How to Marry a Billionaire
Page 17
The popcorn that had been flying thick and fast at the television earlier now came pelting Gracie’s way along with a barrage of not-nice words. She squealed and covered her face with her arms.
‘Hey, no fair. Don’t pick on the single girl. I’m trying very hard not to be sick, there is so much schmaltz in the air right now. So I think I deserve a little leeway for bitterness.’
‘It’s your turn next, Gracie,’ Maggie predicted.
‘What about Dean?’ Kelly asked. ‘He thought you were a bit of all right.’
‘So where is he now?’ Gracie demanded.
‘Yeah,’ Chris said, ‘where is Dean? I thought he was coming too.’
‘Working,’ Adam said. ‘Always working.’
Gracie shrugged. ‘Well, there you go. I’m a player and he’s a worker. It’s just wouldn’t work. Seems you guys are stuck with me. Just keep an extra set of clean linen in the house in case I need some company and I’ll be a happy girl for ever.’
Cara grinned. Simply enjoying the moment. Her friends all together, all smiling and happy, all helping her give her old home a grand send-off. The man she loved keeping her wrapped safe in her arms.
She was one of a bunch of decision-makers in the house and she didn’t care a lick. She was happy to sit back and let someone else make the decisions right now. She would just go with the flow. If she had to give up the remote control in order to have this abundance of hope, and love, and excitement for the future, then so be it.
Adam could have the remote control, as he had her heart. And as far as she was concerned he could do with them as he pleased.
Cara clinked against her glass with beautifully manicured fingernails. ‘I would like to make a toast.’
The gang noisily fought over mismatched cups and glasses until they were all ready.
‘To Cary Grant,’ Cara said, shooting Adam a glance full of meaning.
‘To Cary Grant,’ the rest of the gang mimicked cheerfully before gulping down their apple juice.
Adam’s eyes softened and she leant in and kissed him, not caring who in the world was there to see it.
‘Who’s Cary Grant?’ Maggie asked in a loud whisper and received a barrage of cushions thrown at her face.
‘You really are a hick, aren’t you?’ Chris asked, and received a cushion wallop across the face for his efforts.
‘Wait. It’s back on!’ he shouted, his face lighting up in amazement and blushing furiously at the same time as he watched himself on television.
The others settled into their positions and Cara snuck out of her seat. She beckoned to Adam, who came to her all too readily.
‘What is it?’ he whispered as she took him by the hand and led him out the front door and into the communal hallway at the front of the building. He kept looking over his shoulder back towards the gang inside. ‘We’re going to miss it.’
‘We were there, doofus. I can even tell you how it ends if you’re that worked up about it.’
On the word ‘doofus’ she had him hooked. He grabbed her around the waist and walked her backwards out the door and into the open air.
‘Doofus? Is that any way to talk to the man you love?’
‘Who says you’re the man I love?’
‘You do. And often. And if you keep pretending it’s not true, I’m just going to have to torture you.’
He trudged down the big cement front steps and she had to stand on his feet so as not to lose her balance.
‘OK. Stop! I give up. If you go any further I am going to fall.’
‘I won’t let you.’
Cara stopped her complaining and looked into his gorgeous blue eyes. Of course he wouldn’t let her fall. She’d fallen only once in their relationship and she intended staying that way, especially since he had caught her in his strong arms.
‘Now you’ve got me out here,’ Adam said, his eyes dancing, ‘what are you going to do with me?’
Cara grinned and stood high on her toes so she could kiss him. She could feel the smile on his lips as he kissed her back. And it wasn’t the kiss of a passion they were afraid might extinguish if they did not drink of it desperately. It was a kiss that held the remembrance of many kisses gone, and the knowledge there would be many more kisses to come. It was a kiss that matched the steady heat and delicious languor of the long, hot summer that stretched out before them. It was a kiss that held all the time in the world.
Locals in shorts and T-shirts trailed the path in front of the old red St Kilda Storeys building and off to the beach, to nightclubs and to local restaurants. But Cara and Adam were exactly where they wanted to be.
The location was entirely irrelevant, so long as they were together.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5531-2
HOW TO MARRY A BILLIONAIRE
Copyright © 2004 by Ally Blake
First North American Publication 2006
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