Tying the knot... or not?

~5~

After Emily had got up and found the bed empty of Theo, she made her way downstairs and discovered him alone in the kitchen, drinking coffee and reading one of the many newspapers strewn all over the large oak table.
'Good morning,' she said, suddenly a little jumpy at the sight of him. He looked tired - as if he hadn't slept at all. Perhaps he should have accepted her offer of an orgasm in return - that would have knocked him right out, just as it had her.
'You get the newspapers?' she said, walking up to the table and rifling through them to see which ones he chose to read. They were mostly broadsheets. 'That's so old school. You're the only person our age I know who still reads the news off real paper. You know there's this thing called the Internet, right? It's a fount of information.'
He ignored her jibe. 'Help yourself to coffee,' he said, waving towards the machine on the counter without looking up.
She went over to it and poured herself a mug full of the hot liquid nectar, then sat down at the table next to him. Her body appeared to be throbbing with the pleasurable memory of how he'd touched and kissed it last night, and she was keen to reconnect with him this morning. Just in case there was a chance of second helpings.
'Where's your mother?' she asked.
'She went out for a walk.'
Emily nodded, pleased they wouldn't be interrupted. She had this strange yearning to spend a bit of time with Theo in the daylight, and she didn't fancy having his mother playing gooseberry to it. If truth be told, she'd got on quite well with the woman since they'd got past their frosty start, but it would be a real mood-killer to have to hang around with Francesca all day today.
'So you did it,' he said, finally looking up from his paper.
He sat back in his chair and wrapped his hands around his mug before raising it to his lips and taking a long sip.
She waited impatiently for him to continue. 'Did what?' she blurted, barely a couple of seconds later. She'd never been good at waiting for news.
'My mother's agreed to let Lula use the house for her wedding reception.'
He gave her a minute to punch the air repeatedly with joy, before looking at her pointedly, demanding her attention back.
'I think she's convinced enough of our relationship now,' he said, placing the mug carefully down on the table. 'We don't need to hammer it any more. In fact, we'd probably be tempting fate by arranging more dates around her. We're bound to let something slip if we start to relax and get too cocky.'
His blunt suggestion felt like a smack in the face after the closeness they'd shared only hours ago. Obviously, Theo didn't have as much of a problem with cutting their little dalliance short as she did. He'd pulled any trace of the passion from last night tightly back under wraps - she was now beginning to think she must have dreamt it.
The guy was phenomenal at detachment. He even gave her a run for her money, and that was really saying something.
She got up, feeling a sudden urge to move about. She hated dealing with things ending. This was precisely why she never let herself get too attached to a man.
'Okay, then I'd better head off. I guess I'll see you in a few weeks at Lula's wedding,' she said smartly, making for the door.
'Emily?' His voice was gruff, with a hint of urgency.
She stopped and turned to face him again, her heart pounding, wondering whether he was going to change his mind and ask her to stay for just a little bit longer.
'It was fun working with you,' he said, before giving her a curt nod and turning back to his newspaper.
She was well and truly dismissed.
She wasn't going to let him get to her.
No way.
When she got home, she took a shower, then went straight out again to see some friends, ending up having a fun, raucous day with them which was only marginally tainted by a nagging sense that something was missing.
It couldn't have been Theo, though - she was sure of that.
He called a couple of days later to let her know that he'd managed to persuade the vicar of the estate's chapel to let Lula and Tristan get married there if they wanted.
'That's fantastic, Theo!'
There was a short silence on the other end of the line. 'Yes. Well, he seemed quite happy to accommodate a good friend of the family.'
She got the impression Theo had been given the third degree about his own plans for getting married in the future. That must have made him uncomfortable.
'Well, Lula will be delighted when I tell her. It'll be the icing on the wedding cake.'
'Good,' he said brusquely.
There was another pause. 'So, how's it going with your mother? Is she still there?' she asked, to fill the descending silence.
'Actually, I need to talk to you about that.'
Dead air hummed through the line as she waited for him to continue, her heart rate picking up and her hand twitching around the phone in anticipation of what he might be about to say.
'Yeeess...?'
She told herself to keep cool, annoyed by the disturbing hum of excitement in her belly provoked by his cryptic silence.
