Kate gripped her arm more securely, urging her forward, yet her hold was never really that tight. Kelly knew she could shake free. It was just a matter of picking her moment. This marriage wasnt just a mistake. It was a mistake the size of an earthquake. Maybe shed have to leave the country under an assumed name to live this down, but she simply couldnt go through with it.
But then this strange thing happened.
It wasnt as if the minister or Kates grip or the whole sea of faces instantly disappeared...but her gaze suddenly locked on the groom.
Mackenzie Fortune.
Mac.
His shoulders looked beam-broad in the black tux, his height towering, his thick hair darker than charcoal and shot with silver at the sideburns. Black suited him, the same way it would suit a pirate. His angular face was set with strong bones and an elegant mouth and a no-nonsense square chin.
Nobody messed with Mac. The lean, mean build had nothing to do with it. He was a business man, not a pirate dependent on brawn to get his way. Shed never heard him raise his voice, never seen him angry, but he had a way of silencing a whole room when he strode in. Those shrewd, deep-set green eyes could cut through chatter faster than a blade. The life lines bracketing his eyes and mouth reflected an uncompromising nature, a man who loved a challenge and never backed down from a fight. Mac was a hunk, but he was also one intimidatingly scary dudeat least for a woman who was uncomfortable around powerful men.
A year before, Kelly had been wildly, blindly, exuberantly in love. The father of her baby had been an incredibly exciting man. A man she believed in heart and soul. A man she would have done anything for, anytime, anywhere, no questions askedand unfortunately, had.
Mac wasnt the man shed been in love with.
He wasnt the father of her baby.
He was just the groom.
But his gaze met hers with the directness of a sharp, clear laser beam as if no one else were in that room but the two of them. He didnt smilebut that look of his immediately affected the panicked beat of her pulse. She was unsure what the dark, fathomless expression in his eyes meant, but that wasnt news. She was unsure of nearly everything about Mac, but she promptly forgave herself for the wild panic attack. Surely it was understandable. Normally a woman would have to be crazy to marry a relative stranger, but nothing about Kellys life right now was normal. For a few moments there, shed just selfishly forgotten what matteredand it wasnt her.
If there was a man on the planet who could protect her baby, it was Mac Fortune.
Nothing else mattered to her or even came close.
She took a breath for courage, plastered on a smile and walked up the aisle to her groom.
At thirty-eight, Mac had no belief in magic, but hed always felt a certain kinship with Houdini. He understood how much hard work it took to become an accomplished escape artist. For Mac, it had taken ceaseless determination and unfaltering resolve and downright dedication to escape marriage all these yearsparticularly when the family never stopped hounding him to tie the knot. More than a few women had chased himmost were more interested in a key to the Fortune money than in him personally, but that hadnt bothered Mac. He had always respected both greed and ambition. Hed enjoyed being chased. Hell, he enjoyed women. He just happened to have a violent allergy to marriage.
Kelly had almost reached the edge of the red velvet carpet when Mac saw her stumble. She didnt trip, but he could see the stress swimming in her eyes. Without hesitation, he swiftly stepped forward and grabbed her hand. The ministers brow furrowed in a repressive little frown, silently letting Mac know that hed broken with protocol in this shindig. Apparently the groom wasnt supposed to put his mitts on the bride at this point in the proceedings. Reaching out to grab her wasnt in the program.
Tough. Kelly looked fragile enough to keel over. Ghosts had more color. And judging from the sweat dampening his brides shaky palm, she was even less thrilled by this marriage than he was. The humorous thought crossed his mind that at least they had a couple of things in common. Neither wanted this wedding.
And neither had seen any way out of it.
Dearly beloved, the minister began in a sonorous drone.
Mac tuned out. Keeping his fingers curled in hers, he mentally calculated how soon they could escape this circus. The ceremony couldnt take more than fifteen minutes? And then they were on the hook to stick around for the champagne feast Kate had put together. But the blizzard forecast would surely cut this short for everyone. In less than two hours, with any luck, they could be driving homelong before the clock struck midnight and brought in the new year.
