It was exactly the same.
The enormous red couch. The lovers’ tub. The dominating fireplace and the velvet-covered bed, visible on the other side. The lurid mirrors.
Alex carried her to the couch and set her on it. ‘How long do you think we have?’
Nikki peered at their daughter, the love inside her so overwhelming she couldn’t imagine ever taking it for granted. She carefully adjusted the lightweight blanket and watched April’s tiny bow mouth purse, working even in her sleep.
It wouldn’t be long before their daughter would wake, ravenous. She’d arrived in the world right on time in a speedy delivery as if she’d never caused a bit of fuss during the pregnancy. ‘An hour,’ Nikki whispered. ‘Maybe.’
‘That’ll do.’ His smile was devilish. He drew Nikki to her feet. Caught her mouth with his and pulled her around the fireplace.
But he didn’t tear off her clothes, didn’t get rid of his own as expediently as he usually did. He just stood there, his hands cupping her shoulders.
‘Alex?’ ‘I’m glad we came here. Not because of the satin sheets, or the mirrors.’
Her heart squeezed all over again. ‘Because it started here?’
‘It started the first day you agreed to work for me, three years ago last April. But here is where it finally came together.’ His thumb drifted down her cheek in a familiar caress that would tug at her heart in fifty years as surely as it did now. ‘This is where I realized how important you were to me. Why my life wasn’t right without you.’
She laid her palm against his jaw. How she loved him! She was so grateful for the chance they’d been given. ‘It doesn’t matter where it started,’ she said softly. ‘At Huffington, or here. What matters is that we both finally believe that it is not going to end.’
He lowered his head, his forehead resting against hers. ‘You’ve never asked why I didn’t give you a wedding present.’
They’d married a month before April was due, in the lovely little community church in Weaver. Her family had packed the aisles, leaving barely enough room for the one guest who’d come from Alex’s side.
Valerie. Sans Hunter, and yet again trying to make a fresh start without him in her life. Nikki wished the other woman success.
Eyes closed now, savoring the moment with her husband, Nikki smiled a little. Her hands drifted down the front of his shirt, toying with the buttons. ‘I thought the RHS shares you bought from Hunter were my wedding present.’
His hands threaded through her hair. ‘Those, too. It was your idea, after all. Beating them at their own game. Instead of convincing Hunt to vote the way I wanted him to, I convinced him to sell his shares in RHS to me, and voted down my father’s acquisition plans for both Macfield and Huffington myself.
Hunt never cared where his money came from, as long as it came. Selling to me meant he didn’t have to deal with my father any longer.’
‘I still can’t believe you bought into Reed Health Systems.’
‘If sitting across a board table from my father saves the future of the Huffington family, then it’s worth it. I’d rather be in his business than have him in mine. He’s resigned his chairmanship effective at the end of the year, anyway. He recovered from the heart attack, but it left its mark. My uncle who’s been running the Philadelphia shop will take over when he goes.’
‘Someday you could be chairman of the board of RHS,’ she pointed out.
He shook his head. ‘I’m a Reed and RHS may be my heritage, but it’s not my present and it sure in hell isn’t my future. That is with you and our baby. The gift you’ve given me. A family. A real one. But that doesn’t answer the matter of my wedding gift to you.’
She sighed, tilting her head back, luxuriating in his touch. ‘I don’t need gifts, Alex. I have everything I want.’
‘Well, you’re getting this one.’ His hand moved, and he slid the old-fashioned cabin key down the V-neck of her ivory T-shirt, tucking it between her breasts.
She shook her head a little. ‘What are you talking about?’ From the other room, they heard April’s soft snuffle.
‘I bought the cabin. For you.’ He slowly drew his fingers out of her shirt. ‘For us. So we can always have this place to escape to. We’ll remodel and redecorate however you want. Put up walls for a proper bedroom, if nothing else. But I do have one request.’
She twined her arms around his broad shoulders, fitting herself against him. ‘Anything.’
‘The satin sheets?’
She pressed her mouth to his, a vision dancing in her mind of them years from now dragging April to Lucius for summer vacations and winter sleigh rides. ‘What about them?’
Still holding her, he leaned over and threw back the red velvet bedspread with one arm, before settling her in the center of the wide bed and that slippery, smooth silver satin. ‘They stay.’
She clasped her arms around him and smiled, absorbing the love that shone from his melted-chocolate eyes.
Alex would always be driven to succeed. And she’d always send up a quick prayer of thanks when, at the end of the day, he walked in the door of the house they’d bought just outside of Cheyenne, alive and well.
But first and foremost, he’d be hers.
And she’d be his. ‘Absolutely,’ she agreed, laughing with a delight that overflowed her very soul.
A lifetime wouldn’t be long enough for the discoveries they were constantly making about each other. ‘The satin sheets stay. That naughty mirror will have to go. At least the etchings on the border, or someday we’ll be spending time explaining it to April’
‘Oh, God.’ He sounded horrified at the idea, and Nikki laughed all over again.
‘But the tub,’ she whispered. ‘I’ve got plenty of ideas when it comes to the tub .’
* * * * *
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2192-5
THE TYCOON’S MARRIAGE BID
Copyright © 2005 by Allison Lee Davidson
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* Men of the Double-C Ranch
The Tycoon's Marriage Bid Page 19
