Vincent smiled at me, the same kind of smile I’d seen on his face when we were just getting to know each other in the animal shelter as teenagers. It was a sweet, hesitant smile, the kind that I never would have expected to see on his face. I wanted to do what I could to make that smile happen more often. To watch it grow in confidence.
But for now, I was exhausted, and I could tell that Vincent was, too. I let him curl up behind me, his arm draped over my waist, his nose buried in my hair as we fell asleep. I was safe, and warm, and held in the arms of the man who loved me.
I didn’t see how it could get better than that.
14
Vincent
I woke up before Gina that morning, blinking awake to find her in my arms.
I couldn’t help the stupid grin that spread over my face. She was here, with me, and she was going to stay.
I slid out of bed and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. I wasn’t much of a cook, nothing like Gina was, but I could manage some omelettes or something to surprise her.
As I fried up some bacon and got the coffee started, I heard the sound of padding footsteps.
“What time is it?” Gina asked, walking in wearing my bathrobe again. I smiled as she came straight to me and kissed me on the cheek, my chest warming at the casual intimacy.
“Almost noon,” I admitted.
“I never sleep in this late,” she giggled. “Good thing it’s a weekend or Maria would have my hide.”
I grinned at her. She was adorable like this, wearing my clothes, her hair loose and thick, falling around her shoulders. Her big, unfiltered smile. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to me, watching the bacon sizzle in the pan.
“There’s coffee, too,” I told her. “And orange juice.”
Gina pulled away to pour some for both of us. “So… What’s the plan?”
I stared at her. “The plan for what?”
“The plan for… us?” Gina looked suddenly unsure.
“I thought that was up to you,” I told her. I wanted to be with her again, but I had no illusions about who was holding the reins on this thing. “What do you want?”
Gina thought about that for a moment, taking a sip of orange juice. “I want you to tell me.”
“Okay.” I took the bacon out of the pan and slid it onto a paper towel. “I want us to be together. I want you to move in at some point. I want to get a dog. I would hope to…”
The words someday marry you were on the tip of my tongue, but then there was a knock at the door.
I frowned at Gina, who shrugged.
It had to be someone who’d been here enough times for the lobby guy to trust them. Otherwise they wouldn’t have let him up. I’d have gotten a buzz from the front desk instead asking me about them.
Cautious, just in case, I peered through the peephole.
Ah, fuck.
It was Dad.
I opened the door. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard you were involved in some kind of altercation last night?” Dad demanded, entering the apartment.
“Sure, Dad, come on in. Breakfast is just about ready,” I grumbled, closing the door behind him.
Gina froze when she saw him. “Mr. Carr.”
Dad looked at her, and I saw in his eyes that he didn’t recognize her. Of course, he didn’t. Dad hadn’t cared about anything his son was doing back in high school. Why would he have bothered to remember my high school girlfriend? Especially when she hadn’t been on the same social level that we were, in Dad’s eyes.
“Dad, this is Gina. We dated in high school.”
“Not just in high school, it seems,” Dad replied, eyeing her like he had just realized the bit of dirt by his foot was actually a cockroach. “I suppose it would be beyond you to choose a girlfriend who would actually help your status?”
He turned to look at me, one eyebrow raised. Over his shoulder, I could see Gina’s eyes widen. She looked like she was debating whether she should just make a quick exit or slap him.
Like hell was I going to let my serial-cheating father of all people talk down to Gina. Not after what she and I had just been through.
“And I suppose it’d be beyond you to consider I should choose someone that I’m in love with?” I shot back. “I guess you’d prefer that I marry some rich tycoon or senator’s daughter and then make her miserable by cheating on her our entire marriage. Is that what you’d prefer?”
Dad’s face went a little red. “I walk in here to talk to you about something serious and you resort to childish blame games, as always. I was to blame for your selfish, reckless behavior as a teenager. I was to blame for your mother. I’m to blame for everything, am I? When are you going to be a man and step up and stop putting the responsibility for your actions on me?”
“Trust me, I take full responsibility for the ways I messed up.” Anger rose in me like a volcano, strangling me from the inside out. “But you are not blameless in this.”
“No, I’m the patsy.”
“Get out of my house,” I told him. “Get out of my house, and honestly, don’t bother calling. You think you can just deliver your judgment and saunter in and out of my life as you please, never giving me any love, never caring so long as I fit the mold you wanted—”
“I’m not standing for this behavior from my own son—”
Gina cleared her throat.
It was surprise, I figured, more than anything else that made Dad turn and stare at her.
Gina’s face and voice were calm, but her eyes were flashing. “Mr. Carr, I’d like you to get out of our house, now.”
Dad gaped at her.
Gina’s face got a little harder. “I said, I would like you to please get out of our house. You’re distressing my boyfriend, and frankly, I’ve hated you since I met you back when I was… fifteen, was it? I think that was when you called me a cow, right?”
Dad looked like someone had just told him all his stock options had dropped down to nothing. He looked at me. “You’re not going to let her speak to me like that, are you?”
