Kidnapping His Bride (Silhouette Romance) Read online

  For a few long seconds, as Griff kissed her and she kissed him back, Tessa forgot everything.

  She felt what she’d always felt around Griff, right down through her body—delightful, sensual desire. And she basked in the feeling of being close to a man she had once loved more than anyone else in the whole world.

  Loved. Past tense.

  The thought brought her back to reality, and she jerked away from him, stiffening.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” she said, staring at him.

  “Why?” he asked quietly. “Because you liked it so much it’s giving you second thoughts about what you’re getting into? Because you’re worried that the yearning you just felt is the way you’re supposed to feel about the man you’re marrying—plus a whole lot more?”

  Dear Reader,

  Summer’s finally here! Whether you’ll be lounging poolside, at the beach, or simply in your home this season, we have great reads packed with everything you enjoy from Silhouette Romance—tenderness, emotion, fun and, of course, heart-pounding romance—plus some very special surprises.

  First, don’t miss the exciting conclusion to the thrilling ROYALLY WED: THE MISSING HEIR miniseries with Cathie Linz’s A Prince at Last! Then be swept off your feet—just like the heroine herself!—in Hayley Gardner’s Kidnapping His Bride.

  Romance favorite Raye Morgan is back with A Little Moonlighting, about a tycoon set way off track by his beguiling associate who wants a family to call her own. And in Debrah Morris’s That Maddening Man, can a traffic-stopping smile convince a career woman—and single mom—to slow down…?

  Then laugh, cry and fall in love all over again with two incredibly tender love stories. Vivienne Wallington’s Kindergarten Cupids is a very different, highly emotional story about scandal, survival and second chances. Then dive right into Jackie Braun’s True Love, Inc., about a professional matchmaker who’s challenged to find her very sexy, very cynical client his perfect woman. Can she convince him that she already has?

  Here’s to a wonderful, relaxing summer filled with happiness and romance. See you next month with more fun-in-the-sun selections.

  Happy reading!

  Mary-Theresa Hussey

  Senior Editor

  Kidnapping His Bride

  HAYLEY GARDNER

  And to Tina, Mary-Theresa, Miss Jeri Buckner and Sheriff Kenneth Volentine: my heartfelt thanks for your help and/or expertise.

  To all the people in Claiborne Parish who have gone out of their way to accept us, help us and make us feel like family: because of you, living in Athens is like living in Paradise. Thank you.

  Books by Hayley Gardner

  Silhouette Romance

  A Baby in His Stocking #1341

  Kidnapping His Bride #1598

  Silhouette Yours Truly

  Holiday Husband

  The One-Week Wife

  The One-Week Baby

  HAYLEY GARDNER

  used to sit in high school history class while the teachers lectured and write romances in her notebook instead of notes. That turned out just fine, because she could always study the textbooks, and the teachers always thought she was their most conscientious student who took down every word they said!

  Now, years later, she is thrilled to be following her dream of full-time writing—when she isn’t homeschooling her son, that is. Any free time Hayley has is spent with her husband or researching methods of teaching children with autism or collecting dolls or knitting or taking long, deep breaths…and hoping her readers enjoy her efforts to make them smile and feel good about love.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  She was doing the right thing, Tessa Blake reassured herself as she paced in the foyer of one of Claiborne Landing’s only two churches. In her white satin, pearl-studded, wedding dress, she was the bride-to-be she’d dreamed of being for almost all of her twenty-seven years—so what if she was marrying the wrong groom? There was nothing wrong with Clay Ledoux. Nothing at all. Had she been anyone but who she was, with any other past than the one she had, and had he been anyone else but who he was, she might have fallen hard for Clay. Even though she hadn’t, this marriage was what she wanted, and nothing was going to stand in her way.

  Through the closed door to the sanctuary, she could hear her grandmother, Sadie, who had taken her in when she’d been more or less orphaned at age twelve, playing the opening notes of the next to the last song before the “Wedding March.” Focus. She needed to focus. So she concentrated on the music, and how happy she would be—

  “Was leaving me off the invitation list my brother’s idea—or yours?”

  Not having heard the front door to the church brush open over the carpet behind her, Tessa jumped at the voice. Realizing whom it belonged to, she whirled around with a little gasp, her petticoats and satin skirt rustling back into place as she met the gaze of the man who had once played the leading role in all her dreams of being a bride. Griff. Clay’s brother. Her former fiancé. She’d ended their engagement years before when she’d finally figured out that he’d be happier flying planes in the Air Force than stuck here in Claiborne Landing with her. To see him here, now, was totally unexpected, as was the physical attraction that slammed right into her stomach and edged down to her knees, making them weak. Exasperated that she could still feel anything for him, even physically, after having gone on with her life, she mustered up some gumption.

  “For years on end you don’t come home, and you expected an invitation?” she asked, purposely keeping her voice low so no one would come see whom she was talking to. “We figured you’d send your regrets. That you’d already be busy climbing in some pyramid. Or maybe flying off to see an ancient Greek ruin or some French art museum. Don’t tell me you’re calling a halt to your traveling before seeing all the Seven Wonders of the World?”

