She whispered under her breath, “I haven’t said yes yet.”
He chuckled. “No, you haven’t. That could be a bone of contention, now wouldn’t it?”
Trying to hide her smile, she turned to him with raised eyebrows. “Or we could skip the marriage part altogether. I could just decorate for you. Get this place spiffed up, roam the halls—”
“And drive me crazy.” He laughed, but his eyes darkened to a warm chocolate brown.
She sucked in a sharp breath. Her middle tightened. He certainly knew how to get to her. All he had to do was look at her like that and she was a goner. In the back of her mind, she wondered how many other times he used that look and on how many other women.
Moving a step nearer, he closed the small space between them. He brushed back a lock of her hair, his fingertips skimming her cheek. Her heart skipped a beat.
“Sweet Charlie,” he murmured, his warm breath fanning her lips.
She shivered. “Alex,” she whispered. “I don’t even know you.” She spoke her thoughts out loud.
“That part will change.”
“Now or later?”
“Later.”
“What if I don’t like you?”
A quick smile lit up his face. “What if I don’t like you?” He tossed the question back at her.
“That’s impossible, everyone loves me,” she said cheekily.
He chuckled. “Even the barracuda?”
She grimaced. “Okay, everybody but her, how’s that?”
Right before her eyes, his smile faded and his face sobered. He stepped back. “What about Dexter? Is he in love with you? Are you in love with him?” The last came out between gritted teeth.
Charlie swallowed hard. “Yes and no.” The words stuck in her throat. A wave of remorse washed through her. She never intended to mislead Dex. Somehow, she thought he’d feel that way anyway.
Frowning, Alex gazed at her. “Yes for what part and no for what part of the question?”
Taking a shaky breath, she answered, “Yes he loves me, in his own way, and no I don’t love him.”
He let out a big sigh and the lines on his face relaxed. “Well, that’s good to know.”
“What about you? Involved?”
“Hardly.”
“The women in the paper?”
“Dates.”
“And prospective brides.”
“Hardly,” he repeated, this time with a crisp edge to the word.
She took a deep, shuttering breath. “Why me?”
He hesitated. “You’re the only one I wanted.”
The low timber of his voice and the darkening of his eyes tugged at her middle. Her breath came in short, shallow puffs. “I…I don’t know what to say.”
A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “Yes would be the preferred choice.”
Chuckling, she shook her head. “You are persistent.”
Just then she heard footsteps coming toward them. “Oh, my, ain’t this something, honey?” Dolly drew near and nudged her arm. “Edward’s been showing me around. He’s a teddy bear.” She winked and made a low sound in her throat. “I can’t wait to get started. You gotta see the kitchen. It’s to die for.”
Charlie looked at Alex. His long, lingering gaze sent warmth through her. He whispered, “It’s to die for.”
“The house or you?” she asked under her breath.
“Me, of course.”
She chuckled. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Dolly motioning to Alex. Her friend slipped something into the drawer of a small table nestled between two chairs. He looked puzzled.
Dolly straightened. She smoothed her hands over her pretty blue dress. She glanced from Charlie to Alex and back to Charlie again. “I’m interrupting you two love-birds, ain’t I?”
“Yes,” Alex said.
“No,” Charlie said.
“Tell you what, Mr. R., if it’s okay with you, I’ll just whip up something quick for dinner while you and Miss Charlie finish the details.”
Turning quickly to her friend, she said, “Dolly!”
“No need to thank me, honey.” She winked again and rushed out of the room.
“Shall we?” Alex asked, waving a hand to the chairs flanking the small table.
Her heartbeat quickened.
Moving across the room, she felt a sharp pang. His study brought back a rush of sweet memories of her father’s drawing room. Rows and rows of leather-bound books on the shelves, a large oak desk with his papers neatly stacked in the center…
Sitting in the deep leather chair, Charlie felt instantly at home. She tried to shake off the piercing ache of need shooting through her, but she failed miserably.
She’d never had any longings for anything remotely close to a long-term relationship, never mind a marriage.
The more time she spent with Alex, the more glimpses she had of what she could have: a husband, a marriage, eventually children. And the more her heart tugged for what she thought she never wanted.
Perched on the edge of the chair, she twisted to him as he sat back in the matching chair on the other side of the small, round chess table.
Arching an eyebrow, he nodded to her.
“Why me first?” She sounded childish to her own ears.
“I already know what I want.”
His dark, hungry gaze made her shiver. There was something about him that drew her to him and that made her toss out all her tried and true rules when it came to men. “Me,” she whispered huskily.
“Exactly.”
She knew what she wanted: King’s Department Store to be saved, refurbished, expanded, to not just survive, but thrive. Recalling her stepmother’s visit, she realized that to do the barracuda’s bidding by marrying this man would also give Charlie what she wanted. But at what price?
Then she thought of Dolly, her friend and confidante. Deep down, she realized that her friend would forfeit this dream job if Charlie turned Alex down. Dolly had given up other opportunities in the past just to stay close to her. Didn’t Dolly deserve a better life?
