A Highland Summer: The Billionaire's Nanny (A BWWM Billionaire Contemporary Romance) (10 page)

Darach didn't leave Castle McLanald for the rest of the summer, deciding it was in Cameron's best interests to have him around - as well as mine. She also didn't end up going to therapy. Nothing heals like love does - I already knew it was true in my head but that summer with Darach and Cameron and Mr. and Mrs. Clyde gave me a very tangible - and familiar, due to my grandmother - understanding of what it means to care and be cared for. We spent most of our days outdoors, just watching Cameron as she explored the land she would one day inherit and lying in the heather enjoying each other's company.

My relationship with Darach deepened as well. We found ourselves at the top of the Treacle-Eater's Tower one evening just as the sun was starting to set, bathing the landscape in golden light. Cameron was picking wildflowers around the base of the tower and shouting the names of each species up to us as she picked them - she was developing into a small botanist, always carrying her 'Native Plants of Scotland' reference book around under her arm and checking new discoveries with a serious look on her face. It was a week before I was due to return to New York for my final year of college.

"You could finish your degree here, couldn't you?"

I turned to look at Darach, squinting in the evening light and not sure how serious he was.

"Well...I suppose I could. Why?"

"Why?" Darach repeated my question back to me, scoffing and grinning. "Why do you think, Jennifer?"

I didn't know what I thought. I know what I wanted to be true. Before I could say anything else Darach bent down to kiss me and then pulled away only far enough to look me in the eyes.

"I love you. I love you, Jennifer Robinson, and I don't want you to leave."

My vision blurred with tears almost immediately. It was what I wanted. I think I already knew he loved me but I wanted to hear it from him, I wanted to really
know
it.

"Yeah, this is the usual reaction I get from women when I tell them I love them. Crying."

I laughed through my tears and took a handful of his shirt in my hand, shaking him gently.

"You better not be lying, Darach. I'd rather live with you never loving me than you telling me you loved me and not meaning it."

He raised his eyebrows at me and tucked a long, dark curl behind one of my ears. "Jenny, are you completely insane? Is this a surprise to you? If it is I have to say I'm very disappointed in your powers of perception - I'm pretty sure it's obvious to everyone within a hundred mile radius that I love you,"

For some reason the image of my grandmother's face popped into my mind at that moment and I started to cry harder, pushing my face into Darach's chest for comfort and leaning against his tall, strong body.

"Hey, Jennifer. What's wrong? Why the tears?"

I took a few minutes to compose myself and looked up at him:

"I was just thinking of my grandmother."

"Were you? Why? Would she be happy that a strange Scottish Laird who lives in the middle of nowhere loves her granddaughter?"

I nodded, trying desperately to blink tears away but they kept coming. "Yes, Darach. That's why I'm crying. No one ever really loved me except her. When she died it felt like no one ever would again, and now you say you love me."

"I do love you, Jenny."

"I know you do. I don't even know why I'm crying. I'm happy. I'm so happy you love me, Darach. Of all the people on earth I could choose to love me, it would be you."

He pulled me tightly in against his chest but I wasn't finished:

"I love you, too, you know. I think I loved you within a twenty four hours of meeting you, actually."

Darach laughed at that. "Yeah, I think I did, too."

"Then why the hell did we wait so long to say it?"

He kissed the top of my head. "Because we were both afraid it wouldn't be reciprocated."

There was a small sound behind us and we both whirled around to see Cameron standing behind us. She was smiling and holding a handful of greenery and flowers.

"I knew you two were in love a long time ago. Grown-ups are silly."

I loved the way she referred to Darach and I as "you two".

Three weeks later after a trip he told me was to Dubai, Darach marched into the kitchen where I was eating dinner with Cameron with a huge grin on his face.

"Daddy!" Cameron jumped up from the table and threw herself into his arms. He kissed her cheek and sat down next to me.

"Eat fast, Jennifer, there's something I want to show you."

I could tell something was up from Darach's buoyant tone of voice. When he rushed me out to the Land Rover as soon as I was finished eating, leaving Cameron with Mrs. Clyde, I couldn't contain myself.

"Darach! What's going on?"

"Just wait, you'll see soon enough."

So I decided to go along with whatever it was he had up his sleeve. Soon, we were pulling up to the field that contained the Pictish stone.

"I've already seen the stone..." I said, confused. But he ignored me, coming around to the passenger side and helping me out, leading me down the path to the little hill and up to the stone itself. When we got there, the sun was just setting. No one else was around. I looked at Darach with my eyebrows raised, waiting to find out just what it was that has gotten him into such a state.

"So," he started, looking me in the eye, "now comes the time for Jennifer Robinson to prove all the nice things she says to her Laird."

'Her Laird.' I liked that.

Even as I watched him get down on one knee I was still unsure about what he was up to. It only sunk in when he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box.

"Darach..."

"Shhh, Jenny," he shushed me, looking up at me and taking my hand.

I always thought I would cry. I'm a cryer. Perhaps the happy summer, full of love and new-built family, had changed me. Whatever the reason, I surprised myself by not instantly bursting into tears. Instead I just looked right back at Darach as the feeling of my heart filling right up to the brim spread out through my body.

"Jennifer. My beautiful Jenny from America, my big city girl. I love you. You make me happier than I've ever been. The only thing I want to do is spend the rest of my life making you as happy as you've made me. Will you marry me?"

He opened the box and I gasped at the ring. A flawless, Asscher cut diamond surrounded with a halo of rubies sat in a cloud of black velvet. I must have stared for a little too long because Darach gave my hand a little squeeze.

"Well? What do you say? Will you have this Scottish idiot?"

I reached down and very gently took the ring out of the box, handing it to Darach.

"Yes. Yes. Darach, a billion million times yes. I love you."

He pushed the ring onto my finger and admired it for a few seconds before standing up and pulling me into his arms. It was there, with my face pressed against the familiar warmth of his chest, that I remembered Diane.

"What about D-"

I didn't even get to finish.

"I wasn't in Dubai, Jennifer. I was in London. She's made a deal with my lawyer - I get full custody of Cameron and an immediate divorce. It should come through within two months but I wanted to get a ring onto your finger before you had a chance to escape.

So that was it, my happy ending.
Our
happy ending - mine, Darach's, Cameron's and all of the babies I wanted to have with him.

We spent the next few days telling everyone. Darach's sister Anne came back from her summer vacation and, when we told her, just shook her head and smiled.

"I knew it. I knew it. I could see it on both of your faces two days after you met. Congratulations."

We got married on a clear, frosty day in January. My friends Amy and Simone sat in the front row beside the small photograph of my grandmother, whose presence I could feel all around us in the church. I wore a white Valentino couture gown that had involved three trips to Paris to get right and Darach held his daughter in his arms as he watched me walk down the aisle with Mr. and Mrs. Clyde on either side of me. When he kissed me after our vows had been taken and we had been pronounced man and wife, the whole church stood up, clapping and whooping.

Darach looked me in the eye and bent down to whisper in my ear through the din:

"You're mine now, Jennifer Robinson. And I'm yours. Forever."

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Imani King is a small town girl with a big imagination. She nurtures a passion for yoga and can often be found in the studio when she's not writing.

In her fantasies, she and her billionaire Mr. Right travel the world, exploring different cultures and each other! These daydreams are the inspiration for her sizzling stories, so what are you waiting for? Give one of them a try and let her know what you think.

Author Central: www.amazon.com/author/imaniking

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