“Luckily for me,” Gina interrupted before I could say anything, folding her arms, “and unlike your unfortunate wife, I fell in love with a man who actually loves me and respects me, and doesn’t let people talk to me like that.”
It felt like my heart had just flung itself at my ribs. My stomach lurched in surprise. Had she just said…? Had she just admitted that she loved me? That she was in love with me?
I had hoped. I had even suspected. But despite my own declarations, she had never reciprocated them. Being told that I was her safe space, that she trusted me and wanted to date me, that had been more than I could have hoped for at the start of this thing. It had definitely been more than she’d originally been willing to give me.
I wished like anything that my dad wasn’t there. I wanted to yank Gina into my arms and kiss her breathless. I wanted to scream from the rooftops with a megaphone. She’s mine, she’s really, finally, truly mine!
Dad looked just about as gobsmacked as I felt, although it was probably more because Gina was talking back to him rather than anything to do with her feelings for me.
“Why are you still standing there?” Gina demanded. Her temper was really starting to come out now, her golden-brown eyes blazing. “Are you waiting for more of a smackdown? Because I can definitely give it to you. You ignored your son to the point that he was willing to do anything to rebel against your rules and get your attention. He directed his anger about you at the world. And that wasn’t the right thing to do. But you could’ve helped. He was a child. How the hell was he supposed to know better?
“You took from him a father and a mother. You did nothing but ignore him and later profit off him. Did you ever even know that he wanted a dog? Did you care?” Gina asked. “We’re going to get one. We’re thinking a Lab of some kind, right Vin?”
I wanted to respond, but my tongue was all tangled up in my mouth. I ended up nodding like an idiot.
&
nbsp; Gina gave my dad a triumphant smile. “So, third time’s the charm they say: Get. Out. Of. Our. House. Now.”
Damn, this was hot. I loved this woman so damn much.
Dad spluttered for a moment, but when he looked at me, he saw in my eyes that he wasn’t going to get any support there. I didn’t say anything. Gina had said all that I wanted to say. Talking more would have just kept him there longer and I wanted him gone.
“Feel free to not stop by again,” Gina added.
That was the last straw. Dad stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
It was like I was a puppet and my strings had just been cut. I sagged against the kitchen counter. I’d never stood up to him before, despite all my years of hating him. I’d just… ignored him.
Gina changed things. Nobody was allowed to look at Gina the way he looked at her.
“Holy fuck,” I blurted out. “That was amazing.”
Gina stared at the closed front door. “I think I might have made it worse.”
“Are you kidding me? Babe.” I walked over to her, gently grabbing her shoulders. “That was amazing.”
“I… I feel like I assumed a lot,” Gina admitted, her voice small.
“This is your house, too, if and when you want it to be,” I told her. “I’d like a dog.” I still couldn’t quite believe that she remembered that I’d wanted a Lab. I took a step closer to her. “We can do whatever you want. As long as I’ve got you, I don’t care.”
Gina cleared her throat, blinking rapidly. “Dammit. I promised myself I wasn’t going to be a sap and get all teary-eyed over this.”
I laughed, pulling her to me. She rested her head on my chest and I felt the tension already melting away from both of us.
“I love you,” she added, softly. “I’m sorry you had to hear it for the first time like that. I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner. But I do.”
“How it came out doesn’t matter. What matters is that I have you.” Once, I would’ve been shocked, would’ve shrunk away from saying those kinds of things. I would’ve thought it made me weak, that it was too sappy.
But I meant it. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Gina, and that started right now, with her in my arms, making breakfast.
Not to mention that when a girl told off your awful old man like that, you just had to marry her. Not that I was saying that last bit out loud. Not yet.
“However you want the future to look, however you want us to look,” I told her, “I’m looking forward to it.”
She smiled up at me, shy and sweet. “Me too.”
Epilogue
I double-checked my reflection in the mirror, sliding my hands over my curves. Vincent hadn’t seen me in this dress yet. I’d picked it out especially for tonight. Dark red, made out of a metallic, shining fabric, with a draping neckline, long sleeves, and a leg slit. It hugged my curves perfectly.
“You ready to go?” Vincent asked, knocking on the door.
I grinned. “Yup! C’mon in.”
He opened the door and I caught his eye through the mirror. It meant I got to see the moment he took me in, the moment his eyes went wide and his jaw went slack.
“And here I thought you wanted us to get there on time,” he purred, walking over and gripping my hips, using them to pull me back into him.
I laughed. “We are going to be on time. You can’t have this until afterwards.”
“How soon afterwards?” Vincent asked, lowering his head to kiss my neck.
I shivered, but stayed firm. “When we get home.”
Vincent gave a soft growl of disappointment but backed off. After all, it wouldn’t do for the evening’s guest of honor to be late. Although Vincent might argue that being the guest of honor gave him every right to be late.
We got to the gala on time, both of us looking sharp. Vincent wore a tailored suit, as usual. I almost felt bad for everyone who was going gaga over him. I got to see him looking like that every day.
