Cinderella's Sweet-Talking Marine Read online

  Hard to do once Cyn, Latesha and Frenchie all showed up on her doorstep at eight in the morning. The time flew by in a flurry of activity—fussing with her makeup and her nails.

  “I think we should apply purple acrylic nails,” Cyn stated.

  “I think we should use these with the cute little wedding bell appliqués.” Latesha held up the package.

  “And I think we should just use some nail polish.”

  Cyn held up Ellie’s hand as if they were Exhibit A. “But your nails lack glamour.”

  “Fine by me,” Ellie said.

  Ellie had wanted her hair down around her shoulders but Latesha had convinced her to pin it up with a few tendrils romantically framing her face. Standing before the full-length mirror that Frenchie brought from her apartment, she decided that Latesha was right and told her so.

  “Of course I’m right. I’m always right.”

  “Except when you’re wrong,” Cyn said.

  Latesha waved her words away. “A rare occurrence.”

  The amethyst necklace and matching drop earrings that Cyn had lent her looked perfect as did the ivory satin dress.

  Frenchie put an arm around her. “You look beautiful, ma chère. You all look lovely.” Her gaze included Cyn and Latesha, who did indeed look great in their matching purple gowns.

  “How ’bout me?” Amy demanded, tugging on Frenchie’s dress, a swirl of purples, oranges and greens.

  “You look the most beautiful of all,” Frenchie said.

  Amy beamed, adorable in the lilac dress they’d found during a rushed visit to a large chain department store in the mall yesterday morning.

  Frenchie clapped her hands. “Okay, now that we’re done with the final dress rehearsal, everyone take your dresses off and put your travel clothes on. Be careful not to mess your hair or makeup,” she cautioned Ellie. “We’ll only have time to put your wedding dress on at the chapel, but there won’t be much time for anything else.”

  Ben’s parents picked Ellie and Amy up at ten for the hour drive north. Latesha was driving Cyn and Frenchie up. Ben and his brothers would be waiting for them at the Love Me Dew Wedding Chapel.

  At least that was the plan, and Ellie knew how much Marines believed in plans and following them through to the last detail.

  “We’re lost.” Ben glared at his older brother. “I don’t believe this. You’ve gotten us lost in the middle of no place!”

  “Calm down,” Striker said.

  “Calm down? I’m going to be late for my own wedding!”

  “When did you turn into such a worrywart?”

  “When did you turn into such an idiot?” Ben growled.

  “Hey, I’m not the one who said let’s take that shortcut,” Striker growled.

  “Yes, you are.”

  “Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right.” Striker grinned. “I guess that dog won’t hunt, huh?”

  “Enough with your Texas sayings. We’ve got to get to the Love Me Dew Wedding Chapel.”

  “And we will. As soon as I can find a place along this narrow country road to turn around.”

  “You better pray we find a place in the next five minutes or we’re getting out and picking this SUV up and turning it around ourselves. I should have driven myself in my Bronco. I never should have allowed you to talk me into going with you.”

  “Would you two quit shouting up there?” their younger brother Rad complained from the back seat of the rented Lexus. “I’m trying to catch a little shut-eye here.”

  Ben shot him a narrowed look that would have made most men quake with fear, but then Rad wasn’t most men. He was definitely the radical one in the family, the one who went his own way. With his dark hair and eyes, he was very popular with the ladies.

  “Go back to sleep, little brother,” Striker told Rad. “We have the situation under control up here.”

  “Liar. How does your wife put up with you?”

  “She loves me.”

  “At least she’s smart enough not to drive with you,” Ben noted.

  “She wanted to be with Mom and Dad in the RV so she could spend some time getting to know your wife-to-be. She had a court case in Family Court so she wasn’t able to fly in until late last night.”

  “Too bad she missed Ellie’s bachelorette party last night,” Rad drawled. “I heard they visited a male stripper place.”

  “Who told you that?” Ben demanded in disbelief.

  “Mom.”

  The SUV swerved.

  “Mom?” Striker repeated in astonishment.

