Daniel's Bride Read Online Free Page A

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tanned section of male skin. He sat back, and finished off his fries. How did
he manage to eat that stuff and not get fat?
    The crowd roared and she jumped in shock. Around them people
rose to their feet, Daniel went with them and Mel followed suit, not sure what
she was meant to be looking at.
    She stared at the field, and at the players running around
on the green turf. Suddenly a player was brought to the ground in a tackle, a
collective groan rose in the crowd, and she sat back down with relief, and
consoled herself with the rest of the hamburger.
    “I take it you’re enjoying that?” Daniel commented.
    Mel froze, mid chew. Heat rose startlingly quick up her neck
as she turned to face him.
    He pointed to an area to the right of his mouth. “You’ve got
something…”
    She grabbed her paper napkin and dabbed, and for good measure
dabbed the other side, and took a sip of cola to wash away the shame. Not that
she was out to impress him, but she didn’t have to embarrass herself.
    “It’s delicious,” she said finally. “Yummy. I haven’t had a
hamburger in ages.”
    “It wasn’t bad at all,” he agreed. He screwed up his wrapper
and took his cup from the holder.
    And that was the thing. If you were going to bring a girl
out on a date, wouldn’t you go to some swanky French restaurant with four
courses, a waiter who draped a fine linen napkin across your lap, and served
wine in crystal flutes? The Christies were loaded - she’d Googled them. When
he’d said his name was Daniel Christie she hadn’t for a second assumed he was
actually one of those Christies. But he was. They weren’t the flashy rich
who paraded themselves at functions or indulged in scurrilous activities and
married supermodels. They were far too conservative and old money for that. But
they packed impressive financial punch, gave heavily to charity, and appeared
to have inherited one heck of a mighty gene pool, judging from the photos that
had come up on line. Even the great grandfather in the grainy sepia shot was
pretty easy on the eye.
    “You’re not enjoying yourself, are you,” Daniel remarked. It
was a voice that was neither accusing nor disappointed. For such emotive words,
in fact, it was said with amazing blandness.
    “I’m enjoying myself.” She took another sip of cola.
    He ran a considering gaze over her. “I thought you’d like
football. You were wearing a football shirt at the campground and I noticed you
had supporters’ stickers on your car bumper.”
    Mel closed her eyes a second. Of course he would think that.
It all made perfect sense now. Except that it was her mother who was the
huge fan, relying on the cable TV Mel insisted she have to indulge her passion
for the game.
    “I’ve watched a lot of sport in my time,” she told him
diplomatically. “My mother is one of those crazy supporters with all the
scarves and the posters and the coffee cups and…” She stopped. She didn’t need
to impart personal information to him. Didn’t need him to know that it was the
one thing that kept her mother sane, and when she was learning how to get her
life back on track, it counted for a lot.
    She took the final sip of her cola, and he glanced at the scoreboard
and said, “Looks like we lost.” He stood up, slid effortlessly into his leather
jacket, and held out his hand. “Let’s go.”
    She put her hand in his. Heat pulsed through her as he
pulled her up. Everyone around them was getting up from the hard seats, too. He
said, “I’m only sorry I couldn’t deliver a win for your team.”
    “Our team,” she corrected in between praying he didn’t ask
her to name which teams had played.
    He dropped her hand. Her skin still tingled, still felt hot.
He smiled the amused smile that could have been from a brother to a sister. Her
heart dipped even further. “Of course. Our team. Let’s go.”
     
     
    They walked out of the grounds, people rushing past, some a
little worse for wear after indulging in the