Riding the Storm

by Joanne Rock

  The knowledge that Keith saw her that way—as the maiden who locked herself in the tower and needed to be saved—rocked her. She’d always seen herself as strong, successful, ambitious. She plowed through life on her own terms, heedless of the resources her parents wanted to throw her way, refusing to accept aid from people who just wanted her to be a glittering reflection of themselves.

  Had she missed the boat today by hiding her head in the sand? Heaven knew she had no idea what a healthy relationship looked like. Her parents’ marriage was—had always been—completely dysfunctional. What if she’d failed to recognize a true partnership?

  She took her phone from the kitchen counter, determined to bring herself up to date on the sordid details of her life, wishing all the while that things hadn’t gone horribly wrong with Keith, so they could sort through their email together. Commiserate over a common problem.

  Make love until she couldn’t see straight.

  Her heart hurt at the thought that he was gone and wouldn’t come back. But why had he astonished her with that incredible, gorgeous symbol of undying love, tossing it on the table as if it were a handful of nickels and calling it “damage control”? She might be a modern, independent woman, but she possessed enough estrogen to feel the romantic pull of an engagement ring, especially in the hands of her dream man.

  Hadn’t Marlena said all the Murphy males were on the tabloids’ Most Eligible Bachelor lists? Josie would need ice in her veins to not be wooed by a ring from Keith. He, on the other hand, had made it abundantly clear the jewelry was a business proposition. A means to an end that would tidy up a PR mess of her own making.

  The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. No, scratch that. Indignant was how she felt. Slamming down the phone, which was taking forever to load, thanks to the bazillion messages it surely contained, Josie stood and marched through her living quarters toward her work space.

  She hadn’t heard the chime for the elevator yet.

  Maybe she could still catch Keith and give him a piece of her mind. Tell him all the reasons she hadn’t needed saving and…

  Her determined march into the work area stopped when she caught sight of him.

  He stood by the wall of windows that overlooked the street, his dark head tipped down. He hadn’t left. Her heart did a quick flip at the sight of him and hope fluttered in her stomach. At first she thought maybe he was staring at media below. And who could blame him for a moment’s trepidation about venturing out into a mob like that? But when his elbow shifted, she realized he was looking at something in his hand. The ring.

  Softness curled inside her, putting out the fire that had been burning through her a moment before. She was about to clear her throat to let him know she’d entered the room when he suddenly turned his clear green eyes on her.

  “Do you know I drew this ring on a Post-it note at lunchtime today and had one of my staffers go out and buy the closest thing she could find? I would have gone myself, but I was afraid if the press caught sight of me picking out the ring, you would hear about it before I could get here.” He held it up in the slanting light, letting the reddish-gold rays of the setting sun burnish the platinum setting.

  “It’s beautiful,” she acknowledged, edging around an easel and a basket of wallpaper rolls to be closer to him.

  “I might have gotten it in a hurry, but you should know that I put thought into it.” A grin lifted one side of his mouth as she reached his side. “It’s kind of intimidating to buy something like this for a fashion designer turned decorator. Undoubtedly, you have very specific tastes when it comes to these things.”

  “No.” She shook her head, certain on that point. Certain also that she liked standing beside him. The scent of his aftershave was muted, but if she inhaled deeply enough, she could catch it.

  “Come on.” He thumbed the top of the stone. “Design is your life.”

  “I’m serious. An engagement ring is one item that I’d prefer to be a reflection of how someone sees me. When the day comes that a man gives me such a ring, I will be—” she lifted the ring from his fingers to admire it “—completely dazzled to receive something so uncompromisingly romantic.”

  Maybe that was part of what hurt about the way he’d told her about the announcement to the media. He hadn’t just doled out a gold band for their charade. Her heart had been taunted by this utterly perfect sparkler.

  “Well, I know the way you received it was a far cry from romantic.” He cast a wary glance her way. “But when I was seized by the idea of an engagement, I saw this ring in my head immediately and shoved my PR coordinator out the door to find it. So if the look of it means anything to you, I’m going to take full credit.”

  “I really like it. I’m sorry that didn’t come across earlier. I think we were both…reeling…reacting…maybe not thinking so much.” She closed her fingers around the ring, hiding it from view before handing it back to him. “I hope one day I have something half as beautiful to wear.”

  He stared at her closed fist and didn’t move to take the ring. She could see the wheels turning in his mind and guessed he’d latched on to an idea. Josie felt her stomach flip, not knowing what to expect. Another sales pitch that would break her heart? Or maybe, just maybe, the man who’d picked out this sentimental ring had something else in mind.

