King’s Million-Dollar Secret

by Maureen Child

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  Silently, Emily discarded the news section and went straight to Lifestyles. Thumbing through it, she finally found what she was looking for and folded it back. Then she laid it down in front of Katie and stabbed a grainy black-and-white picture with her manicured nail. “It means, you can find out a lot by keeping up with gossip. Like for example…there.”

  Katie looked at the picture and felt the tightening in her chest ratchet up until she couldn’t get any air in her lungs. She was light-headed. That had to be the reason her vision was narrowing until all she could see was the picture in the paper. The picture of an unsmiling Rafe in a tuxedo at a charity fundraiser, with a blond sporting boobs twice the size of Katie’s clinging to his arm.

  “When was—” She broke off as she read the caption under the photo. “Two nights ago.”

  “He’s not curled up in the fetal position like someone else I could mention,” Emily murmured.

  “That rat. That creep.” Katie slowly rose from her chair, clutching the paper in her fists. Her gaze still locked on the picture, all she could see was Rafe’s face, glaring at the camera as if he were wishing the photographer into the darkest bowels of Hell.

  “Atta girl,” her grandmother whispered.

  “He told me I was important to him,” Katie said, fury coloring her voice until it quivered and shook with the force of it. “He must have been lying again. If I was so damn important, how is he out with this bimbo?”

  “To be fair, we’re not sure she’s a bimbo,” Nana said.

  Katie glared at her. “Whose side are you on?”

  “Right.”

  “Does he think I’m stupid?” Katie asked, not waiting for an answer. “Did he really believe I wouldn’t find out that less than a week after—after—that he’d be dating the rich and pointless again? Does he think I don’t read the paper?”

  “Well,” Emily pointed out easily, “you don’t.”

  “I will from now on,” Katie promised, giving the paper a hard shake.

  “So, what’re you going to do about this?”

  Katie finally lifted her gaze and looked into her grandmother’s eyes. With cold, hard determination she said simply, “I’m going to go dethrone a King.”

  Rafe couldn’t settle.

  He felt uncomfortable in his own skin.

  Which left him nowhere to run.

  Not that he would. Kings didn’t run. Kings didn’t hide.

  But then if that were true, why wasn’t he over at Katie’s house right now, demanding she listen to him? Grumbling, he stood up, walked to the window of his office and stared out at the view without even seeing it. The ocean could have dried up for all the notice he gave it. There might as well have been empty sand dunes stretching out into eternity out there. He didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Nothing did.

  He’d tried going back to his life, but it was a damned empty one. Hell, he couldn’t even go into his hotel suite anymore. The silence was too much to take. So instead, he stayed here. At the office. He’d been sleeping on the damn couch, if you could call it sleep.

  Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Katie, as she had been that last night. Quivering in his arms. Kissing him breathless. Then finally, staring at him out of hurt-filled eyes. And if he had been able to figure out how to do it, he’d have punched his own face in days ago.

  The intercom buzzed and he walked to stab a finger at the button. “Damn it, Janice, I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed.”

  “Yes, but there’s—” she said, then added, “Wait! You can’t go in!” just before his office door crashed open.

  Katie stood in the doorway, her green eyes flashing at him dangerously. Her hair was a wild tumble of curls around her shoulders. She wore a black skirt, a red button-down shirt that was opened enough that he could see where her silver necklace dipped into the valley of her breasts. And she was wearing those black high heels she’d been wearing their last night together.

  Altogether, she looked like a woman dressed for seduction. But with the fury in her eyes, any man she was aimed at might not survive. Rafe was willing to take his chances. And if she did end up putting him down, he couldn’t think of a better way to go.

  “Sorry,” Janice was saying as she brushed past Katie with a frown. “She got past me and—”

  “It’s okay, Janice. Close the door on your way out.”

  “Yes sir,” she said and, though curiosity was stamped on her face, she did what he asked and left he and Katie alone.

  “It’s good to see you,” he said, knowing that for the understatement of the century.

