Blushing in Boston (At the Altar Book 7) Read online

Fifteen minutes later, she was showered and dressed for the day. She went to their connecting door, and knocked softly, thinking that if he was still asleep she wouldn't wake him.

  At his call of, "Come in!" she opened the door and stepped into the room. He was still in bed, the covers pushed down to his waist. His chest was bare, as it had been the night before. It had no hair at all on it, which surprised her a bit. Her father had looked like a bear with his shirt off.

  Daniel looked at his new bride, already dressed for the day. He reached out a hand for her, inviting her to join him on the bed. "You're up early." He'd gotten on his laptop and done more work after he'd left her the night before, doing what he could to get ahead, so he could devote more time to her once he was finished working.

  Brenda sat down on the edge of the bed as far from him as she could. "I'm used to getting up early."

  Daniel blinked, sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes. "You're not a morning person, are you?" The words were accusatory, because really, no one should be a morning person. It was an evil thing to be in Daniel's eyes.

  Brenda shrugged. "Really, I can be either one. It depends on what I have going on."

  That was even worse than being a morning person! "Well then it's time to be a night owl. I hate mornings." He looked at her, gauging the distance between them. "Why are you way over there?" He patted the spot directly next to him. "Come say good morning."

  Brenda moved over beside him with her back to the headboard. "Is this better?"

  He slipped his arm around her shoulders. "Better for me. How'd you sleep?"

  His sleep-warmed body felt hot against her skin, and she liked it—a little too much. "Like a log. I slept very little this week, what with getting ready to move and being nervous about marrying a stranger."

  "Am I still as scary as I was before you met me?"

  Brenda considered his question for a moment before shaking her head. "Mostly, no."

  He raised an eyebrow. "Only mostly?"

  "Well, before I met you, you were just an average Joe in my mind. Now that I've met you, I know you're this mega rich guy, and that's intimidating."

  He laughed. "Trust me. A rich man is the same as a poor man deep down. I've been both. I should know."

  "It's hard to imagine you struggling financially."

  "Oh, I have. My first three years of college were a struggle. It wouldn't go back to being poor for anything though."

  "I don't imagine it suits you." She relaxed a little, leaning against him. "What time do you want to go get more of my things?"

  "How much are we after today?" He really didn't have time to spend all day shuttling things back and forth.

  "All I packed was an overnight bag. I'd like to make sure I have enough clothes for the week. Maybe pick up a couple of books." She shrugged. "I'll need to set up some movers sometime this week." She tried to picture the man beside her renting a U-Haul and moving things himself. It just didn't work in her brain.

  "I'll have my secretary arrange that tomorrow. Don't waste your time. What time do you get off work?" He reached for his phone on his nightstand and made a little note for himself, dislodging her in the process.

  "I get off at five. I could be to the apartment in Plymouth by six-thirty at the latest."

  "How much stuff do you have to move?"

  She shook her head. "Not much. I think I'll probably donate most of my furniture. It's all secondhand anyway. I know I'm not going to need it here." She thought fleetingly about storing her furniture, in case things didn't work out, but she was determined that they would. She believed that marriage was forever.

  "I think that's a really good idea. We could have the movers take the majority of your furniture to a shelter or something. If you have something that has sentimental value we'll bring it."

  She nodded. "I'll do that. I'll do some research tomorrow and find the best place to donate things like that." She'd always had to sell everything she wanted to get rid of, but she loved the idea of donating to a worthy cause.

  "Sounds good. I'll shower and get dressed. Mrs. Brinkley is off on Sundays, so we're on our own for breakfast. We can stop somewhere on the way to get your furniture."

  "Oh, no need," Brenda said. "I'll fix breakfast. What do you like?" She loved the idea of cooking for him. She knew some of her feminist friends would probably laugh at her, but she felt like it was her responsibility to feed him, since they were married.

  "I'm not picky. I like almost all breakfast foods."