  “Yeah. I overheard her talking about it when she called Ellie this morning. Apparently that was some party the females had last night. I gotta say, I’m really looking forward to meeting this fiancée of yours, Ben.”

  “I’ve really been looking forward to meeting you,” Kate Kozlowski told Ellie as she sat beside her in the back of the RV. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to join you all earlier, but I had an important case that was going to court and it couldn’t be delayed.”

  “Kate is an attorney who works with Children’s Services in San Antonio,” Angela said.

  Ellie could tell that she was very proud of her daughter-in-law. “I understand you and Striker got married a year ago.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Did you know him long?”

  Kate smiled. “I fell in love with him when I was a teenager.”

  Great. Kate had known Striker for years before marrying him, not the mere days Ellie had known Ben. Kate was also one of those classy blondes who clearly came from a wealthy background. Totally unlike Ellie.

  Why wasn’t his mother having a hissy fit, accusing Ellie of being some kind of gold digger after her son’s money? What was wrong with Angela?

  Sure, she’d said she trusted Ben’s judgment, that he was a good judge of character. But didn’t she see how out of place Ellie was in this picture? A kid who’d grown up in a series of foster homes, a single mom with one broken marriage behind her already. Why weren’t any of them looking at her suspiciously? Stan and Angela were acting like dream in-laws, too good to be true. And Kate, even though she’d just arrived, was also warm and approachable. Why were they making her feel so welcome?

  Because they were well-bred and decent. They weren’t the kind of people who’d get their lives in such a mess that they were forced into a marriage of convenience to get out of it. They weren’t the kind who hurriedly got married at the Love Me Dew Wedding Chapel. They planned weddings in the church they’d attended their entire lives, in front of hundreds of guests.

  Sure, Stan might just be a retired Marine, but he possessed a rock-solid presence that indicated this was not a man who messed up. This was a man who had things under control.

  Ben had that same kind of presence. He hadn’t shown any signs of being nervous at the prospect of marrying her. They hadn’t even spent that much time together this past week. Instead of getting to know her future husband better, Ellie had been hijacked by Cyn and Latesha and engulfed in their plans for this wedding.

  “We’re almost there,” Angela announced from the front seat.

  Trying to swallow her panic, Ellie swallowed her gum instead and ended up coughing.

  “Do you want to hug Raboo?” Amy leaned closer to offer her stuffed animal.

  This was why Ellie was marrying Ben today. Because of Amy. To ensure a better life for her daughter. She’d do well to remember that. Hopefully it would prevent her from running out of the chapel….

  “I told you we’d get here in plenty of time,” Striker told Ben as the two stood at the front of the Love Me Dew Wedding Chapel awaiting the bride. Ben had decided not to wear his dress blues uniform today, fearing it might remind Ellie of John’s funeral two months ago. Instead he was wearing a black suit, white shirt and burgundy tie. Striker and Rad were similarly dressed. “You were worried for nothing.”

  “I don’t call five minutes plenty of time. We barely pulled into the parking lot before Ellie did.”

  “Sh
e’ll never know that.” Striker narrowed his gaze suspiciously. “You’re not so jumpy because you’re having second thoughts about this wedding, are you? You’re not about to do something you’re going to regret, are you?”

  Ben glared at his brother. “The only thing I regret is having you almost mess up my wedding.”

  “Put a sock in it, you two,” Rad ordered from beside them. “The show is about to start.” Sure enough, the recorded music started playing. “Cute kid. Whose idea was the hard hat?”

  “Mine.” Ben beamed with pride as Amy confidently walked up to the front row where she grinned and waved at him before sitting beside Frenchie.

  Ben barely noticed Cyn and Latesha walking down the aisle. Then the music changed and Ellie appeared. The moment he saw her, he felt as if a hand grenade had gone off in his heart. She was gorgeous. A vision. A sexy goddess.

