The smile disappeared. His eyes turned fierce. He didn’t say a word, but he held out his hand. She slid hers into his, and he led her out of the lobby and down the hallway.
Alex’s words echoed through Wyatt’s mind. Heat flowed through him. Hunger for her overcame him.
That was it. He was only human, and this woman, this maddeningly wonderful, vital woman…
He stopped, turned, and gazed down into her eyes. “I’m taking you to my apartment, Alex. I need to be alone with you. If you don’t want to come with me, say so. I’ll escort you to your room and we’ll pretend that I never intended to make love with you, even though I’m dying for you. I’ll return you to San Diego just as untouched as you arrived here, and—”
“No, I don’t want to be untouched,” she said, rising on her toes and kissing him. “The calendar dates will all be crossed off soon, and I am not going home without this. I’m done fighting not to want this. And I’m done counting. Let’s leap.”
She kissed him again, and when the elevator stopped, he carried her into his room, right to the bed, and fell down with her into the softness.
Finally, finally, he was going to have her. Maybe then he could get her out of his system.
So he kissed her. As much as he wanted. He flicked open the neckline-to-hem buttons on the pretty red dress she’d been wearing, and as she lay revealed to him, her red underthings a perfect contrast to the cream of her skin, he gazed at her. As much as he wanted.
Then he took what he wanted. Her mouth.
She sighed and kissed him back.
He nuzzled her cheeks, her chin, the hollow of her neck.
Alex gasped and reached to grasp the lapels of his jacket, peeling it down to his elbows in one quick move. He shrugged out of it.
He skimmed his hands down her sides from curve to curve.
She fumbled with his shirt, and he ripped it open and off. He finished undressing, and as he moved back to the bed she rose onto her knees, slipped her arms from the sleeves of the dress and moved on her knees to the side of the bed.
“I have to see all of you,” he said, removing the little scraps of silk and lowering her back to the bed. She was soft and warm and jasmine-scented, and everything he wanted.
She met him kiss for kiss. “When this is over, I don’t want you to be sorry,” she said.
He smiled against her skin and breathed in. “That’s supposed to be my line.”
“This time it’s mine.”
“You think I could be sorry for this?” He kissed her again, touched her everywhere. He drank in her moan, licked her lips as she sighed.
When she was ready, he rose over her. She looked up at him, waiting. It was a look of…he couldn’t translate that look. A second of concern slid through him.
“Are you regretting, Alex? Reconsidering?”
She slowly shook her head and smiled. “I’m savoring,” she said. “I’m anticipating.” She moved closer, her skin touching his.
His entire body turned to mindless heat and speed and need and…
“Alex,” he said, biting off the word.
“Wyatt?” she said, uncertainty in her voice. “Are you reconsidering?”
“I’m counting,” he said, trying to slow down. “I’m trying to go slow for you.”
She slid her hands up his body, placed his hands on her body. “Don’t try to go slow. Don’t count. Love me now. Leap.”
It was the last word he remembered. He leaped. He fell into the most wonderful sensation of his life.
When he woke, it was dark. The middle of the night.
Alex was gone.
There was a note on the table by the side of the bed.
I don’t want anyone to accuse you of seducing the hired help. Thank you for leaping. And for hiring me. You’ve made all my dreams possible.
Wyatt blinked. He ran one hand through his hair. He swore beneath his breath. That polite little note. What did it mean?
It meant, he knew darn well, that he had had her and he had lost her. Just as he’d known he would.
In the past, with any other woman, it wouldn’t have mattered. He wouldn’t ever have left a polite note because it would have been understood from the start that making love didn’t really mean making love.
But Alex wouldn’t be that way. She’d worry about him feeling guilty. She’d worry about a lot of things. And she’d want to be sure that there were no bad feelings afterwards.
She was a woman who cared about people’s feelings, who saved others. Today she’d helped him see that he didn’t need to be a loner or hide from friendship. Tonight she’d made love with him and then made sure that he would feel no guilt. She was a fixer, a doer, who threw herself into everything headfirst.
She was, he realized, the woman he loved. The only woman he had ever loved. And her dreams were all focused elsewhere—not here, not with him. What should he do about that?
Let her go. Let her dream, he told himself.
He wanted to do that. He’d lived without love for so long it should be easy. But nothing with Alex was ever easy, he realized.
He also realized something else. No man had ever risked it all for her. She had walked through fire for men and been left sitting in the ashes when everything was over. No one had ever walked through fire for her.
That was just…
“Unacceptable,” he said aloud. Completely unacceptable.
Alex’s heart was in shreds. She didn’t regret making love with Wyatt for one second, except that it made it so much more difficult to leave him now.
And she had to go. Belinda was back. Wyatt didn’t need an extra concierge. Besides, what would be the good in staying after last night?
She just wasn’t that good an actress. He would know. At the very least, Randy would notice. He might tell. And Wyatt would beat himself up. Hadn’t she been told how much he hated hurting people?