  “Will you hang on to that for just a minute?” he said suddenly, tugging her toward the love seat. “Just put it in your pocket, okay? Humor me while I try to say something.”

  Her heart beat faster as she quickened her steps to keep up with him. Reaching for the fearlessness she brought to the work world, she told herself to take a chance on something far more important.

  “Actually, I had a few things I wanted to tell you, as well.” She sat on the arm of the love seat, too nervous to settle onto the cushion. “I marched out here hoping to catch you so I could come to my own defense about the whole ‘maiden in the tower’ idea.”

  “That came out badly,” he admitted. “And I apologize. I want the chance to get it right this time.”

  “I can appreciate what you meant, actually.” She did as he asked with the ring, sliding it into a pocket of the cashmere cardigan she’d put on around lunchtime, when she’d decided “comfort clothes” were the order of the day. “I’ve never been the confrontational type, so I can’t sit here and pretend that I wasn’t hiding out. I was. However, I would not have hidden for long, and I would have come up with a strategy to deal with the mudslinging that tabloids enjoy so much.”

  Keith dropped onto the love-seat cushion and faced her.

  “They’re not slinging mud now, I promise you.” His mischievous smile made her curious.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Go look outside.”

  Rising, she moved toward the window, wondering how she could get a good look out without them seeing her. Sidling up to a tall archway, she edged her shoulder past the exposed brick and peered straight down.

  The cameramen and women were no longer seated on the sidewalk while they waited for a photo op. They were milling around a lamppost out front where a bunch of flowers and stuffed animals were stacked. A handful of young women held homemade signs bearing fat red hearts that said Keith and Josie or Best Wishes, Happy Couple! She could read the big balloon-style letters from here.

  “Oh, for crying out loud.” Laughing, she didn’t know what else to say. “Do you believe that? They’ll be so disappointed when—”

  “Don’t.” He covered her lips with one finger, shushing her. “Don’t jinx our relationship by saying that out loud.”

  “Mmph?” she mumbled, until he moved his finger aside. “How do you know what I was going to say?”

  “I’m starting to know you pretty well.”

  “It’s been an intense courtship, hasn’t it?” She couldn’t believe she’d met him just four days ago, or was it three since the wee hours after the engagement party?

  “Until tonight, I enjoyed every second.” He smoothed
her hair behind one shoulder, his fingers lingering on her back. Stroking. “But what else were you going to tell me when you came out here? You said I should have let you handle the publicity problem.”

  “Actually, I was going to address the maiden in the tower issue, remember?”

  “I really pissed you off with that one, didn’t I?”

  She shook her head, wanting to make herself clear. She might be nonconfrontational, but she could be direct and assertive.

  “I just wanted to point out that your mom has a tower of her own, a haven in that big house by the sea.”

  Keith frowned. “You mean her office?”

  “I mean her haven,” Josie repeated, wondering how a man who’d picked out such a romantic ring could have missed the significance of the highly personalized space Colleen Murphy had created for herself. “Not everyone can deal with the world by wrestling it to the ground with their bare hands, and that’s okay. People like me—like your mother—are more subtle. Introverts, maybe. But that doesn’t mean we can’t kick ass in our own way.”

  “Having been successfully beaten down by my mom on a few memorable occasions, I know what you mean.” Eyeing her expression, he hastened to add, “Not literally, obviously. But you know, mom maneuvered.”

  Josie smiled. “Having been ignored by my mother for most of my life, I have no idea. But I’ll take your word for it.”

  He turned her to face him full on, both hands cupping her shoulders. “Josie, I lost the Wholesome Branding account today, before I released the news of our engagement.”

  “You’re kidding.” She felt blindsided, so she could only imagine how he felt. “That partnership with them was going to be so huge for you.”

  “Yeah, it was.” He didn’t appear as remorseful as she would have thought.

  “Wait. You released the engagement news, knowing your work with them was no longer possible?” Confused, she tried to make sense of why he’d gone ahead with a fictional-fiancée story.

  “I honestly wasn’t doing it to make nice with a potential partner. I’m not changing who I am for the sake of anyone I do business with.” He snaked his hands under her hair to cradle the back of her neck, his thumbs rubbing lightly over the base of her scalp. “My main goals still applied, since I wanted to protect both our businesses and put our relationship on safer terrain, where we wouldn’t be nitpicked by the tabloids.”

  She couldn’t believe he hadn’t been trying to save his Wholesome Branding deal with the whole charade. It made his goals seem less selfish. More noble.

