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“Grant... I want...your guests...”
“Damn.” He glanced back at the closed door and then down at his watch. “Unfortunately, we don’t have time to celebrate properly before they arrive. But I expect you to come home with me afterward so I can show you just how happy your answer has made me.”
With a sly quirk of one eyebrow, her hand slid between their bodies and settled on his hard length, the material of his pants the only barrier between his body and her sultry caress.
“I noticed.”
“Devil woman,” he whispered with a playful nip at her lips. “Since we can’t leave now, you might as well open your gift.”
“You’re more than enough,” she replied with an answering kiss.
Reluctantly, he released her and moved over to the door to the staircase, unlocking and opening it to reveal a white box tied with a red bow sitting on the top step. He set it on one of the tables.
“Open it.”
Alexandra gave him a shy smile that made him resolve to buy her a gift at least once a week, just so he could see the look of excitement on her face. It could be a seashell or a flower or a book. Knowing her, just the fact that he had thought of her would be enough.
But this, he knew as he watched her lift the lid with anticipation and brush aside the tissue paper, this was something even more special.
Alexandra’s mouth dropped open as she pulled the sage green gown from the box.
“Grant...it’s...”
“Yours.”
Her gaze flew up to his, tears making her eyes glisten. “You bought everything for me, didn’t you? The dresses, the jewelry?”
“Yes.” One hand came up, his fingers tracing the curve of her face. “You deserve so much, Alexandra.”
She held the gown up against her body, her fingers drifting over the smooth crepe fabric in wonder.
“Jessica included something in the bottom.”
“Jessica was in on this, too?” Alexandra chuckled. “I never...” Her voice trailed off as she pulled out a pair of transparent heels studded with tiny flickering diamonds. “I can’t believe she remembered. I didn’t even think she was really listening.”
“She was. She told me she knew you would put the money you were earning back into your business instead of spending it on yourself. It was one of the many things she listed as a reason for why I needed to do whatever it took to get you back when I told her what I had planned for tonight.”
He moved to her, savoring the heat that kindled in her eyes as she looked up at him.
“I would be honored if you would wear the dress, the shoes and the ring,” he added as he pulled the ring from the box still clutched in his hand and slid it onto her finger, “when I announce our engagement tonight.”
She started to laugh.
“Is this real? Or am I dreaming I’m in a fairy tale and I’m going to wake up?”
He pulled her close and lowered his head.
“As real as it gets. And not a day goes by that I won’t remind you how lucky I am to have you in my life.”
With that promise lingering in the spring air, he closed his lips over hers and claimed his runaway Cinderella with a kiss that let her know he would never let her go again.
EPILOGUE
Three years later
GRANTRAISEDHIShead off the beach towel, a smile crossing his face as the soft babbles of his daughter reached his ears. Carla splashed happily in the shallow waters of the Atlantic as gentle waves lapped against the Brazilian beach. Alexandra sat next to her, scooping wet puddles of sand onto Carla’s chubby thighs with one hand and adjusting their daughter’s sun hat with the other.
The past three years had whipped by so quickly, sometimes Grant could hardly believe they’d happened. Their engagement had generated a surprising amount of positive press, and Jessica’s quiet leaks to the media that Alexandra had been living off her own financial means and donating to the fund that had reimbursed her father’s victims, along with Grant’s own donation, had smoothed the majority of ruffled feathers. The few who hadn’t been able to look past who Alexandra’s father was had faded into the background. Grant had kept his promise; he had no interest in doing business with anyone who treated Alexandra like a second-class citizen because of the unfortunate stroke of fate that had seen her born to a man like David Waldsworth. Their intimate October wedding had been followed by the Christmas news that he was going to be a father. Seven months later Carla had entered the world with a healthy wail and beautiful green-gold eyes just like her mother.
