by Ella Miles
Terror flashes over Killian’s face as he realizes, at any second, I will give him my answer. But he shouldn’t seem so afraid. He’ll want to hear my answer. My answer will set him free.
“I’ll let the nurses know he’s awake,” Killian says, leaving the room.
I laugh softly at his reaction.
I wait until the nurses and doctors check Granddad over. I wait until after they tell me he should make a full recovery in a few days. A week, they guessed. Then, he will have to frequently meet with a cardiologist for a while, but he seems to be out of the woods for now. I wait until Killian leaves to call everyone at the office to let them know Granddad is okay. I wait until Granddad sits up and seems comfortable. I wait until he is alone. I wait until I’ll explode if I wait any longer.
“I’m not going to marry him. I refuse. I’m not going to let you or Dad or Mom or anyone else choose for me anymore. I’ve made mistakes in my past, yes. I will always regret those mistakes, but I haven’t been living since I let you guys control me. Since Dad’s death, I’ve tried to make my own decisions. They haven’t always been the best, but I’ve made them for me.”
I pause, giving him a chance to yell at me or tell me I’m wrong.
He doesn’t, so I continue, “I can find my own husband on my own time. I don’t need your help. I don’t need the money either. I might have a useless degree I don’t care about, thanks to you, but I’m smart. I can go back and get my MBA. I can go back and get any degree I want. I can make something of myself on my own. I don’t care if I have to live in a box and eat cereal for years until I have enough money to buy a place. But it will be my place. It will be my money.”
I take a deep breath. “I refuse to turn into my mother. I refuse to be that miserable. I won’t marry him,” I say, collapsing into a chair. Standing up to Granddad took everything out of me.
I look at my grandfather who has yet to say a word. Instead, he is just sitting there with a serious look on his face. It probably isn’t fair to him to spring all of this on him, only hours after he woke up from open-heart surgery, but I don’t care. I can’t live without making my own decisions. I can’t keep living like a princess. I have to find my own way in life.
He pats the side of the bed, and I slowly, cautiously get out of my chair and sit on the edge of his bed.
“You’re just like your father.”
I stare at him in confusion.
I loved my father. He was an amazing man, but I’m nothing like him. He was strong where I’m weak. He was decisive where I’m indecisive. He was a workaholic where I’m lost.
I shake my head. “I’m not.”
A smile tugs at Granddad’s lips. “You are. You won’t listen to anyone. You choose your own path. And you defy my every decision, just like him.”
“I never—”
He puts his hand up, stopping me from arguing with him. “I always thought you would fight me till the very end on my decision for you to marry Killian. I don’t think I ever thought you would follow my command. Maybe, if your father were still alive, you would have listened better to him, but I doubt it. Somehow, I think we would have ended up here, both at odds and neither of us wanting to give in.”
My head drops. He’s not going to back down. I’m going to have to find my way on my own with no money.
“Lucky for you, a heart attack changes an old man like me.”
My face lifts as I try to decide if he is serious or not.
His face looks sad. “I didn’t listen to your father when he pleaded with me to let him choose his own wife. I thought I knew better.” He rubs his neck. “I’m not sure if the company benefited greatly from their union. I know he was never happy in his marriage.”
He sighs. “I can’t change your dad’s fate, but I can give you a chance. I know you have been trying to prove you are worthy of running the company.”
I nod.
“You’ve failed horribly.”
I frown but don’t deny it. It’s true. I’m not the right person to run the company.
“I am willing to give you a chance though.”
My eyes brighten just a little.
“Since I promoted Killian to CEO, there is a spot open in the company. We will need a new VP of Operations. I’ve been looking around, but I haven’t found anyone worthwhile yet. Tony obviously isn’t a good choice.”
I nod, willing him to say the words I want him to voice.
“I’ll give you the job.”
My hands go around him, tightly holding him, before he even has a chance to say the rest. He pushes me back up after I’ve finished smothering him.
“Now, the job comes with some conditions. You will attend business classes.”
I nod. I already planned on doing that.
“You will run every decision by either Killian or me.”
I nod, not liking that as much, but I’ll accept it—for now.
“Lastly, this is a trial run. If you last a year, it can be a permanent position, but Killian or I can fire you for any reason at any time.”
I take a deep breath and nod. His terms seem fair, considering I have never run a company like this before.
“If you last a year, I’ll give you all of my equity.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “That would be…”
He nods. “You would have controlling power over the company. You would have fifty-one percent. Killian will only have forty-nine.”
I take a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. I can’t believe what he is offering me. I don’t understand what changed since the heart attack, but whatever it is, I’ll take it.
“Do we have an agreement?”
I smile. “Yes.”
I extend my hand, and we shake on it.
“Now that, that is taken care of, what is that boy still doing here?”
“What do you mean?”
“I figured, since you aren’t wearing a ring and you finally got the balls to tell me you aren’t marrying him, no matter what, it meant you told him no.”
