When he had gone Imogen fully intended to go and unlock her suitcase, but she found herself slumping back in the chair instead. Staring at nothing in particular, she reminded herself that she was getting married tomorrow—to a man who had wealth, charisma and generosity in spades, but whose heart was frozen in time because he’d pledged it when he was young to a girl who had tragically lost her life...
* * *
Leaning his hands against the white marble surround that housed the generously sized bathroom sinks, Seth didn’t immediately undress for his shower.
On this, the day before his marriage, memories of Louisa were inevitable. For a while he became lost in them. Old feelings stirred. He recalled how he had loved everything about her—from her long red hair and haunting green eyes to her courage in standing up to her peers when they’d mocked where he came from because it was a notoriously ‘lowly’ part of town.
He had been quite capable of putting them straight himself, but he had known such confrontations would inevitably spark his temper and likely end in somebody getting a bloody nose, so by and large he’d avoided the possibility.
Even when his mood had been morose Louisa had always found a way to make him smile. Most of all she had made him feel loved and accepted, and had helped ease the ache in his soul brought about by his father’s cruel and drunken behaviour.
He had regularly sworn at Seth, telling him that he was a mistake and his mother was a whore. How he would have loved to have had the physique he had now, to square up to him and throw him out of the house. He had attempted to do just that on a couple of occasions but had ended up in A&E for his troubles, with his distraught mother begging him never to try it again. As fate would have it, shortly after Louisa had died his father had died suddenly from a heart attack.
Years later, when Seth had started to make substantial amounts of money from his endeavours in America, he had sent his mother the money to buy a house. These days she lived quietly, deep in the Welsh countryside. And she professed to love the peace and quiet over being with another man. Who could blame her?
His thoughts returned to Louisa. Seth knew he would have married her if she’d lived. Staring at his reflection in the mirror, and noting one or two strands of grey in his hair, he thought about how frighteningly fast the years had passed. Then, as if waking from a dream, his thoughts turned to this ‘marriage of convenience’ that lay ahead of him.
His ensuing sigh was heavy. What he’d believed was the obvious solution to ending the soulless existence he’d long endured without a female partner to ‘humanise’ him was starting to appear more complicated than he’d envisaged. For a start, he found himself more attracted to Imogen than was entirely sensible. And—dare he say it?—he’d discovered that he cared what she thought about their arrangement a little too much.
Yes, he brought some attractive assets to the table—like his wealth and position—but would that be enough to satisfy her? He was quickly beginning to realise that she shared some of the same appealing qualities Louisa had had, in that she didn’t appear to be driven by the material things in life.
The last thing he wanted to do was make her feel pressured into marrying him. The woman had already been hurt beyond measure by her ex-fiancé. Yet when those soulful dark eyes of hers glimmered with delight at some inconsequential thing he said or did, and she smiled up at him as if he’d hung the moon, Seth forgot everything but his desire to hold her tight and make love to her.
Was that how she had looked at her faithless ex? he wondered.
More irritated than he cared to own at the thought, he pushed his fingers irritably through his hair. Deciding it was best if he kept his mind on the rules he and Imogen had agreed about their upcoming partnership—that it was to be a union forged out of mutual convenience and not one where they engaged their emotions—Seth turned on the shower and hastily stripped off his clothes...
* * *
He’d come down to the lobby to meet the designer he had hired to deliver and fit Imogen’s dress for the wedding. Celia Bamford was an attractive middle-aged woman, with flashes of hot pink amongst the silver of her stylish short hair, and she had an impressive clientele that included some of the younger royals.
Whilst Seth would have preferred to have had a dress made exclusively for his wife-to-be, time and circumstance had prevented it. Consequently he had had to choose from a select array of garments that the designer had already created to show to potential customers. Fortunately he’d found one that in his opinion perfectly complemented Imogen’s delicate frame and features.