He smiled. “Yes, baby, that’s what I’m saying. We came here to pretend to be engaged, and that was what I planned to do. But I realized that I couldn’t pretend with you. Because I want you. I want you, and only you, to become Mrs. Harrison Arthur Bainbridge the Fourth.”
Tears appeared in Jayda’s big, expressive eyes. She was still unable to fully process it. She was the throwaway. She was the girl they dated but never wanted to marry. How could he, the best man she’d ever known, want her when nobody else did? “I don’t understand,” she said honestly. “Nobody has ever put me first for anything. Nobody has ever . . .”
Harrison grabbed her into his arms as she began sobbing. “I know, darling,” he said. “Everyone, including me, has treated you like crap. We’ve treated you as if you didn’t matter. But oh how you matter to me. You’re my first. You hear me? You’remyfirst.”
Then he pulled back, still holding her arms, and looked into her tear-filled eyes. “You’re all I want. No other woman comes anywhere close.” Then he exhaled. “Jayda Robinson, will you marry me?”
Jayda’s face turned into such a mask of anguish that he thought she was going to turn him down cold. And he began to panic.
But it wasn’t anguish. It was abject hurt and pain turning into joy. Because as quickly as he saw her anguish, he saw her face light up his entire world. And she smiled that enchanting smile. And she nodded her beautiful head. “Yes,” she said happily. “It’ll be my honor to marry you.” But then her lookturned serious. “And you better not change your mind either buster,” she warned.
He laughed. “I’ll be insane if I do,” he said. And then they both turned serious as he put that big rock on her finger. She let her finger drop down, as if it was too heavy to carry, and they both laughed.
Then they looked into each other’s eyes. And Jayda said it best. “I just got dressed,” she said. “Am I going to have to undress?”
He removed his bathrobe, revealing his naked body, and lifted her into his arms. “What do you think?” he said, as he carried her back upstairs.
Once they got upstairs and Harrison carefully undressed her and put her back in his bed, they went on another long, passionate, lovemaking journey. Jayda had never gone that long and then that long again in her life.
But Harrison couldn’t get enough of her and she wanted every inch of him too. And that was what she got. For nearly an hour they made love. Harrison on top. Then Jayda on top. Then Harrison once again. It was passionate and rapid and slow and steady and passionate all over again. They were kissing and massaging as he moved so deep inside of her that they melded into one. Harrison held Jayda so tightly that even his grip made her sensuality increase.
And their feelings that were already elevated every time they came together, went to yet another level. Because they weren’t just two people making love. They were engaged. This time they were now committed to each other. This time they were shedding their pretense and letting every ounce of their emotions thrive.
This time was different.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The half-an-hour limo ride from Portland to Kennebunkport was a joyful one. Harrison had one hand around her shoulder and his other hand held her hand. And they were laughing and talking up a storm. Even Vincent noticed a difference in them when they came out of the condo and entered through the back passenger door he held open. The boss had his arm all the way around her waist, not just on her lower back, and he was smiling. And not just a quick smirk either: He was smiling as if he was a kid again. Vincent, knowing his boss and all those women he’d been with in the past, was in a state of shock. He wondered what in the world did a chick like Jayda have between those legs!
Desmond, Harrison’s driver, was equally perplexed as he drove them to the Bainbridge compound. Every time he took a peep through the rearview, the boss was still hugging her and kissing her hair and pulling her closer against him as if he couldn’t get enough of that biker. And that was what Desmond remembered her as: the biker he splashed. Now she was Harrison Bainbridge’s woman?Her? He’d seen Harrison with movie stars and supermodels and socialites galore. It was all hush-hush. Not even his close colleagues knew anything about his dating life. But to go from the top of the mountain to a valley girl like her (and he didn’t mean Malibu), was astonishing. He was still reeling from the very thought of it.
But Jayda wasn’t reeling anymore. She wasreal-ing. It was already sinking into her entire being that she was soon to be Mrs. Harrison Bainbridge the Fourth for real. She didn’t haveto pretend. She didn’t have to go along with anything anymore. She still found it hard to believe, but she believed it.
If she was wrong, and this was all a ruse for Harrison to win over his father, she wasn’t at all sure if she could recover. She’d been duped by men before. That was nothing new to Jayda. But she’d never been in love like this before. This was different.
But as they turned and then began driving up a long, private road, she could feel Harrison’s body suddenly tense. She was just about to ask him if he was alright, but then they kept riding and a house suddenly came into view.
And Jayda was shocked. “Is this it?” she asked Harrison as she stared unblinkingly at what was in front of her.
Harrison knew it was going to be a shock to her system. He held her closer. “Yes. This is the Bainbridge estate.”
“Why it looks like a big, square palace. It looks like one of those big office buildings in New York. Like your office building. How many bedrooms are in that place?”
“Last I recall: fourteen or so.”
Jayda looked at Harrison with shock in her voice. “Fourteen? Who in their right mind needs fourteen bedrooms?”
Harrison laughed. “My parents apparently.”
“You were raised in this palace?”
“Yes I was.”
Jayda could only shake her head. And those nerves she thought were gone forever, because she was showing up as Harrison’s real fiancée, returned. She thought his penthouse was another world. She thought that was going to be hard to navigate. But this palace? Harrison’s childhood home? How was she going to manage this?
As the limo came to a stop around the curved driveway that boasted other vehicles and limos, and as Vincent got out of the front passenger seat and stood at the back passenger door,Harrison could feel the tension in her body too. He turned to her to reassure her. But when he looked into her worried eyes, his heart dropped. And he regretted bringing her here. Once he knew she was the one for him, he should have sent her back to New York and dealt with his father alone. Why was he putting her through this?
But if she was going to become a Bainbridge, and she was, this was going to have to be her rite of passage. Because if she couldn’t handle his father and his brother, then this trip would be the end of any such future trips for Harrison. He would be done with his own family if they hurt Jayda.
