A Seductive Proposal (24 page)

His gaze fell to the flower arrangement. He scowled. “That’s bigger than I thought it would be.”

“Yeah.” She remained where she was. She felt like her body was held together by loose stitches that could come apart with the smallest tug. She balanced the tips of her fingers on the desk. What kind of anchor was that?

“I just need you to hear me out.”

She nodded. “Okay.” If he needed to speak, let him speak. He could get all the words out then she could send him to perdition with the kick of one of her Timberlines on his ass.

He waxed long about how he had done nothing wrong. This part went on for
hours.
Okay, maybe five minutes. Time had become a real fluid thing in her office right now. She bet if she looked around she’d see a wormhole or some other kind of dimensional phenomenon sucking down the minutes like the way she meant to suck down her next two or three margaritas really, really soon.

So, he hadn’t meant to hurt her, it had just been business, he’d made his intentions clear from the beginning, blah, blah, blah.

Then he started speaking about the Grand Canyon for some reason and love and how he needed her and more blah, blah, blah.

Then he came close and oh, my God, knelt beside her desk.

She took a step back. Her fingertips stopped holding her upright and she plopped into her chair.

“Will you marry me?”

She glanced down at the enormous rock displayed on a bed of crimson velvet. It must have cost a fortune. Of course it cost a fortune. Quint had a fortune. He also had her damn winery.

How romantic.

“I’ll marry you when hell freezes over,” slid out of her mouth just like that.

His lips parted wide and his jaw slung low. His eyes clouded over. “Not the response I was looking for. But don’t you see, this way you can have the winery.”

She blinked at him thinking that for all his intelligence he must have been the biggest idiot in the entire world. “Quint,” she began. She wanted to say something awful as in all those profanities that once more flittered through her beleaguered skull.

Instead, she rose from the chair again and said, “You’re screwing up my schedule. I have a tour. Go back to Phoenix. Enjoy your life but please leave me the hell alone.”

He rose up as well. “That’s your answer? After everything we’ve been through? Accomplished together?”

“
We
didn’t go through anything together except a business deal.
Remember
?” She pushed past him and he let her go.

She forgot her hat and her gloves but like hell she was going back into her office. She moved into the lobby, grabbed her clipboard and hurried out the door. She bit back the thousand tears that wanted to flash flood the Jeep bay.

She would not cry. She would not cry. She would so not cry.

* * * * * * * * *

Quint snapped the lid shut on the ring box.

How had he gotten to this place of proposing to a woman and receiving such a pithy response as,
when hell freezes over?

She was still upset about the winery thing.

He got it.

Goddam the winery. Goddam his irrational brain that stayed on one loop,
just business, intentions clear from beginning, you should applaud my genius not be angry. Just business, intentions clear from the beginning, you should applaud my…oh, just shut the hell up.

Tina, that speak-her-mind-always firecracker, leaned against the doorframe in an I-told-you-so manner. She said, “You give a whole new meaning to the word
moron.
”

“I proposed. Isn’t that what every woman wants?”

“You smug bastard.”

“Hey. Why don’t you tell me what you really think?”

She put a hand to her chest. “Don’t shoot the messenger, Harry. I want to help. I actually like you.”

He grimaced. “Well, castration is not helping.”

At that, she smiled.

The phone rang from the lobby “I’ll have to get that, but here’s a piece of advice. You’ve got to do a whole lot better than, ‘this way you get the winery.’ Puh-lease. If she were a client you were trying to win over, say the biggest deal of your life, is that really the best you could do?” The phone rang again. “Gotta get this. Good luck, Harry.”

Quint drove back to Phoenix, a weight on his chest. The box, holding the ring, rode in the empty seat beside him. He felt like twelve kinds of a fool. Carly had turned him down flat. She had turned him down like the hundred thousand dollar ring had come out of a Cracker Jack Box. She had turned him down like she despised him.

As the BMW worked the ups and downs of the highway leading out to I-17, he considered his life, his rough childhood and all his subsequent accomplishments and decisions. He had never planned on taking a wife, but being with Carly had changed that. He loved her and he didn’t want to live his life without her.

