by Janet Dailey
“What plans, Reuben?” Samantha breathed warily.
“Our security operations have grown so large over the past few years that I’d decided it should be a separate enterprise. I wanted Cade to head it and offered him an option to buy stock in it,” he explained.
“Oh, no!” Samantha moaned, guessing exactly what construction Cade had placed on that.
“His reaction was much more vocal than that,” Reuben declared ruefully. “He seemed to think I was trying to buy you a husband by giving him a position of respectability and importance. He said something else, too.” He studied her thoughtfully.
“What’s that?” She breathed warily.
“Some nonsense about if he wasn’t good enough for you to marry before I made him the figurehead of some company, he certainly wouldn’t be afterward.”
Samantha blanched. “What did you say?”
“I told him that being a snob wasn’t among your faults and that the one thing I would never do would be to buy you a husband,” Reuben concluded.
“Did he say anything to that?” she asked weakly.
“He gave me a cold look and walked out of the office.” He pushed back the sleeve of his jacket to glance at his gold wristwatch. “I have to get to the office. We’ll talk about it at lunch. Twelve-thirty?”
“Fine,” Samantha nodded.
When Reuben left, Samantha knew she would never go back to sleep and lethargically dragged herself out of bed to dress. Over and over in her mind the hope kept running that maybe she had misjudged Cade. He had refused the advancement in his status outright. But supposing she had, would it ultimately change anything?
Obviously Reuben hadn’t convinced him that she wasn’t a snob and didn’t believe herself too good for him. And after the things she had said, how could she convince him to the contrary?
She wandered restlessly through the apartment. The irony of the situation was beginning to grip her. She had been so afraid some man would marry her because of her father that she had turned away the only man who might really have loved her. It was a bitter fact to accept.
The doorbell rang and Samantha let Carl answer it, presuming it was the dry cleaners with a delivery. It was a shock when she turned from the living-room window and saw Cade walking out of the foyer entrance into the living room. Joy leaped into her heart at the sight of him, tall and vital and, in her eyes, incredibly handsome.
“Cade!” she breathed in recognition, and would have run into his arms if his voice hadn’t stopped her.
“Reuben made me a proposition yesterday.” The clipped voice was low and harsh. “He nearly convinced me that you weren’t connected with it. It doesn’t matter because I’m accepting it and you as part of the bargain.”
Samantha stared at him, her joy fleeing. The offer of a company of his own had become too much to resist, she realized with a pang.
“I’m afraid you’re too late.” She lifted her head proudly. “The offer has been withdrawn.”
“We’ll see about that,” Cade responded with ominous calm.
His long strides carried him across the room to Samantha. At the last minute she tried to escape, but she had left it too late. With unbelievable ease, he picked her up and tossed her headfirst over his shoulder. An arm was clamped around her legs to hold her there.
“Put me down!” she raged as he began carrying her from the room. Carl stood by the opened front door, eyebrows raised, amusement edging the corners of his mouth. “Carl, do something!” she beseeched.
“What would you suggest?” the houseman shrugged.
“Call my father!” she shouted as Cade entered the hall and walked toward the elevator. Doubling her fists, she pounded on his back. “Put me down this minute!” The elevator doors opened and he carried her in, not acknowledging her order. “I don’t want to marry you!” she snapped.
“That’s too bad, because you’re going to marry me,” Cade snapped back.
The elevator stopped at the third floor and a middle-aged woman walked in. The silence was deafening. Samantha reddened, embarrassed beyond words.
“Put me down!” she hissed. “You just wait until my father hears about this!” she threatened.
Cade’s head turned toward the woman eyeing them with wary curiosity. “Wives,” he mocked, “they run to daddy at the first sign of trouble.”
The doors opened on the ground floor and Cade walked out with Samantha over his shoulder before she had a chance to explain to the woman that she wasn’t his wife.
“How dare you let that woman think we were married!” Her voice was choked by the impotency of her anger.
“It’s only a matter of time.” He nodded to the doorman as he swept out of the building to a waiting taxi. He more or less tossed Samantha into the back and slid in after her before she could get herself turned around. “The J.F.K. airport,” he told the driver.
“No!” Samantha cried angrily, leaning forward to the driver. “This man is kidnapping me. I demand you take me to the nearest police station.”
“Sure, lady, sure,” the driver nodded, then glanced at Cade and winked.
Samantha turned to Cade, her anger dissolving into tears. “How can you do this?” she demanded.
“We’ll be married in Las Vegas, fly back and honeymoon for a couple of days on the island, then come back here,” he stated grimly.
“I won’t marry you,” she denied vehemently.
“You made the conditions, Sam.” Flint gray eyes sparked fire.
“I didn’t make any conditions,” Samantha protested in despair.
“Look.” Cade grabbed her arm and pulled her back from the edge of the seat, roughly drawing her to his side. “I’m accepting the charity of your father’s proposition. And you’re going to fulfill your part of the bargain by marrying me.”
“It’s not charity.” Her brown eyes widened. “Reuben knows the last thing I would want is for him to buy me a husband.”
“Really?” he taunted.
“Yes, really. Besides, he doesn’t even know you proposed to me before. I let him think you despised me. Reuben was asking you to head the new security organization because he thought you were the man for the job. It had nothing to do with me,” she breathed, suddenly hopeful at Cade’s frown. “Cade, why do you want to marry me?”
“Answer me this,” he commanded arrogantly, ignoring her question. “Why did you refuse to marry me?”
Samantha hesitated, then swallowed her pride. “Everyone who ever mattered has been interested in me because of my father. I knew you were attracted to me, but I thought you were only offering me marriage because I was the boss’s daughter. I thought I’d grown used to people using me to get to Reuben until I met you. I love you, Cade,” she sighed, “but I couldn’t marry you thinking you were just using me to get ahead. Are you, Cade? Are you marrying me now so you can have that advancement?”
“Are you serious?” He shook his head in disbelief, the flint hardness leaving his eyes to change them into a warm gray. “I thought it was the only way I could have you. At first I was angry because your father tried to buy me the respectability that had kept you from saying yes. Then I realized that I loved you too much to care. I wanted you for my wife any way I could get you. And I decided you had to love me, too, in order to go begging to your father.”
“I love you the way you are,” Samantha whispered.
“And I love you.” He pulled her close to his mouth. “I don’t give a damn who your father is”
He kissed her long and hard, crushing her in his arms until the power, of his love left her boneless. The firm caress of his hands drew her onto his lap as he searched out the sensitive areas of her throat and neck that he had discovered before.
Long, tempestuous minutes passed before Samantha remembered they were in the back of a taxi riding down a busy New York street. The driver’s mirror gave him a front-row seat. She resisted the exploring caress of Cade’s hands.
He read her mind and laughed softly against her
trembling lips. “Darling, there isn’t anything that a New York City, taxi driver hasn’t seen taking place in his cab.” But he did bridle some of his desire, although he still held her on his lap. “A few more hours and we’ll be in Vegas. I’ve waited this long. I can wait until then.”
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