  He shot a guilty look at Amy. He shouldn’t be thinking such things about the kid’s mother. This was a marriage of convenience, not one of lust. He was about to make a vow to look after her and Amy. That’s what this was about. Not about his attraction to Ellie, about his fascination with her mouth, her body, her eyes.

  Was Ellie nervous? She looked like she was. She looked like she was pausing, taking slower and slower steps…

  She wasn’t going to back out now, was she?

  Then she glanced at her daughter and saw Amy’s hard hat and her grin.

  Ellie’s eyes shot to Ben. Oh yeah, she immediately guessed who was to blame for Amy’s fashion faux pas. But the little kid had been so adamant about wanting her “helmet,” telling Ben the night before that she wanted to look like a Marine. So he’d sneaked the headgear in as if it were contraband.

  But Ellie didn’t appear to be angry about it. Instead she seemed to relax. And indeed her fingers didn’t tremble one bit as he took her hand in his and faced the minister.

  Then Ellie smiled at him and Ben knew everything would be okay.

  “It was a lovely wedding,” Angela told Ellie at the early dinner reception afterward at the nearby Magnolia Restaurant. Their entire party consisted of eleven people.

  “Wasn’t that better than sneaking out to the county courthouse one afternoon?” Cyn demanded from across the table. “I know you were afraid that I’d signed you up at some tacky place, but my cousin did a nice job.”

  “Yes, she did.” Despite its name, the wedding chapel had been charming with its white clapboard building and its romantic floral wallpaper. The pews had beautiful silk flower arrangements in shades of lavender, ivory and pink.

  “Have you forgiven me for allowing Amy to wear her helmet?” Ben leaned closer to ask Ellie.

  She nodded. Ben’s hand on her shoulder made her go all warm and gooey inside. She hadn’t been able to eat much of the steak dinner. She’d also been distracted by the sight of the gold ring on her finger. Ben had asked her if she had any preferences, or if she’d wanted to select her wedding band. She’d only given him two directives—something plain and not too expensive.

  He hadn’t exactly followed her advice. The ring held a row of brilliant channel-set diamonds in the wide band. Her eyes were continuously drawn to it.

  She was married now. Married. She reached for her wineglass and gulped the remaining alcohol.

  “We can’t boogy until you and Ben do,” Latesha said.

  Ellie’s mental picture of her and Ben boogying together amid tangled satin sheets had her pouring more wine in her glass.

  “Yeah, when are you and Ben going to dance together?” Cyn asked.

  “Dancing? Right, dancing.” Ellie took a nervous sip of her drink. “There’s no place to dance here.”

  “Sure there is. Right over there.” Cyn pointed to a small section that had a removable wooden floor placed over it. “Your dance floor.”

  “They won’t be quiet until we do this.” Ben stood and held out his hand to her. “Come on. Dance with me.”

  “There’s no music.”

  A second later the sound of something dreamy and instrumental filled the room.

  Knowing further protest was useless, Ellie went into her new husband’s arms. “This is the first time we’ve ever danced together,” she noted softly.

  Ben had to bend his head to hear her. “So let’s make this first time memorable, shall we?”

  She nodded.

  He gently pulled her closer. The satin of her dress provided little protection against the heated appreciation of his touch. His left hand rested low on her back, his fingers widespread to maximize the area he covered. His thumb was brushing sexy little circles along the delineation zone where the low back of her dress ended and her bare skin began.

  “Have I told you how beautiful you look today?”

  She shook her head.

  “Well, you do. Look beautiful, I mean.”

  “So do you. Look nice, I mean. Not beautiful, because you’re too much of a guy for that. Stop grinning like that, I know I sound incoherent.” Her voice reflected her irritation with herself.

  “That’s not why I was grinning.”

  “Was it because I’m not much of a dancer?”

  “Neither am I. At least I’m not as good as those guys you saw on stage last night.”

  She stumbled and stepped on his foot. “How did you know about that?”

  “My brother Rad overheard my mom talking to Kate.”

  “Kate knows?” Ellie tried not to blush.

  “Yeah, what’s wrong with that?”

  “She’s so classy and together.”

