“Whatever happens today changes nothing between the two of us. If your uncle still decides to go through with his threat, I’ll deal with that on my own, but I care about you too much to let you go again, no matter what he says.” Preston meant every word of that, probably more than Charlotte even knew. There wasn’t anything Howard could say today that was going to change his mind again. He’d lived without Charlotte in his life for too long to let go of her again.
The time without her had been miserable and even throwing himself into his work hadn’t been enough to take his mind off the hole she had left in his life. He wasn’t used to feeling that way about anyone, but it was something he was slowly figuring out, even if he had made a lot of mistakes along the way. The one good thing that had come from all of this was that he was now certain that she belonged with him.
Charlotte leaned her head on his shoulder, releasing her bottom lip from between her teeth to answer him. She had been gnawing on it since they left her house a little while ago. It was just one of the many ways that Preston knew she was scared about what was coming up. He wanted to reassure her, but the only way to get rid of that fear was for things to go their way once they reached her aunt and uncle’s house.
“I just hope that they two of them are on our side for once. I mean, I know Aunt Amelia is. She just wants me to be happy. Uncle Howard is the wildcard.” She looked him in the eyes as they were turning into the driveway of their destination.
All Preston could do was lean down and steal a kiss from her upturned peach colored lips.
“Well, I suppose we’re about to find out. Howard is going to recognize my car as soon as he sees it in the driveway, so we may as well head up to the front door.”
The car had come to a stop by now, and the driver had come out to open the door for the two of them to get out of the back. He slid out first since he was on the same side of the car as the front door and leaned down to offer a hand to help Charlotte out of the car. Preston could almost feel the eyes on him from the house to his back, but he didn’t care. He was here for Charlotte, and nothing was going to dissuade him from that now.
“Come on.” Preston leaned in and planted a soft kiss on the back of her hand before he let it go and slid an arm around the small of her back to guide her to the front door. He whispered to her as they approached the door. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Preston reached up to knock on the door just a half second before it swung open. His knuckles never even made contact with the painted wood. In the foyer, just beyond the open door, stood a red-faced Howard Specter. If looks could have killed, Preston would have been a corpse by now.
“Pierce, what the hell did I tell you about fraternizing with my niece? And I can’t believe you have the nerve to show up uninvited on my front door step…” He spat out every word with such a malicious tone that if Preston hadn’t been prepared for it, it would have taken him entirely by shock. Even when he had come to Preston’s office to threaten him to leave Charlotte alone, he hadn’t sounded so incensed.
But to Preston’s surprise, it was Charlotte who had interrupted Howard. Her hand left his and immediately went to her hip. He couldn’t help but enjoy himself as he watched her lay into the older man.
“Wait just a darn minute, Uncle Howard. I don’t know how old you think I am, but I’m a grown woman. I can make my own decisions about who I want to see and when and I’d kindly thank you to keep your nose out of my business as far as all of that is concerned. Now if you’ll quit being rude and let us in the house, Aunt Amelia is expecting us.” She reached back and grabbed Preston’s hand, pulling him into the house behind her as they brushed her spluttering uncle.
He clearly had a lot more he wanted to say, but as soon as he saw Preston’s driver standing out in the driveway, staring in on the scene. He clearly didn’t want to put on a show for the hired help, so his only option was to slam the door closed and follow the two of them into the kitchen.
Amelia Specter was standing there, stirring a pot of something that had been boiling away on the stove. She turned to face the whole group of them as they walked into the room. Her expression hardened as soon as she saw her husband walk in behind Preston and Charlotte looking ready to murder someone.
“Hello there, Preston. It’s always a pleasure to see you. Charlotte, Darling, you look stunning in that dress.” The smile she put on her face for the couple melted when she turned to face her husband. “And Howard, I have no idea what you’re spluttering at. I heard Charlotte and you carrying on from all the way in the foyer, and she’s spot on.”
In all the years that Preston had known Amelia Specter, he had never seen her stand up to her husband like that. Usually she was the silent figure at his side or just behind him that supported him in whatever he did. Right now, she was clearly at her wit’s end with her husband’s behavior and she intended to tell him all about it.
“Amelia, I never…”
“Darn straight you never. I’ve been your silent backer all these years and I haven’t said a word about anything you decided to do. Your business decisions have always been your own. I haven’t complained about you being too busy to be here or your business travels even once. I haven’t even complained that the two of us never had children, but that makes Charlotte here the closest thing we’ve got to a daughter. To be frank, now that I see how abominably you’ve treated her, I’m glad we never had a daughter so I don’t have to sit here and watch you do something like this to our own child.”
She stopped to take a breath and Howard opened his mouth to speak. Her glare stopped him in his tracks.
“I’m not finished yet.” She dropped the spoon on the counter beside the pot she had been stirring and wheeled around, untying the apron she had had around her waist to throw it onto the floor. “Either you can get your act together or you can hire a maid, cook, secretary and whatever else you need to fill in for everything I do for you. Charlotte deserves to have a life, and if she wants Preston in it then who are either one of us to stop her?”