And she envisioned sales diving even lower and her friends being laid off. How could she do that to them?
In a flash, Charlie saw her own future stretch out in front of her. Long days at the office, struggling for changes at King’s, battles with her stepmother each step of the way, countless meetings to sway the right people in the right places… It all seemed so bleak. So lonely.
Maybe all the fighting would still end with the same bleak results. Permanent closure of the store. It felt like another death to Charlie.
But if she accepted, then her stepmother guaranteed high profits for King’s. That could only mean one thing to Charlie: Update the old and expand into other markets.
As she contemplated her answer, she could feel Alex’s strong, steady gaze on her face. She was certain he read every mixed emotion that coursed through her body.
She peeked at him from under her lashes. A stranger. From the little she knew, he was all business, proper and stiff. Maybe if she got to know him, she’d be able to decide. Does he have any fun, she wondered.
“What’s your favorite color?”
His eyes registered surprise, but the pat answer seemed to roll off his tongue. “Anything you’re wearing.”
She groaned. “That’s cheesy.”
“Cheesy?”
“And fake,” she added. She rose and slowly wandered the room, trailing a hand over the back of the leather couch. She halted in front of the unlit fireplace.
***
Alexander Royale gulped. Never in his life had he been remotely called fake before. Was it getting warm in here? “Turquoise.”
Frowning, she cocked her head to the side as she stared at him. “Not green or blue? Turquoise?” she asked, sounding intrigued.
He hadn’t opened up and revealed himself to any woman before. The cost had been too high. He’d shielded his heart for so long. Now he let out a shaky breath and prayed he was doing the right thin
g.
“Close your eyes and imagine,” he said softly. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “It’s quiet except for the gentle lap of water hitting the beach. Your bare toes curl in the warm, powdery white sand. A slight breeze caresses your body, lifting your hair, teasing it. The sun kisses your skin, stealing into every part of you, reaching out and heating all the cold spots deep, deep in your middle. You breathe in. The tang of salt hangs in the air and you can almost taste it on your lips. Ever so slowly you open your eyes. Before you is the most beautiful sight you’ve ever seen. Sun-sparkling water stretching for miles and miles, the color of—”
“Turquoise,” they said it in unison.
He opened his eyes and couldn’t mistake the dreamy look in hers.
She sighed. “Heavenly.”
No, you are. “Yes, just like you’d imagine heaven would offer.”
“Your island home.” It wasn’t a question.
He nodded. Had he exposed too much of himself? A tinge of heat crawled up the back of his neck.
Gazing at her, he realized gone was the guarded yet questioning stare. Her caramel-colored eyes seemed to sparkle.
The awkward tension seeped out of the atmosphere. Electricity crackled. His heart thudded in his chest. He dropped his gaze to her mouth. Oh, how he wanted to taste her lips.
She walked back to the chair and eased into it, facing him.
“So, Alex,” she asked in a low, sexy voice, “are you a betting man?”
“I wouldn’t be in the place I am today if I weren’t.”
“Professionally or personally?”
“Both.” He liked the way her scent drifted to him, soft and feminine yet all Charlie.
She giggled. His heart jumped. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
Was she poking fun at him? He smiled, not caring.
“Got any cards around here?”
He stilled for a moment. Then, trying to keep a relaxed attitude, he waved to the small table between them. “In there. Why?”
“We’ll let the cards decide our fate.”
“New Age stuff?” He couldn’t disguise the mixture of surprise and disappointment.
“No, silly.”
No one had ever called him silly before either.
“I’ll draw a card. High card wins. Aces high.”
“Wins what?”
“You, of course.”
He coughed a couple of times. “Me?”
“And you win me. High card, win, win. Marriage, eventually the baby carriage.”
His chest tightened. “And if we don’t win?”
“Poof! We go our separate ways. Me to restore King’s back to the grand store it once was and you to your dinner parties, blind dates, and whatever else you do to find yourself a wife.”
It sounded as dreadful as what he’d been through the last few months. Nodding toward the cards she now held, he said, “Go for it.” In the back of his mind, he prayed.
Mesmerized, he watched her expertly shuffle the new deck. “You’ve done this before.”
“Drawing for marriage, no way. Cards and Dolly on a Saturday night, definitely.”
He chuckled at the image that sprang to his mind. Hopefully Dolly would come through for both of them.
Charlie handed him the deck. “Your turn.”
At his quizzical look, she went on, “Hold them up facing you and fan them out.”
Alex quickly completed the task, but he had a difficult time looking away from the vision of each card duplicated by the next. He refused to look over at her; he knew she’d see the truth in his eyes. Perspiration trickled down the back of his neck. Would she call him out?
Luckily for him, she reached over and plucked the middle card. She turned it around to read it.
“Ace of hearts,” she murmured. “Go figure.”
He swallowed hard again. Alex quickly folded the rest of the ace of hearts back into a deck and stuffed them in his shirt pocket, joining her silky nylons he’d tucked in there earlier.