I nervously twist my strands of hair in front of my body.
“Kinsley?”
“I haven’t answered him yet. I tried to earlier, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“Then, answer me this. How do you feel about that boy?”
“What do you mean?”
He rolls his eyes at me. “Do you love him? And don’t you dare lie to me. I’ve been through enough these last few days. You wouldn’t want to give me another heart attack because you lied to me.”
I shake my head at his dramatics. I don’t know how to answer him because I’m not sure how I feel.
“Maybe. I don’t know,” I say, getting up from the bed and pacing the room.
He doesn’t rush me or ask me any further questions. He just watches me pace and encourages me with his patience to tell him.
“He makes me feel warm when he’s around me. I ache when he’s gone. He challenges me. He frustrates me.”
I walk to the other side of the room.
“He charming, intelligent, strong. He’s taken care of me more than he should.”
I pace again.
“He was willing to marry me for no other reason than because he felt he made a promise to my father.”
I pace again.
“He’s decisive and opinionated and so controlling that it pisses me off.”
I pace.
“He’s serious. He hardly ever laughs. It’s annoying really.”
I pace.
“He sucks at blackjack and poker. He sucks at all card games.”
I stop.
“You love him,” he says.
I shrug as tears well in my eyes. “It doesn’t matter if I love him. It only matters if he loves me.”
And I already know the answer. He doesn’t.
Granddad holds his arms out to me. I walk over to his bedside and curl up like a child would in her mother’s lap. I let the tears fall as he gently rubs my back until no more tears can fall.
&nbs
p; “I’m going to tell you a story I promised I never would.”
I hiccup.
He smiles and kisses the top of my head. “It was three years ago. Your father had fallen ill.”
I sit up before turning to look at him. “What do you mean, my father was ill?”
He sighs. “You were in school. It was stage one colon cancer.”
“What?”
“Calm down. They were able to easily cure it because they’d caught it so early. We didn’t want to worry you since there was nothing to worry about. He wouldn’t have died from the cancer.”
I nod although it doesn’t make me feel any better they kept secrets from me.
“Anyway, the cancer scare was enough for your father to rethink his life plans. He loved his work. He loved running the company. It’s all he’d ever dreamed about, but it made him realize he wanted more. He wanted to retire, to travel, to find out what living was like, outside of the daily grind of work.”
I nod.
“At the time, Killian was aware of what we wanted him to do. He had worked for a few months in the VP position and was doing better than any of us had expected.” He pauses. “So, your dad offered him the CEO position with no strings attached.”
“You mean, he could have had the position without marrying me?”
He nods. “Yes. He told Killian to think about it, but he wanted an answer soon. Killian went to see you shortly after that.”
“I remember. He broke Eli and me up just to spite us, just because he could.”
“Is that what he told you?”
“He didn’t have to. I understood.”
Granddad shakes his head. “He needed to see you. He realized he would be making a decision not only for himself, but also for you, too. He saw how unhappy you were with Eli. Well, I don’t really know what else he saw when he went to see you. All I know is, when he came back, he told your father he wasn’t ready to take the CEO job yet. He said he wanted to keep the condition that he would have to marry you in order to get it.”
I suck in a breath. That can’t be true. He wouldn’t have come up with a plan so that we wouldn’t have to marry—except that he did…to give me a choice about my future.
“Your father realized shortly afterward that he wasn’t ready to retire yet. And they never spoke of it again.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Oh, sweetie. Isn’t it obvious?”
I think for a minute before nodding because it is obvious. There is only one explanation for it.
20
“You’re still here,” I say when I exit my grandfather’s hospital room.
Killian is sitting in a plastic chair in the waiting room. He’s still wearing a tux. He must not have found any gift shop clothes that fit him.
“I told you I would stay,” he says, standing and putting his phone back into his pocket. “How’s he doing?” He nods toward my grandfather’s room.
“Granddad is doing well. He’s a pretty tough old man…although his heart might have just grown a little softer.”
Killian raises his eyebrows but doesn’t ask about it, and I don’t say anything else about my grandfather.
Instead, I walk to Killian until my lips are just a breath from his, until my body is trembling again, just like it was the last time our bodies were this close to each other. I close my eyes and try to calm my body, but it doesn’t work. I open them again and am faced with his intense dark eyes transfixed on mine.
“Ask me,” I breathe onto his lips.
I watch him suck in a breath, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Ask me,” I say again.
“Princess, will you marry me?”
He doesn’t get down on one knee. He doesn’t pull the ring box still tucked in his pocket back out. He’s already decided he knows the answer.
I smile because he’s mostly right. “No,” I say.
His eyes close, immediately blocking me off. His breathing returns. His head drops.
“Now, answer a question for me.”
He takes a deep breath before opening his eyes. “Yes, princess?”
“You have to promise to be completely honest.”
“I will,” he says.
