Chapter Seven
Maura hadn't intended to dance with Tommy. In fact, he was probably the last guy she wanted to dance with. He had a way about him that made her think he thought he was better than everyone else, especially someone with the last name of Jackson.
Tommy nodded to Aidan and then led her around the dance floor. "I never thought I'd see the day a Jackson and a Langley would marry."
She hesitated to respond. Should she say something? She certainly felt the same way. Funny, the twists and turns life presented when you were busy doing other things.
"Well, it seems I have done just that."
"You think it'll stick, this marriage of yours and Aidan's?"
Tommy's question caught her off guard. She had wondered the same thing herself, but if it didn't, what happened then? No one had ever said what would happen to the land if she and Aidan didn’t stay married or have a child.
She didn't have an answer for Tommy, so she kept quiet and let him guide her around the dance floor one more time before the song ended. She bowed to Tommy and thanked him for the dance.
Her feet were killing her. She smiled at the memory of digging her heel into Aidan's foot. She would probably pay for that small act of independence later. She didn’t really care. It had felt good to see the look of surprised shock on his face. He was so smug and arrogant—
"A word with you, Mrs. Langley." Aidan's words, clipped and sharp, were a low whisper for her ears only. Surprised, she looked up to find him standing beside her. His face was unreadable.
She didn't say anything. Her acquiescence to his request wasn't necessary, it seemed. He wrapped his strong fingers around her arm and gently but forcefully pulled her away from the bare-bulbs strung in a row illuminating the makeshift dance and into the darkness of the ever-darkening night sky.
She struggled to keep up with his long strides and her dress skirt tangled between them.
"Do you mind not dragging me? I really don't appreciate—"
He swung her around to face him and held her against him, his grip tight and slightly painful.
"Well, I don't appreciate being made a fool of in front of the entire town. How dare you stomp on my foot. Do you think no one could see your little tantrum out there?"
Now she was angry. "If you hadn't held me against my will, I wouldn’t have been forced to take such desperate measures. You might want to remember that, Aidan Langley. I'm not someone you can control so don’t try.” She gathered her composure. “It is my wedding day. It is supposed to be the happiest day of my life." She was going for sarcasm, but her voice cracked with a touch of hysteria. She swallowed and took a deep breath to calm her emotions. "I have always dreamed I’d marry someone I at least liked, much less loved with all my heart. Now, if you will excuse me, I'd like to get back to the party. It's the only thing out of this cursed day worth hanging on to."
She turned on her heel and headed back toward the lights, but her shoes made walking over the uneven ground impossible. She was getting nowhere. Ah, to hell with it. She lifted her skirt and pulled off her offending footwear and threw them off into the darkness as far as she was able.
"Nice throw." Aidan came to stand beside her in the dark.
"Thanks. I guess." She didn't know what else to say.
"Look. Maura. I—this…" He swept his hands toward her. She assumed he was referring to her in the wedding dress. "I don't know how to process this anymore than you do, I’m presuming.”
He looked down at her with an earnest look she couldn’t ignore. “You presume right,” she offered hoping to ease the tension that had been building up between them since they said, ‘I Do’.
She watched him rake his fingers through his too long dark auburn hair in frustration. “You didn’t want to be married to me anymore than I want to be married to you. Is that a safe assumption?"
Maura stood in the dark near the man she had just pledged her life to. This morning she could have agreed wholeheartedly that being married to Aidan Langley was a fate worse than death. But after that breath-stealing kiss he planted on her in front of God and everyone, she realized her relationship with Aidan was—complicated. After all, they had already seen each other naked, and they hadn’t even made it to their wedding night.
"Maura?"
She realized he was waiting for an answer. "Well, yes, of course. I don't want to be married to you. I would think that obvious." She stretched the truth just a bit to cover the sting of his rejection.
"Good. That's good to hear. So, let's agree to disagree for the moment. What do you say about a truce? We don’t want the people at the bank to think we don’t like each other now, do we? They might assume this marriage of ours is a ruse just to get their money."
He grinned at his own joke and held out his hand to her. It was true the only way they might be able to set aside their differences long enough to have a child would be through a mutual truce.
She placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her toward the lights of their wedding party. She liked the feel of his large hand covering hers. It gave the impression of an attentive husband who wanted to love and protect his new wife. She realized she would have liked that if this had been a real marriage. She had never had the love and comfort of a father.
But, she warned her heart. This marriage was an illusion. It wasn’t real, and she had best steel herself against her handsome husband's allure or she would soon be at his mercy.