  “It won’t be in a minute,” Katie promised and stalked toward him like an avenging angel on a mission. She dipped one hand into the black purse hanging off her shoulder and came back up with a folded newspaper.

  Once she had it, she threw it at him. He caught it instinctively and gave it a quick glance. Ah. Now he knew what was behind the fresh fury driving her. And weirdly, it gave him a shot of hope that she wasn’t lost to him completely since that picture had definitely pissed her off.

  “Did you think I wouldn’t see it?” she said, her voice little more than a snarl. “Or was it just that you didn’t care if I saw it? Game over, bet won, moving on? Was that it?”

  “It wasn’t a game, Katie,” he said and his tone was as tight as the tension coiled inside him. “I told you that. Or I tried to.”

  “And I should believe you,” she said, dropping her purse onto the closest chair and stabbing one finger at the newspaper he tossed to his desk. “Because clearly you missed me so much you had to rush out and drown your sorrows in that blonde double D.”

  He grinned at her, even knowing that would only feed the flames of her wrath. Rafe couldn’t help himself. Hell, he could hardly believe she was standing here. Even gloriously furious, she was the only woman who could make his heart lift out of the darkness he carried inside him. The only woman who made him want to smile. Who made him want to promise her any damn thing she wanted as long as she never left him again.

  He thought briefly about what Cordell had said at the restaurant the other night. Another King bites the dust. He’d argued the point then, out of sheer stubbornness and a refusal to see the truth for what it was.

  But now that Katie was standing here in front of him, bubbling with a fury that had her green eyes flashing like fireworks, he knew he couldn’t deny the facts any longer. Not even to himself. More importantly, he didn’t want to.

  He was in love for the first time in his life.

  And damned if he’d lose her.

  “Don’t you dare laugh at me,” she warned.

  “Not laughing.” Reaching out, he grabbed hold of her shoulders and only tightened his grip when she tried to twist free. “Katie, that blonde is an actress. Under contract to my cousin Jefferson’s film company. I had to go to the charity thing anyway and he asked me to escort her to get her some media.”

  She wasn’t mollified. “And I should believe that why?”

  “Because she was boring and vapid and I had a terrible time because she wasn’t you. And…because I won’t lie to you again, Katie.”

  Some of the fight went out of her. The rigidity in her shoulders faded enough that he risked easing his grip on her. She didn’t step away from him when she had the opportunity and Rafe silently considered that a good sign.

  “I miss you,” he said before he could gauge his words and try to predict her reaction.

  Her delectable mouth flattened into a grim line. “I’m still furious with you.”

  “I get that.” But she was here and he was taking that as a good sign. She looked up at him with those gorgeous green eyes and Rafe knew that he had only this one shot. This one chance to redeem himself. To somehow salvage the most important relationship he’d ever known.

  So the words came slowly, but they came.

  Words he had never thought to say to anyone.

  “I wasn’t ready fo
r you,” he started and read the confusion in her eyes. “The bet with Joe? It shouldn’t have been a big deal. But then I met you and found out you hated the Kings and I knew if I told you the truth, you’d never look at me again.”

  She frowned, and bit into her bottom lip as if trying to keep herself from talking so that she could hear him out completely.

  “I told myself that I wanted to change your mind about the King family,” he said and watched a flash of something in her eyes come and go. “But it wasn’t only that. Like I said, I knew you’d never look at me again if you knew. And I wanted you to look at me, Katie,” he said, shifting one hand to cup her cheek. “I wanted a lot more than that, too.”

  “You got more, Rafe,” she said, her voice so quiet he had to strain to hear her. “You got more than I ever gave anyone before. I loved you. So when I found out you had lied to me, it hurt far deeper than anything Cordell made me feel.”

  “I know,” he told her, mentally holding fast to the word loved. If she had loved him then, she had to love him still. It couldn’t burn out that fast, no matter how angry she was. “I know.”

