have been invented for the girlfriend gab fest, Tamara thought.
    She’d just dialed Belinda and Pia from her office phone. After Saturday’s wedding disaster, she’d held off on calling. It was somewhat uncharacteristic behavior for her after a girlfriend crisis, but the truth was she’d been nursing a proverbial hangover herself. Plus, let’s face it, this wasn’t any old run-of-the-mill crisis involving men, money or bad bosses. It wasn’t every day a woman had a bomb land on her wedding in the form of a heretofore unknown husband.
    But now it was Monday morning. It was past time, Tamara thought, that she checked in and saw how her friends were holding up.
    â€œWell, Mrs. Hollings is all over this one,” she began without preamble after putting her girlfriends on speaker phone. “I swear if I ever get my hands on that woman…”
    The thought that the old dragon of gossip was in Sawyer’s employ only made her more irate.
    Turning her mind in a different direction, she softened her tone. “Are you okay, Belinda?”
    â€œI’ll live through this,” her friend responded. “I think.”
    â€œAre you still, ah, married to Colin Granville?” Pia asked, voicing the question Tamara herself wanted to ask.
    â€œI’m afraid so,” Belinda admitted. “But not for long. Just as soon as I get the marquess— ” she stressed Colin’s title sarcastically “—to agree to a valid annulment, everything will be all right.”
    â€œA quick end to a quick marriage…” Pia said brightly before trailing off uncertainly.
    None of them needed a reminder of Belinda’s ill-fated run to a Las Vegas wedding chapel.
    Tamara knew that the Wentworths and Granvilles had been neighbors and rivals in the Berkshire countryside for generations. It was likely why Belinda had wanted her marriage to the Marquess of Easterbridge undone quietly, and had kept mum to everyone, including even her closest girlfriends, about the apparently short-lived elopement.
    â€œColin isn’t giving you a hard time about the annulment, is he?” Tamara asked.
    â€œOf course not!” Belinda replied. “Why would he? After all, it’s not as if we had a real marriage. We dashed into a Las Vegas wedding chapel. The next morning we regretted our mistake. Colin said he’d take care of the annulment!”
    â€œLet’s back up to the part where you went into the chapel,” Tamara said drily. “How did it happen? You dash to the airport to avoid missing a flight. You dash into a supermarket for some milk.”
    â€œYou might even dash into Louis Vuitton to grab their latest it bag,” Pia suggested.
    â€œExactly,” Tamara went on. “But you do not dash into a wedding chapel to get hitched on the fly.”
    Belinda sighed. “You do if it’s Vegas, and you’ve just runinto someone…unexpected. And you’ve had a drink or two that have gone straight to your head.”
    Pia’s groan of commiseration sounded over the phone.
    Tamara wondered how much blame to place on a couple of drinks, and how much on Colin himself. Her meticulous friend wasn’t the type to get tipsy, at least not without a reason.
    â€œYou didn’t change your name to Granville, did you?” Tamara asked. “Because if you did—”
    Pia gasped. “Oh, Belinda, tell me you didn’t! Tell me you didn’t legally become one of the enemy!”
    â€œNot to