Debbie Macomber: Summer Brides: Bride Wanted / Hasty Wedding

Marriage. He sighed inwardly. His religion didn’t accept divorce and he refused to sacrifice his life and his happiness for a business proposition.

“I wish you’d say something,” she said.

He returned to the chair and kept his features as expressionless as he could. “There’s much we would need to consider before we enter into this agreement.”

“Of course,” she returned.

“Your money does not interest me.”

She seemed surprised by his words. “Even for your family?”

“Even for my family.” What he earned now was adequate. Julia wasn’t the only one who was proud. Alek couldn’t be bought. She, a woman who needed no one, needed him, and he appreciated what it had taken for her to approach him with this offer. Alek wasn’t being completely unselfish, nor was he without greed. He had a price in mind.

“Then what is it you want?”

He shrugged, not knowing how to tell her.

Restlessly she came to her feet and walked away from him. He admired her smooth, fluid grace. She was a woman who moved with confidence, sure of herself and her surroundings. Usually. But at the moment she seemed sure of nothing and obviously that disturbed her.

“I don’t know what to say,” Aleksandr answered truthfully.

“Do you find the idea of marriage to me so distasteful?” she asked.

“No,” he told her quietly. “You’re lovely.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t want money.”

“If it isn’t money, then what? A percentage of my stock? A vice presidency? Tell me.”

“You Americans regard marriage differently than we do in my country. There, when a man and woman marry, it is for many reasons, not all of them love. Nevertheless, when we marry it is for life.”

“But you aren’t in Russia now, you’re in America.”

“Americans treat marriage like dirty laundry. When it becomes inconvenient, you toss it aside. My head tells me I live in your country now, but my heart believes in tradition. If we marry, Julia, and it would be my wish that we do, there will be no divorce.”

Her breath escaped in a rush and her dark eyes flared briefly.

Aleksandr ignored the fury he read in her and continued. “We both stand to gain from this arrangement. I will remain in the country and complete my experiments. You will have what you wish, as well. But there is a cost to this, one we should calculate now. The marriage will be a real one, or there will be no marriage.”

Her gaze cut through him with ill-concealed contempt. “So you want more than the golden egg, you want the whole goose.”

“The goose?” Aleksandr hadn’t heard this story. He smiled. “In my family, goose is traditionally served at the wedding meal. I do not know about the golden egg, but you may keep that. I want only you.”

Her voice was husky when she spoke. “That’s what I thought.”

The phone on her desk rang just then and Julia reached for it. “I said I didn’t want to be disturbed,” she said impatiently. Her face tightened as she listened. “Yes, yes, of course, you did the right thing. Put me through immediately.” Several seconds passed. “Dr. Silverman, this is Julia Conrad. I understand you’ve had my grandmother taken to Virginia Mason Hospital.”

Alek watched as the eyes that had been distressed and angry a moment earlier softened with emotion. She blinked, and Alek thought he might have noticed the sheen of tears.

“Naturally. I’ll let my brother know right away and we’ll meet you there as soon as we can. Thank you for contacting me so soon.” She replaced the receiver, stood and started out of the room, apparently forgetting Aleksandr was there.

“Your grandmother is ill?” he asked.

She whirled around, apparently surprised at the sound of his voice, and nodded. “I…have to leave. I don’t believe there’s any need for us to discuss this further. I can’t agree to your conditions. I refuse to be trapped in the type of marriage you’re suggesting. I’d hoped we’d be able to work out some kind of compromise, but that doesn’t seem possible.”

“I’m disappointed. We would’ve had fine children.”

She stared at him as if he’d spoken in his native tongue and she didn’t understand a word he’d said. “Children?” she repeated. A sadness seemed to steal over her; she shook her head, perhaps to dispel the image.

“I will think good things for your grandmother,” Alek told her.

She nodded. “Thank you.” With what looked like hard-won poise, she turned and left the office.

Alek watched her go, and the proud way in which she carried herself tugged at his heart. He wished her grandmother well, but more importantly, he wished Julia a happy life.

Knowing his time in the States was limited to mere days, Aleksandr worked well past five, when his colleagues had all gone home. He felt it was his moral obligation to do everything within his power to see that the next series of experiments was performed to the standards he’d set for the earlier ones. He wouldn’t be with Conrad Industries to oversee the ongoing research, and that bothered him, but he had no choice.

The laboratory was silent, and the footsteps echoing down the wide corridor outside his office were louder than they would otherwise have been.

He raised his eyes expectantly when Julia Conrad opened the door without knocking and walked inside. She was pale, her eyes darker than he’d ever seen them before.

“Julia,” he said, standing abruptly. “Is something wrong?”

She looked sightlessly around, as though she didn’t know where she was or how she got there.

“Your grandmother?”

Julia nodded and gnawed on her bottom lip. “She…she had another heart attack.”

“I’m sorry.”

Her eyes flew upward as if to gauge the sincerity of his words. For a lengthy moment she said nothing. Then she inhaled a shaky breath and bit her lip so hard, Aleksandr was afraid she’d draw blood.

“I…I’ve reconsidered, Mr. Berinski. I’ll marry you under the conditions you’ve set.”

“I don’t want an elaborate wedding.” Julia folded her arms, moving to the far side of her office. Her brother was being impossible. “How could there even be time to arrange one?”

“Julia, you’re not listening to me.”

“I’m listening,” she said sharply. “I just don’t happen to like what I’m hearing.”

“A reception at the Four Seasons isn’t so much to ask.”

“But a wedding with guests and this whole thing about wearing a fancy wedding dress is ridiculous! Jerry, please, this is getting out of hand. I understand marriage is the best solution, but I didn’t realize I’d be forced to endure the mockery of a formal wedding.”

Jerry gestured helplessly. “We’ve got to make this as credible as we can. Apparently you don’t understand how important this is—and not just the wedding, either. That’s only the first hurdle. You have to make everything appear as though you’re madly in love. Nothing less will convince the Immigration people. If you fail… I don’t even want to think about that.”

“You’ve already gone through this.” More times than she cared to count.

“Alek has to live with you, too.”

This was the part that disturbed Julia most. Her condo was her private haven, the one place where she could be completely herself. She was about to lose that, too. “But why?” She knew the answer, had argued until Jerry was seething with exasperation. Julia didn’t blame him, but this marriage was becoming far more complicated than she’d ever thought it would.

“Why?” Jerry shouted, throwing his hands in the air. “I’ve made everything as plain as I can. Alek isn’t the problem, it’s you. What I don’t understand, Julia, is why you’re being so difficult when we’re the ones who stand to benefit from this arrangement.”