Love Is Elected (14 page)

"You look beautiful, Kara," he said, his eyes warm with admiration. Then taking her elbow and making apologies to the smiling onlookers, he guided his bride to a quiet corner.

"You seem to be doing very well. The men can't take their eyes off you. And the women who aren't jealous are charmed," he commented wryly.

"Thank you," she said nervously, unsure of how she should respond.

"Well, did you miss me?" he asked, his eyes appraising her with apparent amusement.

"Miss you?" Kara felt a ripple of anger. "That's an odd question to ask, since you didn't even bother to call."

"That was to test you, my dear."

"Test me?"

"I wanted to see if you'd care. Now I have my answer." He grinned with satisfaction, his eyes sweeping over her body with what seemed to Kara a smug possessiveness.

She stiffened. So he had deliberately treated her to an anxious week just to amuse himself. He was toying with her feelings as if she were a mere plaything. Her eyes flashed with anger. She wanted to slap him.

"You, you…" she stammered, but before the words formulated, a silky voice interjected itself.

"Matt, dear, I hate to interrupt this charming little domestic scene, but I wanted to ask you about some notes I took in Cumberland," the voice murmured.

Kara turned to see Vera Caldwell, stunningly dressed in an emerald green gown. The redhead was looking coyly up at Matt through her dark mascaraed lashes. "You won't mind if I steal your handsome husband away for a few minutes, will you, dear?" she asked in honey-laden tones.

"Not at all," Kara said through her teeth and watched Vera draw Matt into a vacant corner. They were standing very close together, Kara noted with irritation, Matt's dark head setting off the reporter's glossy lacquered curls. In a minute they were deep into a discussion. Matt seemed to have forgotten his new bride entirely, Kara thought, standing alone and feeling a little piqued.

She looked away, eyes snapping with fury, but at that moment a familiar face caught her eye.

"Wayne," she gasped as the suave, sandy-haired young lawyer made his way toward her.

"What are you doing here?" she exclaimed as he reached her side.

"I came to see you, of course," he replied, favoring her with his most charming smile.

"But, but…" she stammered, "I know you weren't invited."

"Come on, Kara. I've lived in Washington long enough to know how to crash a party I've read about on the society pages," he explained with a sly wink. His pale blue eyes swept over her petite form. "Kara, I'd almost forgotten how beautiful you are. I've missed you." But his slurred words told the young woman he had stopped to sample the martini tray before he found her.

Her lips tightened into a thin line. "Wayne, you can't stay here," she whispered urgently. "You've got to leave."

"I'm not going to leave until I've had a chance to talk to you," he insisted loudly. Kara looked around to see if anyone had heard, but conversation continued to drone on around them.

Oh dear, she thought frantically. Somehow she had to get him out of the house before he made a scene. Searching the room, her eye finally fell on the French doors leading to the garden.

"Wayne, come out on the patio," she urged her would-be suitor.

"Wonderful idea," he agreed readily. "Never did like a room full of stuffed shirts. And I might add, your new husband is the biggest stuffed shirt of all. Just look at him over there playing Mr. Big Shot! He's not going to get my vote. That's for sure!"

Kara held back her retort as she led Wayne through the doors onto the flagstone patio. She had to get rid of him. She drew him off to the side hoping to persuade the slightly tipsy lawyer to get in his car and leave.

But when they were out of sight of the doors, he pulled Kara into a dark corner of the large patio and, seizing her slender arm, began to plead.

"Kara, I want you. This marriage," he argued with a sweeping gesture of dismissal, "is ridiculous. You can't love that pompous politician, and he certainly doesn't love you. Did you see him with that redhead?"

The question scored a direct hit. Kara tried to pull away, but Wayne only became more insistent. "I'm the man you belong with. The thing with Gloria was a mistake. She was never the one for me. You are."

"Wayne," Kara interjected desperately. "Please, I don't want to hear this. It's all over between you and me."

Suddenly anger filled Wayne's pale eyes. "Oh no it's not," he sneered. Forcing her against him roughly, he pressed his lips onto her unwilling mouth.

Kara tried to twist herself away but that only made him more persistent.

And then, to her horror, she heard Matt's angry voice.

"What the hell is going on here?" he rasped. Matt's strong hands seized Wayne's shoulders and flung him aside, leaving Kara gasping against the wall. She watched in shock as Matt picked up her ex-boyfriend and tossed him into the bushes.

"Get out of here before I tear you apart," he menaced while Wayne stared at him white-faced from the boxwood.

Hastily the stunned lawyer picked himself up and brushing himself off walked stiffly from the garden, but not before he delivered an angry "All right, I'll leave, but don't write me off yet."

"And as for you," Matt said, turning to the frightened Kara with a furious scowl, "we'll have to settle this after the reception. Now get in there and finish your duty as hostess."

Wordlessly Kara fled from the patio back into the brightly lit reception. Neither she nor Matt had noticed the green-eyed reporter watching with interest from the shadows of a nearby oak tree. As soon as the couple was out of sight, the redhead made her way across the patio and through the hedge where Wayne had disappeared. She smiled when she found the disgruntled lawyer standing near his car.

