The Billionaire Boyfriend Proposal: A Kavanagh Family Novel (18 page)

I nodded. "So you'd better kiss me to seal
the deal."

His grin finally broke out. And then he
kissed me. It was as sweet and achingly tender as our very first
kiss. It clutched me round the heart and caressed me until I melted
into his arms. He held me and we deepened the kiss.

I didn't know how long it lasted. It could
have been seconds or hours. Time didn't matter. But eventually we
broke apart, although we kept our fingers entwined.

"I'm sorry my fears got in the way," I
said.

"Shhh. It's okay."

I shook my head. "Ever since I realized I
still loved you and you loved me…I've let my fear of losing you
again rule me. I won't anymore. Because whether we're a couple or
not, I'm always going to worry about you over there. I know that
now."

He frowned. "Over where?"

"The Middle East, or wherever you're deployed
to."

"Cassie, I'm not in the army anymore. I
quit."

It was my turn to frown. "I saw the letter on
the kitchen table. The one from your commanding officer recalling
you."

"Ah. That. That was a mistake. I did quit,
Cassie, but I called my C.O. one drunken night and told him I
wanted to return. I didn't realize he then put the wheels in motion
to get me back until I saw that letter. I called him right away to
tell him I'd been in no fit state to change my mind and I was very
much
not
returning."

"You got drunk?"

"Once or twice. I'm not proud of it."

"Would this be about the time you were riding
your motorbike without a helmet?"

"Yeah. I briefly developed what my CO calls a
death wish."

"Oh, Blake. I'm sorry." I drew him into a hug
and he buried his face in my hair.

"It's not your fault."

I let it go, although I knew now that my
continued rejection at the time had affected him.

He pulled away then got down on one knee. My
stomach dropped with him, but my heart soared. "Cassie West, will
you do me the honor of marrying me?"

"Yes!" The word burst out of me, along with a
few tears. I drew him up and slammed my mouth against his. I dug my
hands through his hair and his jacket slipped from my shoulders. I
didn't care and neither did he. We just wanted to be together like
that forever.

Unfortunately a cough behind me broke us
apart. "It's about time you two worked things out," Robbie said,
picking up the jacket and handing it to Blake.

"We have," I said, twining my fingers in
Blake's. "And you should be the first to know since you're the
reason we got back together."

"I am?"

"If it weren't for you coming to live with
me, Blake wouldn't have moved in too. It could have taken a lot
longer for me to realize I still loved him."

"And I'm not a patient man when it comes to
Cassie," Blake added. "Thankfully she put me out of my misery and
agreed to marry me."

"Yeah?" Robbie hugged me and kissed my cheek
then shook Blake's hand. "I'm really happy for you both. You guys
deserve each other."

"Don't tell the others yet," Blake said. "I
want tonight to be about Cleo and Reece. We'll announce it
tomorrow."

Robbie chewed his lower lip. Something was
worrying him.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Are you going to stay at the house?"

"Yes."

"We'll buy it off Reece," Blake said, smiling
down at me. "We'll take our time restoring the place to her former
glory."

My
house. Oh. Wow. I would finally get
to call the only home I ever wanted to live in mine. I kissed Blake
until Robbie cleared his throat again.

"You want to know if you can still stay?" I
asked him.

His mouth twisted to the side in a way that
reminded me how young he was, how uncertain life at that age can
feel at times. Doubly uncertain for a kid in his situation. He
nodded.

Blake clapped him on the shoulder. "Of course
you can. You did half the summer house renovations so it's only
fair."

Robbie beamed. "I'll get a job to pay rent.
Not sure as what yet."

"I've got a job for you. You can be my
apprentice and help me work on the house."

"Really? Because that would be awesome. I
loved helping you fix up the summer house. I don't know how to
thank you." Actually it seemed he did—he gave Blake a fierce hug.
When he pulled away he was once more cool and composed. He glanced
back inside. "Everyone's looking for you guys. Mrs. Kavanagh was
worried you'd ditched the party and gone home."

"Tempting," Blake said, winking at me.

Robbie groaned. "She's about to organize a
search party."

We followed him inside and spent the rest of
the evening surrounded by Blake's family. Soon, they would be my
family too. They were already my friends.

THE END

Coming Soon:

The Billionaire Boyfriend Bargain

Read Ash's story in the 3rd Kavanagh Family
novel, THE BILLIONAIRE BOYFRIEND BARGAIN. To be notified upon its
release, sign up to Kendra's newsletter:
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If you've read all of Kendra's stories and want more, check out
RUIN by C.J. Scott. An excerpt is included below.

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BOOKS BY KENDRA

The Billionaire Boyfriend Trap

The Billionaire Boyfriend Proposal

The Billionaire Boyfriend Bargain - coming
soon

Billionaire Bad Boy

Bedding The Billionaire

Snapped

Suddenly Sexy

ABOUT KENDRA

Kendra writes sensual contemporary romances
featuring strong men and the women who bring them to their knees.
She's married with 2 children, drinks too much coffee, eats too
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Excerpt of RUIN by C.J. Scott

Copyright 2013 C.J. Scott

CHAPTER 1

Coming home to Winter was like entering
Sleeping Beauty's story in the years after the princess was pricked
by her spindle and before she woke up. There's a reason why that
part of the tale was glossed over—nothing happened. Just like in
Winter. If it weren't for my friend Jane still living there, I
would have gone insane every summer vacation. Unlike Jane, I
planned on leaving as soon as college went back in the fall. If my
parents didn't smother me first.