Everyone in the room was dumbstruck by the response. No one had expected anything like that to come from the slender older woman. She was usually friendly and quiet, even unassuming. Now she was on fire. It was nice to see.
“Damn, Amelia. I didn’t know you have it in you.” Preston was impressed enough to say it out loud in front of everyone, no matter what Howard thought of all of it. He turned to his business partner, sliding his hands into his trouser pockets. “Well Howard, it appears that you’re entirely outnumbered, and I’m certain when I go to the board to tell them you’ve threatened my job over an entirely personal matter backed up by your own wife and niece, it won’t be my job that’s on the line.”
Preston reached back and grabbed Charlotte’s hand pulling her over to his side. She was quiet and just sort of taking all of this in, but he needed to make sure that she was alright before this went any further. The next thing he said was a whisper, meant for her ears only.
“You alright there, Sweetheart?” She nodded, leaning into his side and turning her focus back on her uncle.
“Whatever you have to say, Uncle Howard, I’m going to be with Preston until one of us decides on our own that it’s time for us to call this off. That decision is up to us, and only us. I don’t care what you think his intentions toward me should be. That’s my call, not yours.”
Charlotte squeezed his hand as the two of them waited for Howard’s reply. Preston really didn’t care what he had to say, but he hoped for Charlotte’s sake that after all of this he was going to relent. Preston threw his hands up for a moment before dropping them at his side.
“I give up. I’m done and I wash my hands of all of this. I’m not going to try to sabotage the two of you any longer, but don’t you come running to me with tears in your eyes when he dumps you for another flavor of the month, Charlotte.” It was only half of what they were hoping for, but at least he was going to give up on actively trying to split them up. Preston could only hope th
at his next move was going to be enough to squash the rest of his opposition.
“Uncle Howard…” Charlotte’s voice fell. She was hurt, really and truly, and Preston hated to hear that tone that her voice took when she was heartbroken. He’d heard it once before, the day he had decided to tell her that things were over between the two of them. He never wanted to hear her sound like that again, at least not if he could help it, and it steeled his reserve to do the thing he had been planning to do since she walked out of his office on Friday evening.
Preston fished around in his pocket for the box that had been sitting there since early Saturday morning and pulled it out to sink down on one knee in front of her and her awestruck aunt and uncle. He opened the box and started in on the words he had been practicing in his head for the better part of the last two days.
“Charlotte, I know we’ve been through so much together, the back and forth, the mix-ups, and all the confusion that came with everything. I owe you so many apologies. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make up for all the stupid things I did or said, but I can’t imagine my life without you ever again. I don’t even want to try. I never dreamed of getting married and sharing myself and my life so thoroughly with someone…until You. You have completely turned my life upside down and I love you more than I can possible express in words. So, I suppose what I’m saying is…” Preston took a deep breath before he continued, trying to quiet his nerves. “Will you marry me?”
Charlotte’s eyes went wide the moment he went down on one knee, almost as though she didn’t believe what was happening right in front of her. He even forgot Amelia and Howard were in the room while he waited for her reply. Everything that he wanted or thought he needed out of life hinged on what she said next. She could dismiss him for being the biggest idiot in the world or say yes and make him happier than he had thought possible, but it all depended on the next thing that came out of her mouth.
“Preston… I…” She was crying, and Preston didn’t know whether that was a good sign or a bad one, but he wasn’t losing hope yet.
“Well, go on and answer him, dear. It’s kind of rude to keep the man waiting.” It was the first time he had remembered her Aunt Amelia was standing there watching. At least she was smiling and she knew Charlotte’s expressions a lot better than Preston could. He was trusting that for a good sign to keep him going until she finally answered.
Charlotte bit down on her bottom lip before breaking into a smile and nodding her head.
“Yes, I’ll marry you.” Her voice was shaking, but she managed to get out the answer in one deep breath.
The rush of relief that flooded Preston’s entire system was nothing like anything he had ever felt before now. It was a release of all the pent up worry he had had since the day he had told her he didn’t want her in his life. He’d been a fool to let her go then, and there was no way he was going to let it happen again.
Standing up, he gathered her into his arms as soon as he slipped the diamond ring he had picked out on Saturday morning on her left ring finger. He hoped she loved it, though he knew her well enough to know that she would just because he had given it to her. She wasn’t the type of girl to worry and freak out about having just the right type of ring. It was one of the many things he loved about her and now he wasn’t ever going to have to let her go.
Amelia Specter started clapping from her side of the kitchen and the flabbergasted look on Howard’s face just made everything that much better. He could tell that the proposal was the last thing that any of them had expected. Maybe for anyone who wasn’t in his head, it was a surprise that he was going to be willing to marry a girl he’d honestly only met a few months ago. Giving up the bachelor lifestyle he’d been living might have seemed like a hardship before she came along, but now that she was a part of his life, it didn’t seem like such a big deal. He was trading something that he liked for something that he really and truly loved.
