Campaign for Love

by Annabelle Stevens

  But what would Quentin say? Did they really have a future together, or had all her joking about a triple wedding just been wishful thinking on her part?

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  When they got back to Suzy's that night, they started dinner before changing clothes. They decided on a Western omelette and while they chopped the ham, onion and green peppers, they starting making plans for the upcoming weekend.

  They had decided that if the weather was good, they'd rent a car and take a drive into the mountains and have dinner at some out of the way place. They both used the chat to distract them from their more brooding thoughts, which they were reluctant to blurt out too abruptly.

  Quentin beat the eggs, and when the other ingredients were done, he poured the eggs into the pan, poured the filling onto one side, and kept the pan moving so the omelette wouldn't stick.

  When the edges were done, he closed the omelette pan, flipped it, and in a few minutes it was done to perfection.

  After the omelette, accompanied by Bloody Marys, a tossed salad, and chocolate cream pie, they took their brandy snifters to the bedroom, turned down the bed, undressed and got between the sheets. Suzanna had a serious look as she said,

  "Darling, have something to tell you."

  They sat back against the propped up pillows. He put his arm around her and said, "Okay, sweetheart. You sound sort of ominous. I think I'll be able to take it better lying down."

  She began, "Darling, you know what a mess I was when I came to work for you. I had all sorts of hang-ups, maybe even some neuroses, I don't know."

  "For a fact, you did, although I didn't realize it at first."

  "You've made a normal, happy woman of me, and I'll always be grateful. You also gave me space to grow. You gave me work and left me alone to do it. All at once, everything was coming up roses. But just now, there's a snake in our Garden of Eden. I know I haven't heard the last of Nathan Elder. I think anything I do as your assistant, I could do any place. I don't need an office. In fact, I don't even need a desk. A table would do as well. In other words, I could work at home, right here, and still be part of your team. That is, if you wanted me."

  "I've had the same thought often. But are you absolutely sure you want to give up your chance to be a big advertising executive at Elder and Rubin? Rubin will protect you, I'm sure, once he knows the whole story."

  She shook her head. "I never really cared about being an exec. All I ever wanted was the chance to prove I could be, and I think I've done that."

  "Then how would you like to start our own agency?"

  She gasped. "Our own.... What about Cyrus's offer?"

  "I love him and Imperial, really I do, but I think I would need more variety to my work. But he's also offered to back me in my own advertising agency. How does Pierce and Sills sound? It was on the pages of your gift at Christmas. I've been juggling ideas and figures ever since, and trying to work up the nerve to make my dreams come true. But they have to be your dreams as well."

  She stared at him. "Are you saying that you're taking Cyrus Reed up on his offer? And are you asking me to work for you as your assistant again?"

  He sat up cross-legged next to her and took her hand. "I am asking you to be my partner in every way, Suzanna. I'm asking you to marry me. That way, I'll have you and your fantastic mind and body exclusively for all time. The agency will come when we're good and ready. Right now, I just want to spend as much time with you as I can, making you happy. And when we do decide to open the doors of Pierce and Sills, we will have Imperial and Femme Fatale as our first two clients."

  "Oh, Quentin, I don't know what to say," she breathed, wide-eyed and still not sure this wasn't a dream. "I thought you had fallen out of love with me. You were so moody, distant, I just didn't know what to think."

  He shook his head. "No, never. Impossible. Believe me, I love you, Suzanna, now and forever. The truth is, well, I didn't want to overwhelm you, or manipulate you in any way. I held back because I wanted to do the right thing by you, even though I loved you so much it was killing me to even think that I might lose you. Career wise, and person wise, I thought I would give you a chance to grow, become independent, work with me, love me and build a life with me, but still be able to have a great career that you had earned yourself, and to be your own person.

  "But the truth is, well, if being your own person means growing apart from me, I could never let that happen. Call me a selfish idiot, my love, but I want you, body and soul."

  She kissed him warmly. "You have all that and more, my darling Quentin."

  "So will you?"

  She frowned slightly."Will I what?"

  "Marry me."

  "Why wouldn't I marry you! I've done everything else with you, Quentin," she said with a long sultry look.

  He laughed hard at that and kissed her soundly. When he lifted his lips, he said, "In that case, I've been carrying this around with me since I opened my safe-deposit box last week, trying to work up the courage to propose. I had a grandmother, too, you know. This was hers. I hope you like it."

