Free The Wedding Date by Ally Blake

to remind herself he was not.
    She took a deep breath and said, ‘It’s a really nice offer, Bradley. Truly. But this holiday is not all about my family. It’s about taking a break from work … and those I work with.’
    She glanced up at him with one eye open.
    Taciturn, stoic, unreadable as ever, he said, ‘Meaning me?’
    She opened the other eye and nodded. ‘You. And Sonja. And dealing with prima donnas all day. And Spencer following me around like a lovesick puppy while I’m trying to work. And sixty-hour weeks. And no sleeping-in—’
    ‘Okay. I get it. I hadn’t realised you found your job such a hardship.’
    Grrr!
That one man could be so smart one minute and so dumb the next …
    Hannah shuffled on her stool. ‘Don’t be daft. I love my job. More than anything else in my life. Truly. But in order to do it right I need to recharge. This weekend is my chance.’
    Finally, after such a long time she wondered if he’d heard a word of what she’d said, he nodded. ‘Fair enough.’
    Then, after an even more interminable silence, he said, ‘But I know how even the most … thorny of families can have the kind of pull over you nothing else can. And that doesn’t mean you have to take their crap. Not alone, anyway. If that’s a concern in your case, my offer stands.’
    She let out a great fat sigh. And, whether it was from the shock of his little insight, or a masochistic streak she was becoming all too familiar with, she threw her hands in the air and said, ‘Fine. Okay.’
    ‘Okay?’ He perked up. As if he was finding himself quite enjoying playing the hero.
    It was irresistible.
He
was irresistible. And he was going to be her plus one at her sister’s wedding.
    She was in mounds and mounds of trouble.
    He took her hand, slipped it into the crook of his elbow and helped her off the stool.
    ‘Come on, kiddo, let’s go see what’s so amazing about the suites in this place.’
    ‘Prepare to have your socks literally knocked off.’
    Glancing up at him as they walked through Reception, arm in arm, her blood fizzing more and more every time her hip bumped against his, she saw an ever so slight curve to his mouth.
    Mounds and mounds and mounds of trouble.

CHAPTER FIVE
    T HE lift doors opened to reveal a line of people outside the Gatehouse’s basement nightclub. The
doof-doof-doof
of the beat echoing from behind the bouncer-manned double doors thundered in Hannah’s chest.
    It didn’t help that she was overly aware of the big warm man standing so close behind her she could feel the brush of his jeans against her backside every time the line moved.
    ‘Stop fidgeting,’ Bradley said, his breath brushing her chandelier earring against her bare neck. ‘You look fine.’
    ‘Thanks,’ she said dryly. But she could hardly tell him the fidgets were all his doing.
    The doors opened. Lights flashed over their faces. The line moved forward. Hannah took her chance and arched away from him. The doors closed.
Doof-doof-doof.
    ‘I was serious when I said you should get a guide to take you out for a night tour of CradleMountain rather than coming along to this pre-wedding party thing.’
    ‘I’m fine.’
    ‘Look,’ she said, leaning back so she could drop her voice in case any of the bouncy young things in line were from Elyse’s wedding party, ‘it’s just going to be a bunch of locals, all of whom will pinch me on the cheek and remind me they were there the time I took off down Main Street naked. You’ll be bored out of your mind.’
    When he didn’t answer straight away she looked up at him, surprised to find his jaw was clenched. He asked, ‘You took off down Main Street naked?’
    The husky timbre of his voice gave her pause before she cleared her throat and explained, ‘I was two, and not overly keen on having a bath that evening.’
    The slightly haunted look in his eyes disappeared. ‘You were a tearaway?’
    ‘Hardly. I was the perfect first child. Studious, polite, a pleaser. I took