That was why she was sitting here, bags packed. She had scrubbed her face with cold water and put her make-up on, then cried it off. Now, finally, after washing her face and applying her make-up again, she looked close to normal. Hopefully she could say some very quick goodbyes and duck into a cab. If she could make it that far, then Wyatt wouldn’t know. That would have to be her only goal for now. Keep your secret now, tears later, Lowell, she coached herself.
With that order, she took a deep breath, left her room for the last time and headed down to the lobby. As she exited the elevator, the hotel seemed strangely quiet, with only the murmurs of a few guests as they passed by breaking the silence. But when she stepped into the lobby, everyone was there. Or at least it looked like everyone. Most of the employees. And Wyatt.
He stared at the bag she held in her hand.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“You’re leaving.”
She bit her lip. “Yes. It’s time. I need to go.” But she wanted nothing more than to run to him.
“I know. I knew it couldn’t last forever. Even though I wish that it could.” He stared into her eyes, and then he went down on one knee right in the middle of the crowded lobby.
“Wyatt? Are you okay? Wyatt?”
“I’m better than I’ve ever been in some ways, Alex. And all because of you.”
“Did we…did you win, then?” Her voice was a choked whisper.
“I won. I don’t know about the hotel yet. But here in this city, where anything can happen, something wonderful happened to me. You came into my lobby and you taught me about possibilities and friendship and—”
His deep voice seemed to break. He looked down for a minute. When he looked up again his eyes were fierce and glittering and…
“You taught me that I didn’t have to hide inside myself all the time, that I could take chances with my heart. The lives of everyone here in this room have been changed by you. We were going along, picking up our accolades, doing a good job, and then you came along and showed us how to put our hearts into everything we did.”
“We’ll never
forget you, Alex,” Jenna said suddenly, and the room was suddenly less hushed as other people chimed in. But then they all turned to Wyatt, and were suddenly silent.
“I’ll never forget you,” he told her. “And I want you to know that if you’re ever looking for a home again, if you ever need a place to go, you have one here. No work required.”
Alex stared down at him, her heart in her throat. A lone tear escaped her lashes and she walked up to him. “You’re breaking my heart.”
“That wasn’t what I wanted to do. At all.”
Alex cupped her palm against his cheek. “What did you want to do?” she whispered. “Wyatt, I don’t want you to do or say anything you’ll regret.”
He grasped her hand and touched his lips to her fingertips. “I could never regret anything I ever did with you. And what I wanted was to tell you publicly, so you’ll never doubt that I mean it, is that there is one man you helped who didn’t just feel grateful when the day was done. One man who loved you with every ounce of his being. Even if I have to let you go, even if I look like a fool for telling a woman who’s leaving me that I love her, I’m telling you, Alexandra Lowell. You crept into my heart and I’m never going to stop loving you, no matter where you are.”
Alex’s heart overflowed. Somewhere she heard the snap of a camera, and she turned. “Don’t print that. I don’t want anyone to think Wyatt is…crazy just because he’s down on his knees.”
He smiled, a slow, sad smile. “I am crazy, Alex. And you’re not helping. You could at least tell me that you’ll think of me now and then.”
“Wyatt—” Her voice broke; she wrapped her arms around his neck, sinking to her knees. “I couldn’t not think about you. Every day. Every hour. How could I forget you when I love you so much? And you’re driving me crazy, too.”
“In what way?”
“You could…you could at least ask me not to go.”
He closed his eyes tightly, pulled her against him. Tightly. “Don’t go, Alex,” he whispered against her hair. “Please stay. Marry me. Love me.”
She launched herself against him so forcefully that they went tumbling backward, and she ended up sprawled across his chest with one of his arms wrapped around her. “Yes, yes and yes. I love San Diego, but I can visit. I can open a shop here, where you are, where my home and my heart is.” She kissed his chest right over his heart.
Another camera snapped. “That had so better not end up in the newspaper,” Alex said, while smiling down at Wyatt. “Something like that could cost McKendrick’s the award.”
“Well, the award wouldn’t have mattered if Wyatt had sold the hotel,” someone said. “That’s what he said he was going to do.”
Alex raised her head and frowned down at Wyatt. “Why would you have done that?”
He put one arm behind his head and lay back, staring into her eyes. “I was prepared to follow you if you were determined to go. If you wouldn’t have minded a stubborn hotelier hanging around, that is.”
She snapped her head up, raising her chin. “I would have minded you selling this place very much. What would McKendrick’s be without McKendrick to run it? Although that is the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me. And I loved hearing you say it.”
He kissed her. “Let’s get married this weekend.”
“That’s what I like—a man of action.”
“You can choose the place.”
She kissed him. “I choose the Haven.”
He laughed, a deep, hearty, wonderful laugh. “You always liked a challenge. We’ll never get it done in time.”
“Oh, yes, we will. We have friends. You have friends.”
“I do. And you have family here. A home,” he said, indicating the roof high over their heads. “We’ll manage.”