  He went over to where his jacket was hanging, and fished something out of the pocket, then he got down on both knees. Stark naked though he was, he could not have looked more dignified as he brought out a magnificent two carat diamond in an old-fashioned, high-pronged Tiffany setting. "Suzanna Sills, will you please do me the honor of marrying me?"

  She could feel the tears dancing just behind her eyelids. "Yes, Quentin, my love. Yes."

  He took her left hand and slipped it on her ring finger. It fit perfectly.

  "It's absolutely gorgeous!" she breathed.

  "As are you, my love. Hand on heart, my darling Suzanna, I've wanted to ask you to marry me ever since that first kiss. But the truth is, well, I was afraid your career would always come first."

  She shook her head and laughed. "And here I was worried that you wanted the business more than me, or just wanted me in your life as a business partner and not a life partner. I know a lot of women are married to their careers, but I'm a bit more old-fashioned that that. I've been praying you'd want to marry me, but had just got, well, used to the status quo between us."

  He shook his head emphatically. "Never. I would never take what we share for granted in a million years. It would be too easy for someone to snatch you away from me. So now that you've said yes, when will you marry me?"

  She pulled him up off his knees into the bed to kiss him until their toes tingled.

  At last she replied, "Will two weeks from now be time enough? I'll have to give Elder and Rubin two weeks' notice, and I'll take a keen delight in telling that obnoxious ass Elder that I'm leaving. We can use this apartment as our office, and live at yours, or vice versa, or live and work here if you like. It doesn't matter to me. But the truth is, well, I, er, the truth is, Quentin, I don't just live in this apartment, I own it."

  He stared at her in surprise. "Oh?"

  She blushed. "Well, actually, I own it, and the whole building too. So we can always find more space here if we ever need it, and keep our overheads low. And have more than enough space for, well, increasing our family when we both think the time is right."

  He was staring at her as though seeing her for the first time."Own the building. Oh my! Well, we will start here, if that's all right. Then, as our family grows, we can spread out. But I warn you, I insist upon at least two children just like their wonderful mother."

  "That sounds perfect to me," she said with a giggled as he nuzzled her neck. "When would you like to start?"

  He gave her a bold look that made her bones melt. "Any time you like. You just name the time and place. Once the business is up and running, there's nothing stopping us, is there?"

  She blushed. "Er, well, no, now that you mention it. I mean, most couples have money worries, and it is important, but, well--"

  He stroked her hair back from her cheek. "What is it, darling? Tell me. It's not like you to get so tongue-tied."

  "There's only one more th
ing I have to tell you, and I hope it won't make a difference?"

  "Uh-oh! What other deep, dark secret have you been keeping?" he teased.

  "Will it bother you that I'm pretty wealthy? I mean, even apart from this building. We don't have to take any of Cyrus Reed's money to start up if you don't want to. In fact, we never have to work in our lives if we don't want to."

  He gaped at her once more.

  "Grandma, you know," she said with a shrug of one shoulder.

  "I see," he said dryly. "No, I don't mind. Actually, I rather like money. You can do so many things with it. Besides, I was meaning to tell you, well, I've got enough myself to fund our enterprise, with plenty to spare, so we never have to touch yours unless you want to."

  She slapped him on the shoulder playfully. "You sneak! You never told me."

  "Look who's calling the kettle black!"

  "It's just that I hated being popular at school for my money and started to hide it when I was old enough to realize being one hundred percent honest is not always the best policy."

  He nodded. "I admit it, I had the same problem growing up. Plus, I had trust issues after a few sour experiences with some not very nice women. I'm just so glad that our little falling out made me realize just how much I was holding back from you, unfairly as it turned out."

  Suzanna frowned slightly."Holding back? You mean at the start, when we first met?"

  He shrugged slightly. "But afterwards also. You just seemed too good to be true. Then finally one day I told myself that you couldn't want me for my money, because you never had any clue that I had any. You just treated me like your boss and an important man in your life without making any unreasonable demands for material things.

  "I also saw your work ethic, love, and it's impressive. You're telling me now that you're well off, but from where I'm sitting, I can see that you've got where you are today through your hard work and talent, not by cashing in on your wealth or good looks the way a ton of other people might."

  "Thank you, it means a lot to hear you say that. I always wanted to be good enough." She kissed him on the cheek.

