Switched at the Altar
Autor
Metsy Hingle
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18,2K
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11
Chapter 1
His brother was a dead man. Or at least he would be dead, Alexander Stone vowed, the moment he got his hands on him. Jerking open the door, he stepped inside Magnolia House. The lazy breeze of a ceiling fan stroked his skin like a woman’s fingers as he moved into the entrance hall and out of the Louisiana heat.
Still cursing his younger sibling for causing him to make the trip from Boston to this backwater town outside of New Orleans, Alex marched over to the reception desk. He scowled at the sight of the unmanned desk before slapping the bell for assistance.
Temper curled like a fist in his gut as he waited and recounted the morning’s discoveries. Not only had Kevin failed to show up for any of his summer law school classes for the past week, but he hadn’t been seen at his apartment for even longer. Learning that his brother’s mail was being forwarded to Magnolia House in care of Ms. Desiree Mason had done nothing to improve his mood. Nor had it eased his rising temper. No wonder he hadn’t been able to reach Kevin by phone for the past three days. The young fool had evidently moved in with the Mason woman.
The newspaper clipping—shoved under his nose by a former lady friend who’d come by to show off her engagement ring—flashed into Alex’s mind’s eye again.
Even if he didn’t have a genius IQ, Alex fumed, it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to figure out that the scheming Ms. Desiree Mason had gotten her hooks firmly into his kid brother.
Well, he’d see how anxious the little gold digger was to marry Kevin once she found out that he was the one who controlled his trust fund.
Where the devil is everyone? Five seconds stretched into ten, obliterating what little patience he had left. Annoyed, Alex slapped the bell on the desk again.
Nothing. No one.
“Aw, the hell with it,” he muttered. “I’ll find Kevin myself.” And when he did, he was through being a marshmallow where his younger brother was concerned. He’d been making that mistake from the day a nine-year-old Kevin had been deposited on his doorstep while their respective parents went off with their next set of spouses. In the thirteen years since then, he’d fought any and all objections to send Kevin away to military school, had even suffered their grandfather’s anger for refusing to do so. But he’d been determined, hell-bent, on providing his brother with some semblance of a normal family, to give him a more nurturing childhood than the one he’d known.
And you’ve certainly done a fine job of it, Alex admonished himself silently. Look what a mess Kevin had gotten himself into now. And it was, at least partially, his fault. He should have known something like this would happen. Should have expected it. Kevin was a good-looking, wealthy young man—and far too easily swayed by a pretty face. Just as their father had been, Alex admitted. By giving in to Kevin’s request to attend law school down south, he’d all but thrown Kevin to the wolves. And he’d allowed his brother to become the target of every sweet, magnolia vamp south of the Mason-Dixon line trying to land herself a rich husband.
And evidently Ms. Desiree Mason had scored a bull’s-eye.
Alex gritted his teeth. The woman’s name alone should have set off alarm bells the first time Kevin had mentioned her. His kid brother was no match for some conniving, Southern belle with a honey-voiced accent. Well, Ms. Desiree Mason would have to find herself some other young fool to marry, because he had no intention of letting his brother make the biggest mistake of his life.
As of right now, Kevin was going to be made to toe the line. And he was going to start by going back to law school—in Boston, not New Orleans—and forgetting any foolish thoughts he might have about marrying Desiree Mason. With that idea in mind, Alex started down the hall in search of his brother. He froze mid-stride at the sound of an all-too-familiar tune. It was the one song that he had sworn both of his parents had adopted as their personal favorite, the one song that still made him break out in a cold sweat whenever he heard it.
The wedding march!
Panic sent adrenaline rushing through his body, and Alex sped down the length of the hall toward the sound of the music. The last cords of the tune faded just as he jerked open the massive double doors to a ballroom.
“Dearly beloved...”
Alex bit back an oath at the sight of bridesmaids, groomsmen, a minister holding a bible. His gaze darted to the back of the shapely redhead in the wedding dress and stared at bare shoulders, the color of rich cream, that flirted beneath a whisper of lace. Swallowing hard, Alex dragged his gaze from the bride to the groom standing beside her. His heart stopped and then started again as he looked at the familiar back of the tall, dark-haired man about to be married—his brother, Kevin.
“We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in the sacrament of holy matrimony,” the minister continued. “Marriage is a—”
“Stop,” Alex shouted. Heedless of the surprised gasps and curious looks directed at him, he raced down the aisle. “I demand you stop this wedding at once!”
The bride whipped around. Her blue-green eyes widened with shock. Twin spots of color climbed her cheeks. Alex stared at those rose-colored lips rounded in surprise. Crazily, for the space of a heartbeat, he wondered what it would be like to sample that mouth.
“How dare you?” she demanded.
“Quite easily,” Alex shot back, shaking off his strange reaction to the woman. He curled his hands into fists at his sides as he realized that in another two minutes he would have been too late. “There’s no way I’m going to allow you to marry my brother.”
Dismissing the round of gasps that went up and the furious look the bride cast his way, Alex shifted his attention to his brother. He waited, braced for Kevin’s outburst.
“Oh, that was perfect!”
Alex yanked his attention back to the bride at the same time that she launched herself at him. Not stopping to think, he caught her in his arms, holding on to her at the waist. But instead of hitting him as he expected, she proceeded to curl her arms around his neck.
He snagged her wrists, sure she was intent on strangling him. “Listen, lady—”
She cut off his protest with her mouth. Alex sucked in a breath at the feel of those soft lips brushing against his own. Desire—unexpected and unwanted—put fire in his belly, raced to his loins.
Suddenly she was pulling her mouth free and staring at him. Judging by her stunned expression and the confusion in those blue-green eyes of hers, he wasn’t the only one who’d felt as though he’d just been whacked by a thunderbolt. It was insane, Alex told himself. But he couldn’t stop himself from sliding his gaze to that ripe, lush mouth of hers again. Desire, sweet and aching, bit at him once more.
As though sensing his thoughts, she tugged her wrists free and eased back one step, then another. She gave him a lazy smile and followed with a single “Wow!”
“Wow” was right, Alex thought. Still reeling from the unexpected kiss and its effect on him, he shook his head to clear the sensuous fog that seemed to have ensnared him.
“Hey, that was pretty good,” one of the bridesmaids called out.
Good? Good didn’t even come close to describing that kiss or the strange way it had made him feel. And since when does a bridesmaid critique a kiss delivered to the intended bride by a stranger?
The bride spun around, presenting him with another view of her back and more cream-colored skin where her dress dipped along her shoulders. She headed toward the critiquing bridesmaid. “Didn’t I tell you guys that Bernie would come through for us?” she exclaimed in a voice that was decidedly huskier than it had been a few moments ago.
A voice that reminded him of sultry summer nights and hot sex, Alex decided. He sucked in a breath. What in the hell was wrong with him? Lusting after the little gold digger who’d been about to marry his brother.
His brother! Alex nearly groaned. Oh, Lord, he’d forgotten about Kevin. He jerked his attention back to his brother. But instead of getting ready to charge over and tear into him for interfering, Kevin had one arm draped around his kissing bride and the other one around a bridesmaid and was chatting with them as though nothing had happened. Frowning, Alex started toward him. “Kev—”
The minister blocked his path. “You cut in too soon,” the reverend admonished, pointing an accusing finger in his face. “Why didn’t you wait for me to give you your cue?”
Alex frowned at the portly clergyman. His cue?
“Yeah. You were supposed to wait for your cue,” the best man informed him.
“Hey, they’re right, pal,” the groom added as he came over to join them. “You cut in before I got a chance to deliver my lines.”
Alex sucked in his breath as he stared at the face of the groom. The guy was dark-haired, brown-eyed and just about Kevin’s height and size. He even had an endearing choirboy grin that was similar to his brother’s.
Only he wasn’t his brother.
Relief rushed through Alex like water overflowing a swollen creek. Kevin hadn’t been on the verge of marrying the sexy redhead after all. But on the heels of that revelation came an equally disturbing and surprisingly disappointing one. The woman he’d been lusting after for the past sixty seconds was about to marry someone.
And he’d just interrupted her wedding.
“Are you OK?” the bride asked him as she came back to stand before him. “You look... upset.”
“No. It’s just that I thought... That is, I didn’t realize...” Alex clamped his mouth firmly shut, chagrined to be stumbling over his words like a tongue-tied teenager in the throes of his first crush. After a moment, he tried again. “I’m terribly sorry.”
“Whatever for?” she asked in that soft, honeyed voice. “You were great.”
He was great? “I’m afraid I—”
She smiled at him again, and Alex forgot what he’d been about to say. Cursing himself, he took a deep breath. He had to get out of here. “I’m sorry. I can see now that I made a mistake. Please accept my apologies for the, um, interruption. I’ll just leave you and your...your...”
He flicked a glance at the groom he’d mistaken for his brother. The man appeared to be making time with the bridesmaid. Alex swallowed. “I’ll just get out of your way and let you get back to your wedding.” Without wasting another moment, he turned to leave.
“Wait!” She caught his arm before he’d managed to take the first step. “Listen, I know I said you were great, and you were, but I still think it could use some work. Why don’t we try it again? Just do everything exactly the same way you did a few minutes ago.”
Alex’s jaw dropped. His body tensed. He couldn’t help it. His gaze fell to her lips and he felt that slap of heat again. “You want me to kiss you again?”
“Well, yes. That, too.” She gave him another of those lazy smiles that did strange things to his brain and made it difficult for him to think clearly. “But this time, be sure to wait for your cue.”
Alex blinked. “My cue?”
“Yes. When the reverend asks if there are any objections, that’s where you’re supposed to come in. Otherwise, do everything exactly the way you did it a minute ago,” she instructed him. “Your inflection was perfect, and I loved the ad lib, by the way. It was a nice touch. You can go ahead and leave it in.”
His inflection? The ad lib? What in the hell was she talking about?
“Oh, and be sure to do that steely-eyed thing that you did with your eyes again. For a minute there, you even had me believing you were serious about stopping the wedding.”
“I was serious,” Alex countered, growing more confused by the second. “I thought—” His tongue twisted in his mouth as she curved her lips into another one of those smiles and sent fire singing through his veins. “Damn!”
Her smile slipped. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Alex took a long, measured breath and struggled to regain control of the situation and of himself. “Lady, I don’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about.”
She tipped her head and eyed him curiously. “What is it you don’t understand?”
“I don’t understand anything you’ve said. I don’t know a thing about any cues or ad libs or steely-eyed looks. If I was convincing when I came in here and demanded you stop the wedding it’s because I thought I was stopping a wedding.”
“You thought this was a real wedding?”
“Yes.”
She narrowed her eyes. “And just whose wedding did you think you were stopping?”
“My brother’s.” He squeezed his eyes shut a moment, mortified to have made such a mistake. For a smart man who was considered to be great when it came to assessing businesses, he had just scored a big, fat zero in assessing this situation. If he’d been the least bit astute, he would have noted earlier what he saw now—a stage at the far end of the room, drapes drawn across that stage and a sign tacked to one curtain that read Wet Paint.
“I see,” she said, sighing. “Then I guess Bernie didn’t send you after all.”
Exasperated, Alex dragged a hand through his hair. “I don’t even know anyone named Bernie.”
“I was afraid of that. I don’t suppose there’s any chance that you’re an unemployed actor looking for work, is there?” she asked hopefully.
Alex almost laughed at the notion, and he would have if he weren’t feeling as though he’d wandered into the Twilight Zone. “Hardly. I’m an attorney. My name’s Alex Stone.”
Desiree nearly choked. This was Alexander Stone? This giant of a man with the eyes of a warrior and the face of a dark angel? This man whose kiss had made her blood spin? He was Kevin’s uptight, stuffy, older brother?
Desiree caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she studied him more closely. Of course, she could see his resemblance to Kevin now. And if she hadn’t been so wrapped up in the play and her reaction to him, maybe she would have spotted the similarities sooner. After all, the two men did share those same dark, good looks. But where Kevin’s hair curled a bit and brushed his collar, Alex’s was stick straight and shorter, making that sharp jaw of his appear even sharper—and for some reason more appealing to her. And where Kevin’s eyes were a warm brown that had roused an immediate sisterly affection in her, Alex’s eyes were hard and as black as a moonless sky. And when he’d looked at her, when those midnight eyes of his had snapped to life with desire, she had in no way been inclined with feelings that were sisterly.
Nope, Alexander Stone didn’t make her feel the least bit sisterly, Desiree admitted as she continued to study him. In fact, she couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to really be kissed by him.
Like jumping from the frying pan into the fire, she told herself. Not only would it be stupid, but she didn’t have the time or the inclination to let her hormones get in the way. At least not now. Not when she had a dinner theater set to open in less than a month, and not when one of her players was still missing.
“And you are...?”
Desiree dragged her attention to Alex’s outstretched hand. As she placed her fingers in his palm, a shiver of awareness shimmied down her spine. Well, what do you know, she thought, a bit excited by her reaction to him. Ever since her sister Lorelei’s kidnapping and wedding a few months before to the man who’d been her first love, she’d found herself daydreaming and wishing she would meet someone special. And now here was Alexander Stone. “Desiree. My name’s Desiree.”
