Maureen Child - The Highest Bidder

“I know what I want now,” he said, squinting into the sunlight dancing on the surface of the river. “And what I want, I get .”

He’d given Charlie two days to cool down. But when she showed up there at one to pack up her stuff, they were going to talk. Well, he was going to talk and she was going to listen. If he had to tie her to a chair.

The doorbell rang an hour later and Vance cursed. He wasn’t completely set up yet. He needed five more minutes. It figured the woman would show up early.

He walked barefoot across the room, his worn jeans dropping low along his hips, his bare chest warm from being out on the terrace collecting every damn flower he owned.

Yanking the door open, he stared down at her and he felt that hard, solid jolt of lust and what he recognized now as … love . She looked so damn small. Her hair was in a long braid hanging down the center of her back. She wore a bright blue blouse that did amazing things for her eyes and her khaki shorts stopped midthigh. Her sandals had daisies on the toes and her nails were painted a rich crimson.

Everything about her made him want to gather her up and hold on so tight she’d never get free. But first, she had to listen.

“I won’t bother you for long, Vance,” she said, stepping past him into the great room. “I’m just going to throw our things into the boxes we used when we came here—you still have them, don’t you?”

“If I said no would it stop you?”

“No,” she said sadly as she turned and headed for the bedrooms.

“Where’s Jake, Charlie?” He stopped her with one hand on her arm and that simple touch sent a bolt of heat dancing throughout his body. He’d been so cold without her that the heat was staggering. God, how could he have been so stupid to have waited so long to see the truth? How could he have risked this? Risked her?

She looked down at his hand on her arm, then lifted her gaze to his. “With Katie. Don’t, Vance. Don’t make it harder on both of us. Just let me pack up, okay?”

He let her go and followed her down the hall to the master bedroom. She opened the door and stopped dead on the threshold.

Exactly the kind of response he’d been hoping for.

He’d dragged every one of those pots of flowers in from the terrace. His bedroom looked like a tropical garden. The blue duvet on the bed had been sprinkled with rose petals and there was a bottle of champagne chilling in a silver bucket on the bedside table. The drapes were drawn and candles lit and soft jazz poured from the stereo.

“What is this?”

“ This is seduction, Charlie,” he said, satisfaction plain in his tone.

“Vance …”

He turned her around, hands first on her shoulders, then sliding up to cup her face. His thumbs stroked across her cheekbones and caught a single tear that rolled from her eye. “Just listen to me, okay? Give me that?”

She swallowed hard, and nodded.

Encouraged, he took her hand and drew her into the bedroom, seating her on the edge of the bed. She perched there uneasily, as if ready to bolt. He’d have only one chance to get this right. Or his entire life was screwed.

No pressure , as Roark would have said.

He took a breath and blew it out, scraped one hand across his face and finally forced himself to meet her eyes. “You were right. I did start out to romance you for all the wrong reasons.”

She frowned.

“But that changed so fast, Charlie.” He laughed at himself. “Sitting in that godawful diner, listening to the howls of all of those kids and looking into your smiling eyes, I started falling.”

“Vance.”

“No more lies, Charlie,” he said, stepping up close to her. He cupped her cheek in his palm briefly before backing away again, because he knew he had to have a clear head to do this right. And touching Charlie fogged up his brain like nothing else. “I didn’t know what was happening and when I finally figured it out, I told myself it wasn’t happening. Because that was easier than risking what I felt for you.

“See, I didn’t know what the hell love was, Charlie. Until you.”

She gasped a little and folded her hands together in her lap, squeezing until the knuckles went white.

“I’ve never even used the word before, so how could I believe what I was feeling was real?” He reached up and shoved one hand through his hair, then looked around the room at what he’d made of it. “From the first minute you walked into my office, I felt … different. You woke me up, Charlie. Made me see the world around me. Made me realize everything I’d been missing.”

“Vance,” she said softly.

“No, don’t talk yet,” he ordered, stabbing one finger in the air at her. “You said everything you had to say the other day in the office and I don’t blame you. I was a jerk and you were hurt. But I never was using you, Charlie. Don’t think that. Even when I didn’t consciously know it, I loved you.”

She sucked in a gulp of air and another tear coursed along her cheek. Vance’s heart fisted in his chest.

“Don’t cry. I can’t take it when you cry.” He walked up to her again, pulled her up off the bed and looked down into her eyes. “I love you so much.” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and said it again. “I love you. Believe me, Charlie. I will always love you.”

“I do,” she whispered, her mouth curving in that delectable smile that turned Vance’s insides to mush.

He grinned and let loose a relieved sigh. “Now there’s a phrase I want you to get comfortable with.”

“What?”

“ I do . Two words I’m going to want you to repeat as soon as I find a judge to marry us.”

“Marry?” She stared up at him, dumbfounded. “You want to marry me?”

“What did you think this was all about?” he asked, laughing. “Think I dragged all these damn flowers in here to ask you to go steady or something? Think I’ve got champagne chilled because we’re going to shack up?”

“I—I—”

“I never thought I’d see this,” he said with another quick grin. “She’s speechless.”

“Sort of. Vance, remember, I’m a package deal.”

“And I want the whole package,” he told her as his heart thudded painfully in his chest. “You and Jake. If you’ll let me, I’ll adopt him. I already feel like he’s mine.”

“Adopt—” Her mouth dropped open and she slapped one hand to it.

“And I want more kids, Charlie. At least three or four.”

“Four—”

“I bought your house.”

“You what? ”

“That house you love in Forest Hills Gardens? I bought it.”

“How? When? Why?”

He grinned. “Three excellent questions. Let’s just say I went over there last night and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. The house is ours, Charlie. We can move in next month. All you have to do is say yes.”

“You bought the house?” She was stunned, blinking as if she half expected to find herself in a dream with someone waking her up any moment.

“Charlie, I want to give you and Jake everything. I want us to be a family. I want to say I love you every day for the rest of my life.”

“I can’t believe you bought that house.”

“You loved it.”

“Yes, but …”

“Charlie,” he said, his voice an urgent whisper as he fought for the thing he had wanted most in his life, “it’s just a building. Until you say yes and live in it with me, it’s just bricks and mortar and stone and—You’re the heart, Charlie. The heart of me. The heart of that house. Without you, we’re both incomplete.”

“I do love you so much, Vance,” she finally whispered as if she said it too loudly, it would shatter the moment.