'She's going to stay with friends while Lula's wedding is going on at the house and for a few days afterwards, so all the rooms are free for the guests, but then she's coming back to stay for another week. She's...' he took a breath, '...keen to see you again. She wants me to set up another lunch date. She intimated that she'd be going back to Spain soon after that, and that she's been considering reinstating my inheritance and signing the house over to me before she leaves.'
Emily felt a smug smile pull at her lips and was glad he couldn't see her through the phone line. 'I see. So, you still need me, then?' she said, forcing as much nonchalance into her tone as she could muster.
He cleared his throat, the sound rumbling down the phone line at her. 'It would seem so, yes.'
'Your mother seems to have taken a real shine to me in fact.'
'She does.'
'Well, fancy that.' She couldn't keep the glee out of her voice this time.
'So, will you consider it?' He was clearly trying hard to keep his irritation tamped down.
It was her turn to leave a long pause this time, and she listened to his breathing quicken as she bit her tongue to stop herself from speaking.
'Okay, Theo, since you went to the trouble of securing the chapel for Lula, I'd be happy to come to one more lunch with your mother,' she said finally.
She caught his short exhalation of breath before he spoke. 'Thank you, Emily, I appreciate it.'
'You're welcome.'
Another pause.
'Okay, good,' she said to fill the gap. 'Well, I'll see you at the wedding then.'
'No, you won't. I don't attend the weddings. I let my events manager take care of all that.'
Disappointment trickled down into her stomach but she ignored it. It didn't matter that she wouldn't be seeing him then. In fact, it would be better not to be distracted on Lula's big day.
'Oh, right. Okay, then.'
'I'll be in touch afterwards to arrange the lunch date. Once you've had time to recover.'
'Righto.'
'So, I'll speak to you soon.'
'Sure,' she replied, moments before he cut the line.
She stared at the silent phone for a long minute, trying to relax her baffled smile.
That had excited her a lot more than it should have done.
Two days later the photo of the two of them 'canoodling' outside Theo's house appeared in her friend's gossip mag and she got another phone call from him - only this time not such a positive one.
'How the hell did the gutter press find out about us?' he growled as soon as she'd picked up his call.
Her heart gave a little flutter of unease. 'Er... well, I might have mentioned something to Lula about having dinner at your house, and it's possible she might have let it slip in conversation with a friend of ours who's a journalist.'
She crossed her fingers and mentally apologised to Lula for the lie at her expense. She knew her friend would take the heat for her if she needed her to, though. They had a long-standing agreement regarding men and dates.
'That's a lot of "mights", Emily.'
'Look, I'm sorry. I understand why you'd be angry - because they came onto your property and spied on a private moment - but I can't see how it can be a bad thing generally. In fact, if your mother gets to see it or hear about it, it'll only cement her faith in our deeply committed relationship.'
He let out a grunt of reluctant agreement.
'I think you look amazing in the photo, by the way. Very manly,' she said, hoping a bit of sweet talk would appease him. Not that he'd ever shown any sign of caring about how he looked, but she'd found it was always worth applying a bit of flattery to a situation.
There was silence on the other end.
'Are you still there?' she asked.
'Yes,' he ground out. 'Listen to me, Emily. I do not want to get caught up in the media circus you seem to inhabit. If I see any more pictures of the two of us in the papers I'm going to seriously reconsider whether Lula can hold her reception at my house. Do you understand?'
She swallowed hard. 'Yes.'
'I don't want to have to start locking my gates.'
'Understood.'
'So we're clear?'
'As ice.' She took a steadying breath, feeling the need to exert some damage control. 'Look, don't worry about that story,' she said, crossing her fingers even harder. 'It'll be tomorrow's fish and chip wrapper.'
'It had better be,' he said, not sounding at all placated.
'Okay. Well, I guess I'll speak to you after the wedding.'
'Yes,' he said, and cut the call.
The guy seriously needed some lessons in charm.
Emily spent the next week at Lula's house, attempting to keep her friend from going crazy in the run-up to her wedding day - which was lucky as it took her mind off Theo for a bit. She'd never been so preoccupied with a man and it was shaking her up something chronic.
It was time to face facts, though. It was clear that he wasn't interested in taking their seriously messed-up connection any further and she was going to have to chalk it up to experience and move on...
The day of the wedding dawned and Emily wondered whether she was actually more nervous about it than Lula.
After weeks of flapping about, her friend now appeared to be in a state of otherworldly serenity - as if she'd reconciled herself to the fact that there was nothing else she could do about the arrangements for the day and was determined to enjoy every minute of it.
