“I love you. I want to make things up to you for how I treated you, and I want to make things right for you, look after you. If that means giving your grandfather back the ammunition to set himself up for self-destruction again then that’s what I’m prepared to do. But I promise you, Lainey, next time, if there is a next time, he will not bring you down with him.”
“This is too much, Adam. We can’t accept it. We can’t ever repay you.”
“Lainey, this isn’t about the money. Don’t you see that? This is about you and me. It’s way past time your grandfather took responsibility for his actions here. If he wants to repay you he has to get help. He has to stop gambling forever. And you—” he hesitated a moment, his eyes boring into hers, hoping against hope that she’d understand “—you have to realize that you can’t be responsible for his behavior or life choices.”
“But he’s my grandfather. He put everything aside for me when my parents died. I owe him so much, you’d never understand.”
“But I do understand, Lainey. I know exactly what it means to feel so indebted to your family that you’ll do whatever it takes to always seek their happiness first above your own. I was one of twin babies, but my brother died a few days after we were born. It devastated my parents. My mother couldn’t have any more children, in fact she’d been warned not to have any children. When she became pregnant with twins they thought their prayers for a family were answered. But only I survived.
“I know how you feel. I understand that survivor’s guilt. I know you probably still ask yourself why you lived through that car crash and your parents didn’t because I ask myself why me and not my brother. More, why couldn’t we both have survived?
“All my life I’ve tried to make that up to my parents. To be twice as good as I could ever be, to be twice the son they got in the end. But you know, in the long run it doesn’t matter. They love me, in their own way. When my brother died my father poured his grief into Palmer Enterprises and I always knew I’d be there at the helm with him one day because that was exactly where I belonged.
“Mum, well she poured her grief into helping kids who had no parents. I suppose it helped her in a lot of ways, but somehow I always felt like I was never enough for her, either—that she had to have those other kids to fill the gap my brother’s death had left. Me, well, I’ve always been just half of a whole.”
Lainey’s heart swelled as if it would burst with compassion for the little boy Adam had been. For the man he’d become. The man who said he loved her.
“Adam, how could she ever love you any less? You’re almost too perfect. Seriously. You know, secretly, when I first started working for you, you terrified me. I was so anxious that I’d let you down, that I’d screw up. And over the months I started to see that rather than simply being a perfectionist it was your deep seated commitment to your family, to your employees and to your clients that made you the way you were. I was probably more than half in love with you before I’d even worked six months in your office.
“I know you’re right about me not being responsible for my grandfather’s mistakes, but you can understand why I have to take care of him. He’s all I have left, Adam, and I’m all he has, too.”
“Then we’ll deal with this together. Will you let me help you?”
“Oh, yes. Yes, I will. I know I can’t deal with it on my own anymore. It got me into so much trouble. The harder I tried to help, the worse I made everything.”
“Well, for that, at least, I’m thankful. If it hadn’t been for your grandfather’s debt I probably would never have taken the time to look past the picture you wanted to paint, to the real picture on the canvas.” Adam slipped a hand under the lapel of her robe. “I’d never have learned about the real Lainey Delacorte.”
Her breath caught in her throat as his fingers brushed her unfettered breast, as his thumb traced around the edge of her nipple in a gentle arc.
“There’s one other thing.” Adam pulled her down on her knees, onto the floor in front of him, and his lips hovered just millimeters from hers. “Will you marry me, Lainey? Will you make me whole again?”
“Gladly, yes. Of course I’ll marry you.”
Lainey closed the distance between them, her lips seeking his, her tongue sweeping into the hot recess of his mouth to join with his as one day they’d be joined together, forever.
Epilogue
Lainey held her bouquet with trembling hands. The late October sky had blessed them with clear weather and the garden was lush with spring color. She stood now, poised on a new life, a new beginning—and she couldn’t have felt happier or felt her life more full of promise.
She watched from behind the lace curtain as her grandfather approached Adam and drew him aside. She saw Adam’s dark head tilt to one side as he listened to Hugh, the expression on his face intent. She held her breath as Hugh withdrew a white envelope from the breast pocket of his dinner jacket and handed it to Adam, the breath escaping in a whoosh of relief as Adam accepted it and drew the older man into an embrace that spoke volumes. If possible, she loved her fiancé more in that moment than she ever imagined. He’d understood the measure of Hugh’s pride and he’d allowed her grandfather that precious gift back.
Today Hugh had repaid Adam in full for the house and could finally say it was his again. It had been a long and difficult five months but, with professional help, her grandfather finally appeared to be in control again. Even better, he’d agreed to act as a spokesperson for a nationwide gambling awareness campaign, a move that had seen him able to promote his story to the major glossy magazines for some very serious sums of money.
Lainey knew how vulnerable he remained to the lure of the casino and the thrill of high stakes gambling, but she also knew that with the continued support of his new extended family and the respect he’d earned in his fight to regain control of his life that Hugh was most definitely on the right track.
At the end of the garden, she saw Adam shake hands with Professor Woodley, one of his old teachers from Ashurst Collegiate. The professor looked as proud as if he was Adam’s father himself. Her heart skipped a little as Adam moved over to stand under the flower bedecked bower, flanked by his two best friends—Draco Sandrelli, whose heavily pregnant wife, Blair, sat in the front row, and Brent Colby who only had eyes for his wife Amira.
Having Draco and Blair attend had been an unexpected and very happy surprise. They’d planned for their baby to be born in Tuscany, but had made alternate arrangements—flying back to Auckland just over a month ago—so Draco could stand up with Adam on what was the most important day of his life.
Who’d have thought the Rogue Diamonds would all be married and settled within the space of a year? She smiled to herself. The papers would have to find some other confirmed bachelors for fodder now. She turned away from the window as the door to her room opened.
“Are you ready?” her grandfather asked as he crossed the room and tucked one of Lainey’s hands in the crook of his elbow.
“Definitely.” Lainey smiled.
“I’m very proud of you, you know,” Hugh said, his eyes shining. “And I know your parents would have been proud, too.”
“Thank you, Granddad.” Lainey leaned over and pressed a kiss on her grandfather’s cheek. “I think it’s a safe bet to say the feeling is totally mutual.”
It hadn’t been an easy time for any of them as Hugh had come to grips with his addiction, but he’d come through even stronger than before. More loved than before.
Together they walked through the house and out across the wide verandah. Adam looked up as she stood a moment framed in the doorway and her heart leaped as their eyes met and melded. He was the man of her dreams, her very life, and she couldn’t wait to claim him before their friends and family.
Lainey’s lips stretched in a smile, only for him, and she walked with measured steps down the rose petal strewn path that led her to her heart’s desire. Excitement bubbled inside her as she anticipated Adam’s reaction to the priva
te news she would share with him in just a few moments.
As her grandfather gave her hand to Adam she leaned up and whispered in his ear.
“Congratulations.”
“For having the good sense to marry you?” he murmured in return.
“Well, there is that. But that isn’t it.” She hesitated a moment and looked deep into his eyes. “You’re going to be a daddy.”
Surprise followed by intense joy flew across Adam’s face as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
“Hold on a minute, cuz,” Brent said, laughing at Adam’s side. “You’re not supposed to do that until after the ceremony.”
Adam never took his eyes off Lainey as he answered, “Some things you just can’t wait for.”
The service was simple, a few personally chosen words to bind them together forever, and as Lainey clasped hands with her new husband and turned to face the small gathering she knew that the words themselves would never matter as much as the pledge she’d made in her heart to the man at her side and the knowledge that he loved her in return.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3126-3
PRETEND MISTRESS, BONA FIDE BOSS
Copyright © 2009 by Dolce Vita Trust
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