  He stroked down her bare back lovingly. "More than good enough, honey, for all the trouble you've had in the past. You're the best thing that's ever walking in through the door of any agency I've ever worked in. Those two have been the best and smoothest campaigns I've ever worked on. Everything you touch seems to turn to gold, and yet you aren't a gold-digger. In fact, looking at the way you treat people, you have a pure heart of gold. Every day I worked with you, I saw more about you to love."

  She smiled at him tenderly. "I love what I do. But more important, I love you."

  "Me too. It was not just a campaign of love, it was a campaign FOR love. More fool Elder for going after you just for your looks, when he should be completely smitten with your creative mind, and the heart and passion that burns within you. It's even more smoldering than your beauty."

  She snuggled against his long lean frame, and felt truly at home at last. "I'm certainly passionate about you, and I love seeing my clients succeed. I'm just glad I can have everything I've ever wished for now. And best of all, I won't have to worry about that sleazy old man Rubin any longer."

  "And what about that other old man in your past?" he asked quietly.

  She considered this for a moment in silence for a time. At length she said, "What he did to me was terrible and certainly let a huge impact on my life. But if I stay stuck in the past, I'll always be his victim. The one good thing that came out of it was being able to wait for the right man, and know, really know in my heart, that making love was the right decision for me, not just something I was getting railroaded into by a player, as the phrase goes, or through being dazzled by hormones.

  "So the answer is yes, Quentin, it's in the past too. The physical side of the love we share can't ever be compared to what that sneaky old man tried to do to me. The past is over. He's already spoiled too much for both of us. I just want to put it behind me, and look forward to the most amazing future for both of us."

  He grinned as she began stroking down his chest with an all too obvious intent. "Me too. But just to remind you, pet, I'm going to be an old man myself some day. And you do tend to make me very, very naughty."

  "That's true, darling, but by the time that happens, I'll be an old lady. A very, very naughty lady."

  "Mmmmm, I can see that," he said with a sigh, more than getting her point as he felt her lips and tongue follow the path that her fingers were taking. "I never thought of that. I'm not sure I'll like sleeping with an old lady."

  Her gaze met his boldly. "Not to worry. There's many a fine tune played on an old fiddle."

  Quentin roared with laughter. "Another of granny's sayings, no doubt."

  "So long as the old fiddle is played by a talented musician," Suzanna said with a grin.

  "I can see how nimble your fingers are from playing the piano for so many years. So if I'm to be the fiddle player, I'll have to practice my stroke."

  "You can also get some pretty fine music when you pluck," she teased, lightly raking the goose pimpled flesh on his thigh with her nails, causing him to spring even further to attention.

  He practically purred with pleasure and began to roll her onto her back. "Well, they do say that practice makes perfect. Let me know what you think of my technique, then."

  "If you don't know by now, then I think I'll spend the next few decades reminding you."

  "Yes, please, my love."

  "Yes, darling, yesss…."

  AUTHORS' AFTERWORD

  It's hard to believe this book was originally published in 1999. It was Annabelle's first, which she had worked on with various other helpers, including her grandmother and several friends, until she and her friend finally dared to submit it to several publishers, and to a writing competition, in which it took one of the top prizes.

  Over the years, Annabelle has fallen in love more with the whole publishing process than with writing novels, and has been a great help with promotion, web work and more. She still has a ton of idea just dying to get out. As for Sorcha, she has continued to write and edit prolifically, despite a very busy couple of additional careers, but she is never too busy to help promising new authors and give them a helping hand.

  For the fourth edition, which Annabelle wanted to modernize with references to the now ubiquitous cell phones, computers and modern life in a bustling city like New York, she also wanted to add Sorcha as co-author, to acknowledge the huge help she gave in polishing this book past all Belle could ever have hoped for.

  As for Sorcha, there is nothing better than seeing writers perfect their craft, and try to capture the essence of what it's like to meet and fall in love.

  MORE TITLES BY AUTHORS

  If you enjoyed this novel, then I am sure you will enjoy other novels by Sorcha MacMurrough and Annabelle Stevens.

  The Mad Mistress

  The Missed Match

  The Miss Matched

  The Matchless Miss

  Scars Upon the Heart

  The Scarred Heart

  Guardian of the Heart

  The Mistaken Miss

  The Model Master

  The Model Mistress

  Innocence

  Innocence Afire

  Ravished

  Experience

  The Model Husband

  Ruthless

  Madness

  Beguiled

  Beguiled Anew

  Love's Sweet Song

  Table of Contents

  SYNOPSIS

  REVIEWS

  AS's Dedication

  SM's Dedication

  Copyright

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELV
E

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE