Kate
“Hello Mrs. Davenport, I’m Kate. Pleased to meet you.”
She looked at me for a moment before a smile broke out on her lips and she took my outstretched hand and pulled me in for a kiss on her cheek.
“Likewise, but please call me Meredith,” she replied, glancing up at Jonathan. “You didn’t tell me what a jewel she was…”
“He didn’t tell you much at all,” his sister sniped from the other side of the room, causing an awkward silence to descend on the room.
I felt Jonathan stiffen beside me and the intake of breath that told me he was about to say something, but his mother put her hand on his arm.
“Jessica!” she warned before turning to me. “Ignore her, she’s always been protective of her older brother ever since the day he was born. Now why don’t we go and eat this glorious meal the chef has made and get to know each other better?”
I smiled, glad that at least one member of his family wasn’t a bitch, and as we walked away to the dining room I felt his arm run up and down my back. Even though it was all part of the illusion, it sent a delightful shiver down my spine that I tried to ignore.
I didn’t want to allow myself to be drawn in too deep to the man that I knew picked women up and dropped them just as fast. I didn’t want to allow the performance for his family to give me a false sense of hope. We were business associates who just so happened to enjoy having sex with each other, and the more time spent remembering that the less chance I had of getting hurt.
We all sat down at the table together and somehow I ended up seated opposite Jessica, who seemed to have calmed down.
Jonathan put his hand on my leg, oozing an air of calm and ease again as we were served our starters.
“So when did you both meet?” Meredith asked, taking a sip of her champagne. “I’m sure you can understand this is all quite sudden…”
“We…”
“It was…”
We both spoke at the same time and Jonathan squeezed my thigh slightly, signaling to me that he would do the talking.
“We met through work,” he lied. “She started working for me in the business acquisition department a few months back.”
“Funny, Evan hasn’t mentioned anything to me…”
“Evan? Evan Jackson?” I asked, remembering him from the day we signed the contract.
Jonathan turned to me.
“He’s been a friend of mine since we did a management course when he came to New York and we both set up businesses, but I’m in the process of acquiring his right now.”
“Though wouldn’t she know that already by working in that department?” Jessica chimed. “Evan and I have dated on and off for the past several years. He would have told…”
“ENOUGH!” Jonathan shouted, banging his hand down on the table.
We all jumped slightly, and Jessica put her cutlery down slowly.
“I was only…”
“I said enough, Jess. Kate and I are getting married in four months and that’s all you need to know. It doesn’t matter where we met, who else knows or how long we’ve been together, this is what we want.”
“I think she was just looking out for you…” Meredith said quietly. “You know what this world is like these days. Anyway, congratulations to you both. We’re all pleased for you.”
She raised her glass and we all toasted and then continued to eat in silence, and I wished that I knew Jonathan enough to decipher what he was thinking. Whatever reason he had for wanting to marry me must have been important if he felt the need to fight so passionately for it especially by going to great lengths to lie to his family. I couldn’t help but think that there were more layers to him than I had first thought. Men like him, handsome, charming, and confident, had always given me the impression that they were two dimensional, breezing through life trying to sleep with as many women as they could before they collapsed dead. On first impressions, Jonathan had fitted exactly into that box, but sitting beside him, witnessing his small outburst, I saw he had depth, and I saw how much marrying me actually meant to him.
It was way more than finding someone to have unlimited sex with or proving to the world that he was finally settling down after an entire life of bedding different women. It was much, much deeper, and there was a large part of me that ached to find out. I wanted to know why me? Why had he pursued me of all people? I had trust issues, baggage, and a fear of actually loving someone. Why would he think that I was the best fit to face the world as his fiancé… as his wife?