Once he’d figured that out, he’d bought a ring and headed back to Sedona. What could be simpler? She’d already told him she loved him so if he reciprocated and offered marriage, that should have been enough.

He wasn’t good at this part of life, not by a long shot.

So, Tina believed he had to do a lot better.

He had to think this through. He pondered hard as the sports car transitioned onto I-17. If Carly were a company he wanted to buy, what would he do to maneuver her into a selling position?

He released a heavy sigh. But she wasn’t a company, she was a woman, flesh and blood, soft, kind, strong willed, intelligent, and had a firm command of her worth. So, what was she worth to him?

Everything.

That’s when he had his answer. That’s when he knew what he had to do, how to show Carly the depth of his love, something she would understand because she knew him inside and out.

He glanced at the box with the ring. A glittering diamond wouldn’t even begin to get the job done. Beyond that, words were cheap. But there was one thing he had that wasn’t.

* * * * * * * * *

Two days later, Carly had her tour at the top of the Mogollon Rim. All the tourists stood near the edge looking down into the canyon or out at the purple-hazed switchback of buttes. The air was so fresh and clean.

A new Jeep arrived. She glanced in the direction of the vehicle and her chest tightened. Tina took up the passenger seat, while one of her other drivers, Renee, sat behind the wheel. But it was the horseshoe-shaped bed that held her attention since Quint, Brad Hansen, and another tallish, good-looking man took up the back seat.

Thank God she leaned against her Jeep or she would have fallen over.

When the Jeep drew close, and Tina hopped out to let the passengers exit, Carly addressed her first. “What’s going on? Who’s on the phones, the emails, the faxes? What about all the other tours?”

“Joni has the phones,” Tina said. “And Renee is going to take your current tour back down the mountain.” She then inclined her head to Quint as he stepped down and moved to stand next to Carly. “As for the tours, Quint bought up the last of them.”

“All of them?” She shifted her gaze back to Quint. “Why?”

“Because I needed your full attention and I didn’t want you worrying about your business.” He glanced around. “This whole thing between you and me began here, on the Rim, remember? I took your hand and you spoke about possibilities and well, this is the right place for me to make my case.”

“I’m not marrying you, Quint.”

He waved a hand dismissively. She wanted to break off all his fingers for that oh-so-typical gesture.

“I want you to meet my attorney, Hank Grovers. Hank, this is Carly Grayson, the woman in charge.”

Hank wore a somber expression.

“You remember Brad?”

“Of course.” She inclined her head to Brad, who remained seated. He grinned in the same stupid manner Tina had, then laughed outright. She turned away from him to avoid climbing in the Jeep and punching his lights out.

She looked up at Quint. “Well, get on with it. Whatever it is you’re doing. Or did you find some way to steal Jumpin’ Jeep Tours from me?” Quint looked a little crushed.

She cleared her throat and glanced at Tina. Her friend and office manager appeared ready to go nova, she smiled so brightly.
Now Carly wanted to punch
her
lights out.

Quint spoke to Hank. “Give her the first document.”

Oh, great, another set of documents. Was he trying to put her in her grave?

The attorney opened his black leather briefcase and withdrew a stack of papers then extended the top smaller portion of the bundle toward her.

She took it aware that whether she liked it or not, her fingers shook. She glanced at the first document, which proved to be a letter and read it through. She shook her head and lifted her gaze to Quint’s. “You’re pulling out of the winery sale?”

He nodded.

“Because I refused to marry you?”

He shook his head. “No. Because I should never have forced that choice on you in the first place.”

Carly wondered if he meant to buy the board-and-care home instead. She almost yelled at him, but some instinct, maybe the distressed expression around his eyes, closed up her throat.

Once more, he addressed Hank. “Give her the other document.”

Hank Grovers shook his head and muttered, “You sure you want to do this?”

Quint offered him a stare that would have put frostbite on an icicle.

The second sheaf of papers was quite thick, almost as fat as the black folder he’d once dropped onto her lap.

“What is this?” she asked, turning away from the others to place the bound document on the hood of her Jeep.

