The Bride Who Wouldn't by Carol Marinelli Read Free Book Online Page A

okay?”
    “Sure,” Kate said and he moved over. As his arm went over her, he was very careful to hold his body back, and she was touched that he did so. “I’m so sorry for what I said last night, about you…”
    “Shhh,” he said. “You were upset.”
    “I just lost control…”
    “Really, did you?” His sarcasm made her smile. “It’s forgotten.”
    They lay in silence for a moment and the bed was so soft and warm and Isaak so kind, it actually felt nice to be here, especially when he spoke. “I will get your necklace restrung today for you.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” Kate said. “I hate it. It was my mother’s and I’ve always loathed it…”
    “Yet you wore it on your wedding day?”
    “It didn’t seem worth making a fuss about,” she admitted. “It wasn’t as if it was a real wedding….” Her voice trailed off.
    “Why don’t you get it strung in a way you like it, then,” Isaak said. “In your style.”
    Kate let out a soft laugh. “I don’t really know what my style is. I’m sort of dreading going out while we’re here, the Parisians always look so gorgeous.”
    “So do you.”
    Isaak lay there thinking, she did dress more than a little on the conservative side, thick stockings, buttoned up shirts. There was far too much holding back with Kate.
    “I like your hair like this,” he commented for her curls brushed his face.
    “It will be a disaster once the lights are on,” Kate said. “I should know better by now than to fall asleep with it wet.”
    He made no real reference to last night and it was as unexpected as it was a relief as they lay there chatting about clothes and her mother’s strict rules while she was growing up.
    “She was far more relaxed with my brothers,” Kate explained. “Just very rigid with me.”
    “In what way?”
    “In every way. I laughed too loudly, I didn’t stand up straight, I forgot to keep my knees together getting out of the car. She loathed that I got on so well with my father, she found his work boring, I found it fascinating. We used to go to auctions and if I wore jeans she’d say I was dressing like a boy. If I wore a dress she’d accuse me of showing myself off too much,” Kate said. “She still complains about what I wear even now…”
    “You’re twenty-six.”
    “I know.” Kate yawned. “I’m honestly not trying to win her approval—I gave up on that long ago. I’m just saying to you that I don’t know what my style is.”
    “Then we find it today!” Isaak said as the door knocked and breakfast was wheeled in. “We’ll go shopping.”
    Kate sat up as the lights were turned on and then Isaak did the nicest thing, he pulled up the sheet and covered her and glancing down she saw that her breast had fallen out of the lacy nightdress.
    She sat in bed, and the butler asked if they wanted the table set up.
    “ Non …” Isaak broke into fluent French and a tray was delivered to her lap and his.
    He gave more orders and with her rusty schoolgirl French, she recognized what he was saying about tidying the bathroom and picking up the pearls later and a few other things that she could not make out. Then they were alone.
    “We can eat at the table if you prefer,” Isaak said. “I thought it might look a bit strange if I said to him…”
    “Here’s fine,” Kate smiled.
    It actually was.
    That he had saved her from a blushing moment with the butler, that he didn’t seem angry in the least about last night, had her feeling safer. And the bed was sooo comfortable after a night spent on a sofa.
    “What’s this?” Kate asked as she went for her coffee and saw a thick creamy envelope addressed to her.
    “I booked a day in the spa for you,” Isaak said. “I thought it would be nice for you to relax after the wedding, but I just changed it to tomorrow so that we can go shopping.”
    “You didn’t have to change it,” Kate said looking through the brochure and seeing the treatments. Kate didn’t really like