My heart is racing much too fast. My shaking has increased instead of slowed. My eyes try to close, but I force them to stay open, to stay on him to read his reaction.
I let one more beat of my heartbeat before I ask, “Do you love me?”
A smug grin forms on his face as he takes a couple of seconds longer to answer me than I anticipated. I was wrong. Him deciding to marry me, no matter what, didn’t mean what I thought it did. It’s part of some other master plan that I don’t know about.
“Maybe,” he says the word as innocently as I have countless times to him before. His smug smile grows larger.
I can’t help the smile that forms on my lips. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
I launch my lips onto his. It’s been too long since I tasted him, too long since he wrapped his arms around me, like he is doing now, too long since I felt truly loved by someone since my father died.
The kiss is more than a kiss. It’s a declaration of love, a promise of what could be. It’s a chance, a chance to be together because of our choices and no one else’s.
He tries to break away from the kiss when my hands start tugging at the hem of his shirt. “Princess, I love your enthusiasm, but we can’t do that here. People are watching.”
I smile larger though as I grab ahold of his hand and pull him down the hallway. An old episode of Friends pops into my head as we make our way through the hospital.
I pass a dark looking room. No nurses are hovering around. I peek through the cracked door. It’s empty.
I tug on Killian’s arm, and he follows me into the room. I shut the door behind us, and my lips attack his again as my hand pulls at the hem of his shirt. It’s then I realize I don’t need his shirt off. It’s his pants I should be working on.
I grab at the button. It unbuttons quickly, and then I’m unzipping his pants.
He smiles against my lips. “God, if I had known what kind of crazy woman you would turn into when I told you maybe I loved you, I would have told you sooner.”
“Shut up, and help me get these pants off of you.”
He laughs but complies, and his pants fall to the floor. He grabs my ass and pushes me against the wall.
I moan as his lips touch my neck, and his hand finds my breast.
“This is going to be quick,” he says into my neck.
I nod. “Yes, quick,” I say. I’m barely able to speak.
I feel him smiling again as he reaches his hand into the front of my pants, cupping my pussy.
“Fuck, Killian!” I scream.
He clamps his hand over my mouth, silencing me. “You can’t scream. You can’t moan. You have to be silent.”
I nod my head, agreeing.
He tugs my pants down, and I feel them fall to the floor.
He rubs his hard cock at my entrance. “God, you’re so wet already, baby.”
“Please, I need you now,” I whisper.
He rubs his cock one more time over my clit before he lifts my legs and thrusts inside me in one motion. I bite my lip to keep from screaming out his name. When I look at him, I can tell he is doing the same. He doesn’t hesitate though. He thrusts quickly in and out of me.
God, I want to moan. I want to scream. I want to have him fuck me like this over and over again.
But something does escape his lips when his cock is buried deep inside me with his beautiful eyes locked on mine. “I love you, princess.”
He thrusts again, keeping me from responding the way I want to. He thrusts again, building us closer.
“I love you, too,” I moan a little louder than I should.
It’s then that I realize I forgot one little part of that Friends episode. They get caught.
The door opens, and the lights flash on. I glance up, and we both laugh as a young nur
se stares at Killian’s bare ass. We both laugh as she closes the door and runs away in embarrassment.
Killian starts thrusting again.
“What are you doing?”
He shrugs. “Might as well finish.”
I try to catch my breath as I pull my pants back up. I watch as Killian buttons his pants. The nurse has yet to come back, but that’s probably because she has called security by now.
Killian doesn’t seem to care about getting thrown out though. He walks to me, putting his hands on my waist. “I love you, Kinsley,” he says before softly kissing me on the lips. “I know you’re not ready to marry me yet. And that’s okay. But can we at least date?”
I laugh. “Maybe.”
“Yes,” he says sternly, making me laugh again.
“Yes,” I say.
He lifts me and spins me around as he kisses me again.
But the spin is ended abruptly. I look to the door, thinking maybe the nurse has come back, but no one’s there.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Why aren’t you marrying me? I thought that was the only way you could be a part of the company.”
I smile. “I told Granddad I didn’t care about being a part of the company. I told him I didn’t care about the money. I told him I refused to marry such an arrogant ass.”
He frowns, making me smile larger.
“I told him I was tired of living my life for other people. I told him I’ll be making all the decisions in my life now.”
He hugs me again. “That’s great. I’m so proud of you, princess.” He lets me go. “What are you going to do now?”
“Other than be your girlfriend?”
He nods.
“I’m going to be your new VP of Operations.”
He grabs me and lifts me, spinning me around again.
We kiss. We laugh. We fall further in love.
When he puts me down, I know I have made the right decision.
The door swings open again, startling us. Two men in black suits walk through the door. They are not security guards.
“Are you Kinsley Felton?” the man says.
“Yes,” I whisper.
Killian wraps his arms around me tighter.
The man walks toward us. He grabs ahold of my arm. “Kinsley Felton, you are under arrest.”
