Her One Night Proposal (One Night Book 4)

by Katherine Garbera

  Now she had no choice and she was failing.

  Big time.

  She took a deep breath and tipped her head back, letting the sea air sooth that troubled part of her soul. She’d taken a risk, a real gamble, when she’d approached Zac. And it had given her so much more than she’d expected. She had to let herself have that.

  Her phone vibrated but she ignored it. She wasn’t going to respond to anything right now. She needed this walk on the beach to gather her thoughts and regain her equilibrium. She knew she was the maid of honor at the wedding and Adler might need her.

  Adler. Something had been up with her and Nick last night. Iris pulled out her phone to text Adler and saw on the Find My Friends app that she was on the beach as well. She walked toward her position and found her friend standing on the shore just staring out at the water.

  “Hey, Ad,” she said, coming up behind her and hugging her. “Everything okay this morning?”

  Adler wiped her eyes and immediately Iris knew it wasn’t.

  “Nick and I had a big fight last night. I’m just not sure if we should cancel everything. He was too hungover this morning to discuss it and said whatever I decided he’d go along with.”

  That didn’t sound like the Nick she knew. “He didn’t mean that.”

  “I’m not so sure. He’s reeling from learning that August is his father.”

  Iris held Adler’s hand. “I know, but he loves you.”

  “He did.”

  “Stop that. This is just bridal jitters on steroids. He’s not himself because of the news, but I’m sure how he feels about you hasn’t changed. Do you want to cancel the wedding?”

  Adler hesitated and Iris’s heart, already sore and aching, broke for her friend. Men. Love was kicking her ass and now Adler’s ass, too.

  “I can’t cancel it. Everyone is arriving today.”

  Iris took a deep breath. She completely understood where her friend was coming from. If she cancelled a televised wedding she was going to bring a lot of unwanted attention down on herself and Nick. “If you’re not sure about Nick, then you should postpone things. You’re going to spend the rest of your life with him.”

  She nodded. “I hate this. It’s like when dad had that affair with that stupid eighteen-year-old. The media isn’t going to be kind.”

  “Are you cancelling things?”

  “I need to talk to Nick,” she said.

  “Okay. Do you want me to go with you?”

  “No. I have to do this on my own,” she said.

  They both went their separate ways, Adler walking up to the house that Nick and she had purchased on the island and Iris walked back to the hotel. She started up the path toward the hotel, stopping at a bench to wipe her feet off and put her shoes back on. She took her phone out and glanced down to see that she’d missed a call from Quinn and one from Zac.

  Good.

  She wasn’t ready to talk to Zac. She had to figure out how to pull herself back from what she’d admitted. From now on, she wasn’t going to let her emotions get the better of her.

  She texted Quinn and got back a call.

  “Hey.”

  “Where are you?”

  “On the beach, fixing to walk back to the hotel. Why?”

  “Stay there,” Quinn said. “I’m tracking you with the friend app, hold on.”

  She did as her friend asked, looking up at the sun. “Still there?”

  “Yes, what’s up? Did the media already start pinging you about Nick?”

  “Yes. But that’s not all. Something else has come up and it involves you.”

  “What?”

  “Zac blurted out that you paid him to be with you this weekend in the lobby at the hotel. It was overheard by a bunch of reporters and everyone is running with the story.”

  “What?” Shock warred with anger and betrayal inside of her.

  “Yeah, I know. Listen, it gets worse. Someone videoed him saying it on their phone, so everyone has it. There’s no denying it,” Quinn said.

  “What am I going to do? I’m prelaunch on the new couples line. This affects everyone who works for me. My partnership deals,” she said, but she stopped talking. Had Zac done it to prove he didn’t love her? Had he thought that he needed to make it clear that things between them would end when the wedding weekend was over?

  She was horrified and angry. She felt tears burning in her eyes as she fumbled in her bag for her sunglasses and put them on. She wasn’t about to let him know how badly he’d hurt her. She texted her team to get another room at the hotel and meet her there in forty-five minutes. She was going to have to go on the offensive to save her business.

  Quinn showed up a minute later and sat down next to her on the bench. She looked at her friend and all the betrayal and pain inside of her welled up. Quinn hugged her close.

  “He’s an idiot.”

  “He is,” Iris agreed. “But I think I might have been the bigger one. I love him, Quinn.”

  “I know,” her friend said. “I could tell last night.”

  “I’m going to have to spin this,” she said.

  “I think he cares for you too,” Quinn started.

  Iris shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t be together after this.”

  She hoped if she said the words out loud enough, her heart would get the message.

  * * *

  Zac didn’t have the chance to talk to Iris before the rehearsal where she pretty much ignored him the entire time. Nick and Adler looked fragile and both went their separate ways after they were done. Zac wasn’t sure what was going on between the two of them but he wanted to fix things with Iris.

