Counselor Undone
Page 27
He sat down next to her. “Stopping you from running away and ruining both our lives.”
She sat up and put her feet on the floor. She eased away from him. “How did you figure out where I was?”
Michael shrugged. “Sometimes, it’s pretty cool to know a guy who can do anything or find anything with a computer.”
Her grip tightened on her blanket. “That traitor! I’m going to kill him.” The angry flush on her face deepened as she asked, “Shouldn’t you be with Juliet?”
Michael gave her an indulgent smile. “I am with Juliet. Why she continues to lie to me about it, I don’t understand. Maybe she’ll explain it to me one day.”
“Michael, I—”
He leaned over and placed two fingers over her mouth to shush her. “I know you’re my Juliet, Jordis. On some level, I think I’ve known since I saw you standing across the conference room that first day. I couldn’t figure out why you seemed familiar or why I was so drawn to you, but something inside me knew you were the one.”
He sat back in his seat. “From the moment I kissed you in the elevator, visions of you kept swirling together with the woman I’d kissed on New Year’s Eve. By the time I figured out why, you’d already driven away. The day with you in the locker room? I knew you were my mystery woman, but I didn’t know how to broach the subject because it was clear you didn’t want me to know.”
Denial pushed strong against acceptance of his words. “For a man who seems to think I’m his long lost . . . whoever, you certainly have a funny way of showing it.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “You mean the other woman.”
She nodded.
His shoulders rose and fell, but he didn’t make a sound. “She was the first Juliet I met that night.”
“The one you were looking for when you kissed me?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
He turned more fully towards her. “No, you don’t. I’d only met her that night. She’d propositioned me earlier in the evening, and I’d turned her down. By the end of the night, I was frustrated and bored and, yeah, a little horny. I went looking for her merely for a one-night hookup.”
Jordis’s eyebrows rose.
“Okay. I’m not proud of that, but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have found you. And kissing you that night changed my life.”
Jordis shifted into the far corner of her seat and crossed her arms. “Michael, don’t do this to me. I saw you with her. I know you weren’t sure—”
“I think I’m doing this wrong,” he interrupted. Lifting the seat arm between them, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, hard. He kissed her until her resistance melted. Then, he lifted his head enough to breathe into her lips, “I love you.”
She blinked rapidly. “W-What?” Surely, she hadn’t heard him right.
He pulled back to more clearly see her expression. “I love you very much, Jordis, but I’ve fallen down on my duties as Prince Charming. So, do me a favor? Quit arguing with me so I can do this right.”
Too stunned to speak, she bobbed her head.
He reached into his pocket. “What kind of Prince Charming would I be if I didn’t bring along a talisman to prove I have the right fairy princess?”
He leaned over and attached the silver charm bracelet to her left wrist. Her mouth dropped open.
“I’ve been wondering why you always fool with your wrist when you’re distracted. I thought maybe you’d lost your watch or something. I realize now you’ve been missing this.” He pointed to the bracelet.
He fingered each charm, as he explained, “The number twenty-three for the college basketball champion, a giant redwood tree for the Stanford graduate, the Eiffel Tower for the student who spent a year in Paris, the scales of justice for the lady lawyer, and a glass slipper for the little girl inside who loved the Cinderella carriage. You dropped it during your taxi escape on New Year’s Eve.”
The woman who never cried felt dampness roll down her cheeks. Michael wiped her silent tears away with his thumbs.
“Stay with me, Jordis. You don’t have to switch divisions, but you won’t be working on the Metra Pharmaceuticals case any more. Actually, neither will I.”
“How’s that?”
“I fired the client this morning.”
“You did what!” Her mouth dropped open. “Why?”
“Because I had to choose between losing the client or losing you, and there was no contest.” He reached into his other pocket. “You once asked me what I was giving up to be with you. I can answer that now. I’m prepared to sacrifice or give up whatever it takes. I just need to know one thing.”
“What’s that?” she whispered.
“Do you love me?”
The tears flowed stronger, but she didn’t respond.
“Jordis?”
Finally, she nodded her head, her hands gripped tightly together in her lap.
Michael’s tense shoulders relaxed. “Good, because a car wasn’t all I picked out this weekend.”
He pulled out a small box from Tivol jewelers and opened it. “As you can see by the bauble I selected, I’ve never had any doubt as to who my true Juliet is.”
Jordis peeked in the box and started laughing. Inside sat the most beautiful princess cut diamond solitaire she’d ever seen. It was mounted in a twisted white and yellow gold setting, which meant she could wear her silver bracelet without clashing or wear gold if she so chose. The most unique and the most touching aspect of the ring, however, was the three-carat stone was chocolate. He’d bought her a chocolate diamond!
