The Bride’s Proposition

by Day Leclaire

  Opening the door to the conference room, Stefano picked Cornell up by his lapels and thrust him from the room. "He's all yours," he called to the news people. "Thanks for loaning me the surveillance equipment. And Cindy? Bring in the documents my wife signed earlier. All of them."

  Then he turned to face his wife. The remains of her tears were still evident, glistening on the ends of her lashes. But her mouth had lost its tremulous set. He regarded her warily, not quite certain how she was going to react, particularly since he'd broken the terms of their marriage agreement by not checking with her before acting. Perhaps this would be a good time to renegotiate.

  "I assume you'd like an explanation," he said.

  "If it wouldn't be too much trouble. I gather I'm no longer the owner of Crabbe and Associates?"

  He shrugged. "You wouldn't have been, anyway. Not if you'd given Cornell what he wanted. As soon as everything calms down, Wilfred has papers that will set matters right and transfer ownership again. Plus, no one will believe the rumors about Loren now that they know Cornell was responsible for spreading them. It should help boost the value of Crabbe."

  "Why didn't you tell me?"

  Hurt riddled her voice and he winced. He'd known she wouldn't take this well. "Because Cornell would have guessed something was up. He believed he was safe because you believed it."

  She glanced toward the equipment on the conference table. "You were wired. How could I have missed that when I kissed you?"

  "I put it on later, while you were fixing your makeup.

  You were too distracted to notice." He shot her a speaking look. "I have to admit, I had a few heart-stopping moments there when you suggested he search us."

  His comment won him a brief smile. "How could you be sure Cornell would tell us the truth?"

  "I couldn't. I took a risk. Even if it had backfired, he wouldn't have benefited. You didn't own more than one percent of Crabbe, remember? He would have torn those documents up himself rather than pay the agreed upon price for such a paltry share of the company." Stefano grimaced. "Of course, then he would have sued us. But I hoped it wouldn't come to that."

  A knock sounded at the door and Cindy entered. She dropped a stack of papers on the table and then quickly left. Penelope fingered the contracts, though she didn't make any move to examine them. "You..." She moistened her lips. "If the deal had gone wrong you would have destroyed your reputation beyond any hope of redemption. You sacrificed everything for my sake."

  "If I sacrificed everything, so did you. The only way those papers transferring ownership would have been signed was if you'd decided to do something foolishly noble, like try to salvage my reputation by selling Crabbe to Cornell at a huge loss. If you'd refused to sell, those contracts would never have seen the light of day. And as long as we're discussing compromising our values, what about you?"

  "Me?" Her head jerked up. "What are you talking about?"

  He started toward her. "I'm talking about you, Ms. Logic-at-all-costs. You made a business decision based on pure emotion. Admit it"

  She folded her arms across her chest. "I'm not going to admit any such thing. I considered my options and chose the most reasonable one available to me."

  "You gave away your company for peanuts so you could try to restore my reputation. I don't call that reasonable." He halted inches away. "It would seem we have a problem, Mrs. Salvatore."

  "And what's that?"

  "When you signed those papers you became the new owner of Salvatores."

  She picked up the pertinent contract and paged through it. The paper trembled in her hand. "All of you signed it."

  "Every last Salvatore. We had to. It wouldn't have been legal otherwise:'

  "But your brothers all agreed to it. Even your father did. Why would they do that? It doesn't make a bit of sense." He could hear the plea in her voice. "I don't understand."

  "Don't you? " He took the contract from her hand and tossed it to the table. The pages spilled across the gleaming wood surface, scattering. "You're family."

  "But our marriage... They thought it would be temporary."

  "No." He caught her close. "They knew it wouldn't be. I suspect you're the only one who believed our marriage was an actual business proposition. It’s turned out to be more than that, hasn't it?"

  Her breath shuddered in her lungs. "Are you suggesting we make it permanent?'

  He smiled tenderly. "It already is, cara. It became real the minute you spoke your vows. You proved that when you shared my bed. You proved it again when you shoved past Marco to get to me. And you proved it today, by trying to salvage my reputation, even if it meant sacrificing Crabbe and Associates."

  "Oh, that. It was a-"

  "Please. Don't tell me that was a reasonable decision."

  "But it was. A reasonable decision based on careful analytical deduction." A frown creased her brow. "Though now that I think about it, your own deductive skills must be quite impressive. In order for you to set all this up, you had to know how I’d react each step of the way."

  "It was a struggle."

  "Sarcasm, Stefano?'

  "Not even a little. Admiration, Mrs. Salvatore. You are the most generous woman I’ve ever met. Given that, I just had to determine all the possible scenarios and decide which choices a woman in love would make." He paused a beat before continuing. "Because you are in love with me, aren't you?"

  The tears returned, unchecked. "You know I am. I told you this morning, as well as last night. I also made you a promise when we made love."

  He closed his eyes for a brief moment. "You do remember. I wondered."

  "I believe my exact words were that I’d love you to the end of all time." She smiled through her tears. "I was feeling unusually poetic, perhaps because of what we were doing."

  "I love you, Nellie. And I particularly love you when you're feeling unusually poetic." He cupped her face. "I think I fell for you the minute you marched into my office and offered yourself to me."

  "I didn't offer myself," she corrected. "I offered you a business deal."

  "A deal I couldn't resist. In fact, falling in love with you was the most logical choice I could make."

  She nodded approvingly. "I knew you'd see things my way. Logic before emotion. It’s the only way."

  "Nellie!"

  "You might as well get used to it," she informed him airily. "You're an excessively emotional man and you've chosen to marry a woman your exact opposite. It's not going to be easy for you to deal with my logical turn of mind."

  "Oh, no?" he growled. His hands slipped into her hair and he tilted her face up to his. "I can think of one way." And then he proved it in a most reasonable and logical-if excessively emotional-manner possible.

  He kissed her until she'd stripped them both naked.