Connor turned his head toward her, took off his sunglasses and slid them into the pocket of his shirt. His gaze roved her face, her flushed cheeks, her dark tousled hair, before returning ever so deliberately to her eyes. Immediately she was inundated with memories of their brief, passionate affair. “Do you want me to put it on the market?” he queried.
Kristy looked behind her at the zebra-stripe theme of the living room, visible through the large floor to ceiling windows. “It doesn’t really seem like you.” In fact, it was tacky.
“It isn’t. Right now. But it could be if I made it my home.”
A second of silence stretched between them. Kristy looked at him. Connor looked back at her. There was no denying it. This was the moment of truth. And there was so much to say, so much to repair, that she hardly knew where to begin. “Did you buy this place to protect me?” she asked quietly, hoping like heck that was indeed the case. Not because she needed the protection. She didn’t. But because it meant that, deep down, he still cared for her, just as she cared for him.
“Partly,” Connor allowed with a dip of his head.
Kristy took a step closer, hope beginning to rise within her, like a buoyant balloon, to the sky. “And the rest of the reason?” she asked, still holding his eyes.
A grin appearing on his face, he ambled closer. He placed both hands on her shoulders, cupping them with a gentle possessiveness that robbed her of breath. “Because I want to live out here at the beach, where I can see you—and your girls—every day.”
Forcing herself not to get too excited—this could mean, after all, that he just wanted them to be friends—she rested her hand on his chest. “So you can continue to keep an eye on us?”
Connor cuffed an arm about her waist and hauled her against him. Breathing deeply, he buried his face in the fragrant softness of her hair. “So I can make you mine.” He kissed her thoroughly, then drew back to look into her eyes. “I love you, Kristy,” he said hoarsely. “I don’t think I told you that yet, but I do, with all my heart and soul. I know I’ve made mistakes.”
So had she. But she knew that now.
“I initially showed up on your doorstep for all the wrong reasons.” Connor paused, shook his head ruefully. “I was trying to smooth the way for a business deal that would have benefited us all greatly. Not that it’s any excuse—”
Kristy caught the past tense. “Wait a minute. What do you mean, would have—?” she interrupted. Had he given up on trying to buy Paradise Resort from her?
Still holding her close, Connor continued, “Skip and I have talked to the members of the consortium. They understand you’re not interested in selling, and have agreed to let us look for another site for the project we want to build.”
Kristy studied him. She knew what a successful businessman Connor was, that he had never been one to take failure—in anything—lightly. “And you’re not upset about that?” she asked cautiously.
Connor’s arms tightened around her. He held her as if he never wanted to let her go. “It’s a setback, no doubt about it, but compared to having you walk out of my life, it’s a very tiny one. Because I mean it when I say I love you, Kristy.”
Her eyes filled with tears at the words she had longed to hear, and say. Contentment sizzled through her and was mirrored in the expression on his face. “Oh, Connor, I love you, too.” Kristy went up on tiptoe, wreathed her arms about his neck and kissed him fiercely. She drew back slightly. Knowing that before they went forward, they had to go back, she confessed soberly, “But you aren’t the only one who’s made mistakes. I’ve made my share of them, too. Starting with the way I treated you.”
He looked down at her and she continued miserably, “I gave you such a hard time when you first came to see me.”
Conner grinned, then quipped wryly, “One I think I richly deserved, given my motives.”
Kristy made a face. “But I really put you to the test.”
His dark eyes hopeful, he asked, “Did I pass?”
“Oh, yes. Absolutely. More than that, you believed in me, in what I was trying to do,” Kristy continued seriously, remembering all he had done to help her. “We were so busy getting ready for the conference that ultimately didn’t happen, that I don’t think I realized just how much faith you had in me.”
“And I do,” Connor said seriously.
“Or how much you trusted every business decision I made.”
He took one of her hands and lifted it to his lips. He kissed the underside of her wrist, and then the back of it, too. “I want you to realize your dream.”
“And I will,” Kristy vowed softly as her heart took on a staccato beat. She looked deep into his eyes. “But I know now I don’t have to do it all at once. I can take my time, renovating the resort, building up a clientele, to the point I can turn a profit. I just need a better business model from which to work, and I think I have one now.”
