The Billionaire's Unwanted Virgin (9 page)

Theirs was to be a quiet registry
office wedding at a secret location to throw the ever nosy reporters off the
trail. As far as Alice could ascertain, Percy was to be Lakota's witness, and
hers was the ever efficient, if slightly nervous, wedding planner Lakota had
employed.

The knock on the door shook
Alice out of her internal musings.

"Are you all right in
there? We'll have to go, or we'll be late, and Mr. Kemnay does not appreciate
tardiness." The words held an almost pleading tone, and Alice forced a
smile on her lips and opened the door to a rather relieved looking Susan.

"Oh, you do look
beautiful in that dress. You will make such a stunning couple. If only Mr.
Kemnay would have allowed a more open wedding. It would make for the society
wedding of the year."

Alice drew a face at the
thought, and Susan shrugged her delicate shoulders.

"Yes, yes, I know. He
said you wouldn't care for all the hoopla, but really, if I snared myself a
hunk like him, I'd want the world to bear witness to that fact." Susan
beamed at her, but quickly sobered when Alice simply stared at her.

"Were you not berating
me mere minutes ago that we would be late? I wouldn't want to cost you your
commission, so perhaps we ought to get moving," Alice said.

The overly styled and primped
wedding planner's practiced smile slipped a little more, and she gestured for
Alice to follow her.

Flashlights exploded in her
face the minute she stepped out of the front door, and Alice was rather
grateful for the quick appearance of Lakota's driver, who had both her and
Susan settled in the back of the limo in record time. Safely hidden behind the
tinted windows, Alice breathed a sigh of relief, and the driver smiled at her
through the rear view mirror.

"If I may so, Miss, you
look stunning. Now, relax, I'll have you there in no time at all."

Alice smiled back at him and
tried her best to ignore Susan's excited chatter in her ear, until the woman's
phone rang, and something in the tone of her voice drew her attention.

"I see … well, yes, but
at this late hour… Right, and this was arranged, when?
Fine,
but I still
expect to be—" She clicked her phone off with an affronted,
"Harrumph," and sank back into the plush covers with a frown.

"Is everything all right,
Susan?" Alice asked.
    

"Oh, yes, everything is
fine, or so I am told. He's only gone and changed the venue at the last minute.
Lord knows who he has employed to do that. It certainly wasn't me, and how I am
expected to work in these circumstances is beyond me. The man is simply
impossible."

Before Alice could ask her to
explain those cryptic comments, the limo stopped, and Susan got out without as
much as a good bye. In the blink of an eye they were moving again.

"Don't worry, Miss, I
know where we're going. The boss has got it all sorted. Just sit back and
relax." Again he smiled at her, and Alice snapped her mouth shut. Lord
only knew what was going on.

Half an hour later they
pulled up at the back of the hospital, and a bewildered Alice scrambled out of
the limo to find a smiling Sara waiting for her.

"Surprise!" Sara
squealed and pulled her into a bear hug, as the limo pulled away. "God,
you look stunning girl. Let's go and get you married."

"What are you on about?
I can't get married at the hospital? Can I? And what on earth are you doing
here?"

Sara punched her arm and
simply grinned at her.

"It's a surprise, you
ninny. And you didn't think I'd miss your wedding, did you? Now hush up and
just follow me, because we're attracting too much attention, and that hunk
you're going to marry is going to have my pelt if I don't get you there in
time."

Alice was too stunned to take
it all in. What on earth was going on? Sara just laughed and dragged her past
the curious bystanders, into the lift, and up to Beth's floor. However, they
didn't stop at her door but outside the dayroom, which seemed to have been
converted into an impromptu chapel.

Artfully arranged flower
decorations were everywhere, but Alice only had eyes for Beth. Propped up in a
wheelchair, with her drip and oxygen supply hooked up behind her, and flanked
by two nurses, her niece was grinning at her from ear to ear. She held a small
bouquet of her own in her tiny hands, and looked so fragile, yet excited, that
Alice had to fight back tears. Her mother stood to one side, and Sara joined
her with a wide smile. She whispered something to Elizabeth, and her mum's
smile deepened.

Alice sensed rather than saw
Lakota's quiet approach.

"Let's get married,
little Alice."

****

Some of the tension that had
held onto Lakota all day evaporated when Alice walked into the room. He
released the breath he hadn't even been aware of holding, stepped closer to
her, and ran a finger over the delicate line of her neck. A shudder went
through her, and her eyes widened when she saw the two blue blankets draped
over his arm. She turned fully and smiled at him. Such an uncertain, yet
hopeful gesture that tore at his insides, and made him grateful that he had
kept his plans a secret.

He couldn't even explain it
to it himself, this need he seemed to have to please his little Alice. He'd
expected an argument when he announced that their wedding would go ahead
regardless of little Beth's wishes. But Alice had stood up for him and never
once complained. Only her eyes had shown her hurt, and suddenly he couldn't
stand what he was doing to her. What he was doing to them all.
 
So he'd hatched this plan to surprise her,
roping in her friend Sara. The bubbly redhead was only too happy to help, and
she now approached to take the bouquet out of Alice's trembling hands.

"Let me take that now.
You need your hands free for those."

She winked at Lakota and
pointed to the blankets still draped over his arm.
 
Alice handed over the delicate bundle of lilies,
and kept her head bent as Lakota wrapped the tribal blanket around her
shoulders.
 
Their hands met as she took
the ends off him, and a tear splashed onto his fingers.

He suppressed a curse, and he
tilted her head up to see her expression. Another tear escaped her expressive eyes,
and he used his thumbs to wipe them away. The room faded away until it was just
the two of them, staring at each other in the ways of the old world.
 