He felt eyes on his back. Watching him, studying him. At any wedding, the groom and bride were obviously the focus of attention, but Mac was well aware these circumstances were different. As vice president of Finance for the Fortune Corporation for almost a decade, his job had often been to bail the businessor the familyout of trouble. The clan was long on love and loyalty, but big money still made for big problems and big disagreements as well. If there was a problem that could cause embarrassment, someone had to make the boo-boo disappear. When everyone else was freaked out and wringing their hands, Mac had a long history for taking charge and doing what had to be done.
This time, though, they werent so sure of him.
Hed announced two weeks ago that he was going to marry her. It was the first time hed ever seen the family stunned to silence. Part of that silence was reliefthe problem of Kelly was no secret, but no one could agree on solutions. Even for a family who would he, cheat and steal for each otherand sometimes, unfortunately, took loyalty just that farnobody had considered that marriage was an optional solution for this crisis, much less for Mac. They knew about his allergy. They couldnt believe he meant it. They still werent dead positive hed go through with it.
Kellys hand suddenly squeezed his. He glanced down. For an instant he caught the tiniest hint of humor in her eyes. The ring, the minister prompted. From the highpitched crack in Reverend Lowrys voice, Mac suspected hed missed his cue at least once.
His cousin Garrett Fortune, thankfully, was prepared to do the best-man job, and quickly palmed him the ring. Mac reached for Kellys left hand. The slim gold band was almost microscopichardly appropriate for a Fortune bride. But hed offered Kelly any size carat rock she wanted, and shed balked. She wanted no jewels and particularly no stones with a Fortune heritageprobably because it was Fortune money that had heaped this whole mess on her head.
Yet as he struggled to fit on the ring, he was suddenly aware of her. Distractingly aware. Hed clasped her hand to offer support, but there was nothing intimate in that simple act of kindness. She was so nervous that her slim white hand was trembling like a leaf in a high wind. But her dress rustled against his thigh. And her scent drifted to his nostrils, some perfume that vaguely reminded him of spring daffodils, illusive and sweet. And he saw a silvery pale curl sneaking down behind the veil, escaping a hairpin, coiling on the pale white column of her neck. Mac wasnt sure why his pulse suddenly buckedpossibly because it hit him with the slam of a freight train that he didnt know her. At all.
But the ring stuck on her knuckle, and then he pushed it past.
But the ring stuck on her knuckle, and then he pushed it past.
With this ring... The minister said, and then waited.
Kelly nudged him with her foot. With this ring, Mac repeated loudly and clearly.
I thee wed...
She didnt have to nudge him this time. I thee wed.
I promise to love, honor and cherish...
Normally telling lies would have bothered him. But not for this. The integrity of a man was measured in honoran antiquated value that Mac happened to believe was the judge of a mans life. But the truth of this moment was between him and Kelly, and a bunch of words said in public had nothing to do with that.
Still, the fibs obviously didnt come so easily for her. When it was her turn to put a ring on his finger, she fumbled and flustered and almost dropped it. With this ring, she started reciting.
Her voice barely managed the volume of a whisper. She had trouble pushing the ring onto his finger, and Mac could sense how uneasy she was about touching him. She couldnt or wouldnt meet his eyes when it was done, but again they were close. He could see the sweep of velvet-soft eyelashes shading her cheeks, the faint spray of freckles across the bridge of her nose.
God, she was young. It wasnt the age difference between thirty-eight and twenty-seven that separated them half so much as the light-years of experience. In spite of her protruding tummy being obvious proof to the contrary, she still had a look of innocence. There were those freckles. And those shy, sky-soft blue eyes. And that silky fine hair that normally bounced on her shoulders and never looked brushed. She was a half foot shorter than himsquirt sizeand her oval face was set with delicate, fine features, but there was nothing elegant or delicate about the way she ran around the company. Hell, hed heard her giggling in Kates office more than once, and she chased around with this radiant, exuberance zest for life that made the sun seem low-voltage by comparison. She was a grown-up, intelligent woman, and she handled a bundle of responsibilities for Kate, but nothing had ever sobered that so-young cheeky smile of hers. Until Chad took off and left her.
