The Wedding Date Read Online Free PDF Page A

and touch. Facing the raw and unbroken parts of the world in order to discover what kind of man he
really
was, rather than the kind life had labelled him the moment he was born.
    Far, far away from the histrionics he’d endured as a kid, both before and after his hypersensitive mother had decided that being
his
mother was simply too hard. Leaving him to the mercy of whichever relative had had the grace to take him that month and increasing the drama tenfold. Every one of them had expected him to be volubly and effusively grateful they’d taken on such an encumbrance as he. The telling of it had become a daily litany. But that had been nothing compared with the horrendously uncomfortable drama that rocked each household the moment the inhabitants realised that they were not, in fact, as altruistic as they’d imagined they were.
    Then they’d each and every one whispered behind half-closed doors, perhaps it wasn’t
their
fault. His own mother had given him away after all …
    A flash of something appeared out of the corner of Bradley’s eye, slapping him back to the absolute present. He sat forward, leant his elbows on his knees, and ran his hands hard and fast over his face in an effort to rub the prickly remnants of memory away.
    Then all thought fled his mind as he realised what the flash had been. Hannah. Dashing from the bathroom into her bedroom. Naked.
    He slowly turned his head to look at the empty spot where the vision had appeared. Piece by piece it slipped into his mind.
    A wet female back, a pair of lean wet legs,and a small white handtowel covering nought but what must have been wet naked buttocks.
    Hannah.
Naked.
And right at that moment behind that door, towelling down with something about the size of a postage stamp.
    From nowhere a swift, steady heat began to surface inside him. An unmistakable heat. The kind he’d usually invite with open arms.
    He dragged his eyes back to the front and stared hard at a pink quilted lamp covered in so many tassels it made his eyes hurt. Better that than focus on the image seemingly burned into the backs of his eyes.
    Hannah was hard-working, meticulous, with a reserve of stamina … He stopped when he realised he was repeating himself
to
himself.
    A loud bang came from Hannah’s room, after which rang out a badly muffled oath and what sounded like hopping.
    He found himself coughing out a laugh. Relief flooded through him, and the unfortunate heat brimming inside him dissipated, somewhat.
That
was the Hannah he knew. Hard-working, meticulous, and singularly likely to snap him out of the labyrinth of his mind right when he needed it most.
    At that moment Hannah came bounding out of her room. Fully dressed. In fact she appeared to be wearing a grey blanket as she dragged a big black suitcase behind her.
    He managed to pull himself from the clutches of the soft couch to stand, just as she plonked her suitcase by the door and turned to face him. Lips parted, breathless. From the suitcase? The hopping? The exertion of running to her room wet and naked?
    He gave himself a mental slap.
    ‘You made yourself coffee?’ she said, staring at the coffee table.
    ‘Sonja.’
    ‘Oh.
Oh!’
Her eyes opened unnaturally wide, then flicked to the room into which Sonja had disappeared. ‘Did she …? Did you …?’
    He raised an eyebrow.
    But she just shook her head, a new pinkness staining her cheeks and a telling kind of darkness in her eyes. It was the kind of look that told a specific story without need for words. It was the kind of look, when added to the image of naked female flesh, that could turn a man’s blood to hot oil.
    Though it was far more likely he simply hadn’t fully moved on from the ‘flash’ after all.
    You’re a man,
he growled to himself,
not a rock. Don’t be so hard on yourself.
    Suddenly Hannah held up a finger and headed over to the small round table behind the couch, flicked through a bunch of papers.Ignoring him completely. He gave his head a short,