Ironically, they were using Theo's bedroom to get changed into their wedding garb, and Emily couldn't help but repeatedly glance at the bed and remember what had happened in it only two weeks ago. It all felt like a dream now. A very intense, erotic dream.
'So, what's going on with Theo now?' Lula asked as she applied a second coat of mascara to her lashes with a steady hand.
Her friend looked utterly stunning in an ivory Grecian-style wedding dress, with her long hazelnut-brown hair twisted up into an amazingly complex hairdo of plaits and twists that would have made any engineer scratch his head in questioning wonder.
Emily shrugged. 'Nothing, really.'
Lula turned away from the mirror and shot her a worried look. 'Oh, no! I thought you two were getting on really well?'
Realising her friend needed to hear happy news to maintain her bubble of calm, Emily backtracked quickly. 'I mean I haven't caught up with him recently, what with hanging out with you in the run-up to today, but who knows? He's a great guy.'
Lula beamed at her, clearly caught up in her dreamy world of romance. 'He must be incredible in bed to have kept your interest this long.'
'I wouldn't know - we haven't gone all the way,' Emily muttered, trying to keep the touchiness out of her voice and her gaze from shooting towards his large bed.
'Ah, so that's the attraction? He's keeping you at arm's length? Wow. That's a new one.'
Emily snorted, but decided to let Lula keep her fantasy that she was involved in an exciting build-up to a torrid affair with him. Her friend was such a die-hard romantic, but far be it for her to mock her views on love and relationships on her wedding day.
'Do you think he might be The One?' Lula asked innocently, her big blue eyes wide with hope.
This time Emily couldn't keep back the splutter of disdain.
'Don't be daft, Lu, you know I'm not into all that destiny stuff.'
Lula eyed her sadly. 'Yeah, maybe... but you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss it.'
Emily flapped a dismissive hand at her friend. 'Not everyone needs what you and Tristan have.'
'I know that. I'm just worried that you're denying yourself something amazing without realising how good it could be for you.'
Emily just gave her friend a placating smile, hoping she'd drop the subject soon. It was making her uncomfortable.
'Please tell me you at least like him,' Lula pressed, clearly not reading her 'drop it' signals today. 'The romantic in me needs to hear it,' she said, batting her eyelashes.
Emily grinned at her friend's determination. 'Actually, I do like him. He has this brooding, angry appeal. He's quite something. Veeerrry sexy.'
'Good. Then give him a chance, Em,' she said, turning back to the mirror to apply another coat of lipstick.
Emily caught her snort before it escaped. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
Theo kept a low profile during the wedding, spending his time either in the workshop or the guest house, attempting to keep Emily's unnerving presence out of his mind.
He couldn't quite bring himself to believe that if he did give in to his urges she wouldn't turn around and start demanding more than just sex from him.
It wasn't worth the risk.
He was still a little suspicious, too, about the picture of the two of them together in that misleading pose - but then what did he know about modern celebrities and the invasion of their privacy?
Nothing.
What he did know was that he sure as hell didn't want to get caught up in it.
Emily was clearly a one-way ticket to Troublesville, and that was a place he really didn't want to visit again. In fact, come to think of it, he'd bet his life she was causing some kind of chaos over at his house today. Perhaps making a smart-alecky comment to the wrong person and causing a fist-fight, or dancing on his mahogany dining table in her stilettos.
The more he thought about it, the more apprehensive he felt about what exactly was going on over there.
Perhaps he should go over and have a very quick check that everything was okay. His events manager had agreed to run this wedding for him, after he'd given her a large bonus on top of her regular fee for the trouble his mother had caused, so he was confident that the arrangements were going as planned, but he told himself he should make a cursory check anyway.
It was his duty as caretaker of the house.
Dumping the book he'd unsuccessfully been attempting to read on the coffee table, he took a quick shower and got dressed in a pair of smart trousers and a shirt and strode over to the house, which was now lit up against the growing dusk of the evening.
Walking through the smartly dressed crowd of guests, he craned his neck to see whether he could locate the bride - on the pretext of offering his congratulations on her marriage and getting feedback on how the house had worked as a venue for it - only to catch sight of Emily, entertaining a crowd of people next to the large stone fireplace in the drawing room.
He stopped dead, his heart hammering in his chest and his breath quickening in his lungs as he stared at her.