"I think the two of us have something to discuss," she said silkily.

The rest of the evening was a charade. Somehow Kara managed to get through it by pasting an artificial smile on her face and trying not to think of anything beyond the party itself. Though she deliberately avoided looking at Matt, twice during the night her eyes unexpectedly locked with his. The expression of suppressed fury in them made her shiver and quickly glance away.

As the last guest was ushered out the door Kara's apprehension grew. Fruitlessly she tried to think of ways to avoid the confrontation she knew was at hand.

But when Matt appeared at her side, grimly holding out her wrap, she knew that evading him was hopeless. Resigned, she let her husband drape the silky shawl over her slender shoulders. His hands brushed the skin on her arms possessively. Involuntarily she recoiled from his touch, looking up at him in alarm while he observed her through smokey, hooded eyes.

"We're going home now," he ordered, clipping a firm hand around her elbow.

Home, she thought bleakly, what kind of a home was it? More like a jail. But even as she said these words to herself, her jailor was leading her out the door to the silver Porsche.

Inside the sports car the atmosphere was unbearably tense. Kara glanced nervously at Matt. His profile was a set, angry mask, his mouth rigid as he guided the car down the dark ribbon of road.

When she felt she could no longer tolerate the leaden silence, Kara ventured apprehensively, "Matt, let me explain what happened in the garden."

"Save your breath," he ground out, swinging the car sharply around a hairpin curve. The jerky movement of the Porsche pitched her against his shoulder.

"You're driving too fast," she protested, hastily pushing herself away from his body.

"When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it," he returned harshly.

Kara drew in her breath and shut her mouth in an angry snap. The man was an ogre, selfish and uncaring. How could she have ever thought that she had any tender feelings for him or that their marriage might turn into something more than a sham? It's been nothing more than a sparring match, she told herself, and she simply wasn't going to stand for it any longer. She had too much pride to allow him to treat her this way. Maybe his political career was important, but so was her life!

When she remembered the care with which she had dressed for the reception and the eager way she had looked forward to seeing him again, she felt like screaming and breaking the car's ominous silence with bitter words. She clutched her arms around her chest and stared blindly out the window. But her thoughts were interrupted by Matt's tight voice.

"Just get this straight," he warned. "If I ever catch you with that two-bit lawyer friend of yours again, I won't answer for the consequences!" His foot pressed down harder on the accelerator and the car swerved around another turn.

But Kara was too angry to worry about his fast driving. Her eyes smoldered as she glared at him.

"You'll never have that opportunity," she hissed. "I don't plan to stay with you any longer. Too bad about your campaign. I just won't put up with this!"

"You don't have any choice," he grated, shooting her a piercing look from narrowed eyes. "You'll stay married to me as long as I want you to. I don't intend to give you a divorce until I'm good and ready."

So that was how it would be, she told herself, enraged. He intended only to use her and then throw her aside like the other women he had tired of. Well, she would show him!

"I don't need to get a divorce," she challenged, her eyes glittering with triumph. "All I need is an annulment. We've never shared a bed."

The silence in the car stretched painfully, and Kara began to clench her fists nervously as she waited for Matt's reply.

Finally it came. "We'll see about that," his voice said silkily in the darkness. Kara stared at him sharply, wondering exactly what he meant. Then her throat constricted with fear and she felt a sharp pang in the pit of her stomach. With the clarity of sudden insight, she knew this time she had gone too far. Somehow, his soft, suggestive voice in the darkness held more threat than his earlier angry words.

At that moment she was thrown forward as the car jerked to a sudden stop in front of Mart's white stucco town house. Hastily, Kara snapped off the seatbelt, opened the car door and scrambled out. Another wave of alarm swept over her. Quickly she got out her keys and inserted them in the lock of the front door. All her instincts told her she had to get to her bedroom and lock it before he could follow.

But Matt was too quick for her. As she fumbled with the lock, he caught up with her.

"In a hurry to get to bed?" he questioned sensuously. "Well, that makes two of us." His fingers stroked her bare shoulders sending shivers of awareness down her spine. But she would not allow herself to respond.

"Get your hands off me," she whispered hoarsely, pushing him away and making a dash for the stairs. But even as she rushed up the carpeted staircase he was only a step behind. She could feel his breath on her neck. In her haste, the stiletto heels of her sandals twisted underneath her, catching the hem of her long chiffon skirt. As she stumbled, she felt Matt's strong hands on her waist like iron bands.

"Careful now," he cautioned. "The stairs are too uncomfortable for what I have in mind." His firm hand on her elbow restored her balance. Gathering up her skirt, Kara made a headlong rush up the remaining steps and down the hall to her room. She knew that if she didn't get away from Matt now it would be too late. She stumbled through her bedroom doorway and threw herself against the door, but Matt swung it open easily despite her efforts to shut him out. Then he deliberately closed it behind him. The heavy thud it made sent her heart racing.