Lakota was dimly aware of Percy wrapping the
other blue blanket around his shoulders, and he grabbed the ends to hold them
together.

He knew Alice would know the
ritual of the blankets, having majored in Native American history at
University, before her niece's illness forced her to drop out of her studies,
and sure enough, she edged closer to him.

"
Pilamayaye, Lakota
."
The whispered thank you in his mother tongue touched him more than he would
have thought possible, and he lowered his forehead to hers.

"
Taŋyáŋ yahí,
my little Alice."

She
smiled, and he pulled away. Holding the blanket together with one hand he held
out his free one, and his chest felt suspiciously tight when she did the same
and her slender fingers curled around his. Together they walked to the front
where the chaplain was patiently waiting for them. As the ceremony started,
Lakota lost all sense of time, giving his answers on auto-pilot.

The
mixture of traditional tribal rites and the modern western ceremony blended
together beautifully, and he knew deep down in his bones that he had done the
right thing by combining the two. He might have left his heritage long behind,
but he couldn't deny it, not even for what was in effect a sham wedding.
However, hearing Alice giving her slightly hesitant answers, her small hand
trembling in his, it didn't feel like they were pretending.
 
He ground his teeth when she pushed the
matching wide platinum band on his left ring finger, and the chaplain
pronounced them man and wife.

Percy
took the blanket off his shoulders, and Sara took it off Alice's to be replaced
by the larger white blanket, representing their future together. They clasped
hands and stepped underneath, and Lakota shut his eyes to stop the unexpected
rush of emotion swamping him. He was getting maudlin in his old age, but when
he opened them again, and saw Alice watching him, something inside him broke. A
primitive urge to protect and possess turned his pulse crazy and sent heated
arousal pulsing through his veins. He might only have married her because he
needed to look presentable, but somehow little Alice had marched right under
his defenses, and now she was his, truly his.

He pulled
her to him with a growl proclaiming his ownership, and when she melted against
his frame, he tasted heaven.

****

Cocooned under the white
blanket, there was no getting away from Lakota. Not that Alice would have
wanted to. As the ceremony wore on, Lakota had lost more and more of the thin
veneer of civility, and he had turned into the warrior his origins had made
him. Were it not for the business suit he wore under the blanket wrapped around
his broad shoulders, Alice could have easily pictured him out in the open, atop
his horse, like his ancestors had once been. He'd left his hair loose for the
ceremony, and it hung round his face in perfect straight strands, reiterating
the wildness about him—that savage streak her body responded to instinctively.
By the time the chaplain pronounced them man and wife, and the white blanket
settled over them, representing their new start, Alice had been a quivering
mass of need.

She'd been shocked to the
core to see him incorporate his tribal traditions. Whatever possessed him to do
that, she couldn’t even hazard a guess, but it had been one shock too many on
top of the amended venue and her family being in attendance. She couldn't have
wished for a more perfect wedding had she planned it herself, and she let
herself be swept away with the illusion. And illusion was all this was, she had
to remember that, but as they said their vows, they didn't seem as though they
were just pretending. His deep voice penetrated her very soul, and when he
tightened his hand on hers as she said her vows, such incredible hope had
settled in her heart, it was fit to bursting with it all.

She clung to him now, every
molecule of her surrendering to the fierce, almost savage way he kissed her, as
though he was branding her as his forever. He murmured an old Sioux prayer
in-between kisses, heartfelt words of love and hope, and an ancient belief in
the powers surrounding them that reached deep within her and let that seed of
hope blossom and spread like wildfire.

She kissed him back with the
same intense need to brand and claim, and his groan trembled through her.
Whatever lay ahead for them, whatever happened, she would never forget those
intense few minutes under their blanket when time stood still, and the
connection between them seemed so strong, nothing could shake them.

As abruptly as he'd grabbed
her, he released her when the blanket was lifted amongst loud cheering from the
assembled little crowd. Alice blinked in the sudden bright lights of her
surroundings, and returned the hugs from her mum and Sara, before she bent down
to kiss little Beth. The little girl's smile looked strained, and her skin had
taken on an unhealthy ashen tone that worked faster than a cold shower to burst
the little bubble of happiness Alice had found herself in.

Lakota's warm, calloused
fingers massaged her neck, and she was beyond grateful for his arm around her
waist, as the two nurses sprang into action and whisked little Beth back to her
room.

"She'll be okay."
His deep voice rumbled through her, and she closed her eyes and leant back into
her husband. "She's a fighter, your niece, and don't worry. We’re not
going anywhere until this latest crisis is over."

****

True to his word, they had
delayed their honeymoon, until Beth had pulled out of her setback. Spencer
Jamison had done his best to reassure both Alice and her mother that the little
girl's condition was only to be expected, and that it was no one’s fault, but
Alice had felt guilty nonetheless. Clearly, so did Lakota. He never said
anything, but he was a constant brooding presence in the back ground, his
temper far too short with anyone, and when Alice had dared touch him, he'd
squeezed her fingers so hard, she had not been able to feel them for ages
afterwards.

It had come as a huge relief
to them all, when Beth had woken up this very morning, and unceremoniously
pulled her oxygen tracks out, even if the alarms going off had given them all a
minor heart attack. After much hustling and buzzing about on the part of the
nursing staff—Lakota had barked at them to get Spence—and much hand wringing
and attempts of soothing hurt feelings on Alice's part—it had finally been decided
that the crisis was over.

"Right, off with you
two." Elizabeth Wanderlund had issued the decree with much more of her
usual degree of motherly authority, and Alice smiled in the confines of the
back of the limo, taking her to Lakota's place of residence when in London.
Lakota had looked set to argue with her mother, but one of her legendary looks
had quelled his protests.