She looked utterly beautiful, in an elegant vibrant red strapless dress that looked incredible against the dark colour of her hair. As he watched her laughing and joking with the other guests, he felt all the times he'd caught himself smiling in the last week - remembering something funny or smart she'd said - come rushing back to him, and he had to forcibly stop himself from striding over there to listen in to the story she was regaling her audience with.
His whole body throbbed with the control he had to exercise over it.
Don't do it, Theo, it's not worth it.
Someone put a gentle hand on his arm, making him start, and he tore his eyes away from Emily to see a short, pretty woman smiling up at him, swaying slightly on her heels as if high on champagne and joy. Judging by the fact she was wearing a wedding dress, he guessed this must be Lula.
'Lord Berkeley?'
'Theo,' he corrected her distractedly.
She smiled. 'I wanted to come over and thank you for letting Tristan and I use your beautiful house for our wedding. You know, I used to live in the nearby village and I passed this house every day on the bus on the way to school. I had whimsical dreams about getting married here for years. It seemed like such a romantic place.' She tightened her grip on his arm, squeezing it in gratitude before letting go. 'Thank you so much for making it happen.'
He nodded. 'It was all down to Emily, actually. She's the one who persuaded my mother to change her mind. I'm sorry, by the way, for causing you the stress of thinking you had to find somewhere else at such short notice. I had no idea my mother had done it until I got home to an answer machine full of distressed messages. The woman's a law unto herself.'
Lula glanced over to where Emily stood, entertaining the crowd gathered around her with another tale that made them all laugh as one. 'You know, I don't think I've ever seen Emily more buzzed than when she was coming here to have dinner with you.' She leaned in conspiratorially, widening her blue eyes at him in a beseeching manner. 'She's had a pretty tough life and she deserves some happiness.'
He gave her a stiff smile, uncomfortable at Lula's implication that it should be him making her happy. 'Funny - that's what she says about you.'
Her returning smile was warm. 'Yeah, we're both a bit messed up in our own special ways. Parents eh, who'd have 'em?'
'I'm with you on that one.'
He nodded to punctuate the end of the conversation and turned to walk away, but Lula put her hand back on his arm to stop him.
'Look, I know she can come across as a bit of a handful, but she's a good person - the most fiercely loyal, kind and caring person I've ever met - and if you've made it into the small circle of people she cares about, you should congratulate yourself. She doesn't trust people easily. Not after what happened with her mother.' She let out a low, sad-sounding breath. 'It's no wonder she doesn't ever want to see her again after what she had to go through.'
He went suddenly cold, and a heavy feeling slid uncomfortably into his stomach. 'I thought her mother was dead?'
Colour flooded across Lula's cheeks and her gaze shot away from his, as if she'd realised that she'd said something she shouldn't have.
'Lula?'
'I just mean... I'm surprised she talked about her mother at all. It's not a subject you can get her to discuss very easily,' she mumbled, still not looking at him.
'That's not what you meant, Lula. It sounded like you said she wasn't dead. Is she alive?'
Lula's face was now beet-red. 'I shouldn't have-' She shook her head, her eyes wild. 'Em's going to kill me!'
'Tell me what's going on, Lula.' He realised his tone was gruff, but he needed to know what he was up against here. If Emily had lied to him about her mother being dead, what else had she lied about?
Lula's shoulders sagged and she gave him a pained look from under her lashes. 'I shouldn't have told you that. She doesn't want other people to know about - things.'
'So her mother's alive, then?' This was like getting sludge out of an engine.
Lula was staring at the floor now, and when she answered, her voice was so quiet he only just caught the word.
'Yes.'
His chest tightened with unease. 'Why did she lie to me?'
Lula shook her head, still staring down. 'You should ask her that. I think I've done enough damage already. My lips are now sealed.' She looked up at him and drew a finger across her mouth as if to zip it.
He let out a breath, trying to keep his frustration out of his body language. 'Okay.'
It wasn't fair to put Lula through an interrogation on her wedding day, and from the shuttered look on her face he didn't think she'd be giving anything else away anyway.
'Well, congratulations on your marriage. I'm really pleased the house worked for you as a venue,' he said, then nodded curtly at her and walked out of the room before Emily caught sight of him.
Leaving the festive atmosphere humming behind him, he went and paced around in the cool air of the garden for a while, turning over the information he'd just heard in his mind. He felt uneasy and restless. Why would Emily lie to him like that? What was she hiding?