Mac mentally damned his younger brothernot for the first time in the last few months. Chad could charm a woman into bed faster than a bee could smell honey. He also had a gift for disappearing from sight whenever there was music to face. Truth to tell, Chad hadnt known about the pregnancy when he disappeared this time, but hed paid his way out of a paternity suit before. Maybe if Mac had listened earlier to gossip, hed have heard about Chad giving Kelly a rush and done something about itbut maybe not. Over the years, hed tried counseling, tried yelling, tried bailing Chad out of countless scrapes, but nothing seemed to root a sense of responsibility or honor in his younger brother. Initially Mad had tried to locate him when the situation took a serious nose dive, but Chad had cut and run for parts unknownpar for his course. Eventually, he was findable. With enough money, anyone was findable. But the problem of Kelly required immediate action, and Mac had lost all faith that his brother would step up to the plate even if he were in the ball park.
Kelly suddenly raised her eyes and looked at him. She was obviously trying to communicate something, but damned if he could read the message in her eyes. Hell, for a minute he couldnt even think.
His mind spun back two weeks agoto the night when shed been attacked in the parking lot on the way to her car. Hed known she was pregnant long before then. Hed known she was wildly in love with his brother, and that Chad was unquestionably responsible for the pregnancy. And those factors added up to a problem that involved familybut not a problem that directly affected him until that night.
Shed stayed late, finishing up something for Kateso late the parking lot had been pitch-dark and deserted, so late there were only a handful of people in the whole building when shed escaped her attacker and raced inside looking for help.
Mac just happened to be the first body she saw, and those moments were still carved in his memory with indelible black ink. Hed known Kelly for years, but their contact had only been peripheral; she was either running around, doing something for Kate or with Kate. They had few reasons to directly cross paths. Recently hed tried to catch a closer look at her because the family was having such a royal cow about Chad and the pregnancy, but that was tough to doinvariably she skittered around him or ducked from sight. Mac couldnt do his job, not well, and fuss whether he was winning popularity contests. He was so used to people being uncomfortable around him that Kellys response didnt bother him one way or the other. That night, though, Mac doubted that Kelly knew or cared who he was. He could have been saint or sinner, God or the janitorit wouldnt have made a lick of difference to Kelly.
She came chasing through the glass doors of the lobby, running hell-bent for leather. There was a receptionist/ guard at the front desk, but she didnt even seem to see him. Her hair was all tumbled, no coat even though it was subzero outside; her cheek was scraped, a stocking ripped and her right knee bloody. She was crying and hiccuping and damn near hysterical and she hurled straight for the nearest body with the ballast of a missile. Shed almost knocked him overand Mac was no powder puff.
Her missing coat was how shed escaped the son of a bitch. There had been some point in the struggle when the SOB had grabbed her and only got a handful of coat, which enabled her to shimmy loose from the garment and run. Right then, it was tough to get even that much out of her, because she had no interest whatsoever in talking about her attacker. Shed fallen, and was petrified something had happened to her baby.
Faster than ten minutes, Mac had both the cops and a doctor there. Hed left her with a woman employee and the doctor, but the whole time he was with the police, Mac could feel the tension coiling in his stomach. As he could have guessed, the cops could find no clues to the identity or motivation of her assailant. It could have been a gardenvariety purse snatcher; it could have been some nut-case psychopath. But Kellys involvement with Chad had been spread in the press early on in their relationship, simply because anything the Fortunes did was news. And that meant, unfortunately, that it was public knowledge that she was carrying a Fortune child.
There had been kidnappings in the family before. Kidnappings, threats, blackmail attempts; thieveshell, there was no limit to the criminal element hot to prey on a family with money like his.
Later that evening, hed taken Kelly to her home, sat with her until she calmed down, poured her a glass of milk and himself a bourbonit was the only alcohol drink she had in her apartmentand proposed marriage. It was the first time hed heard her even try to laugh that evening. And when she realized he was serious, she got another case of hiccups.
Marrying a woman because she was pregnant would never necessarily have aroused Macs sense of honor. Hell, you couldnt solve one disaster by compounding it with another. But that happened to be his nephew growing in her womb. A Fortune child. And whether shed volunteered for the problems that came with being a Fortune when she fell for his scoundrel of a brother, there was no escaping them now. The baby had the best chance of being protected from within the family circlethe Fortune name, the Fortune power, the Fortune protection. She had the chance to give the baby his birthright as well as insure the childs future. Mac wasnt closing any doors to choices down the pikefor her, or for him. Hell, he knew she was in love with his brotherbut love had nothing to do with this problem and couldnt solve it. Right then the only choice he saw to effectively protect the child was a legal alliance between them.