One Night With the Rebel Billionaire
Page 16
The next day in the chain had been one neither of them had planned but they’d been overjoyed. Okay so Roane had been nervous about it at first but Adam had been ready to shout it from the hills. It had put a seal on the sense of everything somehow being meant to be. With time Adam’s opinions on fairy tales like that were becoming more relaxed. Yes, she had that much influence over him.
He couldn’t have said when he fell in love with Roane. But he knew the day he recognized it for what it was. And once he understood what it was he knew it had been there for a long time. Hints of it were scattered throughout, from the night she’d found him on the beach to the day he’d watched her walk across a crowded room to him and he’d just known—he’d looked at her and she’d been everything there was to him. He’d known he would rather die than live without her.
So there, in the middle of the crowd, he’d framed her face with his hands and looked deep into her eyes so she knew he was telling the truth. He’d said the words for the first time.
‘I love you.’
Her eyes had shimmered and she’d wrapped her arms around his waist. Then she’d simply lifted her mouth to his and told him in that soft voice of hers, ‘I know you do. And I love you. I’ll love you for ever.’
Adam was grateful for that every single day.
‘So when are we getting hitched?’ he’d teased her with a completely deadpan expression not long after.
‘Oh, well, that’s romantic—one for the grandkids right there. I can see their little eyes shining as Grandpa says the word “hitched” and everyone goes awww.’ She shivered with mock delight and crinkled her nose before lifting her chin and cocking a brow at him the way only she could. ‘Try again, Romeo. And when you get it right…I’ll think about it.’
So he’d taken her to bed and made her say yes—again and again and again. Somehow he had a feeling the grandkids might get a watered-down version of the story.
Jake nudged his shoulder. ‘She’s here.’
Adam felt his breathing change, his heart swelling in his chest as he turned and watched her walking towards him. He knew he’d never forget how beautiful she was then, how calm and serene and certain that giving herself to him was right. How she looked straight into his eyes and smiled the smile that made him want to sweep her off her feet and carry her away…
He’d never got round to sating them both. He doubted very much he ever would.
Sunshine glinted off the pendant at the hollow of her neck: her something old from the list—his wedding gift to her. It had been passed back and forth for over a year, every time one of them took a trip away from the other, but it was hers now—the way she’d be his in a few minutes. But then she’d always been his, hadn’t she?
They even had their own quote. One that was as apt for them as the one the compass had had before: ‘I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart).’—by E.E. Cummings.
Because he did—and she did—it was that simple.
Part of it was engraved inside the rings Jake had in his pocket. Or had better have. He’d forgotten where he’d left the box twice in the last week—hence the fidgeting he’d been doing while they’d waited for her to make the walk onto the beach.
Roane’s fine-boned fingers tangled firmly with Adam’s as she stepped up beside him. Then she angled her head and hit him with an impish smile, her voice low. ‘You know this is a private beach, right?’
‘Ocean belongs to everyone, sweetheart.’ He smiled back. Man, but he loved her.
She mouthed she loved him too, then leaned around him to ask, ‘Got the rings, Jake?’
Adam dropped his chin and stifled a chuckle. But when there wasn’t an answer he pursed his lips, jerked his brows at Roane and swung his head round to glare at his brother. ‘You’re kidding me, right?’
Jake held up the ring box with a grin.
‘Loser,’ Adam whispered.
‘Jerk,’ Jake whispered in reply.
Then Adam looked back at Roane and found her luminous eyes dancing at him. So he winked and squeezed her fingers.
‘Ready, woman?’
‘More than ready.’ She turned her head and smiled the most beautiful of smiles. ‘Come on, honey. Your dad can hold you while we say the words.’
Adam released Roane just long enough to reach out large hands as two chubby arms stretched his way. ‘Hello, little girl, remember me?’
That was the most memorable of his memorable days. He’d never forget the day he held their child for the first time. It’d been the most overwhelming thing he’d ever experienced. And for a man who’d once thought he was incapable of love, somewhat ironically he’d almost burst with how much of it he’d felt as he’d placed her in her mother’s arms and looked at them both.
He’d even forgiven Roane’s insistence she wouldn’t marry him till she was pre-baby weight for a dress.
Yes, she’d taught him a lot, this woman of his. He planned on spending every day of the rest of his life thanking her for that. He loved her with all he was. And he didn’t need to know how or why. Roane Elliott-soon-to-be-Bryant had taught him that too.
‘Do you, Adam, take Roane…?’
Hell, yes, he’d take her. It had been her fantasy after all. And whatever made her happy…
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3431-8
ONE NIGHT WITH THE REBEL BILLIONAIRE
First North American Publication 2009.
Copyright © 2009 by Trish Wylie.
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