His head tilts a bit and if I’m not mistaken, the wrinkles that form around his eyes indicate that he’s smiling although I can’t see that part of his face. “I didn’t think you were dating, Ms. Parks.”
I laugh, feeling a little less nervous. “Very funny.” My fingers fidget among themselves.
He laughs back at me. “He would be a fool to do such a thing. And Mr. Bradford isn’t a fool.” I can only nod in agreement although I don’t feel entirely reassured.
“Besides, we’re here so it’s a little too late to run.”
Peeking out through the tinted window, my gaze focuses on a tempting man in a suit. Heat flows through me seeing Adrian’s waiting for me on the sidewalk. He pulls the door open for me before I know what’s happening. I step out, slipping my hand into his to keep my balance.
“I’ll take it from here,” he tells Noah, and that’s when I see we’re at the Waldorf again. Glancing down at my office attire, I give Adrian a look and he only smirks back.
“If you’d like to go shopping first,” he offers although I’m certain it’s more for comic relief than anything else.
“You are a devilish man,” I comment, and move to stand beside him, his hand still holding mine.
His rough chuckle is a soothing balm. “You look gorgeous,” he reassures me.
With every step, the nervousness lingers but it’s different now that I’m with him. Maybe it’s the way he holds me, or the way he peers down at me. The way his hand splays against my back as we walk in or how he helps me into the booth. I’m not sure what it is, but I want it all.
I would give him everything I have today, for him to simply want me tomorrow.
Adrian
* * *
“Sir, another?” the waiter asks, politely gathering my attention. If I recall correctly, he’s the same waiter we had our first night at the Waldorf, our dinner that never came to be.
The same tucked away booth as well.
I shake my head once. “Thank you, though.”
“And for you?” he asks Suzette.
“I’d like dessert I think,” she says and gazes back at me as if asking if I’d like to join her.
I only smile back, feeling the nerves heat.
“Maybe the dark chocolate tart?” the waiter suggests and I pray I don’t show my reaction in the least.
When the plate comes out, her diamond will be on it. My composure threatens to break when she agrees.
I’ve gone over every response she could have.
If she says it’s too soon, I’ll respond, if not now, then when?
If she thinks I’ve gone crazy, I’ll agree, I am losing it because of her.
It doesn’t matter what she thinks of it, so long as she says yes. So long as she’s mine to have and to hold, to be with me forever. For fuck’s sake, if she thinks it has to do with work, I’ll tell her how I signed a damn contract I shouldn’t have because I couldn’t get her off my mind. That alone should convince a businesswoman like her that she should say yes before I go broke drowning in thoughts of her all day.
“Are you all right?” Suzette questions and it’s only when I look up to see her glancing at the cocktail napkin in my hand that I realize I’ve twisted and pulled and ripped it into little pieces.
“Fine,” I answer her and in my periphery I see the waiter slipping the plate down in front of her.
My heart races and I tell her that I’m perfectly fine and wait.
Her gaze doesn’t leave mine. Even when I motion to her dessert, spotting the four-carat diamond sparking from where it sits in the red velvet box.
“I just—” Suzette starts and then licks her lips. “I know I’m … I know that I—” she hesitates. This gorgeous, intelligent, strong-willed woman hesitates, because of me.
Because I didn’t say I love you back. I know damn well that’s why.
“I want you to marry me,” I murmur, unable to hold it back any longer.
Her kissable lips part and her light blue eyes widen. “Adrian.”
I motion to the ring on her plate and she gasps, a loud yelp of a gasp, covering her mouth and jumping back slightly.
She stares at it, as if I’m not waiting, unable to breathe and desperate for her to answer me.
“Marry me,” I tell her, a command this time and that gets her attention. Her hands lower, although she still stares at me as if she’s in shock.
“For the love of all things holy, if you don’t say yes right now, I swear to God I’ll throw you over this table.”
When she smiles, this beautiful smile that reaches all the way up to her eyes, I know it’ll be all right.
“I love you,” she tells me, her cadence soothing.
“That isn’t a yes and I’m going to need you to say—”
“Yes,” she says in a breathy voice and it takes everything in me not to topple the table as I rush to her.
To kiss her. To hold her. “I love you too,” I tell her the moment she breaks our kiss. “I love you and I need you with me.”
Her eyes shine back with every emotion I feel stirring inside of me.
“I love you and I want you, and I need you too.”
Epilogue
Suzette
* * *
The city never sleeps. It provides a constant light as it slips into the office. Even at nearly 1:00 a.m.
With a deep breath in, I lie back, nestling beside Adrian on the pullout sofa. His smell surrounds me, fresh and clean with a hint of sandalwood, and so do his arms as he wraps them around me, planting a kiss on my forehead.
This is how we’ve slept for the last two weeks nearly. He stays with me, working and taking calls, while I do the same.
The numbers are promising, but not guaranteed.
“Was it a good day?” he asks me, his chest rumbling as his hand runs down my back.
“A great day. Gail secured the final client.”
“That makes me happy to hear,” he comments and although exhaustion coats his tone, I know he truly is happy. It was shaky at first. A number of clients debated on leaving, and they all wanted to renegotiate. Gail took the brunt of it.
“Me too,” I say and then ask him, “And what about you? Any updates from Wyatt?”
His friend got into a bad deal. I’m not certain of the details but I know it’s been rough on him and it involves politicians and a lawsuit and some other developer.
I was nervous at first that it might involve my friend’s husband, Mason. He’s a developer and I’ve heard whispers about the depths of corruption that surround him and his family.
He loves Jules, though, and she swears he’s one of the good ones. Thankfully, he wasn’t involved.
“He’ll be all right, but the next few years will be difficult for him. The loan I gave him will help, but he’s in for a hellish year if not longer.”
“And what about the contract?” Again, the details are murky, but I know at some point, Adrian had signed on to some piece of this shit show.
“It’s null and void. Even if I’d signed, he said it was his mistake, we’d never discussed it and he would deal with the fallout.”