Authors: Suzanna Ross
Trust in Me (20 page)
“I thought I should maybe leave the estate sooner rather than later.” She eventually voiced her thoughts.
“I wonder why would you want to do that? You fought so hard to stay.”
“I no longer work here. Evie’s settled with her aunt. And you wanted vacant possession when you arrived, so I feel it’s only fair to give you that option now.”
His slashing smile sent ripples down her spine. She couldn’t afford to let herself remember she also loved him. “As I recall, I never did managed to throw you out. You wormed your way into my life and wouldn’t budge.”
“Well, I’m suggesting I go now.”
He shook his dark head and eased himself into the chair nearest Rosie’s sofa. “I’ve employed hoards of workmen, architects, designers to remodel the manor into whatever you want it to be and now you’re threatening to bale on me?”
She sighed softly. “Yes, I know how much you paid those people to drop everything and renovate the manor at short notice. But I’m not going to feel bad about it – you’ve already told me you’re so rich I couldn’t begin to make a dent in your fortune.”
She watched his full lips as he smiled and remembered how it had felt to kiss him. “If you married me, our assets would be shared.”
At his mention of marriage, her heart flipped. But he was joking, he had to be. Theo had told her he didn’t do marriage. She replied in the same flippant tone. “Gee, thanks. Does that offer to share your assets include the manor?”
Theo leaned closer. She could feel his heat, smell his fresh very male scent. Despite everything, he was doing some very strange things to her equilibrium. “Nope.”
She laughed. “Thought not.”
“Because, I spoke to my lawyers from your bedside yesterday. I’ve arranged for the manor and the estate to be transferred into your sole name.” He spoke quietly. Almost as though he were embarrassed by the sentimentality of the occasion. Rosie’s head snapped round. Had she heard correctly? “The manor’s yours,” he repeated, just to clarify matters.
“I don’t want it,” she harrumphed ungraciously.
“In that case you’re at liberty to sell it,” he told her quietly. “But I hope you don’t. You can make a real go of this place – if you want to.”
“You are joking.”
“I’m deadly serious. I’d never joke about an asset of that value.”
Rosie took a moment to digest this. “Why? Why would you want to hand over the manor and the estate to me?
“It was to be your wedding present.”
“You don’t need to give me a wedding present, we’re not getting married. Neither of us believes in marriage.”
“Hear me out, and if you still want to refuse me I’ll respect that. But you’ll still need somewhere to live, and the estate and everything on it will be yours, regardless.”
“Doesn’t that leave a gap in your balance sheet?”
“I’ve covered that by moving personal funds.”
“Why? You don’t need to give me anything. I desperately needed a home for Evie, it’s true, but even at that point I’d never have married you for the estate. It was never about your money – I thought you knew that.”
“Will you stop being so stubborn for a minute?” He reached out and gently brushed a red curl away from her cheek. “When I first saw the manor my instinct was to ditch is as quickly as possible. I was horrified Lysander had bought it in the name of Bradley’s.”
“You made that crystal clear at the time,” she recalled. “I remember the day I showed you around, I thought you were going to have a fit…”
“I was horrified, but then I saw you, and suddenly I didn’t want to get rid of the manor. I wanted to keep it for you. I’m having it renovated for. And I still very much hope we can make the estate our family home – in this house if you still prefer. My company can rent the manor from you – I’m looking to move my headquarters out of London.”
She looked at him uncomprehendingly. “A family home as in for you, me and babies?”
“Yes.”
She thought through the implications. He was offering her almost everything she’d wanted since she realised she was in love with him. But the one missing ingredient prayed on her mind. Could she love him enough for two?
“I very much hope you’ll agree to marry me and allow me live here with you with you. But I’m not taking anything for granted – it’s purely your decision.”
“I don’t understand why you won’t let this go. You could find someone else. You’ve only settled for me because you wanted a relationship with no string, no dramas, no demands…”
He laughed with genuine warmth, his eyes crinkling, his teeth flashing white. “You must be joking. I’ve had more strings and more dramas from you than from every other woman I’ve ever known put together”
Rosie’s face burned.
“And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He reached out and brushed her cheek with his finger. “I love the way you blush.” He traced the curve of her face and she leaned into his hand. “Being with you at the hospital last night gave me a lot of time to think. The conclusion I reached is I want to be with you more than anything else in the world. Do you think you could manage to give me a chance to get things right?”
“Are you saying all this because it was your brother who put me in hospital? Are you suffered some sort of misplaced guilt?”
“I was on my way back to you yesterday when Harry phoned. If it wasn’t for Lysander we could have had this conversation a day sooner. I need to know, could you be happy living here with me?”
“And you’d be happy to move from London? It would work? With all the people you have to meet?”
“I’d be very happy. And I can be in the city quickly if I need to be – I have the helicopter.”
Rosie suppressed a smile at this. “Yes, I know how much you love your helicopter.”
He ignored her teasing and powered on. “Although I’m hoping to take a back seat for a few years, take time out to be a husband and father…if you’ll have me.”
He was serious. Rosie took a deep breath. She could do this. Maybe he would never admit he loved her, but what he was describing sounded very much like love to Rosie. It took great strength not to throw herself flat at him. “Of course I’ll have you. Did you ever doubt it?”
“Truthfully? Yes. You were never that keen on me, even when you were desperate for stability for Evie – and her donkeys.”
“I’ve been keen all along.” She laughed awkwardly. It felt strange to admit that in the open. “Right from the minute you turned up and started throwing your weight around.”
He grinned softly and leaned in for a slow, delicious kiss, leaving her in no doubt of his sincerity. “The only thing that gave me hope was you seemed to appreciate the attraction between us. The first time we kissed, I began to hope perhaps you found me as irresistible as I found you. But you’ve been pushing me away ever since.”
“I’d never believed I could feel that for anyone and it scared me. But it scared me more when I thought I’d lost you.”
He pulled her closer. “Would never have happened. I would have found a way to make you want to marry me… However much you protested it wasn’t what you wanted.”
“Fear does funny things to people.” Deep breath. She had to tell him now, she couldn’t live her life trying to hide it. “I was frightened because somewhere along the line I fell in love with you and I knew you didn’t want that.”
She looked into his gold, gold eyes and could feel her heart beating against her chest. The silence seemed to span an age.
He sighed. “I want that,” he admitted quietly. “Because somewhere along the line I fell in love with you, too.”
Her eyes widened in amazement. “You don’t believe in love.”
“I’ve changed my mind. I didn’t realise it had happened at first, but from the time a tiny, furious redhead threw me off my own land, I’ve thought of nothing but you. All I want to do is to be with you, to hold you in my arms, to make you happy. If that’s not love then I don’t know what is.”
Daring to give into temptation, she lifted her arms around his neck and kissed him squarely on the mouth. They were both breathless when she eventually pulled away.
“So, Rosie Farnham, I love you utterly and completely. Will you marry me?”
She kept him waiting for just a moment while her heart regained a steady rhythm. “Yes, Theo Bradley, I will.”
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