  He didn’t blame her for ignoring him. Stephan from her team had come to see him and had advised him that he wasn’t needed for any promo or to do anything with Iris for the rest of the weekend.

  He’d tried to talk to Stephan, but it was clear the other man wasn’t having it. He’d left Zac feeling even worse about what had happened. And when he got to his grandmother’s house, his entire family was tense. Even Mari, who usually found a way to lighten the mood, looked somber.

  They were all gathered in the formal living room when Mari walked over to him and gave him a hug. “I love you, big bro, even though you are totally clueless sometimes.”

  “I’m not used to having anyone care what I say.”

  “But you knew she does,” Mari said. “I like Iris a lot. I’m surprised at what you said, but I can see how it would be something she’d agree to. She’s really smart about her brand and has been careful about how she manages it.”

  “Yeah, until I majorly messed it up. That wasn’t my intent,” Zac said. He’d spent all day thinking about the business side of it but he knew that if he’d handled the declaration of love better, they wouldn’t be in this situation and she probably wouldn’t care because she’d know he was on her side.

  “No one thinks you did it intentionally,” Mari said. “How are you going to make it up to her?”

  He had a few ideas. So far none of them had been that great. He’d hoped he could talk to her. He knew that he was going to have to show her how much she meant to him. Make the big gesture and prove it to the world. His family was all for him doing something with Iris, anything that would take the spotlight off his father and the illegitimate son that no one had known about until yesterday.

  Now that the media were beginning to hint they had the scoop on what had transpired at the Bissets’ yesterday, Carlton was releasing a statement that had the backing of both the Williams and Bisset families. But no one believed that the scandal would go away that easily.

  “I’m hoping that when the time is right...it will come to me.”

  Mari punched him in the shoulder. “Don’t wing this, Zac. If she’s important to you, then show her and make an effort.”

  �
��I am,” he said. He had spent the entire day thinking of all of the things he’d learned about Iris since they’d met. It might not have been a long time but they’d both been real with each other. He was pretty sure he knew her better than anyone else.

  He knew how badly he’d hurt her. He had humiliated her without meaning to and he knew he was going to have to bare his soul in order to have a chance at winning her back.

  The rehearsal dinner was being held in the ballroom at his grandmother’s house. It had been set with large round tables that would seat eight and a large dance floor in the middle. There was a live band and later on he knew that Toby Osborn was going to perform.

  There was media at the event as Adler and Nick’s wedding was being filmed and most of the wedding guests were present. He had an idea and knew that if he was going to pull it off, he needed to get to work.

  “Bye, kiddo. Wish me luck.”

  “Good luck,” she said as he turned and walked out of the ballroom to find Toby. If there was a man who knew how to survive scandals, it was Adler’s father. He didn’t need advice because he knew what he needed to do, but he could use some backup.

  He found Toby outside smoking a cigarette.

  “Hey, I need your help. I’m not any good at this sort of thing and I screwed up royally with Iris.”

  “After last night? I thought you were going to propose,” Toby said.

  Drunk Zac had been prepared for that. Unfortunately that wasn’t an option until he fixed things with Iris.

  “Yes, I really messed up today. I want to do something that will show her what she means to me. Can you help me with some lyrics?” Zac asked. “I want to use the old song ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me.’ The song means something to us.”

  Toby listened to everything that Zac had to say and then nodded. “Okay. If that doesn’t work, be prepared to grovel.”

  “I am,” Zac said. And he was. He didn’t want to lose Iris over this. Not when he’d finally realized that she was the person he wanted to always come home to. The one woman he needed to be his home port.

  He told Toby what he wanted to say and the other man wrote it down, wordsmithing it as he went along. When they were done, he handed the paper to Zac who read over the words and hoped that Iris would understand that she was his world. She was the ocean underneath his yacht and he needed her.

  He hurried into the ballroom. The band was almost ready to take a break but he asked them if they would stay and play for him while he sang for Iris.

  They agreed and Zac took a deep breath.

  “We have had an odd request and I hope you won’t mind helping this man out by welcoming Zac Bisset to the stage. He has a special song he’d like to perform for Iris Collins.”

  Seventeen

  The last thing Iris was interested in was seeing Zac dressed in a dinner jacket and tie looking way more handsome than someone who’d broken her heart should. She almost got up but Mari came over and put her hand on her shoulder.

  “Give him a chance,” she said. “If this doesn’t make it right, then I’ll be surprised.”

  She thought Mari was giving her brother too much credit but she sat back down and looked up at the stage.

  “Thank you for allowing me to take the stage,” Zac said. “Many of you may have heard about a pact that Iris and I made for the weekend and I’m sure you’ve inferred all sorts of things about it. But whatever you’ve come up with, it’s not the truth. I’m sorry, Iris, for not being more careful when I spoke. I’m not used to the spotlight but that’s no excuse. You asked me for a favor, which I agreed to and then broke my word. This in no way makes up for it, but I hope it will help you accept my apology. The sentiment is my own, the song is borrowed and the lyrics were tweaked by Toby Osborn.”