  “Maybe,” he drawled out, “I figured seeing Tessa Blake getting married without love, and to my brother, might qualify as the Eighth. At least, you got me wondering.”

  “How did you know that?” As soon as the sentence was out of her mouth, she realized she’d just about verified the “marrying without love” part. It figured. She could never hide anything from Griff. That’s why she tried to avoid him whenever he was in town for a visit. Mostly it had worked, except for that one time two years ago when she’d run into him, and spoken up when she shouldn’t have. But she didn’t want to dwell on the past.

  “Someone told you about the wedding and that I wasn’t in love?” she asked.

  “And more, via e-mail.”

  More? She gulped. Already panicked, she was now feeling almost light-headed. “What more?”

  He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Not important.”

  Not important to him maybe. Tessa took a slow, deep breath and tried to relax. If Griff knew the worst, he would not be that nonchalant.

  “Who was this e-mail from?”

  “I honestly don’t know. The address was [email protected].” The muscle in his jaw throbbed. “You didn’t send it, did you?”

  “No!”

  He believed her; she could tell by his solemn look.

  “None of that is important right now,” he said. “What is, is that you don’t make the mistake of your life by walking down that aisle.” He took a step closer to her, and Tessa backed up until she was almost at the still-clos
ed door to the sanctuary. The last thing she wanted on the day she was getting married was to be this close to Griff. Even though her brain had written him a goodbye letter after he’d made her heart freeze up, it was like she’d forgotten to send a copy to the rest of her body. They hadn’t been this close for years.

  So many years.

  “You have to leave,” she said with as much authority as she could muster, not about to get into what kind of mistake she was about to make—or not. “I’m going to be getting married in about two minutes.”

  “So you say.” Griff stared solemnly around the foyer, at the small, antique bookcase to one side and at the steep stairwell leading up to the classroom where they’d had Sunday School classes as children. “There’s no one here to walk you down the aisle and give you away. Want me to?”

  “No, Griff. You’re the past. My future is on the other side of this door, and that’s where I’m going. Alone.”

  He lifted his fingertips, brushed back a ringlet at her temple and then slid them slowly down the curve of her cheek, sending a shiver through her. “You swore to me a couple of years back you were going to have your dream, Tessa,” he reminded her, his voice getting under her skin and reaching into her heart. “I’m here to make sure you don’t give up on it.”

  Her dream? Then she remembered. The last time they’d really talked, during one of his rare visits “home,” Griff had asked her why she’d never gotten married. She’d told him she wouldn’t, not unless she fell in love, and that hadn’t happened yet. That just as Griff had given up everything, including her, to pursue his dream, she was determined to have hers of a loving husband and children. The perfect family she’d never had, in the perfect home and hometown she hadn’t had until her father had abandoned her, her mother had died, and the authorities had finally found Sadie. Griff was here to make sure she didn’t give up on that dream. But how could he do that? They were through.

  “You walked away years ago, remember?” she asked. Her heart, already beating swiftly, pounded at his nearness. The woodsy scent he was wearing began to penetrate her defenses and cloud her thoughts. “You shouldn’t care at this point.”

  “I shouldn’t care,” he agreed, his eyes never leaving her, “but I know how much pain a loveless marriage can cause—for both sides. I don’t want you, or my brother, to have to go through that. And then there’s—” Suddenly he shook his head. “No, there isn’t time to get into that. Just postpone the wedding, and let’s go talk.”

  “I can’t,” she said, shaking her head, wanting to ask him what there was no time to get into, but doing so would be pointless. “I’m marrying your brother, now. We can talk later.”

  “We need to talk now.”

  Of all the nerve… Behind her, “The Wedding March” started. Ready to enter the sanctuary and walk down the aisle, Tessa purposefully slid to Griff’s side and began to turn toward the door. But before she could so much as put her hand on the golden knob, Griff swept her off her feet and hoisted her onto his shoulder. Pivoting, he headed through the still-open front door and down the brick steps of the church.

  “Are you crazy?” Tessa asked breathlessly, batting his chest. He didn’t respond. She swung her head from side to side, looking for help, but then she remembered the entire population of Claiborne Landing, all one hundred fifty-five of them, were stuffed into the church, courtesy of her grandmother. There wasn’t so much as one old man idling his time away on the bench in front of the car repair shop across the road. Through the closed windows, with the noisy wall unit air conditioners humming and “The Wedding March” being played loudly, Tessa doubted anyone could hear her if she yelled for help. At least, she thought wryly, she didn’t have to worry about the embarrassment of it all.

  In the seconds it took to reach his shiny, silver-blue truck parked on the edge of the road, she was beyond the shock she’d experienced in the church, past the physical attraction, and all the way up to irritated. Very. He plopped her onto the driver’s side seat, and she caught the breath that being thrown over his shoulder and bouncing the dozen yards had knocked loose from her. “What in the world do you think you are doing?”

