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I
don’t particularly want to make it twice.”
    “Settle down?” She repeated the phrase from between gritted teeth.
“I’m not a fractious horse you’re trying to break to saddle.”
    Bishop took his time in answering her. He’d spent three months
trying to figure out what it was about Lila Adams that had made him abandon his
common sense and betray his friendship with her brother. He’d told himself it
was too much drink and the fact that seeing the way Douglas and Susan looked at
each other had suddenly made him feel older and more alone than he had in his entire
life. But looking at Lila, he was forced to admit that there had been more to
it than whiskey and loneliness. She was fire and ice, all pale skin and big
green eyes and temper. And he wanted her, the same way he’d wanted her the
night of Douglas’s wedding. The knowledge put an edge to his voice.
    “Seems to me there’s considerable similarity between a woman and a
horse,” he drawled. “They both need a firm hand on the reins to show them who’s
in charge.”
    Enraged beyond words, Lila forgot her determination not to
struggle and tried to jerk away from him. Bishop’s fingers tightened around her
hand for a moment and then he released her, having made it clear that he was
doing so because he chose to.
    She took a quick step back. Only the weight of her skirts kept her
from rushing from the room. That and her pride, which refused to give him the
satisfaction of seeing her run.
    “I won’t marry you,” she said. Despite her best efforts to sound
calm and controlled, her voice shook with rage.
    “You’ll marry me.”
    “You can’t force me.”
    “I don’t have to. They will.” Bishop inclined his head toward the
door, reminding her of the church full of guests who’d witnessed his dramatic
arrival, who had since dispersed to their homes to speculate on the truth
behind the interrupted ceremony. He was right, she thought despairingly.
She’d marry him because it was the only real choice open to her. The knowledge
did nothing to soften her anger.
    “I should have let my brother kill you,” Lila hissed.
    “Maybe. But it’s too late now.”
    His calm response made her want to scream. She glared at him, her
eyes stormy with frustration and rage. She was trapped. Because of one night of
champagne and madness, she was going to be forced to join her life with that of
the man before her, a man with whom she’d shared intimacies she could barely
bring herself to remember and yet whom she knew not at all.
    Bishop must have seen the acceptance in her eyes. His mouth
twisted in a half smile that held no real humor. “I suspect Douglas’s patience
has stretched about as far as it’s going to,” he said, moving toward the door.
    Lila hesitated a moment longer but there was no sense in delaying
the inevitable. She couldn’t stay in this little room forever. Bishop opened
the door and then stood back politely to allow her to exit first. The guests
were gone and the church was empty except for Douglas and Susan, who rose from
one of the pews and came toward them. Seeing her brother’s worried face, Lila
was suddenly acutely aware of all that she was losing. If she’d married Logan,
at least she’d have been able to preserve a piece of her life. Now it was all
gone.
    She glanced up, her eyes meeting Bishop’s. “I wish you’d arrived
too late,” she said, her voice more weary than angry. “If I’d already been
Logan’s wife, there would have been nothing you could do to change things.”
    Bishop smiled down at her, his eyes pale blue and cold as ice. “I
could have made you a widow.”

CHAPTER 3
    "We gather together in the sight of God and these witnesses
to join this man and this woman in the bonds of holy matrimony,” Reverend
Carpenter intoned solemnly.
    For the second time in a matter of hours, Lila listened to the
same words. They didn’t sound any more real to her now than they had earlier.
Standing in the parlor of River