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I hung up the phone and bit my lip.
“What?” Clayton asked.
“It’s…I don’t know.” I looked down at my phone, the new contact information for Sabrina still on the screen.
Clayton touched my chin, pulling my attention. “Tell me, Ronnie.”
He wanted to fix this for me and I did love that about him.
Love. I still felt giggly thinking about it. Well, giggly and really fucking nervous.
But I wasn’t sure how this could be fixed.
“Sabrina’s back.”
“Back where?”
“The ranch. She quit the show.”
“Whoa.”
“I know.”
“And Bea-“ I stopped right there. Bea was a heartache. “She went back to Austin. There was no way they could stay in the same house together.”
“I can loan her some money. Just until the paperwork is done for the inheritance and the trust.” The paperwork was going to take another six months, easy.
“I can’t take your money.”
He rolled me to my side so I was facing him. “I’m a rich man, Ronnie. I can take care of you and your sisters without the damn company or the inheritance.”
I narrowed one eye at him. “Are you bragging?”
“No. I’m telling you I’ve got your back. You don’t have to be worried. None of you do.”
This was next-level seduction. The idea that I could not only make my sisters whole but stop running after them with my safety nets was unbelievably comforting.
“You don’t have to.”
“I know. But I want to.”
“I can take a loan…just for Bea to get her out of trouble. Until all the paperwork is done for the trusts.”
“My wife is not going to pay me back for the money I give her.” He shook his head.
“I just…I don’t know how to do this.” And I didn’t. To lean on him like this. To accept help. I wasn’t good at it.
“Say thank you, that’s all.”
“Thank you.”
He kissed me. Sweetly. “That was really hard for you, wasn’t it?”
“You have no idea.”
Clayton rolled over onto his back and stretched his arms up over his head. I ran my fingers down the muscles of his arm, down to his armpit. He flinched away, smiling.
“You’re ticklish?” I cried.
“No,” he said.
“You are. You’re ticklish.” I ran my fingers over that sensitive skin again and this time he laughed, but when he tried to pull away I wouldn’t let him. “This is ticklish,” I said as he tried to worm away from me and my fingers.
He clamped his arm down, trapping my hand flat. I was lying on top of him and we were nose to nose.
“Uh-oh,” he said. “Now what are you going to do?”
I kissed him. His beautiful smiling mouth. I didn’t want to break this mood, but talking about it, this felt…so different from last time. Like I was in love with a different version of the man.
But I couldn’t help it. I leaned back. “What do you think would have happened if we’d gotten married last time?”
“What do you mean?”
“Would you have told me about your father? Or about the deal you made with my father?”
“About my father, yes. About your father, probably not.”
“Why?”
“What would be the point of hurting you? All I’ve ever wanted was to not hurt you.”
“But you understand I’m a grown woman and I’d rather have all the information and get hurt than be lied to.”
He nodded. “I do understand that. Can I kiss you now?”
“You may.”
He kissed me and kissed me and I melted against him, my exhausted and actually pretty sore body warming to the idea of another round with Clayton. Then he leaned back.
“Sabrina,” he said. “She needs something to do.”
“Yeah. That would be helpful, probably. Keep her busy.”
“Can she plan our wedding?”
“We…” I couldn’t even finish the thought. Because when it had just been a business arrangement, the wedding hadn’t seemed real. But now it seemed…very real.
“Have you changed your mind?” he asked, and I could see him bracing. He had blown his protection apart and he was raw and vulnerable. My heart pounded against my ribs.
“No,” I said. “Just…the wedding, the marriage wasn’t real to me before. You know?”
“No,” he said. “It’s always been real to me. Marriage to you is what I have always wanted.”
“The million-dollar business is just a perk?”
I was teasing him, but he cupped my face in my hands again, holding me still. “It has been you and only you since the minute I met you.”
“That’s not true,” I said. “I don’t even know when we met.”
“At King Industries. I’d just gotten the job in the mailroom and I was bringing some things up to your dad’s assistant. You and Bea came walking out and you were…I don’t know how to put it…it’s like you were glittering.”
“Glittering?”
“I said I didn’t know how to put it, but you and Bea were arm in arm, walking toward the elevators and you were laughing. You were just the prettiest thing I’d ever seen.”
I put my head down against his neck, hugging him with my whole body. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?” I whispered.
