WHAT?
Tori? Hell, he thought their marriage had been dissolved years ago! They’d both realized very quickly getting marriage had been a monumental mistake. She’d said her father’s lawyers would take care of it. Why had she waited until now to drop this bombshell on him? Damn! This could get messy!
What did one say to a wife you hadn’t seen in seven years? JC wondered on his flight to Orlando. And how much would it cost him to divest him of her quickly and quietly?
With a heavy sigh, he let his head drop back against the seat. Tori…Damn… He hadn’t let himself think about her in forever. He’d been her first lover. Their brief marriage had lasted only a month, thanks to Lou Perlman’s interference. He hadn’t wanted JC to be married and pressured the young man until her had capitulated.
JC hadn’t heard a word from Tori since that last telephone conversation – which was why he had believed himself a free agent. Obviously, for reasons he couldn’t fathom, Tori had chosen not to divorce him. But why? Why if she hadn’t contacted him in all these years?
Deciding he would have to wait for the answers to all his questions, JC closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.
JC hadn’t known what Victoria McKenzie would look like these days. As a girl, she’d had big green eyes and a riot of black curls. She’d always had that ‘too beautiful to be real’ quality. Today he was enlightened. Her mass of dark hair was restrained with a tortoise shell clip. She wore a linen suit with an emerald-colored blouse that made her eyes look bigger and deeper. With her pale, creamy complexion, she looked fragile and so beautiful it hurt.
In that moment, he remembered why he’d been foolish enough to marry her. He’d needed to possess her, to own her beauty. He’d wanted her so much it had nearly been an obsession.
“Hi, Tori.”
It still stung to look at him, Tori realized. She had been so wildly in love with the boy he had been. His face had matured some. He wore his hair longer, letting it curl. The body beneath his dark suit hinted at a musculature he hadn’t had at twenty. And he still had those brilliantly blue eyes she had always found fascinating.
“Hello, Joshua.”
JC wanted to wince at her frosty greeting. “I guess ‘long time, no see’ would be appropriate.”
“Appropriately flippant,” she replied coolly.
Okay, enough small talk…JC said, “I thought this was taken care of years ago.”
Tori’s back stiffened. “I had done my part. The only signature missing was that of one Joshua S. Chasez.”
“How in the hell did this happen?”
“I believe I just—“
Two men came in, halting her words. Her lawyer and JC’s.
“It seems the papers have been floating around Europe somewhere all this time,” JC’s lawyer stated as he took a chair next to his client.
Lovely,” Tori grumbled.
“Looks like we’ll have to start from scratch,” Tori’s lawyer announced.
“How long will that take?” JC demanded. “I’m supposed to get married—“
Tori cut him off. “Is an annulment possible? There are no children and we haven’t laid eyes on each other in seven years.”
“But the marriage was consummated,” her lawyer pointed out.
Tori’s cheeks stained pink. “Of course, it was consummated.” She looked down and murmured, “That’s why he married me.”
JC felt his face go hot. As embarrassing as her statement was, it was true. If he’d been able to get her into bed without the benefit of clergy, he probably wouldn’t have taken such drastic measures as eloping with her.
“I should like you to try for an annulment,” Tori announced formally. “I understand that Mr. Chasez is in a hurry since he is planning on marrying someone else,” she said in closing.
“Like you don’t want out of this mess as much as I do!” JC shot back at her.
Tori rose. “Dear Joshua, I have lived with the knowledge for seven years – and never told a single soul outside of my lawyer. Not once. Not even for personal gain after you became famous. I guarded your secret. You owe me some dignity at the very least.”
“If you get an annulment, you can’t get alimony,” her lawyer reminded her.
“This isn’t about money. I just want it done and over with.” With that, Tori left the conference room.
JC’s lawyer let out a low whistle of appreciation. “That is one classy lady.”
“She’s got a stick up her ass,” JC grumbled.
“More like the shaft you gave her,” the man retorted. “Do you realize how much she is saving you? Forget the money. What about the knowledge that you’ve been married all this time? The public embarrassment? She stopped you from being a bigamist.”
JC went white under his tan. “Damn!”
“For spite, she could have let you get married and dropped this bomb on you – publicly,” Tori’s lawyer added. “From what I’ve learned, you weren’t exactly a sterling husband for that month.”
“I was twenty,” JC defended himself.
“She was only nineteen,” the lawyer shot back.
The man’s words brought the past back in a rush of memories…