Connor grinned proudly. He backed up to a deck chair, sank down into it and pulled her onto his lap. “I’d like to hear about it,” he said, as they both settled comfortably in the chair.
“I’ll show you, in great detail,” Kristy promised. Then she continued happily, “But I think if I spend most of my time trying to generate bookings for the twelve cottages and the north wing of the lodge, and make sure we have really good service for the guests that are at the resort, that I’ll be in the black, with money to not only continue renovation on the other three wings, but to pay you back by the end of next year.”
He held up a hand to silence her. “I told you I’d wait as long as you needed.”
“I know. And it’s generous of you,” Kristy said with a grateful smile. For the first time in her life she was determined to lay all her cards on the table and say everything that was in her heart and on her mind. “But it’s important to me to stand on my own, to do this by myself.” She searched his face. “Can you understand that?”
Connor nodded compassionately. “That’s why I went into business with Skip, instead of becoming part of the family antique business—because I needed to do my own thing, be my own person.”
“Then you do understand,” Kristy said softly, relief flowing through her in great waves.
“Yes.” He stroked a hand through her hair. His low, husky voice was filled with emotion. “I’m just sorry I didn’t make that clear to you earlier.”
“There were a lot of things we didn’t make clear,” Kristy confessed, her voice catching at the thought of all they had very nearly lost. The look of love in his eyes giving her more courage than she had ever known she could possess, she said, “But that’s something we can easily fix. All we have to do is talk to each other, openly and honestly.”
“I’m all for that,” Connor murmured as he drew her to him for another, lengthier kiss that filled them with warmth and love. They didn’t stop until they were both trembling and breathless. “I promise you no more secrets.”
“None,” Kristy agreed. “But there’s one more thing.” She leaned back and looked into his face. She was wearing her heart on her sleeve, but that was okay, since her heart was now his for the taking. “I still owe you a date for winning that bet,” she said.
Interest flared in his smoky-gray eyes. He placed a palm on his chest. “I’m ready, willing and able.”
Kristy grinned. Unable to contain her euphoria, she asked, “Tonight okay with you?”
“Tonight, and every other night the rest of my life,” Connor confirmed, before he indulged in another long, leisurely kiss that left them both glowing with happiness.
Epilogue
One year later…
“Columbus Day isn’t exactly a traditional day for a wedding,” Winnifred Deveraux-Smith commented as she looked around at the beautifully decorated Paradise Resort. “But I have to admit, it really is shaping up to be lovely.”
“Thanks,” Kristy murmured, pleased, as she studied their surroundings. The furniture had been moved out of the club room, and white folding chairs had been s
et up for their guests, in two sections, with an aisle between. Arrangements of white roses and baby’s breath were nestled amidst delicate greenery. White satin bows and ribbon adorned the end of each row, and an antique silver candelabra gave the room a simple but elegant ambience. A trellis covered with fresh flowers would serve as their altar. “I think so, too.”
“But, as the bride, are you sure you should be out here overseeing the reception decorations, instead of upstairs getting dressed?” Winnifred—who had just become engaged to Harry Bowles and was planning a June wedding—asked.
“I just wanted to make sure everything was perfect,” Kristy murmured, touching a hand to her carefully upswept hair. And as far as she could see, it was. And not just for her and Connor’s wedding.
Thanks to heavy advertising on the Internet and complimentary weekend stays for travel agents, so the agents could see and experience the rustic old-fashioned beauty and ambience of the resort firsthand, bookings were now running close to one hundred percent. Harry ran the resort with the same aplomb he had once run Winnifred’s Charleston mansion, while Kristy concentrated on bringing in new business and continuing the renovations, which were almost complete.
And it wasn’t just for Kristy that things were going well. Daisy and Jack were expecting a baby. Connor’s sister Iris was as deeply into the antiques business as ever. His mother had decided she would not marry again, but she and retired shipping executive Payton Heyward spent many wonderful hours together and seemed to enjoy each other’s company tremendously.
