Wanderlust: A Holiday Story (A Heroes and Heartbreakers Original) by Kitty French Read Free Book Online

couldn’t conjure up a band.
    “Do you have a guitar anywhere around here?” Ford asked, rubbing his champagne cold hands together.
    She frowned. Did they?
    “I think we might have…” she ducked through reception to the dining room, grabbing a torch from the dining table as she passed and shouldering open the door to the old storeroom behind it. It was a this-and-that room. Extra chairs. Boxes of various colored table linens. Ruby shone the light over it all slowly, and then grinned with delight. She’d been right. Lord knew why, but they had an acoustic guitar leaning in one corner.
    Ford moved in close behind her, the warmth of his body welcome in the cold room.
    “Looks like you’ve got yourself some entertainment,” he said, his hands snaking around her waist as he kissed her neck. “You can pay me later.”
    “Are you expensive?” She laughed, catching her breath as his warm hand slid inside her blouse.
    “I’ll take payment in kind, if you like,” he said, his voice husky as his fingers stroked her nipple through the lace of her bra.
    “Get the guitar, Ford,” she said, knowing that if she didn’t stop him now she was highly likely to let him have her right here on the cold flagstone floor of the store room.
    When darkness fell, they were ready for it. Hundreds of candles flickered, every shelf filled, every window illuminated.
    Ruby grabbed a few minutes to dash home through the snow and change into the strapless pale gold dress she’d bought for the occasion, adding a flick of mascara and lip gloss as she ran her fingers through her hair. A sex-filled night coupled with the most stressful working day of her career had done little for her dark, wavy hair, but there was no time to do anything other than hope she could carry off the same elegantly shabby look that the hotel aspired to.
    At just before five o’clock, Emma and Niall’s hushed guests gathered around the bottom of the sweeping staircase, and as Ford picked out Elvis’s “The Wonder of You” on his guitar, Emma made her way slowly down on the arm of her father.
    The bride looked stunning, and as Ruby glanced towards Niall waiting by the fireplace, she saw him dash the back of his hand over his eyes. The minister pulled a hankie from her pocket and handed it to him surreptitiously.
    By virtue of it having the biggest fireplace in the building, the reception hall had been transformed into a makeshift wedding chapel, the leather couches moved around the edges to make way for spindle-backed chairs decorated with silver ribbons. The guests took their seats, their faces illuminated by the many creamy candles amassed on the timbre that topped the fireplace and around the window ledges, the pretty jars casting a myriad of mellow colors around the space. It looked spellbinding. Intimate and inviting, the perfect wedding atmosphere. Emma’s smile shone like a beacon as she walked down the aisle between her family and friends, and as she caught Ruby’s eye, it widened even more. That simple smile filled her heart with joy. She’d done it.
    Ford’s arm slipped around her waist as they stood together at the back of the room and watched their friends pledge themselves to each other forever. She turned to look at him, and found him watching her intently.
    “Thank you,” she said softly. Without him, there was every likelihood that the day would have ended very differently. He’d given her the strength and encouragement she needed without ever taking over and stealing the show, helping her turn what could easily have been a disaster into a triumph.
    Ford studied Ruby’s profile as she turned slowly back to watch Emma and Niall’s wedding. He’d woken that morning with her in his arms, and he’d never known peace like it. He’d spent years searching the globe for that feeling, never realizing that home wasn’t really about location at all. He’d been running forever, and it was only as he’d watched Ruby in action today that he’d