  “We’re fixing to have a talk.”

  “You always did insist on having everything your way, didn’t you?”

  “If I had, darlin’, you’d have married me when I graduated the Academy and come with me all over the world, and I’d have been toting you off to celebrate our wedding anniversary this month. But that’s water under the bridge, isn’t it?”

  “Definitely.” She gave her head an emphatic nod. “In fact, as far as I’m concerned, that bridge just crosses a dusty, dried out, old creek bottom now.”

  Griff’s mouth twisted, and his ink-blue eyes scolded her. “All I’m trying to do is keep you—and my brother—from making a mistake.”

  “Like you and I made?”

  “A mistake? Yeah, sure.” He gave her another long look. “I’m good at making those.” Then, to her embarrassment, he put one hand on her bottom and started to push her toward the passenger side. He didn’t have to expend a lot of effort; the second his hand touched her, Tessa bolted right as though she’d been zapped with electricity.

  Griff slid in beside her and shut the door.

  “The sheriff is probably investigating right now why I’m not walking down the aisle. Kidnapping me is not a good idea, Griff. I could have you arrested.”

  The grin that was uniquely Griff’s appeared as the truck roared to life, and they pulled out onto the narrow country road. She hadn’t seen that grin for years, not since before the two of them had broken up. It was half-curved and kind of devilishly appealing, and it still had the power to melt her heart.

  “Yeah,” he agreed, “you could. But you won’t. Getting me arrested would keep me in town a long time, wouldn’t it? I’d be around to interfere in your plans.”

  He had a point. Griff, in town, was something she definitely did not desire.

  “Besides, you don’t want your wedding day to be a scandal the whole town talks about for years, do you?”

  No, she didn’t. It was already half-ruined, of course, and if Griff got his way, it would be totally shot, but it wasn’t a scandal—not yet. She could still keep her personal business from becoming a tasty morsel for the town to munch on.

  He rounded a corner carefully, heading away from the church down Highway 518 toward Athens, away from Claiborne Landing. Leaving town was something he was really good at, she thought bitterly, and then she wondered why she was giving him that much energy. She was over him.

  “You’re making a mistake, Tessa.”

  “The mistake being marrying your brother?” Tessa asked, her chin matching his for stubbornness. With great care, she kept herself from examining every inch of him with hungry eyes. She was marrying Clay as soon as she could get loose from Griff, and it wouldn’t be right looking at another man.

  He shook his head. “The mistake being not marrying for love. Did you really think for one minute that I wouldn’t try to stop you from doing that?”

  “Did you really think for one second that you’d have anything at all to say about it?”

  “No,” he admitted quietly. “But I’d like to. I’m an expert on why you shouldn’t marry without love.”

  She remained silent, which was not what Griff had expected, because before, she’d always had a comment or opinion about everything. And so, being careful to check the roller coaster hills for oncoming traffic first, he ventured another look at her to see if he could tell what she was thinking.

  When he’d thrown her over his shoulder and carried her out of the church, apparently he’d caused her veil to tilt. Her topknot was tipped, and curls from her long, ash-blond hair were now tumbling down around her temples. Even a little bedraggled, she was still the prettiest thing he’d ever laid eyes on, and still the most desirable woman he’d ever met. The years of being without her hadn’t changed that.

  Tessa took a deep breath, which got his atte
ntion. “So tell me about this e-mail.”

  “It came three days ago and mentioned all the particulars of the wedding—when, where, and whom—and then asked me to come stop it so you didn’t end up marrying someone you didn’t love.” The other thing it had said, he didn’t want to get into with her yet. Maybe not even ever.

  “And you came, even though it’s been over between us a long time?” Tessa didn’t want to think about what that might mean.

  “Like I said, I know what it is to marry someone you don’t love, and go through the agony of a divorce. I’m sure you heard Janie and I—”

  “Yes, I heard.” She didn’t want to discuss his former marriage with him. Talk about pain.

  “I wasn’t only thinking of you, you know, when I pulled you out of there. My brother’s mixed up in this mess.”

  “With how little you’ve been back to see your family since you left home, I’m surprised you’re that worried about Clay. You needn’t be. His heart is safe with me.”

  “Mine wasn’t.”

  “The broken heart worked both ways, Griff.” She worked her teeth over her bottom lip, her slim shoulders stiffening with the memories under satin sleeves. “But Clay and I won’t divorce. I’m positive of that.”

  “You were positive we would get married when I got my commission, too, and look at what happened.”

  The situations were totally different, but Tessa wasn’t about to get into that. There was nothing else she could say without telling him a whole lot more than she was willing to.

  “This is getting us nowhere.” Removing her lacy gloves, she reached up and started to pull out the hairpins that were now, thanks to him, tangling up her carefully done hair. “We need to get whatever your problem is settled and me back to the wedding. So tell me what you want.”

  There was a long silence in the truck, and the air was heavy between them. “I want you to reconsider marrying Clay. I want you to find a man who will make you happy.”