Learning Curves - By Elyse Mady Page 0,76
this,” he said stiffly. “If I can help straighten out any damage she’s caused, you let me know. I have some pull with the Alumni Board, if it helps. And I hope—I hope everything works out for you two.” Nodding, he wheeled around and stalked back down the hallway. As the heavy door swung shut behind him, the mother of the bride sank into a chair and began to sob in earnest while the fathers of the bride and groom shouted and stormed at each other. The bride swore, her ugly accusations turning the air blue as she railed at her mother, her bridesmaids and her publicly absent husband.
Gillian and Jeremy were likely headed for a far less celebratory occasion in the near future—one that involved solicitors, divorce decrees and an ironclad separation agreement. Not that Gillian didn’t deserve it, but Leanne felt a pang of sympathy when she thought of the blindsided groom. He looked as though he’d been socked in the gut by the news of his wife’s repeated infidelities. She could sympathize with his dismay. His life had turned disastrously wrong through no fault of his own and the aftermath would be anything but pretty.
She couldn’t change the outcome but wished Jeremy well all the same. He was better off without Gillian, although it would doubtlessly take him some time to accept it. Leanne didn’t want to watch any more of the ugly scene. “My car’s outside.”
“Okay.” Hand in hand, they walked toward the parking lot.
Her concern for the groom was eclipsed by a more imperative question occurred, and she stopped short. “Gillian’s card…Why on earth would you keep it?”
Brandon reached up and brushed a strand of hair from her face. Gazing into her eyes, he smiled. “Don’t you know?”
“No,” she whispered, a wild sense of hope surging through her. “Tell me.”
He laughed then, his beautiful blue eyes glowing with emotion. “Because it was my only link to you. I concocted an elaborate, Machiavellian plan to call her and invent a lost wallet or something that I needed to return to you. And then I could call you and maybe ask you out and well…”
He shrugged, clearly embarrassed at his simplistic plan, and her heart warmed at his admission. Then a giggle escaped her as a glaring hole in his plan occurred to her. “Except that if you’d had my wallet, wouldn’t you have had my name and address too?”
A dull red flush rose across his cheekbones at her teasing observation and Leanne’s emotions leaped at this sign of vulnerability. He was so self-contained, so in control, yet he let her see behind the mask of his confidence.
“I wasn’t really thinking about that,” he admitted. “All I knew was I had to see you again. After the example my parents set, I thought I was impervious to love. But then I met you and all bets were off.” He gazed deep into Leanne’s eyes. “I love you. I think I loved you from the first moment I saw you, actually, when I saw you sitting in the dark, watching me dance.”
“I don’t know why,” she said softly. “I’m not anything extraordinary.”
His face darkened at her demurral. “Don’t ever let me hear you say that about yourself ever again,” he ordered. “You are the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever known. You’re clever and loyal and sexy as hell. And if I have my way—”
His words were lost as her lips captured his. Their tongues meshed and his strong arms wrapped around her in an embrace that heated her skin and made her heart sing.
Drawing back for a moment, Leanne laughed. “I love you, Brandon. I kept telling myself it was just a fling, but it never was, was it?”
He shook his head and crushed her against him, claiming her lips again. “Never.”
“I’m so sorry Gillian dragged you into this mess. If it hadn’t been for me—”
“I wouldn’t have learned to trust my heart again,” he interjected. “I’m not out of the woods yet, but Dean Rose has gone to bat for me. She’s proposed a solution so I can keep my position at the university without appearing before the Senate. It would mean being on academic probation until at least next term and I have to give up my hours at the club, but if Kessler and the department sign off on it, I won’t have to forfeit my fellowship. It’s not a done deal, of course, but I’m not going to slink away and let the charges