  “Safer terrain.” That made a difference, since she could see the sense of it a little better. “Still, I don’t feel comfortable living a lie.”

  Even though the gorgeous ring was practically burning a hole in her pocket.

  “I understand.” He leaned closer, brushing the softest whisper of a kiss over her temple.

  Her knees almost buckled from the sweetness of the gesture. His hand trailed down her arm, smoothing the cashmere over her skin until he reached her bare hand and slid lower, lower.

  Into her pocket.

  “Josie?” He pulled the ring out and held it up. “You’re the most compelling, sexy, principled woman I’ve ever met.”

  Her heart caught in her throat. What on earth was he doing?

  Rolling the diamond band back and forth between his thumb and forefinger, he forged on. “This is a dating ring for someone who rocks my world. Someone I want to know a whole lot better. Would you do me the great honor of wearing this ring that says you’re mine exclusively for as long as you like?” The sincerity in his eyes wasn’t about putting on a show for the media.

  She was a thousand percent positive. The look there said he wanted her for far more than a fling.

  “A dating ring?” She had to bite her lip to halt a huge grin from spreading across her face. Unsuccessful, she let him see exactly how delighted this idea made her. “You realize you’re really raising the bar for the bachelors in this town?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve worked too hard to deny myself beautiful things.”

  His green eyes were all for her, and she felt the compliment to her toes.

  “You know the rest of the world is going to think the ring means a whole lot more.” She’d tried to play by the rules her whole life, in an effort to set herself apart from her parents’ slippery morality. How would she feel about being part of so much pretense?

  “Good. Maybe they’ll leave us alone, so we can enjoy getting to know each other, instead of trying to tear us down by digging into pasts that don’t matter.” Keith took her hand, but instead of holding up the ring, he pulled her to him. “What do you say? You and me against the world, sharing a big secret?”

  “When you put it that way, it sounds as if we’ll have the privacy we had on the boat. Just us.”

  “And we really liked that, didn’t we?” His words rumbled in her ear, which was pressed to his chest. He made her breathless, having him this close, and she knew she would be ten kinds of a fool to say no to him.

  “I would love to wear your dating ring, Keith Murphy.” Josie tipped her chin up to look him in the eye so he’d know just how much it meant to her. “I would savor our secret every day that I looked at it, and cherish the time to get to know you, without the world interfering in our private business.”

  Her heart was pounding, the vows felt so solemn, so significant. From the way his eyes burned into hers, she knew he felt the same.

  Wordlessly, he lifted her hand and slid the princess-cut diamond into place, the fit as flawless as the stone. He centered the setting on her finger before pressing his lips to her knuckles, silently sealing the deal.

  “You’ve made me a very happy man,” he whispered, squeezing her palm for a long minute before he kissed his way up her arm to her shoulder. Her neck. “But I’ve gotta confess I have every intention of making sure that ring never comes off.”

  In the fading twilight, Josie saw the man in front of her more clearly than she’d ever seen anyone. And she knew he was a rock-solid match for her—honest and hardworking, ambitious yet romantic. If an occasional moment of arrogance crept in, she wasn’t going to hold that against him. Especially when he treated her so well it brought tears to her eyes.

  “Well, I have news for you, Murphy. This ring isn’t going anywhere.” She arched up on her toes to kiss his cheek, inhale the masculine scent that she knew would turn her on for the rest of her days. “Besides, you’re the prince who rescued me from the tower with audacity and Chinese food, so I think you’ve won my heart fair and square.”

  “Prince?” He pulled her hips to his, obviously ready to seal the bargain in another way. “I thought I was the marauding pirate.”

  He captured her lips in a teasing kiss, his palms covering her butt and lifting her right…

  There.

  Desire rocked through her, accompanied by so many other emotions.

  “Well, it looks like an all-new fantasy plays out here tonight.” She scrabbled for better positioning, wrapping her arms tight around his neck to anchor herself where she wanted to be.

  “Do I get a sword?” he asked, carrying her toward the living quarters at the back of the loft.

  “You feel well armed to me.” She wriggled her hips meaningfully.

  “I like this game.” He kissed her deeply and slowly, pausing just long enough to get his bearings on their way to the bedroom.

  “Mmm. I’m glad.” She brought his hand to her mouth and kissed his fingers purposefully. “Because I’m dying to reward you properly.”

  He picked up his pace toward the bed. “And I can’t wait to be of service….”

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-1405-7

  RIDING THE STORM

  Copyright © 2011 by Joanne Rock

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