Alex’s fingers tightened around hers. “Desiree? You’re Desiree Mason?”
“Yes,” she said, surprised that he knew her full name, as well as by his quick release of her hand. “Did Kevin happen to mention me to you?”
“Oh, yes. He’s mentioned you all right.”
And judging by Alex’s chilled tone and the way his jaw had clenched, whatever Kevin had told his big brother about her hadn’t been to Alex’s liking.
“You’re the actress.”
He made the term actress sound as though it ranked right up there with the word thief. “Yes, I am.”
“I see,” he said coolly.
Talk about rotten karma. “It figures,” Desiree muttered. It was just her luck that the first man she’d been attracted to in ages would be a stick-in-the-mud Adonis in a custom-tailored suit with a chip the size of a boulder on his linebacker shoulders.
“What figures?”
“That you were just too good to be true.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Desiree doubted that Alexander Stone ever had to beg for anything—especially not from a woman. She shrugged. No way would she admit her foolish romantic thoughts to him or anyone else. “I was just thinking you’re a good actor,” she replied instead. “Too good for me to have mistaken you for a green drama student.”
“Thank you. I think.”
“If you ever decide to change professions, you should keep acting in mind. You’d be great on the stage.”
“I don’t think there’s much chance of that happening.”
Desiree grinned at his clipped reply. He looked as though even the thought of doing such a thing would be about as pleasant as a toothache. “One never knows. There are an awful lot of lawyers out there.”
“And according to statistics, there are just about as many would-be actors.”
“Probably because there are so many out-of-work lawyers. But I guess it’s to be expected.”
“And how do you figure that?”
“Well, from what I’ve seen of the legal system, there’s not a lot of difference between acting and lawyering. One uses a stage and the other uses a courtroom.”
“So what gives, Des?” Charlie, the play’s minister, called out. “We gonna rehearse anymore or not?”
“Not,” she told him. Lifting the train of her wedding dress, she brushed past Alex and stepped to the center of the room. She clapped her hands. “All right, everybody. Listen up. That’s it for today. But I want everyone here tomorrow morning at eight o’clock sharp.”
“Eight o’clock?”
“That’s right. Eight o’clock,” Desiree said, ignoring the groans. “And I don’t want anyone to be late.”
“What about breakfast?” O’Reilly, her groom, asked.
Desiree grinned. The only thing that O’Reilly loved more than the ladies was food. “I’ll see what Harry can scrape up for you guys. Just make sure you’re here on time.”
The old ballroom hummed with the sound of voices and shuffling feet as the cast began to file out. Try as she might to ignore him, Desiree was all too conscious of Alex standing right where she’d left him. She could feel his gaze fastened on her as she saw the others out, studying her relentlessly as though she were some strange new species of bug under a microscope.
She cut a glance to him and watched those dark eyes of his slide over her, then ease back up to linger on her mouth. Her traitorous pulse jumped as she remembered their kiss. Suddenly it was there again. That breathstealing awareness between them. Quickly she turned away and drew in a steadying breath. She must have taken leave of her senses. No way did she want to get involved with Alex Stone. The two of them would be like oil and water. For starters, from everything Kevin had told her, his brother liked the females and they liked him, but the man was definitely antimarriage. While she...she wanted to get married someday and find the “happily ever after” her parents and her sister had discovered. She started toward the mock church railing to retrieve the silk bridal bouquet she’d left there.
With a speed that surprised her, Alex was moving in front of her, blocking her path. “Aren’t you the least bit interested as to why I’m here, Ms. Mason? Or why I thought you were marrying my brother?”
At five feet eight inches Desiree didn’t have to look up to find herself on eye level with most men—especially not when she was wearing three-inch heels as she was now. But with Alex, she found herself tipping her head back. “I assumed you were looking for Kevin.”
“That’s right.”
“And as you can see, he isn’t here. But don’t worry, I’ll be sure to let him know you came by.” Reaching past him, she scooped up the bouquet with one hand, then picked up the skirts of her wedding gown with the other. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go change.”
Alex caught her arm before she could take a step. “Not so fast, Ms. Mason. I do believe you and I need to have a little chat.”
Desiree blew at the wisp of hair that drifted across one eye. “I don’t think there’s anything for us to discuss. That is, not unless you’re interested in auditioning for the play.”