  He turned to the band and they started to play the beginning notes of “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.” She was flooded with memories of him dancing her around his living room and singing under his breath. That was the moment, she thought, when she’d first let her guard down and started to fall for him.

  Zac started to sing in his off-key tone. He was singing the actual words of the song until he got to the chorus. Then she stopped breathing as he sang. Because the chorus was all about her and how he hoped she’d give him another chance.

  He ended with, “Please don’t take my angel face away.”

  Her heart was in her throat. Today had been long and she’d been through the wringer. But she’d missed him. Her manager had called and she’d done a live video on her YouTube channel talking honestly to her viewers, and it had resonated. A lot of them had made mistakes and understood how hard it was to find love. It had led to a good discussion, one Iris intended to keep going.

  One of the brands she’d partnered with had dropped her but Iris understood they needed someone who was perfect, not human like her.

  He stood there on the edge of the risers waiting for her, and she hesitated for a second before she got up and walked over to him. The band started playing one more song as Zac led her to the corner of the ballroom.

  “This morning when you said you loved me, it was buried in a bunch of other stuff and my foggy brain was still processing it when you walked out the door. I climbed down to the ground floor to go after you but...there you were, all you, and there I was, sloppy me in bare feet. And we both know you deserve better than that.”

  “No,” she said. She could tell he still had more that he wanted to say but she wasn’t going to let him go on believing she wanted more than him. “I think I made you feel like you wouldn’t be good enough if you weren’t fitting into my image of life, but I like life with you. I like me with you.”

  “I do too. I honestly am in love with you, but I feel like we could both use some time to believe it,” he said. “I’m so sorry I blew our cover. I didn’t mean to. For the first time in my life I was on rough seas and had no idea how to navigate myself through it. I realized after I blurted everything out to Logan that you are my keel, angel face. You keep me on course. I didn’t know I needed that until we found each other.”

  “Me too. I love you, Zac. All of you. You embrace life in a way that I have never been comfortable allowing myself to. I guess I thought no one would accept me if I wasn’t perfect but you have done that from the beginning.”

  Everyone applauded as he took her in his arms and kissed her.

  A moment later there was a commotion and Iris looked up to see Adler pulling away from Nick and throwing her engagement ring at his feet.

  “I can’t do this,” she said as she ran from the room.

  * * *

  Will the Bisset scandal cost

  Adler her happy ending?

  You’ll want to find out

  when the One Night series

  by USA TODAY bestselling author

  Katherine Garbera continues soon...

  Available exclusively

  from Harlequin Desire.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Seduced by a Steele by Brenda Jackson.

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  Seduced by a Steele

  by Brenda Jackson

  One

  Mercury Steele glanced over at his mother, sitting across the breakfast table. Eden Tyson Steele, you just had to love her.

  He’d just told her how awful the past few days had been for him. Not only had he lost a client but also one of his prized antique cars had been stolen. She had the audacity to say there must be a reason for the streak of bad luck he’d had lately. Of course, she couldn’t resist blaming it on his wo
manizing ways.

  “That’s awful about your car getting stolen, Mercury. What did the police say about it?” his father asked with concern.

  He appreciated his father’s empathy, but then, Drew Steele had passed his love for antique cars on to his six sons. He’d passed something else on to them, as well. Namely his testosterone-driven genes.

  In Drew’s younger days he’d been quite the ladies’ man. His reputation as a philanderer had been so bad that he’d been run out of Charlotte by a bunch of women out for blood—namely Drew’s. He had fled from North Carolina, where most of the Steele family lived, and made his way to Phoenix. That was where he’d eventually met and fallen in love with Mercury’s mother.

  Eden Tyson Steele, a green-eyed beauty and former international model, whose face had graced the covers of such magazines as Vogue, Cosmo and Elle, had practically snatched Drew’s heart right out of his chest. Proving miracles could happen.

  For the longest time, it seemed their six die-hard bachelor sons had inherited Drew’s philandering genes when their womanizing reputation rivaled that of their father’s. They’d become known as the Bad News Steeles. Four of Mercury’s brothers had now married, leaving only two brothers still single: Mercury and Gannon.

  He couldn’t speak for Gannon, but Mercury intended to be a bachelor for life.

  Their brother Galen was the oldest of the six and had gotten married first. At thirty-eight he’d made millions as a video-game creator. Tyson was thirty-seven, the most recent to marry, and was a gifted surgeon. Eli, at thirty-six, was a prominent attorney in town and had been the second to marry. Jonas, who was thirty-five and the third to marry, owned a marketing business. Mercury was thirty-four and was a well-known sports agent; and Gannon, who had recently turned thirty-three, had become CEO of the family’s million-dollar trucking firm when Drew had retired.