Winter was the kind of town everyone over
forty loved, and all the interesting people left as soon as they
were old enough. Ever since the sawmill closed down in the late
Eighties, Winter had been losing jobs, residents and any sense of
fun at a steady rate. It was now little more than a moldering pile
of bricks and timbers squeezed between the river and the forest
that once sustained it.

To be fair, it must have been a pretty town
once, before the paint started peeling off the grand
turn-of-the-century buildings, and their decorative iron balconies
rusted. There were a few old homes still, like the one Jane lived
in with her grandmother, but they were in even worse repair than
the Main Street stores. Their owners should have sold up and moved
out long ago, but they waited too long, and property prices dove
when the sawmills closed. Now the dilapidated houses were falling
down around the ears of the dilapidated families who clung to them
with a death grip.

Like I said, Winter was the Sleeping Beauty
of Montana. Except no prince came to wake the princess. Princes
avoided Winter like she had the plague.

Until now.

Not that the guy who strolled into the Winter
Warmer diner was a prince. No prince wore a pair of jeans and
T-shirt as well as that, or carried a beaten-up duffel bag over one
broad shoulder. He was new and different enough from the sleepy
folks of Winter that he got my attention. Plus he was insanely
gorgeous.

"Wow," I whispered to Jane, sitting across
the table from me. "Don't look now, but the hottest guy ever just
walked in."

She turned around, and her denim skirt
squeaked against the faded vinyl seat. I would have smacked her on
the side of the head if I could reach. To my utter humiliation, Hot
Guy caught us watching. I held my milkshake in front of my burning
face to hide it. I shouldn't have bothered. He looked right on past
us like we weren't there.

Then his gaze suddenly back-tracked, locking
onto mine. His blue eyes darkened, and I felt like he wasn't
looking
at
me but into me. It was weird and intense, and
threw me off balance. The room suddenly tilted. I felt like I was
sliding off my seat. I set my milkshake down and gripped the edge
of the table.

"Who is he?" Jane whispered. "What's he doing
here?"

The spell broke. Hot Guy looked away and
strolled up to the counter. He set down his duffle bag and leaned
one hip against the counter as he gave his order to Molly. I had a
good view of his back from where we sat. He was tall, a few inches
over six feet, and his shoulders and biceps tested the seams of his
T-shirt. His back tapered to a narrow waist, and the jeans hugged
his perfect ass. His dark hair was cut close at the sides and left
a little longer on top. It stuck up in unruly spikes, which would
have had the old winter biddies reaching for their combs if he were
a local.

"Kate, are you even listening to me?" Jane
asked.

"Huh?" I tore my gaze away from that ass,
those shoulders. I wanted him to look at me again, but he made his
way to the other side of the diner and sat in an empty booth near
the window, his back to us. All four other patrons and Molly the
waitress watched him too, although I seemed to be the only one
drooling. They all stared at him for the same reason as Jane—they
wanted to know why a stranger had come to Winter. Nobody ever came
to Winter, not even in summer when the roads were good and the fish
were biting.

"You need to tell your dad about him," Jane
said, turning back to me.

"Are you serious?" I shook my head. She was
such a worrier. Not like me. Well, not anymore.

People used to mistake us for sisters when
were younger. We had the same ordinary brown hair, although I'd
dyed mine blonde as soon as I moved away, and we were both slender
and average height. We dressed differently now too. Where I
preferred strappy tops and shorts in summer, she kept to strictly
knee-length or longer skirts with sensible shoes. I'd given up
sensible shoes when I'd given up my brown hair. It hadn't fit with
the new me.

"Just relax," I added. "He's probably just
passing through on his way to Riverside. Either that or he's lost."
Riverside was the larger town further down the river. It had
camping grounds and cabin accommodation for tourists who came to
fish or go boating.

But the stranger didn't look like a
fisherman, or a tourist.

"Has he got a car?" Jane widened the
horizontal blind slats with her thumb and finger and peered out the
window at the street. Only Molly and Frank's old pickup was parked
at the curb. Everyone else, including Jane and me, had walked to
the diner.

Jane released the blinds. The slats didn't
fall neatly back into place. The lower one hung crookedly on its
string, broken, like so much in Winter. "How did he get here?" she
asked.

"Horse and buggy?"

"I don't see one out there, do you?" She
grinned and I smiled back. I couldn't help it. Jane was pretty when
she smiled. It's just that she hardly ever did. Being a full-time
care-giver for her grandmother was wearing her out, sapping all the
life and energy from her. For the first time since my return a week
ago, I was glad I'd come back to Winter. If nothing else, Jane
needed a friend. I was happy to see my parents too, I guess. I just
wished there was something to
do
.

"Some of us catch the bus into town," I
said.

"
You
catch the bus because you're the
only twenty-one year old in America without a car."

"Dad said he'd buy me one when I
graduate."

"Besides, you live here," she said, ignoring
me. "That guy doesn't. What reason would he have to get off the
bus?"