Quint drew close, right up behind her and just off to the side, so that she felt his chest touching her back. She caught his earthy, citrusy scent and felt her knees do that treacherous wobble thing. Would she always be this hopeless around him?

“Well,” he began, sidling closer so that now his hips connected with her from behind. Desire, so unwelcome, sent chills streaking to every part of her body. Dammit. Against her ear, he spoke in a quiet, serious voice, “This is my life, Carly, everything I’ve accomplished up until today, all my assets, my net worth, a list of all the projects currently underway, bank balances, stock portfolio, the various businesses I own, the charities to which I donate, my home, my cars, my jet, my motorcycles. All of it.”

What did this mean?

She craned her neck to look up at him. “What’s the point here? What’s this all about?”

He slid his arms to either side of her, then planted them both on the hood of the Jeep so that he had her caged. Her instincts had begun firing off again and her throat grew really tight. She was going to make a fool of herself. She just knew it.

He leaned over her shoulder and spoke close to her ear. “I want you to have it all. When I proposed a couple of days ago, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, or even what I should do. But I gave it a lot of thought on the way back to Phoenix and I decided that this way you would know what you’ve come to mean to me as well as what I hope from you in the future.

“You were right when you told me that my youth held me hostage. I didn’t know what love was. How could I? And I’d never grown comfortable with the reality that I’d earned enough to prevent poverty from ever hounding me again. My childhood has dictated every move, for good or for bad. With you, I didn’t understand what was happening from the first. My body told me because making love to you was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Beyond that, I had no clue; I was flying blind. And how could I have known what was really happening to me?

“All I know now is that I don’t want to live as I’ve lived, focused only on business. I want everything to be different. I thought I could live my life without a woman, without a wife, without a family but I don’t want to anymore. You’ve shown me what I really need.

“I need you, Carly. I need you with me, in my heart, serving as my guide and companion,” he lowered his voice, “as my lover. I don’t think a man has ever been more foolish. You’re the real treasure here. I don’t want your winery. I want you. With me. Forever.”

The black font on the white document blurred into a gray river right in front of her swimming eyes. She put a hand over her face and a sob tore through her throat so hard she lurched forward. But strong arms caught her, enveloped her, pulled her tight. “Marry me, Carly. I love you with all my heart. I need you. I was a complete idiot. Please forgive me.”

He turned her in his arms.

Carly threw her arms around his neck and wept into his shoulder. She couldn’t seem to stop crying but he knew what to do. He just held her and stroked a hand down her back. He whispered his love into her ear over and over. He held her until she could get the words out, “Of course I’ll marry you.”

He kissed her then, a warm, deep kiss.

After a moment, she drew back and felt a hand nudge her. She glanced and saw that Tina held out a Kleenex to her. She took it and wiped her face.

Quint shifted slightly, but didn’t let her go as he addressed Tina. “How’d I do?”

Tina grinned. “You did good, Harry. But I knew you would. I get
feelings
about this kind of thing.”

After a few minutes, with the sun setting in the west, he guided Carly to the edge of the Mogollon Rim, holding her close against his side. “Remember? Possibilities.”

“Yes. Your favorite thing.”

He turned into her once more and caught her chin with his free hand. “I love you, Carly, more than I can say.”

Carly looked into blue eyes, as blue as the Sedona sky. She tried to remember a few weeks back, before Quint had come into her life, but that seemed like a decade ago.

He’d changed everything for her. Now, she’d have a man in her life. He’d share a home with her and she’d bump into him in the bathroom and in the kitchen. She’d wake up with his warm body surrounding hers. He’d make love to her first thing in the morning and late at night.

She’d make plans with him and her goals would change, and maybe, as Quint had suggested not so long ago, everything would become even better than she’d dreamed or imagined.

The possibilities for her life had just opened up dramatically, but there was one thing she needed to make clear. “We’re both putting together pre-nups. You may be willing to hand everything over to me, but I absolutely refuse to either let that happen or to give you my own portfolio.” She lifted her chin, daring him to diminish what she’d built, though she smiled at the absurdity of comparing the two. However, Quint, to his credit, didn’t do more than nod his agreement.