As they lay there Randy came forward, carrying a bag.
“What’s this?” Wyatt asked.
“My winnings. Your wedding present,” Randy said. “When it comes down to the wire, I find I can’t profit off my friends. But I won the bet,” he told Alex as he opened the bag, threw its contents in the air and let the dollars rain down. “I always knew that if Wyatt ever fell in love you would be the one.”
“She was always the one,” Wyatt agreed. “From the first moment I saw her, she stole my heart.”
Alex smiled. She looked at the money lying around them. “Well, I think this would be enough for a very nice party for our McKendrick’s family, don’t you think, Wyatt?”
“You always have the best ideas, my love.”
She rested her arms on his chest and leaned closer. “I have another good idea, too.”
“What is it?”
“Kiss me again, Wyatt.”
“Best idea ever,” he said, sitting up gracefully and folding her into his arms. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.”
“You would have. In time.”
“I think you’re right.” And he kissed her one more time.
Two evenings later, Alex stood at the back of the short aisle of the chapel, waiting to meet Wyatt. All their friends had, indeed, worked a miracle. The tiny building was lit by hundreds of candles, their light bouncing off the creamy walls. The stars shone through the deep open windows. The rugged pews were draped in white satin, and the honeyed floors were strewn with blood-red roses.
It was so beautiful. But what mattered more was that her friends were there. Jayne, Molly and Serena smiled up at her.
“Be happy,” Jayne had said before the ceremony.
“She is,” Molly had answered. “You can see it in her eyes.”
“And she’s loved,” Serena had added. “You can see it in every look he gives her.”
Katrina and Beverly sat next to Randy, who had brought Wyatt and Alex a newspaper this morning that contained an announcement that McKendrick’s had nosed past Champagne for the award. The story had commented on the hotel’s tasteful décor, its enthusiastic and welcoming staff and exciting events.
“Thank goodness the photo is of the hotel and not of the two of us lying together on the floor of the lobby,” she’d teased.
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m rather fond of that photo. Jenna told me I could have one for my office.”
Alex had shrieked.
“Or our bedroom,” he’d conceded, with a wink and a kiss.
But all the teasing and kissing was over now, and Alex lifted her chin and gazed down the aisle to where Wyatt waited, looking tall and gorgeous, a man any woman would love to share her life and her bed with.
The lone wolf, Alex couldn’t help thinking as she walked toward him. He’d been alone—by choice—for a long time. His proposal had been sudden, made soon after a euphoric, chaotic day. Those good feelings didn’t always last, as she well knew, especially when gratitude was thrown into the mix. And it had only been two days since Wyatt had proposed. Was there a chance he would change his mind eventually? Would he miss his solitary life, or feel trapped by the promises he’d made? And if he did…if he did…
Would he even tell her? He’d always been so careful about not hurting her… A sudden frisson of fear rippled through her.
Alex smiled at Jayne and Molly, and at Serena, seated with her husband, Jonas, even as doubts assailed her.
Then she was walking down the aisle again. She was by Wyatt’s side. Her love. Her heart. The man she wanted to be with forever. And yet…
She turned to him and rose on her toes, putting her lips near his ear. “If you want to run, love, now’s the time to go.”
He gazed down at her, an intimidating expression in his eyes. She wasn’t intimidated, only worried.
“You’re offering me my freedom, Alexandra?” he asked.
She swallowed. “If you want it, yes.”
A slow smile lifted his lips. He swept her into his arms. “What I want is you. The only place I want to run is to you.” He kissed her lips, long and deep and slowly.
Every doubt and fear in Alex’s heart flew away. She kissed him back with all the love in he
r heart. Her bouquet of blood-red roses dropped to the floor.
Behind her someone laughed. “It’s highly irregular for the kisses to come before the wedding,” they joked.
Alex smiled into Wyatt’s eyes. “There’s not going to be anything regular or ordinary about this marriage,” she said, loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Kiss me again, Wyatt.”
He did. With fervor.
“Thank goodness you had the good sense to choose a lot of fools before I came along, Alex. I would have hated it if I hadn’t gotten to be the one to marry you and love you and sleep with you and have children with you.”
“I would have hated that, too. So much. Let’s get married, Wyatt,” she said.
“The sooner the better. I want to be your husband from here to eternity, and I’d like to start that right now,” he said, taking her in his arms again, to the delight of all those assembled in the chapel.
It was a less than conventional wedding. The bouquet had to be gathered up again so that it could be tossed later. There was dancing in the aisles when the ceremony was over. There were kisses where there weren’t supposed to be kisses.
“The perfect wedding,” Alex said with a sigh.
“To my perfect bride.” And, lifting her against his heart, Wyatt McKendrick carried her away to his lair at the pinnacle of his hotel, in the heart of the city that had brought them together on one wild weekend that had turned golden.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5654-9
SAVING CINDERELLA!
First North American Publication 2010.
Copyright © 2010 by Myrna Topol.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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