“I have to admit when I bought it, I thought I’d be putting it on your right hand as a way to express to you how serious I am about our relationship.” He pulled the ring out of the box and set the box aside. “Now, however,” he looked up, “I find myself hoping you’ll want to wear it on your left.”
Jordis’s eyes found his slowly. She dared not interpret what his words implied.
“Jordis Morgan, I know you’re the woman for me. I want you to marry me. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life proving that to you. I realize this may be a bit sudden. You may need time to think about it, and that’s fine as long as you wear my ring in the meantime. I’ll be content with you wearing it on your right hand until you’re ready to move it to your left.”
He looked down at her clasped hands. He didn’t reach for them. He simply waited for her to decide which hand she wanted to give him.
Jordis sat unmoving, trying to absorb her shift from severe depression to near euphoria in less than fifteen minutes. This man did dangerous things to her body and her psyche. She didn’t think she should trust herself to make a major, life-altering decision under the current circumstances. The practical side of her fought to intellectualize this turn of events, wanting to be cautious and avoid the mistake she’d made the last time she’d accepted a man’s ring. Her heart struggled to ignore the clearest sign of his feelings for her, and it wasn’t the ring he held waiting for one of her hands to move.
She lifted a hand towards him.
Michael let out a long, slow breath. “You’ll marry me?”
The joy inside her commingled with amusement. She nodded and waggled the fingers of her left hand.
He smiled. “For the record, counselor, I’ll need you to answer that question out loud.”
“Yes, Michael. I’ll marry you.” She grabbed him and kissed him deeply. “I love you.”
What wasn’t there to love about a man who, to be with her, threw away a multimillion dollar case he’d waited for his entire career? Something she had no intention of letting stand. She didn’t know whether Michael had read her memo on settlement strategy, but as soon as they landed, she had a phone call to make. Their involvement in the case was far from over.
* * *
Michael slid the ring onto Jordis’s left hand and kissed her again.
Pulling back, he realized he’d lied when he’d said he’d be content with her wearing his ring on her rig
ht hand. There was only one hand he’d wanted to put that ring on, and he was more than relieved she’d seen fit to give it to him.
A bell dinged indicating everyone needed to fasten their seatbelts for takeoff. He fastened his safety belt, glad he’d managed to shoot off a quick text message to Chase about his bike. It didn’t look like they were getting off this plane until it reached its destination.
Jordis looked up at him, mischief dancing in her eyes. “You know, this doesn’t get you off the hook about my car.”
Michael sighed deeply. “Yeah, right.” He rubbed an index finger along the band of her engagement ring. “About that.”
“Yes?”
“I didn’t handle that so well. Can I get a do-over?”
“What did you have in mind?”
“How about we really compromise this time?”
“I’m listening.”
“I give you back your Bee, but you allow me to buy you the SUV of my choice to drive when conditions warrant.”
Jordis laughed, noticing he’d said when conditions warrant and not simply when the weather warranted, which left room for broad interpretations. “An SUV of your choice?”
“Yes.” His tone was adamant. He glanced at her. “It’s a gift. I know I have to work on not stepping on that fierce independent streak of yours. But you have to work on accepting my desire to take care of you. Not because you’re incapable of taking care of yourself, but because it makes me happy to do certain things for you.” He ran his fingers gently along her cheek. “And perhaps, learning to do that for each other is going to truly be the greatest compromise of all between us.”
Jordis nodded. “I think you may be right.” She leaned into him and said in a soft voice, “Okay, Mr. Remington. We’ll do it your way. This time.”
“Good.” He laced his fingers through hers then sat back to enjoy the flight. After the plane lifted off, he rolled his head against the seatback to look at her. His brow furrowed. “I’m curious about something.”
“What’s that?”
“When I was searching for my New Year’s Eve mystery woman, I remembered the markings on the taxi you left in that morning. When my investigator traced the address you were taken to, it wasn’t the same as your current address. That threw me for a bit.”
“I didn’t go right home. I had the driver take me to my cousin Narisa’s house.”
“Your cousin’s?”
“Yeah. I was shaken by our encounter and didn’t want to be alone. Plus, I needed to give Narisa a tongue-lashing for standing me up that night. She convinced me to go to that party then left me hanging. If I’d known she’d be a no-show, I’d never have gone.”
He nodded his understanding. “Boy, am I glad you did.”
Jordis arched up and brushed her lips against his. “Me, too.” She pulled her legs up into the seat and placed her head on his shoulder.
Michael looked out the window. While he watched clouds engulf the plane, it occurred to him he had no idea where he was going. He’d been so intent on getting to the departure gate, he hadn’t paid attention to the flight’s destination. He looked down at the woman curled against his side and decided it didn’t really matter. Wherever she was going was exactly where he needed to be.
* * * * *
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