Society Weddings Read Online Free PDF

her.
    She wore tight blue jeans and a silky amber top which matched her huge eyes and emphasised the luscious swell of her breasts. High-heeled snakeskin ankle-boots made even more of the length of her long, slim legs, where the denim clung to them so provocatively. So very Westernised, he thought, in disgust, as he let his cold and disapproving gaze travel to her head, where a wide-brimmed and flower-deckedstraw hat was managing to conceal all the silken splendour of her hair.
    But it was the make-up which caused the little pulse to beat so forbiddingly at his temple. Quador women—and particularly high-born Quador women—did not mar their complexions with the false glitter of cosmetics!
    He scowled.
    There was a subtle golden glow which shimmered over the heavy lids of her deep-set eyes, and the long lashes were ebony-dark and spiked like the legs of a spider. Her full lips gleamed provocatively, highlighted with some rose-pale tint, and whilst the man in him could not deny that she looked very beautiful indeed, he also knew something else.
    That she looked like a tramp!
    More mistress than wife!
    ‘How dare you come before me so attired?’ he demanded imperiously.
    ‘You don’t like my clothes?’ she questioned innocently.
    He would like to tear them from her back! Fighting down the urge to storm across the room and do just that—for he could not ignore the watchful eye of the chaperon—he steadied himself with a deep breath.
    ‘You look like a tramp!’ he offered, giving voice to his thoughts.
    ‘Hardly,’ answered Jenna drily. ‘A tramp would ill be able to afford the cost of this outfit!’
    ‘Not that kind of tramp!’ he contradicted icily. ‘The kind of tramp to be found hanging around the back streets of Riocard!’
    ‘Oh, you mean a prostitute?’ she questioned helpfully.
    Furiously, he ignored that. ‘Why did you not come to me wearing traditional Quador dress?’
    ‘Because this is the kind of thing I’m more used to! It’s all the rage in New York!’
    ‘Why?’ he snarled. ‘Does Brad like you to dress like that?’
    Jenna realised that she was straying into dangerous and uncharted waters. And that she was supposed not to be antagonising him! ‘I’ll go and change,’ she offered, but he shook his head.
    ‘Oh, no, you won’t,’ he said grimly. ‘You have kept me waiting too long. You will leave only when I give you leave to!’ He drew another deep breath. ‘Would you like some refreshment after your journey?’ he forced himself to say.
    She felt like asking him if he was offering tea or hemlock, but thought better of it. She shook her head, and the movement drew his eye and caused another small snarl of irritation.
    ‘Remove your hat!’ he ordered.
    This was it. The moment which would confirm her conversion from Suitable Wife to Sassy American! With one easy movement she pulled the straw hat from her head, though her heart was pounding nervously as she stared at him with an expression she prayed was not too defiant.
    For a moment Rashid was speechless. If she had suddenly started flying around the State Apartments he could not have been more profoundly shocked.
    ‘But you have cut your hair!’ he observed in a strangled kind of voice.
    For one bizarre and crazy moment Jenna thought that he sounded almost sad , but nerves must have made her imagination work overtime. And when she met the steel of his eyes she knew that she must have been mistaken.
    ‘Yes. Do you like it?’ she asked lightly, and felt the air-conditioning cool her newly bare neck.
    ‘Why?’ he demanded hoarsely as he remembered the silken strands of syrup-coloured hair which had streamed down almost to her bottom. A pulse leapt in his groin. He had imagined untying it on their wedding night, had pictured it spread out across his chest, contrasting so beautifully against the dark skin. ‘Why shave your head like that? To look like a man? No longer a woman?’
    Something in his criticism made Jenna forget