Chase grinned like a schoolboy who’d just asked the most beautiful, most popular girl to the senior prom, and she’d accepted. He stood next to her, his heart thumping at the awe and wonder on her face as she took in the romantic setting he’d planned. She shone with an ethereal beauty he’d never been able to find in any other woman. The fact that she loved him, that she was giving him a second chance to express his love for her rocked him to the core.
“Oh, it’s real, baby. As real as you. Come.” He felt her tremble when he took her hand and led her along the black marble floor toward the canopy. It gave him great joy to know that he’d never, ever done anything so splendid for any other woman. Hadn’t even been tempted to.
“When did you plan all this?” she asked, as he helped her settle into one of the love seats.
“The planning began months ago when I knew for sure I was coming back home.” He unfolded her napkin and spread it on her lap, being careful not to touch her thighs, and willing himself not to gaze too intently on the voluptuous swell of her breasts spilling from the top of her dress, or brush his lips against the softness of her neck and shoulders, or even inhale too much of her rousing perfume rising from her skin.
It wasn’t easy being a gentleman around Desire Summers, but tonight, Chase needed to treat her like a sophisticated lady, beyond his reach, before he could strip her naked and treated her like the wanton seductress she was. He had to hold it together until after he’d told her everything.
He drew in a deep breath and limped around the table, wincing inwardly at the ache his growing erection was causing. He sat carefully down in the seat across from her. “I wanted to impress you,” he said, picking up the bottle of Chateau d’Yquem chilling in the bucket at the side of the table.
“Consider me impressed.” She laughed. “You were that sure that I would accept your invitation,” she added, placing her clutch at the edge of the table.
He laughed, too, and proceeded to pour their wine. “I was, until I came home to find you engaged to my brother, which only made me more determined to win you back. And once I was sure of your feelings for me, I ordered the total execution of the plan after we left the boarding house last night. It was difficult, almost impossible at such short notice, but with a few extra hands, we were able to pull it off.” He picked up his glass and beckoned to her to raise hers. “Cheers?”
“To what are we toasting?” she asked, placing an elbow on the table and toying provocatively with a strand of her hair falling across her cheek and down to her shoulder.
Chase fought the temptation to go and sit beside her, to caress her and kiss her and feel the warmth of her skin under his palm. “To new beginnings,” he said hoarsely. “To love, marriage, babies—lots and lots of babies—and a lifetime of happiness together.” He held her gaze, daring her to refute his request. He had to know if she was with him, willing to go with him all the way, even before he gave her the answers she was looking for. “I’ve always been in love with you, Desire. I’ve been with many women, but I’ve never loved any other woman but you. When I think of growing old, gray, and feeble, losing my teeth and my hair, you are the only woman I envision beside me. I want it all, and I want it with you, Desire Summers.”
She stared at him for a few breathless seconds, and then she sat back, placed her hands on her lap, and stared at her glass of wine.
“Cheers?” he repeated, a tiny part of him wondering if all his effort was in vain. He realized that his concerns were premature when she smiled and picked up her glass with a trembling hand.
Her beautiful brown eyes were damp when she looked at him, and in their depths he saw a lifetime of love, love she had for only him. No other woman had ever possessed the power to move Chase with simply a glance like Desire Summers did. He couldn’t wait to drown himself in her eyes while he was buried deep, deep inside her.
“Cheers.” Her voice trembled as she continued. “I’ve never loved any other man but you, Chase Hunter. And I do want it all with you. Only you. I look forward to growing old and gray with you, lying beside you, toothless, hairless, and with my breasts sagging down to my waistline.”
Chase laughed so hard, tears stung his eyes. “I promise you that my toothless mouth will still be suckling at your sagging breast and my feeble, crooked-from-arthritis fingers will still be trying to cop a feel.”
She raised her glass and grinned. “To toothless mouths, feeble fingers, and sagging breasts, then. And penises,” she added. “You won’t be virile forever, love.”
“Bite your tongue, woman. Haven’t you heard of those magical little blue pills?”