  "I'll fix breakfast while you shower then. Meet me downstairs when you're ready." She started to scoot off the side of the bed, but he kept his arm tight around her shoulders. "I can't cook unless you let me leave."

  "You haven't even kissed me good morning! Is that any way to start your second day of marriage?"

  She blushed, even as she raised her lips for his kiss. "I wasn't sure that you'd want to kiss me."

  Daniel shook his head. "I'm not angry with you. I understand. We'll give it a little time." He leaned down and brushed his lips softly across hers. "As long as I get to kiss you whenever I want."

  Brenda nodded. "Sounds perfectly reasonable to me." She did move away from him then and went down to the kitchen, hoping Mrs. Brinkley wouldn't have a problem with her rummaging around. She felt like the kitchen belonged to the housekeeper, not her.

  She found everything she needed for pancakes and bacon. Twenty minutes later when he joined her, she was just putting breakfast on the table. "I hope you like pancakes."

  "I'm human, therefore I like pancakes, and I love bacon." He sat down at the table in the kitchen where she put their breakfast. "Why are we eating in the kitchen?" He didn't care much, but he was surprised she preferred to eat there. He'd never eaten in his own kitchen before, although there was a nice table, and even some stools at the bar he could sit at to eat, if he chose to do so.

  Brenda shrugged. "The dining room just seems so formal to me."

  "Do you have something against formal?" Daniel asked, spreading butter on his pancake and adding syrup.

  "It doesn't suit me very well. I'm more of a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. To eat in your dining room, I feel like I need to be dressed in some kind of a ball gown." Brenda refused to feel like she had to get dressed up for prom every night in her own home.

  Daniel laughed. "I promise, you don't. I've eaten there in jeans and a T-shirt many times, and lightning has never come down from the sky and struck me dead."

  Brenda took the spot beside him at the table and began fixing her own pancakes. "There's a first time for everything. I'll eat in the kitchen."

  He squeezed her hand in his. "You know what? I like you."

  She grinned. "That's a good thing, because we're stuck with each other." She was starting to like him too. When he was paying attention to her, at least.

  He nodded. "We did sign a contract stating that, didn't we?"

  "I know I did." She took a bite of her pancakes. "Do you want to leave as soon as I finish doing the breakfast dishes?"

  "Leave the dishes. Mrs. Brinkley will do them tomorrow."

  "I couldn't do that! I can do them after we get back though, if you'd prefer." She couldn't imagine leaving a sink full of dishes for the housekeeper when she returned. If she was going to be cooking more meals that day, there'd be a real mess by morning. Her mother had raised her better than that.

  He shrugged. "Suit yourself." He wasn't about to argue with her to keep her from doing work.

  "What hours do you usually work during the week?" she asked. She was worried he'd say eight in the morning until midnight, because that seemed to be his style.

  "Depends on what's going on. This week I'll be working in Dallas, getting a speed dating site set up."

  She blinked at him. "You're leaving town this week?" And you haven't told me yet? Do you not realize we're married?

  He nodded. "That's why I wanted to get married last weekend, but it didn't work with your schedule. I'll be out of town tomorrow through Friday."
He didn't really want to leave so soon, but he didn't feel like he had a choice in the matter.

  She couldn't believe he hadn't told her before now. "So we've been married twenty-four hours, and you're leaving tomorrow, and you didn't bother to tell me until now?"

  He frowned. "I didn't really think about it. I'm not used to answering to anyone for my whereabouts. Does that upset you?"

  "A little. It just seems odd that you're running off as soon as we married."

  "I don't really have a choice. This is what I do. If you didn't have to work this week, I would take you with me. We could call it a honeymoon."

  "A honeymoon with you working all day every day? I need to stay in my apartment this week. It's going to seem really strange here without you." She couldn't imagine what he was thinking. Why would he think it was okay to leave her when they'd just barely gotten married?