It amazed me how little it bothered me that people were snapping pictures. I knew that tomorrow the tabloids would announce Vincent arriving to the gala with his girlfriend. I knew there’d be photos of me from every angle, probably along with a few lines about who I was and what I did for a living and how we’d met.
But I actually didn’t care.
Since starting over with Vincent, I cared less and less what people thought of me. I stopped comparing myself to them and finding myself inadequate. What did it matter what other people looked like or what they thought? I had a successful, loving, smoking hot guy who worshipped the ground I walked on. That was more than enough for me.
Besides, the gala wasn’t about me. That night was about Vincent and all of his amazing accomplishments.
Since helping out the shelter, Vincent had devoted much of his time to establishing Gina’s Foundation, a philanthropic institution funded by half of his company’s profits.
“I’m already a billionaire,” Vincent told them when the board had objected. “What the hell do I need another billion for?”
I’d been embarrassed when I’d learned that the foundation would be named after me. Surely it should be named after the company or even Vincent himself, I’d protested. I wasn’t really doing anything. How did I deserve such a legacy?
“You were the person who helped me become better,” Vincent told me when I admitted my fears to him. “I wouldn’t be starting this foundation, or doing any of this, if it wasn’t for you.”
The work that he’d done the past year with the foundation had earned him the Philanthropist of the Year award, a huge honor. I was more excited for him than he was. Vincent seemed to think that he shouldn’t be rewarded for what he was doing.
“I’m just making up for the shit I pulled as a kid,” he said. “And why should we be rewarded for being decent human beings?”
It was way more than just being a decent human being if you asked me, but Vincent always waved me off if I tried to say that. If you’d asked me two years ago if Vincent was capable of being humble, I would have laughed in your face. Now, it was one of his defining characteristics.
Not that he’d become a pushover, by any means. His assistant liked to joke with me that I was the only person he answered to. I could never help but preen a little at the thought of that. Vincent, head of a billion-dollar company, alpha in whatever room he was in, would bow to me. It was a rush like nothing else.
The gala was fancy and decked out, which didn’t surprise me. Everyone was eager to talk to us. I knew they wouldn’t be so eager to talk to me if I wasn’t on Vincent’s arm, but it didn’t matter. It meant I could easily fade into the background and let Vincent command the room in the way that he always did.
When the time came, we all sat down to dinner, and then the speaker gave his little speech about Vincent.
It was a sweet speech, but I couldn’t help but laugh to myself a little. The guy obviously didn’t know Vincent very well beyond what you could find from an internet search.
Or maybe it was just that I knew Vincent so much better than other people did. I knew what he looked like when he woke up in the morning. The way his face lit up when our new puppy barked, begging to be picked up and cuddled. The way he sounded when he was sad, frustrated, joyful, nervous.
The way he’d looked when he’d gotten down on one knee for me.
Everybody clapped and Vincent went up on stage to accept the award.
“Thank you, thank you,” he started. “I can’t begin to tell you what an honor it is to be here today. Nobody gets to a place like this alone, so I’d like to thank my professors, my classmates, my best friend, and all of the people who believed in me when I was first starting out.”
Then came the part that I was nervous about. We hadn’t announced our engagement to anyone yet, other than our families.
“But most of all, I’d like to thank my fiancée, Gina, who is my date tonight.”
Everyone immediately swung around to look at me. There was a scattering of applaus
e from the audience in congratulations, and several people gave me the thumbs up. Many people were outright gaping in surprise. Vincent and I had taken care to keep our relationship private, and I didn’t think that many people had been expecting something like this.
We’d definitely be in the papers tomorrow, but I didn’t care. I looked up at where Vincent, my future husband, stared down at me, smiling like I was the only one in the world that mattered.
“Gina, you believed in me when nobody else did. You saw that I could be more than I already was, that I could be better than I thought I could be. You pushed me and you challenged me and you never settled for anything less in your life, including when it came to me. Because of you, I want to be a better person. Who I am today is because of you. So thank you, as always, darling.”
I felt myself getting a little teary-eyed and I blinked quickly to dispel them. It was ridiculous of me to be so overwhelmed and so happy that I wanted to cry.
“And, last but not least, to our little bundle of joy…”
Everyone really gaped at that.
“… our new puppy, Growler.”
Everyone started laughing as Vincent held up his phone to show his lock screen, a picture of Growler asleep on Vincent’s lap.
“Growler reminds me to be patient, that things take time, and how important it is to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. That’s what I’m trying to do with this foundation. And sometimes, I admit, I feel like change isn’t coming fast enough. We aren’t helping out people enough, we aren’t ready in time, etc. Growler’s a good reminder at times like that.
“So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. On behalf of my family, thank you.”
Vincent said more, but I honestly couldn’t hear it. My heart was too busy thumping hard, stuck on that line:
On behalf of my family.
I was Vincent’s family. And Growler, as well, Vincent’s lifelong dream come true.
Take Me Home_A Billionaire Protector Romance Page 9