  He pulled her close and kissed her once, twice. It was soft and hard, passionate and tender. That one kiss carried his heart and he nearly sighed in relief when she leaned into him to return that kiss, however hesitantly she did it.

  Pulling back, he let his gaze move over her features, as if burning this moment, her expression, into his brain. Finally though, he drew away and said, “I told you I wasn’t ready for you and that’s the honest truth. But I don’t know how I could have been prepared for what you would do to me.”

  “Rafe…”

  He shook his head and laid his fingertips over her mouth. “No, let me say it. You grew up with your grandmother, your mom. You knew you were loved and you knew how to respond to it. I didn’t. My dad was a lousy role model and I hardly knew my mother. When I got married, it was for all the wrong reasons and when she left, my ex let me know that it was my failings, my inability to love, that ruined everything—”

  Katie’s eyes shone brightly as she reached up to smooth her palm across his jaw. “She was wrong.”

  “No,” he said, “she wasn’t. Because until I met you, I didn’t know how to love.”

  “Oh, Rafe…”

  His heart felt light for the first time in days. His soul was warm again because she was near. Rafe knew that this one woman was the center of his world. If he couldn’t convince her to take a chance on him—to love him in spite of all the reasons she shouldn’t—then he’d never have anything worth a damn.

  “Look, I’m a bad bet,” Rafe told her, determined to be completely honest with her even if it cost him what he wanted most. “I know that. But I love you, Katie. In my whole life, I’ve never loved anything else.”

  Tears glittered in her eyes and his stomach hitched. Happy tears? Or goodbye?

  She took a breath, let it slide from her lungs and admitted, “I want to believe you.”

  Rafe smiled and pulled her in close to him, where she could feel the hammering of his heart in his chest. Where she would feel the strength of his love wrapping itself around her.

  “Take a chance on me, Katie,” he whispered, dipping his head to kiss the curve of her neck. He inhaled the scent of her and smiled as cinnamon and vanilla surrounded him. “I swear you’ll never regret it.”

  “Rafe?”

  He pulled back to look into her eyes and before she could speak again he said, “Marry me, Katie. Marry me and let me live with you in that great old house. Let me make you happy. I know I can. I’ll prove to you that I can be what you need.”

  “Yes, I’ll marry you.” Finally, a slow smile curved her mouth and she reached up with both hands to cup his face between her palms. “Don’t you know that you’re already everything that I need?”

  “Thank God,” he whispered and kissed her again, a promise of more to come.

  “After all, you did build me a nearly perfect kitchen.”

  “Nearly?” he asked with a grin.

  “Well, I’ve suddenly decided that since I’m marrying a carpenter, he should be able to build me a pantry.”

  “Anything you want, Katie,” he promised with a grin. “But I warn you, as soon as he finds out we’re getting married, my brother Sean’s going to want cookies.”

  “For family?” she said, “Anything.”

  Rafe dropped his head and rested his forehead against Katie’s, feeling his world, his life slide into place again. The woman he loved was in the circle of his arms, and the future was suddenly looking bright. He was right where he wanted to be. Where he was supposed to be.

  With Katie Charles, the cookie queen.

  Epilogue

  Katie grinned as she looked out the kitchen window at her crowded backyard. “I never dreamed there were so many Kings in California.”

  Julie King, married to Travis, laughed as she pulled a bowl of pasta salad from the fridge. “And this isn’t all of them by any means.”

  “Wait until your wedding,” Maggie King, wife of Justice warned her. “They’ll all be there for that.”

  “Yep,” Jericho’s wife Daisy agreed. “They never miss a wedding. Jeff and Maura will even come in from Ireland for that.”

  “It’s a little intimidating,” Katie admitted, unwrapping a platter of cookies designed especially for their engagement party. There were dozens of golden crowns, frosted in yellow or white, with Katie and Rafe inscribed on them.

  She glanced down at the emerald engagement ring glittering on her finger and almost hugged herself just to make sure she was awake and not dreaming all of this. But remembering the night before, when Rafe had made love to her for hours and then held her as she slept was enough to convince her that yes. Her life really was perfect.

