"I'll take him back if you want me to."

"You know Carrington would never forgive us. You've put my husband in a difficult position, Hardy."

His smile turned gently mocking. "You know how I hate to hear that."

Hardy.

I turned my face away and closed my eyes sickly, just for a second. Shit. Just . . . shit. Not only had I kissed someone other than my boyfriend, he also happened to be an enemy of the family. My brother's worst enemy, who had deliberately ruined a huge biofuel deal that had meant a lot to Gage personally and professionally.

From what little I knew, Hardy Cates had once been in love with Liberty, but he'd left her and broken her heart, and now he'd come back to make trouble. That kind always did.

It was humiliating to realize that he hadn't been attracted to me at all, that his proposition in the wine cellar had been designed as another strike against the Travises. Hardy Cates wanted to embarrass the family, and he had no problem using me to do it.

"Haven," Liberty said, "this is an old friend of mine. Hardy Cates, this is my sister-in-law, Haven Travis."

"Miss Travis," he said softly.

I braced myself to look at him. His eyes were an astonishing blue-upon-blue in his sun-cured complexion. Although he was expressionless, I noticed the tiny laugh lines that whisked outward from the corners of those eyes. He extended a hand, but I couldn't take it. I was actually afraid of what might happen, how I might feel, if I touched him again.

Smiling at my hesitation, Hardy spoke to Liberty while his gaze remained locked on mine. "Your sister-in-law's a mite skittish, Liberty."

"If you're here to make a scene — " she began calmly.

His gaze moved to her. "No, ma'am. Just wanted to give you my best wishes."

Something softened in her face, and she reached out to clasp his hand briefly. "Thank you."

A new voice entered the conversation. "Hey, there." It was my brother Jack, looking relaxed. But there was a glint in his hard black eyes that silently warned of trouble to come. "Mr. Cates. I've been told you weren't included on the guest list. So I have to ask you to leave."

Hardy gave him a measuring glance.

In the silence that followed, I went tense in every muscle, praying silently that a fistfight wouldn't break out at Gage's wedding. Glancing at Liberty, I saw she had mined pale. I thought vengefully that Hardy Gates was a selfish bastard, turning up at her wedding like that.

"No problem," Hardy said with soft insolence. "I got what I came for."

"Let me show you out," Jack said.

Liberty and I both let out our breaths as they departed. "I hope he's gone before Gage sees him," Liberty said.

"Believe me, Jack will make sure of that." Now I understood why she had chosen my brother over that rascal. "Cates is obviously a guy on the make," I said. "He could probably sell butter to a cow."

"Hardy's ambitious," Liberty admitted. "But he came from nothing. If you knew some of the things he had to overcome . . . " She sighed. "I bet within a year, he'll marry some River Oaks debutante who'll help take him to the top."

"He'd need a lot of money for that. We River Oaks debutantes are expensive."

"Of all the things he wants," Liberty said, "money's the easiest to get."

Carrington ran up to us, having finally emerged from the elevator. "Come on," she said in excitement. "Everyone's going outside, The fireworks are about to start!"

Just what I need, I thought. More fireworks.

The next morning I was packing a suitcase in my room when Nick came in. We had occupied separate bedrooms during our stay in River Oaks, which Nick had said was just line because there was no way he was going to touch me when we were under the same roof as my father.

"He's old, and he's only half your size," I had told Nick, laughing. "What do you think he's going to do, beat you up or something?"

"It's the 'or something' that scares me," Nick had said.

As soon as Nick came into the room, I knew he had talked to my father. The stress showed on his face. He was hardly the first to come away looking like that after a heart-to-heart with Churchill Travis.

"I told you," I said. "Dad's impossible. He wouldn't accept you no matter how wonderful you were."

"Were?" He gave me a comical look.

"Are." I put my arms around him and laid my head on his chest. "What did he say?" I whispered.

"Basically a variation on the 'not a plug nickel' theme." Nick eased my head back and looked down at me. "I told him I was going to put you first, always. That I will earn enough to take care of you. I told him I just wanted his approval so there wouldn't be conflict between you and your family."

"Travises love conflict," I said.

A smile entered Nick's hazel eyes, all green and gold and brown. There was a touch of color on his high cheekbones, a remnant of the confrontation with my bulldog of a father. The smile vanished from his eyes as he smoothed my hair back, his hand curving gently over the back of my skull. He was handsome, grave, concerned. "Is this what you want, Haven? I couldn't live with myself if I did something to hurt you."

Emotion made my voice unsteady. "The only thing that would hurt is for you to stop loving me."

"That's not even possible You're the one, Haven. You're the one for me, always." He bent his head, his mouth taking mine in a long, slow dream of a kiss. I responded avidly, lifting against him.