He had no idea, and it was probably better not to know.
After a bit more pacing, he decided to make a quick trip to the kitchen and fetch a bottle of whisky from the larder to take back to the guest house with him, before settling in there for the night.
The image of Emily in her red dress, her expression alive with laughter, played round and round his head as he pushed through the crowd of people towards the kitchen. He prayed he wasn't going to bump into her. He didn't know whether he'd be able to keep his cool with the knowledge that she'd been lying to him firmly embedded in the front of his mind.
Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. He was definitely in need of the numbing effects of alcohol tonight.
As he walked down the hallway towards the kitchen, he thought he could hear raised voices coming from that direction and picked up his pace, his heart thumping in his chest as he recognised Emily's voice.
Striding into the room, he was alarmed to find a small group of people watching Emily in bemusement as she pointed a shaking finger in a man's face while he stood there with a contrite expression on his face, his arms folded defensively in front of him and a coat grasped in his hand.
'I can't believe you'd try and sneak off early from your own daughter's wedding!' she was yelling at him, her face flushed with anger and her eyes wild.
The man's expression morphed into a sneer. 'I really don't think it's your place to tell me how to behave, Emily.'
'What the hell are you talking about?' she shot back.
'Considering your loose reputation, I don't think you have any right to be taking the moral high ground.'
Theo frowned, riled on Emily's behalf to hear her spoken to like that. She might be a little wild, according to the reports he'd read about her in the press, but she wasn't a marriage-wrecker or a gold-digger.
'What I choose to do with my life has absolutely nothing to do with you,' she replied, her voice now shaking with anger.
Lula's father took a step towards Emily. 'It affects me when it's my daughter you're leading astray.'
He leaned in closer to her, but Theo was pleased to see she steadfastly refused to move, her expression remaining defiant.
'At least I'm here, celebrating with my family. Where are your family, Emily? From what I've heard they don't even acknowledge you. Your father certainly doesn't have a good word to say about you.'
'Leave my family out of this,' she said quietly, her tone edged with steel.
'Why should I? You seem quite happy to muscle into mine.'
'I'm not muscling in. Lula chose me to be her bridesmaid. I think you'll find I'm more like family to her than you are.'
Lula's father let out a sharp bark of laughter. 'If you were part of my family, I'd be ashamed to admit it to anyone.'
Before Theo could react, Emily marched right up to Lula's father until she was almost nose to nose with him. 'You're a pathetic excuse for a father,' she spat into his face, sending the man reeling back in shock. 'And don't you ever speak to me like that again!' she said, more quietly this time, her voice wobbling with emotion and her eyes glistening with angry tears.
Something twisted hard in Theo's gut and he stepped forward and put a hand on her arm, guiding her behind him as Lula's father turned on her with balled fists and an expression of pure rage on his face.
'You little b⁠-'
'I think it's time for you to leave the room,' Theo said forcefully to the man, acutely aware of Emily trembling under his grip.
Lula's father let out a disgusted snort and without another word strode out of the kitchen, his tense shoulder banging against Theo's in his haste to leave.
'You're a selfish bastard!' Emily shouted after him.
Her eyes were blazing with the fire Theo admired so much in her.
She swivelled to face him. 'What are you doing? I was handling things fine by myself, Theo,' she said, turning her ire on him now.
'Yeah, it looked like it,' he said, shaking his head at her.
'What do you want?' she asked, pulling her arm out of his grasp.
'Not here,' he said, holding out his hand and waiting till she reluctantly put her own into it. 'Come on,' he said, guiding her gently out of the room.
He didn't know why, but that moment of vulnerability she'd shown right before he'd stepped in had him rattled. It was the first time he'd seen her let her guard down, and against his better judgement it made him want to dig deeper.
'What? Are you going to tell me off for making a scene in your house now?' she muttered, dragging her feet as he walked her into the empty library, her bag knocking against his thigh as it swung from her shoulder.
He let go of her so he could shut and lock the door behind them, then turned to face her again.
'He had it coming, Theo! He's never been there for Lula and I wasn't about to let him slope away, thinking it was okay to treat her with so little respect on her wedding day.'
'I don't care about that, Emily,' he said quietly.
She stilled and looked at him with fierce eyes. 'Then what do you want?'
'I want to know why you've been lying to me about your mother being dead.'