The Bridesmaid and the Billionaire

by Shirley Jump

  She was about to bum a ride off Mrs. Maxwell when a stretch white limo pulled up. A tall, thin chauffeur hopped out and opened the rear door. “Your car, miss?” he said to Susannah.

  “Oh, no, this isn’t for me. It’s for the bride and groom.”

  “No, miss. This one is yours. There will be another one here shortly for them.” The chauffeur waved again at the richly appointed interior of the limo—all leather, with a fully stocked bar, even a television.

  “Mine? But…”

  “It’s yours, Susannah. I still owe you a tip,” Kane said, coming up behind her, his hand at the small of her back, setting off those traitorous hormones again. “Please don’t say no. The whole town is staring at you, waiting for something to gossip about anyway.”

  Susannah glanced over her shoulder and saw Kane was right. The guests who had turned out for Paul and Jackie’s wedding—from Larry the bartender to Mrs. Maxwell—were all watching the exchange, and the unusual sight of a limo, followed by a second one rounding the corner, with undisguised interest. She had two choices. Stand here and let her business be known by all of Chapel Ridge, or get inside and at least keep the damage contained. Susannah climbed into the car, then slid over when Kane followed her.

  The chauffeur shut the door, and in an instant, all of Chapel Ridge was muffled. The world closed in, becoming just her. And Kane.

  “Now will you listen to me?” he asked.

  “It seems I’m your hostage,” she said, echoing his words from a few days earlier, “for as long as it takes to get to the Chapel Ridge Hotel.”

  A grin curved across his mouth, then he leaned forward and brought his lips within a centimeter of hers. Her pulse raised, and anticipation pooled in her veins, warring with her better sense. “Then I better make good use of the time.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  KANE didn’t kiss Susannah, not exactly, even though every cell in his body screamed for him to. Instead, he drew back, allowing her distance and space, and prepared to plead his case. If he couldn’t get her to listen in the next few miles, he’d lose her forever.

  And that was the one price Kane Lennox, one of the richest men in the world, couldn’t afford to pay.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She crossed her arms over her chest. Not budging an inch. “Why would you lie to me?”

  “Because I wanted someone to look at me for me, not for my money. It was simple as that, Susannah.”

  “And what, you think so little of me that you don’t think I could see past the money?”

  “Past billions of dollars? Susannah, you’re an incredible woman, but no one sees past that. Trust me. I know, because I’ve met dozens of people over the years and not a one looked at me and didn’t see a dollar sign before my name.”

  She shook her head and turned to watch the town passing by the tinted windows. “I really don’t think we have anything to say to each other, Kane. It’s easier if you just leave me alone. We don’t even have to talk to each other at the reception.”

  Kane ran a hand through his hair. He hadn’t expected this to be easy, but knew, as the limo made another turn, that his time was running out. Small towns equaled short distances from one place to another. For the first time ever, he wished for the insane stop-and-go New York City traffic, which could have bought him a hefty half hour just to get from one side of Central Park to the other, given the right time of day.

  Once the car stopped at the hotel, Susannah would bolt, and the chances of him having this kind of uninterrupted, captive audience time again were slim. “What are you going to do, Susannah, hop on that plane tomorrow and run away from the town, just like you’re running away from me right now?”

  She pivoted back. “I’m not running from anything. I’m going out on my own, having my life. That’s not a crime.”

  He took her hand, running his fingers gently over the delicate bones. But she remained stiff, unyielding to his touch. “It is, if you’re doing it so you can avoid the things in your life that scare you.”

  Her chin raised, defiant. “I’m not scared of anything.”

  “Oh, yeah?” With his free hand, he cupped her jaw, his touch against her cheek doing the same thing it had from the first time his palm had met her skin, offering a soothing balm to his soul. “You’re scared of the same thing I am.”

  Her green eyes widened, their depths as rich as pure emeralds. Kane had worked with gems all his life, and never seen a single one as beautiful as the two in Susannah’s gaze. “What’s that?” The words were a breath.

  “Falling in love. Giving up control to your emotions.”

  “I’m not—”

  He pressed a finger to her lips, caught in the way the light blue of her dress set off the golden strands in her hair, accented the emerald in her gaze. His heart flip-flopped in his chest, and he had to hold back from kissing her. Not yet. Not until she was his again—for good this time. “You’ve done everything you can not to fall in love, Susannah. You did it for good reasons, just as, I suppose, I did, too. You were taking care of your sister. Running a business. Saving for a new life. You had no time, no room, no patience. Pick your reason. I’ve got a whole briefcase full of them back in New York.”

  She shook her head, denying it all, but the denial weakened with each shake.

  “Why, Susannah?”

  The limo rounded another corner, smoothly navigating the streets of Chapel Ridge. Along the sidewalks, everyone stared at the unfamiliar fancy car. Susannah toyed with the frame of the window for a long moment. “When my parents died, the family told me to send Jackie away. To let her live with an aunt in Arizona, so I could have my life. But I couldn’t do that.”

  “Because you loved her too much.”

  Susannah shifted on the seat, back to Kane. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath, then shook her head. “Because I had to hold on to what I had left, Kane. And Jackie was all I had.”

  A single tear slipped down her cheek, and for the first time, Kane noticed the well of emotion in her eyes, brought on by the tumultuous day. One that hadn’t just changed Jackie’s life, but had made a major shift in Susannah’s, too. All those years of watching out for her younger sister, and now the burden was lifted, but he could see, in the pain in her eyes, that a part of her already missed the little bit of family that she’d held on to so tightly.

  Kane wrapped an arm around her and drew Susannah to his chest, folding her lithe frame into his. “You did the right thing. It was the most selfless thing anyone could do.”