“Afraid I’ll have to pass.”
She shrugged. “Your decision. And since I don’t have the time or the inclination to discuss the merits of acting with you, I’d appreciate it if you’d let go of my arm.” She looked down at the large hand circling her forearm and back up at him. “That is, unless you’d like to have me demonstrate some of the new moves I’ve learned in my karate class.”
Alex released her, but continued to block her path.
Exasperated, she said, “Mr. Stone, I’m a busy woman. And I’ve got a dinner theater to run. I strongly suggest you get out of my way.” Before she gave in to the impulse to kick him in the shins, she added silently.
“And I’m a busy man with a law firm and a major corporation back in Boston to run, but I—”
“Then I’d suggest you start for the airport,” she said. “You’ve got about an hour’s drive ahead of you.”
“As I started to say, I’m not leaving here until we have a little discussion about you and my brother and I get some answers.”
“Answers to what?”
“To questions like whose idea was it for Kevin to drop out of law school?”
Desiree hesitated, chewing on that bit of news. “I wasn’t aware that Kevin had dropped out.” In fact, Kevin hadn’t said a word about doing any such thing when he’d told her he was going to Chicago to visit his sweetheart and audition for a new show. He’d only asked if he could have his mail forwarded to her while he was gone.
“Weren’t you?”
She didn’t miss the accusation in his tone. “No, I wasn’t.” But thanks to Kevin, she was all too aware of Alex’s displeasure at his brother’s interest in theater. It was the excuse Kevin had given her for not telling Alex the truth—that he wanted to be an actor, not an attorney. As the youngest of three girls, she knew all about putting up with older siblings who thought they knew what was best for you and ended up trying to run your life. “But if Kevin has decided to leave law school, I’d say that’s his decision and not yours.”
“Or yours?” Alex countered.
“No,” she returned, frowning. “Why on earth would you think it was my decision?”
“Why indeed. Come off it, Ms. Mason,” he said, his voice as sharp as the look he gave her. “Kevin told me when he was home during the holidays what close friends the two of you had become. I just hadn’t realized how close that relationship was. I’m sure your opinion on the subject of his attending law school would have had a great deal to do with his decision.”
Desiree pursed her lips. Evidently dear Kevin had also failed to explain the nature of their friendship to his brother. Given Alex’s reaction, she could understand why. She glanced up, read the disapproval and suspicion in his eyes. Temper spiked through her again. The heck with setting him straight. The man deserved to stew a bit, and she intended to make him do just that. “Well, you’re right about one thing. Kevin and I have become very close friends,” she said in her best imitation of a vamp’s voice.
Alex’s dark eyes grew stormy, and Desiree told herself she’d been right in her initial assessment of him. The man did have the eyes of a warrior—hard, cold, uncompromising. “But as far as law school goes, you give me far too much credit. The only opinion that really matters is Kevin’s. After all, the decision is his to make. Not yours or mine.”
The smile he gave her sent a ripple of uneasiness down Desiree’s spine. “True. But what does matter is that I’m the one who controls Kevin’s trust fund.”
“Bully for you,” she quipped, feigning indifference. Trust fund? What trust fund? She’d assumed Kevin’s family had a bit of money. Anyone with brains in their head could see that he dressed well, drove a nice car, and while he wasn’t flashy with money, he never seemed to be short of it. Besides, he was attending a prestigious and pricy law school in New Orleans. That in itself would have wiped out any scenarios about him being on the verge of poverty. Still, the way Alex had spit out the words trust fund she doubted he was talking about a few thousand dollars—which had been the most her savings book had ever managed to reflect. “I still don’t see how that affects me.”
“Don’t you?”
“No. I’d say that’s between you and Kevin. After all, it’s Kevin’s life.”
“Yes, it is,” Alex said in a deadly soft voice. “And I have no intention of standing by and letting Kevin ruin his life by marrying you.”
Shock hit her first, then her anger kicked into high gear. She strangled the stem of the bouquet in her hand and silently condemned Kevin to a slow, painful death for getting her into this fix in the first place. Tipping up her chin up, she called on her training as an actress to make her lips curve into a smile that reached her eyes. She batted her lashes in what she hoped reflected all sweetness and innocence. “Well then,” she said laying on the Southern drawl like thick maple syrup. “I guess I’ll just have to be sure to tell Kevin not to bother sending you an invitation to the wedding.”