“I win,” he said, trying to block the elation from bubbling up inside of him.
“Correction, we win.” Her conviction brought a wide smile to his lips and warmth through his middle.
“Yes, we do win.” The knot of anxiety in his chest at duping her with the cards eased. He took a deep breath. “So I guess this means yes to my proposal.” Late, but still a yes.
She winked. “You’ll do.”
He laughed outright at that.
She rose quickly, gathering her things.
He tensed. “Wait. Shouldn’t we discuss details, rings, and all of that?” He stopped from ending with and all that nonsense.
“No ring.” Her firm voice said it all.
“You’re kidding me?” He’d never heard of such a thing.
“No engagement ring. I hate the competition and the flashy rocks. Wedding rings, yes. Plain. Simple. Meaningful.”
She robbed him of speech. Never in his life had he met a woman who’d turn down a rock, as she so succinctly put it.
“The wedding. We’ll keep it secret for now. Small, yet lovely. Private. Only family and a few close friends. And soon. Dolly and I will work it all out.”
Was she always this decisive? He could get to like it very much.
When she remained silent, he asked with a grin in his voice, “Anything else I should know about?”
She crossed the room with long, confident strides. At the door, she turned fully to him, flashing a wide, easy smile that reached all the way to her sparkling eyes. Tingles swept through his body straight to his toes.
Tapping a finger on her lips as if in thought, she said, “Oh yes! You have to court me.”
“Court you!” He couldn’t disguise the shock reverberating through him.
She chuckled, opened the study door, and then turned back to him. “That’s right. After the wedding.” She closed the door behind her.
Stunned, all he could do was burst into laughter.
Chapter 9
“She surprises me, Grandfather,” Alex said as he stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows in his grandparents’ library. “Every day, almost in every way. Imagine that.” The last drifted away.
His gaze took in the scene outdoors. The small garden had been transformed into an impromptu wedding. Arches draped with flowers and vines, less than twenty white folding chairs circled nearby, and ribbons and flowers attached to the chairs outlined the aisle his bride would soon walk down. Tables waited in the distance, set with the finest linens, silverware, china, crystal stem ware, and with the finest food prepared by the top chefs. The few guests, in all their beautiful finery, arrived. Even from here he could hear the buzz of activity, the clinking of glasses, and delighted voices.
“Really, son? All women surprise me.” His grandfather’s gruff voice was soon followed by a few coughs.
Alex turned his back on the view. He frowned as the coughs came in fits and spurts. His grandfather, once so powerful and self-possessed, now seemed to have lost control of this battle with his health.
A prick of sadness pierced his chest. He owed everything to this man. Today, on his wedding day, he’d prove it, too. He could give his grandparents that much. He’d marry for them and soon produce the great-grandchild they longed for. He sighed inwardly.
Crossing the room, he took the armchair near the older man.
“Have I ever really thanked you, Grandfather?” He struggled with a well of emotion.
Grandfather, with his snowy-white hair and mustache to match, leaned his tall frame back. He smiled. “I’m not dying yet.”
Alex winced and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t—”
The older man held up a hand. “No, no. Just teasing you.” He sobered. “I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve thanked your grandmother and me over the years.”
“If it weren’t for you both…” He shuddered at the possibility of not being saved by them.
“We couldn’t turn our backs on a boy
who’d survived the plane crash his parents just died in.”
Silence and sadness descended.
“But the way you did it. You could have sent me off to boarding school, checked in on weekends and holidays, paid the expenses and—
“Not given a damn,” his grandfather interrupted with a growl in his voice. “That never crossed our minds. Not once.”
A smile tugged at Alex’s lips. “No, Gramps, it wouldn’t have.” Admiration spread through his middle.
At Alex’s use of his nickname, the older man’s face relaxed and he beamed. “You’re a fine young man.”
“Not so young anymore,” he corrected.
“You get to be my age and we’ll talk, all right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m proud of you. Oh, not just for the things you do and get accomplished. It’s how you treat people, how you go the extra mile. And why? Because, son, you care. You have a great heart.”
Taken aback, Alex remained speechless. After a few silent moments, he choked out, “Thank you. You humble me. All my life I wanted to be like you, in business and in life. Now I think I’m getting there.”
But was he? Something nudged Alex in the back of his mind. If his grandfather knew everything, would he still admire what Alex was doing to Charlie? Would Gramps think Alex had such a good heart then? Guilt pricked at him.
Alex had put getting married and having a child on the top of his agenda since his grandparents’ health began to fade. Now he’d found the woman, never suspecting that he’d come to care for her in such a short time. To please his grandparents, he’d marry her today, but to keep his word with her stepmother, he was going to have to hurt Charlie.
Sometimes, he hated what he had to do. Would Charlie end up hating him, too?
***
“Go on, shoo now, I tell you.” Dolly shut the door behind her and let out an exasperated sigh.
Clutching her red cosmetics bag, Charlie crossed from the bathroom into the bedroom. “What was that all about?”
If The Shoe Fits Page 5