  “Don’t you understand?” She looked up at him, her cheek against his chest. “I did it for me, Kane. Because I couldn’t lose her. My parents were dead. My whole world was gone in one day, and if Jackie was gone, too…” She swiped at her face, clearing away newly fallen tears. “It would have been too hard.”

  She’d been controlling her world, then and now. Boy, did he recognize that trait. He’d inherited more than his height and his eye color from his father. “I do the same thing,” Kane said. “Except I devoted myself to my job. I said it was because the company needed me, because my father demanded it, but really, that’s an excuse. If I really wanted to find the perfect woman and fall in love, I could have—” a smile crossed his lips “—taken a vacation and done just that.”

  Slowly, a reciprocal smile curved across her face, and hope took flight in Kane’s chest. “Have you taken many of those? Vacations to meet the perfect woman?”

  He slid a finger down her delicate nose, landing on her upper lip. The urge to kiss her roared in his chest, thundered in his head. “Only one. Seems the best women are in Chapel Ridge, Indiana.”

  “Oooh, Mr. Maxwell isn’t going to like hearing you say that about his wife.”

  Kane laughed, then bent down and kissed Susannah after all, bringing her tight to his body, holding her there even after his lips left hers. “I mean you, silly, in case you had any doubts.”

  She smiled. “I did have some. But they’re starting to go away
now.” She bit her lip, then met his gaze. “You were right, Kane. Maybe I am running from love. It’s just…easier when I can hold on to the reins, you know what I mean? When you fall in love, you have to let someone else have one of the reins. And that thought scares the heck out of me.”

  “I know exactly what you mean.” He brushed the hair off her forehead and traced a line down her cheeks, then pressed a kiss along the same path. “And I was wrong to offer you what I did earlier. I was doing exactly what my father always did to me. Controlling everything, because I couldn’t stand to lose you. I’ve realized it’s easier to let you go…and open my heart.”

  “And take a risk?”

  He nodded. “It’s like having a rough diamond and deciding to cut and polish it while you’re blindfolded. You could ruin it, or make it into the most beautiful marquis cut ever. You just have to trust in the stone, and your gut instincts. And my gut says that you and I together will make beautiful gems.”

  She smiled. “Rubies and emeralds?”

  “I don’t care if we end up with quartz and topaz. As long as we’re together. And hey, we figured out how to fish and light a fire. I’d say after that, this getting married thing will be a piece of cake, what do you say?”

  She tipped her head to smile up at him, then a second later, sat up straight, as if the words had just hit her. “Getting married? What do you mean? We just left the wedding.”

  Kane leaned forward and depressed the button, lowering the window separating them from the driver. “Sam, would you mind heading back to the church?”

  “Certainly, Mr. Lennox.”

  The window went back up, and the limo did a quick U-turn.

  “Kane…where are we going?”

  Kane slid off the seat and onto the carpeted floor of the limousine. When he had decided that he wanted Susannah, he had moved heaven and earth to make it happen. Having the ring couriered to him, the limo set up, even asking the minister if he had time later today, assuming Susannah might say yes.

  Over the years, Kane’s billions of dollars had been a frustration in his life, but now he had found that it could also bring him great joy, between the people he had helped, and this.

  Kane reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a flawless two-carat red diamond ring, flanked by four same-sized white diamonds, forming a brilliant floral shape, which caught the sun and cast a rainbow of sparkles around the car. “Susannah Wilson, will you marry me?”

  She gaped at the ring, then at him. “Are you crazy? I can’t get married. I’m leaving for Paris in the morning and I live here and you live there and—”

  He pressed a finger to her lips. “And we’ll figure it all out. I always wanted to see Paris as a tourist. But we have to wait, just a few days before we leave for Paris, if that’s okay.”

  “We do? Why?” The words came out in a little stutter, as she took in the ring, him, trying to make sense of it all.

  “I promised my father a fishing trip. And believe me, by the time we get back from the church and Jackie’s reception, he’ll be ready to get out of the house.”

  She stared at him, confused. “Why?”

  “I left him with the same things you gave me. A bag of dog food, a leash and a stray.” Kane grinned.

  Susannah laughed. “You’re trying to convert the whole world?”

  “No, just my corner of it.” He held out the ring, his heart caught in her eyes, her answer. Never before had so much weighed on one word. “You didn’t answer my question. I love you, Susannah. Will you marry me?”

  “But where will we live? What will we—”

  “Anything is possible.”

  Susannah looked into Kane’s deep blue eyes, and saw the love there, a love she couldn’t have believed would happen in such a short time, and felt the same emotion swell in her own heart, and knew he was right. Anything was possible. She’d met a stranger barefoot on her sister’s lawn, a stranger with a secret who had forced her to get honest with herself—and had fallen in love with the man he really was.

  “Yes,” Susannah whispered, as he slid the ring onto her finger. “I love you, Kane.”

  He took Susannah into his arms and kissed her for a long, long time, loving her sweet goodness, the woman that she was, and the person she had helped him become. Then, when he finally drew back, Kane reached into his pocket and pulled out a small round globe, the kind purchased in airports and tourist shops for desks and curio cabinets.

  Nothing special, nothing expensive, but to Susannah, it symbolized the heart of everything she was about. “An early wedding present,” he said, pressing it into her palm and curling her hand around the colored globe. “I’ll give you the world, if you let me,” he said.

  Susannah snuggled deeper into Kane’s embrace, hearing the steady thump-thump of his heart. “I already have it, right here.”

  “So do I, Susannah,” Kane whispered, “so do I.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-2783-9

  THE BRIDESMAID AND THE BILLIONAIRE

  First North American Publication 2009.

  Copyright © 2008 by Shirley Kawa-Jump, LLC.

  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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