Chapter 11
It had been a little more than two weeks since Preston had asked Charlotte to marry him. It had been the last thing she had expected to happen at that dinner with her aunt and uncle. She’d known he wanted to be open about their relationship with her family, but to ask her to marry him was a huge surprise. Since then, they’d spent every evening together, either with her staying over at his penthouse or him sleeping in her apartment every night. Things were completely different than they’d been the first time they tried all of this. It was like being without each other had done something to the two of them to show them what they really wanted out of their lives.
Tonight, the two of them were curled up on the couch in her apartment watching a baking show on television while Andy waffled back and forth about whose lap he wanted to sit in for the night. He had changed locations for about the dozenth time when Preston reached out and ran a hand through his fur.
“You know, I like this, a lot more than I ever thought I would.”
“This?” Charlotte knit her eyebrows together confused about what he meant. “You mean the show?”
“No, I mean this, all of this, just being in the same space with you, doing nothing at all.”
Charlotte laughed at him for a moment, running a hand through her hair to brush it back behind her ears.
“Well, I’m glad you enjoy it because we are getting married and eventually we’re going to have live together, you know?” The two of them hadn’t talked about setting a date, but it was a virtual certainty that sooner or later they were going to wind up living in the same space.
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. Quite a bit actually.” Charlotte wasn’t sure what he was hinting at. She was half-worried that he was about to tell he didn’t really want to get married. It was the kind of thing Charlotte found herself having nightmares about when she didn’t feel well or ate too many sweets before bed.
“Preston? You’ve got me a little worried here. You do want to get married, right?” She raised an eyebrow, turning to face him on the couch to study his expression carefully. She needed to know
“Oh god no… I mean yes. Of course, I want to marry you.” He stumbled over his words a little like he was uncertain of what to say, but at least she had the reassurance that he still wanted to marry her.
“Then what is it? You know you can tell me anything.” She reached out and rested her hand on his, and he turned it up to thread their fingers together. He tugged on her hand, pulling her body to straddle his on the couch, facing him.
“It’s nothing really. Just an idea I had. How would you feel about moving into my place?”
“What about Andy?”
“You could bring him along. It’s not like I have any pets he’s going to have to compete with. Besides, it would just be a head start on the fact that we’re going to be spending the rest of our lives together.”
Charlotte hadn’t been expecting that question just as much as she hadn’t been expecting him to ask her to marry him. She sat there blinking for a moment before she could think enough to formulate a response. She had a few things to think through before she said yes. Her lease at the apartment was ending in another month and she hadn’t renewed it for the next year, as of yet. It kind of struck her as funny that she’d only been living here a year. It seemed like so much longer because of everything that had happened.
She’d moved to the city to start a new life and get her feet on the ground. When she came here, she was fresh out of college and fresh out of the middle of nowhere Iowa. A little girl who’d never even really seriously dated a guy her own age, much less someone older and now, she was engaged to a billionaire business owner, fifteen years older than she was and having a serious conversation about the two of them moving in together. She would never have imagined herself here in a million years, much less have thought she’d really be considering moving into the penthouse of one of the high-rise skyscrapers in the center of the city. Preston had a whole floor to himself. The elevator opened directly in his foyer, and you needed a key card to even
make the elevator go to that floor.
Charlotte glanced around her apartment. It was tiny — one bedroom and one multipurpose room that consisted of a kitchen, dining room and living room in one. There was just enough space here for she and a cat. It definitely wasn’t the kind of place a married couple was going to be comfortable living. Charlotte wasn’t sure what else there really was to consider. Moving in with Preston was honestly the best idea that either one of them had ever had. It made sense. She was going to move in there eventually anyway. Why not now?
It was still a scary decision to make though. When he’d asked her to marry him, the answer had been quick and easy. It seemed like something that was going to happen in the distant future. This was a much more immediate decision. She bit her lip and looked up into his eyes.
Everything she was worried about left her when she glanced up at him. Charlotte went on instinct, grabbing his shirt to pull him in for a kiss. That worried expression he’d had melted away as soon as her lips hit his.
“Of course I’ll move in with you.” She mumbled her answer against his lips and he gathered her up into his arms at her reply.
“Charlotte Fairweather, have I told you lately that I love you?”
Charlotte pressed another kiss to his lips, toying with the buttons on his shirt and slipping them slowly out of their buttonholes one at a time as she glanced up at him.
“Well, I mean you’ve said it, but why don’t you show me, Preston Pierce?”
She hoped the look she shot him told him exactly what she wanted him to know because right now there wasn’t much more she wanted than to let him carry her off into the bedroom and have his way with her. Apparently, he got the message, because the next thing she knew as that he was sweeping her up into his arms and kicking the bedroom door closed behind them before he slid her gently down onto the bed. He’d done all of that without ever taking his lips off hers when he claimed them in a deep kiss.
Sweet Seduction: A Billionaire Virgin Romance Page 8