Laughing, they clinked their glasses and drank their toast, gazing deeply into each other’s eyes.
“Chase,” she said, holding up her glass and staring at the dark gold liquid inside it. “This is by far the best wine I ever tasted. It’s so smooth, like whipped cream and raspberry sliding over my tongue. It’s almost exotic, if you can say that about a wine.” She took another sip, her eyes widening and shimmering with appreciation. She glanced at the label. “I’ve never heard of this brand before. Where did you buy it? My mom loves white wine. I’m sure she’d enjoy this.”
“Well, actually, it was a gift from Bryce and his friends. A ‘thank-you’ for the honeymoon cottages,” he said on a smile. “And, you probably wouldn’t find it in any stores around here, or anywhere else for that matter. This bottle of wine is over a hundred years old.”
Her eyes grew wider as if that was even possible. “A hundred years old? And it still tastes so good?”
“It improves with time. This particular vintage was auctioned off some years ago. Adam was the lucky winner. He asked Bryce to mail it to me after they returned from their honeymoon.” He took another sip, and relished the sweet, full-bodied taste of the wine as it glided down his throat. He’d done his homework, and he knew the bottle cost over a hundred thousand dollars. Ever since he’d received it, Chase had known exactly when he would pop the cork—on a night like tonight with Desire sitting across from him wearing a red elegant dress, and with diamonds sparkling around her neck and in her earlobes. He’d envisioned this intimate scene a million times over the past year. His fantasies paled in the light of the real thing.
“I personally have to thank Adam,” Desire said. “I have to sip this slowly,” she added, placing her glass down. “You are full of surprises tonight, Chase Hunter.”
Chase set his glass down as he held her gaze. “I know you have a horde of questions about those surprises, so let’s get dinner going. We’ll talk while we eat. Is that fine with you?”
“It’s perfect. I’m starving. What, no waiters tonight?” she asked when he got up and walked to the buffet table.
“Not tonight. I want no interruptions while we talk.” He quickly filled two plates from the serving dishes. “Close your eyes,” he ordered before turning around.
“More surprises?”
“Just one more.”
“Okay, they’re closed.”
He smiled at the annoyance in her voice as he went back to the table and placed the plates down. “You may open them,” he said, reclaiming his seat. “Buon appetito, signorina!”
Her face contorted into an incredulous expression as she stared at the plate he’d placed in front of her, then at him, and then at the plate again. “Really, Chase?” she said, slapping her hands on her hips. “You got me all dressed up in the most elegant dress I’ve ever worn, adorned me with diamonds, chauffeured me by limo to the most luxurious hotel in the northeast, organized the most spectacular dinner setting a girl could imagine, pour her wine from a hundred-year-old bottle, and then you serve her macaroni and cheese with grilled hot dogs. Really?”
“And a side of grilled vegetables,” he said, chuckling. “Don’t forget the veggies.”
“This is a joke, right? That’s why you’re laughing. Ha ha.” She wagged a finger at him, then glanced at the door as if she expected a waiter to enter, electronic pad in hand, ready to take their order.
Chase sobered up. “It’s no joke, my dear.” He unfolded his napkin and spread it across his lap.
“My mouth was watering for some lobster or steak or pheasant—at least one of the exclusive, delectable delights synonymous with the Andreas name—and you expect me to eat hot dogs instead.” She sucked her teeth and glowered.
“I’ve heard they’re the best hot dogs on the East Coast. I suggest you try them before you knock them.” He picked up his utensils and prepared to dive into his dinner. “Go on, eat up. We have a lot to do tonight.”
“Only because I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten since breakfast. But I’m gonna get you for this, Chase Hunter.”
“Some of your hard, lumpy, runny mac and cheese, and your uncooked hot dogs ought to do the trick. It put me out for a week the last time. But I’m hoping your culinary skills have improved over the years?” he said, amused.
She cut her eyes at him and picked up her fork and knife.
