his bride. He’d stood still for the first time that morning, glad to have a chance to catch his breath.
And then he’d looked toward the house and waited for Carin.
He’d waited and waited.
The guests had waited, too. At first quietly, then with increasing murmurs and head turning.
Rhys had grinned and said, “Don’t suppose she’s ditched you, do you?”
Dominic had snorted then. But within moments it became increasingly clear that she had. Her father had appeared on the deck looking distraught. His own father had looked irritated, then furious. He’d glared at Dominic, then looked at Rhys and jerked his head for his youngest son to join him.
“Maybe she’s sick,” Rhys had suggested. “Nerves.” And he’d hurried off to talk to their dad.
When he came back a few minutes later he didn’t have to tell Dominic what had happened.
“She was gone,” he told Sierra now, his voice flat. “Packed up in the middle of the night sometime and skipped out.” His fingers curled into fists against the sheet.
“Oh, Dominic.” Her voice comforted him. Her lips caressed him. “Oh, my dear.” And then she moved right on top of him, as if she could shield him from the pain, from the memory, from the humiliation he felt at having to clear his throat and tell the assembled guests that there would be no wedding that morning.
And oddly, it helped.
The warmth of her body on his soothed ragged feelings. The gentleness of her touch healed a dozen years of pain.
It wasn’t losing Carin that had mattered.
It was feeling unlovable.
Sierra took those feelings away. She loved him. She’d said so. And with her every act she reconfirmed those words. He rested his chin against the top of her head. His legs tangled with hers, and his arms came around her and held her fast.
“Oh, my love,” she whispered.
And Dominic, throat tight and aching with love for her, could only manage two words, “Oh, yes.”
CHAPTER TEN
THE phone woke them.
The morning sun spilled in the window and Sierra squinted at it as she untangled herself from Dominic who cursed and reached for the ringing cellular phone on the bedside table.
There was no phone line to the house. The only connection with the outside world was the cell phone Douglas had insisted Dominic take.
“You’re head of the company now. You have responsibilities. But I won’t call unless it’s an emergency,” he’d promised.
Now Dominic grabbed it and muttered sleepily into it, “This had better be good.”
A minute later he was sitting up, raking his fingers through his spiky hair, saying, “You’re sure? But that’s impossible. No, you’re right it’s not impossible. Oh, hell. All right. Let me talk to Sierra and I’ll get back to you.”
He hung up and turned to face her, his expression rueful. “I thought I had it all taken care of, really I did. But Sorensen in Denmark is suddenly on the market and we’ve been trying to buy them for two years. Dad thinks they’d rather go to us than to anyone else, but they want to talk to the boss.”
“You,” Sierra filled in.
Dominic nodded reluctantly.
“So talk to them.” She scrunched back up against the pillows. “You don’t have to dance attendance on me every second.”
“I want to dance attendance on you. I want to crawl back in bed and—”
“But you can’t,” Sierra said. “Not if you want Sorensen. Denmark is six hours ahead of us. The day is half over.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Go ahead,” she told him. “It doesn’t matter. I can go walk on the beach or go into town and find a souvenir…just in case I don’t have another one already,” she added with a grin. “I love you.”
He flashed her a grin and gave her a quick kiss. Then he punched in a number on his cell phone.
Sierra took a leisurely shower, ate some yogurt and a banana, then drank a cup of tea. She could hear Dominic in the other room talking on the phone. She poured him a cup, took it in and set it beside him. She got a fleeting smile in return and an even more fleeting kiss on her fingers before he had to scrabble for a pen and jot down some figures.
“I’m going for a walk,” she mouthed. “Back in a while.”
He looked hassled and shrugged, then nodded. “Swim later?” he mouthed back. “Then bed?”
She grinned and nodded.
He said into the phone, “Run that past me again,” and started writing furiously.
Sierra left him to it. She pulled on one of his T-shirts over her