Free Wedding Night with a Stranger by Anna Cleary Page A

I drove in from the airport I saw some trees that looked familiar. You’ll probably think this sounds silly, but seeing them made me get all misty.’
    ‘No. I don’t think that’s silly. I guess this must be quite an emotional time for you.’
    Ariadne lowered her glance. ‘You could say that.’
    She felt surprised. There’d been sensitivity in his observation, almost like a friend. How ironic that, having dreaded meeting him almost to the point of nausea, as he was the only person she knew in the whole country she now dreaded the moment of saying goodbye to him.
    That poignant song wafted from inside, winding its way in among her emotions. As she fielded Sebastian’s questions about her life in Naxos the singer brought the melody to a crescendo of yearning that tore at her heart like a cry from across the sea.
    The silver moon, the evening tide… how they evoked Naxos. She was swamped by a flood of homesickness, made worse by the knowledge she could never go back there now. Not now she’d sinned and they’d packed her off to the other side of the globe. Not now they’d hurt her.
    Sebastian leaned beside her, caught a faint whiff of some enticing flowery perfume, and moved a safer distance away. Her blue eyes were dark and unreadable, with an occasional glitterthat came from within. He realised with a slight shock that a vein of sadness ran beneath her volatile mood.
    Desire was singing a siren song in his veins, but he kept a tight rein on it. Beauty mixed with emotion and moonlight could tempt a man to do and say things he’d regret. If he didn’t maintain strict control he’d be dragging her against him and kissing her, tasting her sensuous mouth, caressing her soft curves…
    ‘So what do you plan to do on your holiday?’ he said.
    ‘I might travel around. See some of the country.’
    ‘Do you have any relatives here from your mother’s side? Grandparents?’
    She gave a shrug. ‘My Australian grandma died a couple of years ago. There are a few cousins I’ve never met. Just a great-auntie Maeve who lives somewhere on the coast. Well, used to. My parents took me to stay with her once for a holiday when I was very small.’ She wrinkled her brow. ‘It might have been called Noza. Nootza. Something like that. Is that a place?’
    He frowned. ‘Could you be thinking of Noosa?’
    Her brows lifted. ‘Could be. That sounds right, doesn’t it? Oh, it was heavenly there. I remember the beach, and Mummy and Daddy being really happy.’ After a second she said lightly, ‘Is it far from here?’
    Something in her voice made him turn to examine her face. ‘Noosa’s up north. In Queensland. About a day’s drive from here, perhaps a couple of hours by air. It’s a fairly popular tourist resort.’
    ‘Oh, good, good.’ After a second she cast him a veiled glance. ‘Do you think Queensland has art galleries?’
    He lifted his brows. ‘Bound to, of some sort. But if you want to visit art galleries there are plenty right here in Sydney.’
    ‘Oh. Yeah.’ She lowered her lashes. ‘Of course. There would be.’
    ‘Are you interested in art? Your father was an artist, wasn’t he?’
    She looked quickly at him. ‘How do you know that?’
    ‘My grandmother remembers who’s who in everyone’s family.’
    ‘Oh.’ Even in the soft light from the restaurant he saw her flush. ‘You checked up on me. They know.’ Her voice grew hoarse, as if she was stricken with the news. ‘Your—your family know. About the—the deal you made with my uncle.’
    Shocked by the raw emotion in her voice, for a moment he couldn’t answer, words were snatched from him. Then he said, ‘No, no, they—They don’t know anything. And I haven’t signed anything.’
    ‘Oh, you haven’t signed. Great.’ She gripped the rail as if to steady herself. ‘So tell me, then, what did he offer you? Honestly, please.’
    ‘You.’
    Her flush deepened, then she covered her face with her hands. The strangled words were almost a