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CHAPTERONE
To MyLong-Lost Bride,
I don’t know if this will ever reach you. Whether you will ever know how I’ve searched for you over the past two months—ever since the night we married at the Cinderella Ball. But I have searched.
Everywhere.
The Montagues won’t give me any information, even though I’ve shown them our marriage license. Ispoke to Ella. She’s hurting because of your brother, too. It’s like you’ve vanished off the face of the earth. I’m thinking of hiring a private investigator to find you, but I don’t know where to tell him to look. All you said was you lived on a coffee plantation. But where? Damn it, it never occurred to me to ask! Ithought we’d have all the time in the world to find out the details of ourpast.
Know this, light of my soul... The one thing that won’t vanish is what I feel for you. You are my life and my love, my one star in a dark night sky. Fight for what we had. And come back tome.
Until that day, you live in my heart, my ForeverLove.
The Beaumonts’ Cinderella Ball—Forever, Nevada
Chaz McIntyre propped a shoulder against the wall as he waited for the reception line to move forward. What the hell was he doing here? Here, of all places.
This had to be the one corner in Hades guaranteed to hold the worst memories of any he’d ever experienced. And yet here he stood, like some sort of fool, begging Rafe Beaumont to stick it to him one lasttime.
He swore viciously beneath his breath. He’d spent years protecting himself from the sort of hurt Beaumont specialized in doling out. Still, with one unreasonable decree, an arrogant old woman had done the impossible—put him right back where he least wanted tobe.
The line inched forward a little farther and he caught a glimpse of the man who’d taken such delight in screwing with his life. Amazing. Nine years had passed and yet the SOB hadn’t changed alick.
He couldn’t help wondering about Shayne? Had she changed? She’d have had to. When he’d last seen her, she’d been a seventeen-year-old child pretending to be an adult. Now she’d be... what? Twenty-six? Almost twenty-seven. Would she be here tonight? Is that why Rafe had sent the ticket?
A coldness seeped deep inside, relentless and all-pervasive, consuming him with comforting familiarity. Shayne didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except achieving hisgoal.
It took another few minutes before he reached the head of the line. Ella Montague stood at Rafe’s side. Correction. Ella Beaumont. She’d been a Montague when they’d last met. So Rafe had gained a wife, while robbing Chaz of his. The sheer irony made him bare his teeth in a parody of a smile.
“McIntyre,” Rafe greeted him with a stiffnod.
“Beaumont.” Chaz caught the wary look in the older man's eyes and allowed his smile to grow, edging it with animosity. “Fancy meetin' you here.”
“You came. Iwasn’t sure you would.”
“Mind telling me why you sent the ticket?”
Rafe hesitated and then inclined his head toward an area where they’d have more privacy. Once they were clear of the reception line, he said, “I thought I owed it to you.”
“Now why would you think you owe me anything?” The soft question had an unexpectedbite.
A muscle rippled along Rafe’s jawline, acknowledging the hit. “You wish me to admit it? Very well. Iinterfered in your marriage, in your relationship with my sister. Does that satisfy you?”
It should have. But for some infuriating reason, it didn’t. He checked his anger, aware it would be a mistake to allow it too much freedom. Once released, it would be near impossible to contain.
“You were just protecting your family. Ican understand that. I’d probably have done the same thing if I’d found my seventeen-year-old sister shacked up with an older man.”
“You weren’t shacked up. You were married. There’s a difference.”
“Nah, we weren’t married. Not legally.” The wrath Chaz had been struggling to control surged to the surface. It shocked him to realize he still reacted with such unchecked fury, even after all these years. “You saw to that, right?”
“She was a vulnerable child! She slipped into the ball when no one was looking. And then she attached herself to the first man to smile at her.” Apparently, Chaz wasn’t the only one still harboring hard feelings. “What did you expect me to do?”
“I expected you to give us a chance.”
“How? Why?” Rafe's voice dropped, the sound raw with frustration. “I was due to return to Costa Rica. You expected me to leave my seventeen year-old sister behind with a man she'd known only a few short hours? You were a footloose cowboy without home or roots or goals. What if something had gone wrong? What if she'd needed me?”
“She was my wife, damn it. Did you really think I’d do anything to harm her?”