  "I'd rather you didn't. I want to know that you're here when I'm gone. And I want to know that Mrs. Brinkley is taking care of you."

  "I don't need anyone to take care of me. I will feel very awkward rattling around in his huge house without you." She felt awkward enough with him there, and she didn't want to compound it.

  He frowned at her. "Why? This is your home now too. I want to think of you here."

  "And do you expect to always get what you want?"

  "Not always, but I definitely prefer to. Will it really hurt you to stay here while I'm gone? Seems to me like you're just being difficult." Where had his pleasant wife gone? This woman was belligerent!

  She blinked a few times, forcing her anger down. He didn't know her well enough to know how badly he was pushing her buttons. "I'm not trying to be difficult. It just doesn't seem like it would be a comfortable situation for me." Why can't he see that I'm a thinking, breathing human being?

  "I don't know why not. I live here. So you belong here while I'm gone."

  She shook her head. "Why didn't we wait until next weekend to get married? Wouldn't that have made more sense?"

  "I didn't want to wait."

  She waited a moment for him to explain his position, but then it became obvious that he was finished. "Really? So we're back to you always getting what you want?"

  He frowned. "Maybe I'm a little bit spoiled to getting my way, but I've been making a ton of money for a very long time, and I'm used to people doing what I want them to do." Even as he said the words, he knew they weren't logical, but she was his wife, damn it! She should want to do what he wanted her to do!

  She took a deep breath, standing up to take her plate to the sink. "I'm not people. I'm your wife. Don't expect me to fall in line and do what you want me to do just because you're rich. My brain doesn't work that way."

  Daniel closed his eyes for a moment, fighting back his anger. "Now you're just trying to make me angry."

  "And am I succeeding? Because I'll tell you now, this is a fight we'll be having often until you learn to respect the fact that I'm not a Muppet to be controlled by you! I will not just do what you want because you expect it. I have a brain. And I expect to use it on a regular basis. Whether you like it or not."

  He shook his head, pushing away from the table. "I thought I'd been very pleasant this weekend. Why are you picking a fight? This isn't a major deal."

  "Sure. You've been pleasant. You spent almost no time with me, but you've been pleasant when you've bothered to be around. Marriage is about more than spending time together in bed and making babies. It's more than raising children together. It's getting along. We have to spend time together to get along. You worked all day yesterday, and now you're running off on a business trip tomorrow? And you weren't even going to tell me? That's ridiculous!"

  He stepped closer to her, his hands going to her shoulders. He wanted to shake her. It's what his father would've done. Instead he closed his eyes, and took deep calming breaths. He wasn't his father. He didn't hurt women.

  "Spend the week wherever you want to spend it. We did promise to live together for a year, and the house we're living in is mine."

  She closed her eyes, nervous about the anger she saw in his. "I'll stay here. I don't want you to automatically assume I'll do what you want, though. I have a brain." She knew she was repeating herself, but she was furious. She had a right to think for herself.

  "Do you have what you need to go get your things?"

  "I just need to go to my room and get my purse. I'll be down in a minute." She was so happy to get away from him, she could not express it. She went upstairs to her room and straight into the bathroom. She splashed cold water on her face, trying to calm her anger. Never in her life had she met someone who could make her this angry, except maybe her sister Brooke. The man was ridiculous.

  She grabbed her purse and went back downstairs, a little bit calmer. He'd obviously taken the time to calm down as well, and turned to her with a slight smile. "Let's go."

  "I'm ready."

  She followed him out to the garage and got into the passenger seat of the car. She was still angry enough she didn't want to talk to him, but she didn't want to be childish. She struck up a conversation about the things she needed to get from her home.

  "If you're going to have your secretary set up movers tomorrow, today we can just get a couple suitcases worth of clothes. I need clothes for work this week, and I need my bathing suit."

  He nodded as he guided the car out of the driveway. "I'll join you for a swim later." He really didn't have the time, but he realized she was right. He shouldn't have married her and immediately ran off to work ignoring her. She needed to be a priority to him.

  "Only if you want to. I wouldn't want to get in the way of your work." The words sounded a lot more sarcastic than she'd meant them to. Never having experienced this kind of anger, she wasn't sure how to come down from it. She was used to having an even temper, and always smiling. She hadn't expected the first strong emotion she felt toward her husband to be anger.

  He drove in the direction of Plymouth, and she gave him directions once they got off the highway on the way there. Their conversation was stilted the entire drive. Once they reached her apartment, they went upstairs together.

  He looked around the small apartment she lived in. It was barely bigger than a shoebox. "How do you live with so little space?" Belatedly, he remembered he'd promised not to judge her on her apartment.

  "It's just me. I don't need much. This is a lot more space than I had in the dorm, and I had to share a room." She walked into her bedroom, and sat down on the edge of the bed, as she opened the drawers in her dresser that was right beside the bed.

  Daniel followed her in, watching her as she dug through her drawers. He walked over and picked up a bra from her drawer. It was thick and serviceable, but not sexy at all. "I hope this one is going in the trash. I'll pick out all new underwear for you." He liked things that were more in line with what she'd worn the night before.

  Brenda snatched her bra from his hand. "Until you pay attention to me, you get no say in my undergarments." She was blushing furiously as she threw the bra on the bed.

  Daniel walked over and picked it up again. While she was throwing other things on the bed, he checked the size. He didn't care what she thought, he'd be buying a whole new wardrobe for her.

  He wandered around the apartment, going into her closet and looking at her clothes. By the time he left her closet, he knew all her sizes. He'd pick out a few things on his own, but most things he would leave to a personal shopper. He wouldn't say it to her, but she needed to be dressed differently as his wife.

  Looking at the quality of her things, he knew that most would need to be donated. She wouldn't need any of it anyway.

  Brenda ignored him as she packed her things. Having him prowling around her apartment that way was a little disconcerting, but it didn't bother her too terribly much. They were married, after all. As long as he kept his hands out of her underwear drawer, she was fine with it. He'd embarrassed her with the bra, but she did her best not to react.


  Twenty minutes later, she'd packed enough that she was ready to go. "Will you have your secretary call me tomorrow so I know when to meet them here?"

  "Yes, I'll have her call you." He pulled his phone from his pocket. "What's your number?"

  She gave it to him, and he quickly punched it into his phone. "Call me, so I'll have yours." She could just see the looks on people's faces if they saw her exchanging phone numbers with her new husband.

  "Are you ready?" He could see that she'd already packed two suitcases, but he wasn't sure if she still had more to do.

  "For now. I can get the rest of the stuff this week. Almost everything that's still here I'll be donating. I need to pack up my books, and the rest of my clothes."

  He wanted to tell her to leave her clothes, but he refrained. "If you have a Kindle, why do you still have other books?"

  "There are some books that aren't on Kindle. Older books that haven't been turned into e-books yet. I can't stop rereading those, just because I have a Kindle."

  He frowned at her. "You reread books?"

  "You don't? If you absolutely love a book, you don't read it over and over? To me old books are like old friends!" She pictured herself standing at a coffin filled with old books, weeping copiously as she said goodbye.

  He nodded at her, his facial expression showing that he thought she was insane. "Okay."

  She wrinkled her nose at him, and gave him a suitcase to carry. "You get the big one."

  "I could make a sexual joke here, but I'm going to let it go." He preceded her out of the apartment, and started down the stairs while she locked the door.

  "That's probably for the best." She found by spending time with him, she was no longer angry. She wanted to stay angry, but she just couldn't do it.

  Six

  They stopped for lunch on the way home, and as soon as they got back to the house, Daniel went to his office to work. Brenda put her things away, and changed into her bathing suit. It was a modest one-piece, but she was still embarrassed wearing just that in the house. She shrugged a robe on over the top, and went out to the pool.