  “Yeah, my brother used to think so, too. Now that he’s married her, he knows better.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that Kate grew up with lots of money but not a lot of hugs or demonstrations of love from her parents.”

  “At least she had parents.”

  “So do you now. My mom meant it when she told you that she wants you to think of them as family now.”

  “I can’t believe how nice they’ve been to me. Why haven’t they cornered me and accused me of being a gold digger after your money?”

  “Probably because I told them I was the one who had to talk you into marriage.”

  “That could have just been a clever ploy on my part.”

  “Oh, yeah, you’re just a study of deceit and duplicity.”

  “You don’t think so?” She wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or complimented by his words.

  “No, I don’t think so. Don’t get me wrong. I think you can do really well at hiding your emotions when you want to. Like back at Al’s Place, when those guys were giving you a hard time. You may have wanted to dump their drinks over their heads, but you didn’t.”

  “I ended up getting fired anyway.”

  “You never did tell me what happened there.” She shook her head. It wasn’t something she wanted to remember.

  “Okay, I won’t push it.” Ben settled her cheek against his chest. “You don’t have to talk about it now if you don’t want to. I don’t want you doing anything you don’t want to.”

  Which was part of the problem. Ellie wanted to do more and more with and to Ben, things that had everything to do with romance and sex, with wedding nights and honeymoons. But he’d made it clear that wasn’t what this marriage was about.

  “I don’t believe this.”

  Ben stared at the flashing light of the Wedding Bells Motel. “They planned this you know.”

  “So it says in their note.”

  While Ben and Ellie had been engrossed in one another as they’d danced, the rest of their wedding party had sneaked out the back way. “Don’t worry about a thing,” Angela had written on the large note she’d left on the table for them. “Frenchie says she’ll stay with Amy at Ellie’s apartment tonight. Your brothers tell me they’ve taken care of your honeymoon suite arrangements for the night. And your nice friends said they left a bag packed with your things in the suite. We’ve all driven back to Pine Hills and will see you there. A limo will pick you up t
omorrow. Our best wishes for the first night of the rest of your lives…with love, Angela and Stan.” A bolder handwriting had added, “Not my idea, so don’t blame me, Stan.”

  An envelope beneath the letter had held a room key to the Red Hot Lovers Suite.

  “They’ve marooned us here,” Ben said. “Taken all our transportation. That’s why my brother insisted he should drive today. I should have guessed he was up to something.”

  “They’ve arranged for a limo to drive us home tomorrow.”

  “We could get a limo to drive us home tonight.”

  “And hurt your family’s feelings?”

  “I’d like to hurt my brothers and I’m not talking about their feelings,” Ben muttered. “They like playing practical jokes on me.”

  “You mean there may be itching powder in the marriage bed or something?”

  “I don’t think they’d go that far.”

  “It’s getting cold out here. We’d better go inside.”

  Ben immediately removed his suit jacket and put it around her shoulders. Using the key, he quickly inserted it in the lock and guided her inside. Flicking on the lights, he looked around before laughing.

  “I guess they were saving tacky for the honeymoon instead of the wedding,” Ben noted.

  The decorating style was definitely over the top. A majority of the room was taken up with the huge heart-shaped bed with its red velvet bedspread and leopard print throw pillows. The mirrors on the ceiling reflected everything below, including the lava lamps on the end tables.

  “Here’s the bag.” He handed it to her, but since it hadn’t been closed properly, most of the contents fell out onto the bed. He picked up the seductive lace and silk nightgown. “I like your friends.”

  “Oh yeah? They packed this for you.” She held up a pair of black silk boxer shorts with red smiley hearts on it.

  “It could have been worse. They could have packed us each thongs.”

  “They may have,” Ellie muttered.

  “Edible condoms, chocolate body paint, Aphrodisia body oil.”

  “Gag gifts.” She quickly gathered the loose materials and jammed them back in the soft-sided overnight bag. There were no chairs, so she sat on the bed, only to jump up a second later when it vibrated beneath her bottom.