LITMIR.BIZ

      Myles returned from posing for photographs with the wedding party to find Zabrina smiling and talking to a man with strawberry-blond hair. Sitting at the bridal table afforded him an unobscured view of everything and everyone in the large tent.

      There was something in the way she angled her head while staring up at the man through her lashes that reminded him of how she’d look at him just before he’d make love to her. It was a come-hither look that he hadn’t been able to resist.

      What Myles hadn’t been able to understand was how he and Zabrina were able to communicate without words. It could be a single glance, a slight lifting of an eyebrow, a shrug of a shoulder or a smile. It was as if they were able to communicate telepathically, reading each other’s thoughts. Right now he knew she would be shocked if she saw the lust in his eyes. The spell was broken when a waiter took his dinner and beverage request.

      “I almost didn’t recognize Zabrina,” said Griffin Rice.

      Myles gave his brother-in-law a sidelong glance. “She has changed.” And he wanted to tell Griffin the change was for the better. When he’d caught a glimpse of Zabrina the week before he’d thought her lovely, but tonight she was breathtakingly stunning.

      Griffin’s gaze met and fused with Myles’s. “She’d dropped out of sight for years. Rumors were circulating that she and Cooper had divorced. But when reporters asked him about his wife he claimed she preferred keeping a low profile.”

      Myles’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Who’s the guy with her?”

      “Bailey Mercer. We were college roomies.”

      The smile that softened Myles’s mouth crept up to his eyes. It was apparent Zabrina had come to the wedding unescorted. He’d planned to ask her to dance with him and nothing more, since he hadn’t wanted to act inappropriately if she had come with a date. Now that he knew she was alone things had changed. Myles had waited ten years for an explanation for Zabrina’s deception and he intended to get an answer before the night ended.

      The waiter brought drinks for those at the bridal party table, followed by other waitstaff carrying trays laden with platters of curried scallop canapés, walnut and endive salad and mushroom rolls. Dozens of lighted votives in green glasses flickered like stars when the chandeliers were dimmed, creating a soft, soothingly romantic atmosphere.

      Myles ate without actually tasting the food on his plate. He was too engrossed in the woman sitting close enough for him to see her expressions, but not close enough to hear her smoky voice. He wondered if Griffin’s former college roommate was as enthralled with her as he’d been. What he did do was drink more than he normally would at a social function. It didn’t matter, because he wasn’t driving back to Philadelphia. He’d reserved a suite at the hotel.

      And, he refused to fantasize that his sister’s wedding was his and Zabrina’s. He and Zabrina had planned their wedding, honeymoon and life together, but all the plans had come to naught two weeks before the ceremony when his fiancée called to tell him she was in love with another man and she couldn’t marry him.

      Myles still remembered her passion whenever they shared a bed, and wondered whether she’d screamed Thomas Cooper’s name in the throes of passion. Zabrina had always had an intense distaste for politicians. Yet she’d married one. And what about her claim that she’d wanted to wait two years before starting a family? She’d wasted no time in giving Cooper a child.