  It had been a month since she’d stormed her way into his office and he laid siege to her heart with the truth. And in that time, she hadn’t once regretted taking a chance on Rafe. He’d shown her in countless little ways just how important she was to him. He’d built her that specially designed pantry just as he’d promised. He sent her flowers, made her dinner and when she was tired, he gave her a fabulous foot rub that inevitably led to long, lovely hours in bed.

  “Uh-oh,” Daisy said with a laugh. “I know that smile.”

  “What?” Katie grinned, embarrassed to be caught daydreaming.

  “It’s the same one I get when I remember how I ended up with a gorgeous baby girl.” Standing up, Daisy smiled. “And speaking of Delilah, think I’ll just go and make sure Jericho’s not teaching her how to do something dangerous. The man’s got a thing about his daughter being the first female Navy SEAL.”

  “I know how she feels,” Ivy King said, rubbing a rounded belly. “Tanner already plans on our poor baby being the next computer genius of the universe. But no pressure.”

  As Daisy left and the other King wives laughed and chatted about their kids and their husbands, Katie took a minute to enjoy where she was. Her nana had been right all along of course. Which Emily had continued to remind her of over the last month. Love was worth taking a chance on. Because Katie had risked it, she was about to marry the man she loved, become a part of a huge family and, one day, start her own.

  Babies. They would come soon. Rafe had already talked about how he wanted to add to the next generation of the King family.

  “It’s funny,” Katie said softly to the women who were already her friends as well as almost-relatives. “Just a few months ago, I hated the Kings.”

  “Yeah,” Jackson’s wife Casey said as she unwrapped a sheath of plastic cups, “we all heard about Cordell. If it helps, everyone knows he’s a dog.”

  Maggie chimed in with, “Justice offered to beat him up, as soon as Cordell arrived today, but apparently Rafe already took care of it.”

  “Yeah, he did,” Katie assured them. “But as much as I hate to admit it, without Cordell being a jerk, I might never have fallen in love with Rafe.”

  “So, it
was worth it then?” Jesse’s wife Bella asked.

  “More than,” Katie assured them. Then she glanced out the window to see her neighbor Nicole walking into the yard with her son in tow. “A friend of mine just showed up. I’ll be back to finish up the potato salad!”

  “No, you won’t,” Julie told her. “This is your engagement party. Go out and enjoy it. We’ll take care of the setup.”

  Smiling, Katie left her beautiful kitchen and walked into the yard. Her grandmother and aunt were in heaven, playing with all of the King kids. The men were gathered around the brick barbecue Rafe had finished building only last week, arguing over the best way to grill steaks. She caught a glimpse of Rafe in the middle of them all and couldn’t help smiling. She had been so wrong. The rich weren’t snobby. At least, the Kings weren’t. They were just people.

  “This is some party,” Nicole said as she walked up and gave Katie a hug.

  “It is. And I’m so glad you came.”

  “Wouldn’t have missed it. As your future matron of honor, it’s my duty to sit here and have a beer and eat steak.” Nicole picked Connor up and placed him on her hip. “And your ring bearer wants a cookie.”

  Katie laughed, delighted, and leaned in to kiss Connor. “My special ring bearer can have as many cookies as I can sneak him!”

  When two strong, familiar arms snaked around her middle from behind, Katie leaned back into Rafe’s chest with a sigh of satisfaction.

  “Hi, Nicole,” he said, planting a quick kiss on Katie’s head. “Glad you could make it.”

  “Are you kidding? Wouldn’t be anywhere else,” she told him. Then with a wry smile at the two of them, she added, “I’ll just take Connor in to grab a cookie. We’ll see you later.”

  Rafe turned her to face him and Katie flung her arms around his neck. He kissed her hard and long and deep and when her head was buzzing and her balance had completely dissolved, he lifted his head and looked down at her. “Have I told you today how much I love you?”

  “You have,” she said, “but I never get tired of hearing it.”