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“If you walk out that door you lose it al
l,” he reminded her. “Everything. ”
She smiled tiredly. “No, Father. I win,” she said simply.
He sneered slowly. “You’re just like your mother. ”
Kimberly ignored the pain at the implied insult.
“No, I’m not,” she replied slowly. “I’m stronger than she was. I’m stronger than both of you were, because I’m not willing to sell my soul for a piece of land that will neither keep me warm at night, nor love me in return. Unlike you and Mother, I’m not willing to turn my back on love for profit. That was your curse, it won’t be mine. ”
She left before he could reply, before he could hurl the insults she could see gathering on his face. She walked from the offices into a day filled with sunshine and hope and ran toward her future.
Chapter Twenty
He was waiting for her when she arrived. His mother had called and relayed Daniel’s fury when he returned from the lawyers’ offices. The Senator was coldly disapproving she had said, but Jared had read more than that in her voice.
“Should I come after you, Mom?” he had asked her carefully, concern rising within him.
“No, dear. Daniel isn’t a violent man. But neither am I pleased with him at the moment,” she had said with a vein of irritation. “You take care of Kimberly. She’s renounced Briar Cliff for you. I expect to plan the wedding, of course. And it will take more than a few weeks, young man. I expect six months at the least. I deserve this. You waited long enough to find the woman that makes your lips curve into that smile your father always got with me. ” Her voice had turned misty with memories, though he had no idea what she meant. “Give her my best, and I’ll see both of you soon. ”
He had hung up the phone, and waited. Night had fallen more than an hour before and still he stood on the front porch, his heart in his chest, his throat tight with the knowledge of what she had given up for him.
She had given up an estate estimated to be worth millions. More than he would ever accomplish in his lifetime, more than he had dreamed his love meant to her. She had only five years to wait, and he would have been there beside her. He would have given her that time.
It both awed and humbled him, and scared the living hell out of him that she had given it up.
Finally, just as he was certain she must have changed her mind, he saw the lights of the jeep topping the rise a quarter of a mile away. And she was there. Everything inside him responded to that sight. His chest tightened with emotion, and his erect cock throbbed in thankfulness. The damned thing hadn’t relaxed since she had walked out the door more than a week before.
He held his position on the porch, his arms crossed over his chest as the jeep pulled into the driveway and turned around the circular drive. The engine had no sooner been turned off then the door was opening and there she was.
Her long, red-gold hair flowed around her, unbound, as wild as the passion that burned within her. She was dressed simply in clothing that he figured would take no more than six seconds to tear from her body. A light cream-colored sundress and leather sandals. Four seconds max, he revised.
She moved slowly to him, stepping up on the porch, her eyes dark with emotion.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I can’t wait, Jared. No matter what. No matter how long you want me, I can’t wait. ”
He drew in a hard, determined breath as he glanced away from her. He couldn’t say what he had to say while staring into those beautiful eyes.
“I can ease the desire for you without this sacrifice…”
“No. ” Tears thickened her voice as pain resonated in it. “We tried that, Jared; it only made it worse. Don’t you understand? It’s not the need for release. It’s not the arousal. It’s you. Just you. I need all of you, not just a little bit… I need all of you. You love me, Jared. I know you do. You have to. ”
He turned back to her, the emotional storm riding within him as unfamiliar as the tears filling her eyes now.
“Love you?” he questioned her roughly. “No, Kimberly. This isn’t love. This is a part of my soul that rips out every time I have to let you go. But by God, I won’t let you give up everything you’ve fought for like this. It’s only five years. ”
She shook her head slowly, a single tear falling from her eye, breaking his heart.
“Five years that I can be warm beside you. Five years that I can laugh with you, that I can love you. Five years versus something that was my mother’s dream, but never mine. I want you, not the curse that estate has become. ”
He should have argued further, he thought. He should have made her see exactly what she was giving up, but he couldn’t fight past his need to hold her, to kiss her. His need to shelter her and hear the screams he had every intention of fucking out of her.
He reached out, his body clamoring to take and take until he was so sated he collapsed in exhaustion. But nothing could still the need to give until he saw her eyes fill with happiness, with satisfaction.
His fingers touched her cheek gently.
“Be certain,” he whispered. “Because I’ll never let you go, Kimberly. It would kill a piece of my soul to ever have to let you go again. ”