Grace and Tom’s second marriage was flourishing, and so was Grace’s new cable television show, as well as the Deveraux-Heyward Shipping Company. As for the Deveraux offspring, Amy Deveraux and her husband, Nick, had had a little girl. Gabe and Maggie had had twin boys. Bridgett and Chase were so enamored of their niece and nephews, they were thinking about starting a family, and so were Mitch and Lauren.
Kristy’s own family had finally accepted that she was meant to be an innkeeper, that the beach was and would always be where her heart—and home—was. Kristy accepted the fact that they would always privately be disappointed that she hadn’t become a doctor like everyone else in the family, but they were keeping those feelings to themselves these days, and that made for much happier get-togethers.
As for Connor, he and Skip were still in business and had finally found a site for the luxury beachfront condominium project they wanted to build, on nearby Seabrook Island. Connor loved the twins, and had become the father they needed and wanted. And they adored Connor as much as he did them. They were doing well in school now, and at age nine, were a good mix of tomboy and princess. They still wrote letters to their daddy in heaven and sent them off to him via balloon. Kristy encouraged the communication for several reasons. One, you could never have too much love or family in your life. And two, who was to say Lance wasn’t receiving them?
But Winnifred was right, Kristy thought, as she dashed up the service stairs to her own private suite in the lodge. It was time to get dressed.
The girls were there to help her into her wedding gown, a tea-length, ivory satin sheath with a beautiful beaded jacket. And so was Kristy’s mother.
“Are you nervous, Mommy?” Sally asked, as the short veil was attached to the floral wreath already in Kristy’s upswept hair.
“No,” she said, as she knelt to help her twin daughters put wreaths of flowers in their hair, too. And it was true. She had never been more certain of anything in her life than she was of her love for Connor, and his for her.
And she saw the same sentiment in Connor’s eyes when they stood before the minister on that perfect afternoon and said their wedding vows.
“I, Kristy, pledge to you, Connor, my love and devotion….”
“…and forsaking all others,” Connor promised, “keep you only onto me, to have and to hold, for as long as we both shall live….”
“For inasmuch as you, Connor and Kristy, have made these vows and plighted your troth before God and these witnesses, by the authority vested in me by the state of South Carolina—” the minister beamed “—I now pronounce you man and wife.”
Connor drew Kristy to him and kissed her tenderly. She kissed him back. A cheer went up from the guests gathered around them, and then the whole group moved outside, beneath the clear blue South Carolina sky, and a whole slew of wedding balloons were let go, flying high, toward the heavens.
The reception was every bit as joyous as the sweet and simple ceremony had been. At last, Kristy thought, she had everything she had ever wanted. Her twins, however, weren’t so easily satisfied. She could tell by the way they approached her and Connor as the reception drew to an end that they had something very definite on their minds.
“Mommy and Connor,” Sally announced importantly, as the girls sat down at the bride and groom’s table. She plucked at the fabric of her pink chiffon flower-girl dress. “We have a very serious question to ask you.”
Connor smiled at Kristy and took her hand. He looked at the twins like the loving dad he already was to them. “Okay, girls, we’re ready.”
Susie, who had spent a good part of the reception enjoying the company of the babies in attendance, smoothed the skirt of her own pink chiffon dress and, with a look at her twin, drew a deep breath and said, “We want to have a baby in our family, too!”
Their request made, Susie and Sally looked up hopefully.
Unbeknownst to the girls, Kristy thought, smiling, that issue had already been decided. Connor kissed her tenderly and drew her near. “I think that can be arranged,” he murmured.
Eyes shining with happiness, Susie and Sally looked at Kristy.
She grinned. “I promise you two kiddos we’ll get right on it.”
And hours later, in the cozy comfort of their honeymoon cottage on the beach, she and Connor did.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7797-1
TAKING OVER THE TYCOON
Copyright © 2003 by Cathy Gillen Thacker.
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◊Too Many Dads
ΔWild West Weddings
††Brides, Babies & Blizzards
*The McCabes of Texas
†The Lockharts of Texas
**The Deveraux Legacy
Taking Over the Tycoon Page 23