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“The next year is going to be crazy,” he continued, “and I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but I want you by my side during this. Actually,” he amended, “that’s not true. I want you by my side always.”
Her breath escaped in a long, harsh expenditure of air. “Harrison—”
He let go of her, reached inside his jacket and came out with a box. Her brain went haywire. “You aren’t going to—”
“Propose in a supply closet?” He dropped to his knee. “I tried to go somewhere private.”
“Yes, but—”
He flipped the box open. A sparkling sapphire winked back at her, surrounded by the most perfect row of white fire. She stared at it. Stared at the powerful, ruthless man at her feet who’d just declared his intentions to run this country.
“Marry me,” he murmured. “Be my anchor in this storm because I need you there.”
Could she be a Grant? Could she be a politician’s wife? He was asking her to take a leap just like she had asked him that night in Long Island. And although the idea scared the hell out of her, her heart wouldn’t let her do anything but follow it.
“The answer is yes,” she said softly, “if you promise me that when things get dark, you won’t shut me out. You will talk to me.”
She thought she saw moisture build at the corner of his eyes. It made hot tears gather in hers. “I promise,” he said, his voice steady and sure.
She stuck out her hand. Held her breath as he slid the sapphire on her ring finger. Because it had to fit. They fit perfectly. She was strong where he was weak and he was all-powerful in the spaces between.
It fit.
He rose to his feet. She threw herself into his arms, every bit of pent-up emotion bursting out of her as he anchored her against him and kissed her. Sure and never-ending it was heaven.
His palms moved lower on her hips, settled her more intimately against him. Frankie drew in a breath at the white-hot heat that consumed her at his blatant arousal. “We are not doing this here.”
“No,” he murmured against her lips, “I value my life. But I need five more minutes.”
When way more than five minutes had passed, they emerged from the closet, clothes intact, a bloom in Frankie’s cheeks that made Salvatore’s face darken when they walked back into the dining room. She held up her left hand and the glare faded. “You are a lucky man, Grant. By the skin of your teeth.”
Her brother’s face relaxed into a beaming smile as he stepped forward and shook Harrison’s hand. The bubbly came out and the night devolved into a restaurant-wide celebration, on the house.
Her father and Harrison spent the night talking politics while her mother plied her about dress choices between customers. But Frankie wasn’t ready to think about any of that. She wanted to savor every minute of the weight of Harrison’s ring on her finger.
She heard her father say something about hosting a rally here at the restaurant for Harrison’s campaign. “We’ve created a monster,” she said rolling her eyes.
Salvatore gave their father an amused look. “He should have run a long time ago. Let him live vicariously through your fiancé.”
Fiancé. The glow lasted all the way home to Harrison’s penthouse. In the elevator where they almost lost control completely, then in the bedroom where her fiancé disposed of her clothes so fast her head spun. She lay back on the bed, watching him as he prowled toward her. “Maybe you should come work for me on my campaign. I can live out my fantasy. Daily...”
She dug her fingers in his hair as he pressed a kiss to her throat. “I have never dropped a drink in my life until tonight. I’m done working for you, Harrison. You have me entirely on edge.”
His gaze glittered. “Actually,” he murmured, “I completely agree. The only place I want you off balance is here. Under me.”
She could offer her full cooperation on that. Her insides contracted with the need to have him after a week full of misery. But it was his clear, unclouded gaze that touched her the deepest. In that moment, she knew she could do it. She could be a Grant, and maybe, if the stars aligned, she could be a president’s wife. Because she was the woman who’d conquered the heart of the beast. The woman who’d helped heal him.
She smiled and closed her eyes as he dragged her down into the tempest with him. They’d said it was impossible. What did they know?