“Try this one first,” he suggested, pointing to the one on the left side of her plate. “Add a little of this honey mustard sauce and a tiny bit of wasabi.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so,” he replied, filling their water glasses from the crystal pitcher on the table.
Her lips twisted skeptically as she cut a tiny piece off the end, added the condiments he’d suggested, and placed it into her mouth. A soft sigh escaped her, and then, “Oh my God,” she crooned around the mouthful of food. “Chase, this is…oh, God…” Her lids fluttered shut.
As Chase watched her sexy mouth close around the delicious flavors, pleasure seared through him at the vision of her lips clasped around his shaft, working him into a quivering ball of passion. He shifted to ease the tension in his groin, anxious to take her upstairs to his penthouse and into his huge bed, naked and trembling under him, crying out, “Oh, God, Oh Chase.”
The effect the erotic image was having on him was so potent, he almost choked on his own bite of hot dog. He swallowed convulsively and took a quick chug from his water glass. He cleared his throat. “How do you like it?”
She just moaned, as he imagined she would when he posed that same question later in bed. “Your mouth is watering, sweetie.” He leaned across the table and licked at the trickle of honey mustard and juices running down one side of her mouth. His shaft pulsed impatiently.
She went rigid and her lids flew up at the touch of his tongue to her skin. She smiled wickedly, and pushed her tongue through her lips to curl around his. Guttural sounds escaped their throats as they sucked gently on each other, eating from each other, drawing out the last remaining flavors from their dogs until Chase reluctantly pulled back. If he didn’t, he would have come right there in his tux. He had no intention of wasting any of his precious sperms tonight. Every last one of his little tadpoles was on assignment now—to beat all its little brothers and sisters to Desire’s fertile eggs.
“That was delicious,” she said, grinning at him, totally unaware of his lustful thoughts.
“Me, or the lobster dog?”
“Both,” she said in a silken voice. “I didn’t know that such a thing existed. It never crossed my mind that someone would come up with a lobster dog recipe.”
“Anything is possible as long as your mind is open, love. All you have to do is let your imagination run wild. That one is made from Japanese Kobe steak, and this from duckling,” he said, pointing to the other two dogs on her plate. “So you see my dear, you do have your lobster, your steak, and your duckling. Sorry about the pheasant.”
“Nobody is perfect.” Her voice dipped to a husky tone when she added, “Thank you, Chase. Thank you for making this night special for me.”
“It’s not over yet. There’s still a lot to cover. Let’s eat. I haven’t eaten all day, either.”
She giggled as she placed some macaroni and cheese into her mouth. “This is good, too. Way better than mine.”
Chase watched her, debating how to begin, but knowing that the sooner he got through it, the sooner they could get on with the second act of the night. It was a relief to know that he didn’t have to spend time trying to win her back, or make her fall in love with him again, although he would have enjoyed the journey, the chase.
His mother had said she’d named him ‘Chase’ hoping he would chase after his dreams and his purpose in life. Well, his dreams and his purpose in life were embodied in the woman sitting across from him.
And both he and Desire knew how precious and rare it was to find someone to love you, someone who would stick by you through thick and thin, someone you could never forget because that person had become part of you, and you part of them. They had a connection that no amount of time or space apart could sever. There was no need for them to pretend that they didn’t love each other. For the first time in his life, Chase could say that his relationship with a woman was not a game. It was the real thing. Desire was his waking dream, loving her was his ultimate purpose in life.
“Why did you make me get all dressed up if we were dining in private?” she asked, lifting her head after they’d eaten in silence for a while.
Well, there, she’d started it for him. He cleared his throat. “You always talked about dressing up like a princess and going to the ball to meet Prince Charming when you were a little girl.”
Her smile was tantalizing. “Yes. I remember. “But I’d already met my prince, my king.”
Her words touched him deeply. “I’m glad to hear you say that, because I also wanted you to get a feel for what it will be like married to a billionaire king.”
“Bill—did—did you say billionaire? With a B?” Her body went limp, and her fork slithered to the table. With trembling fingers, she picked up her glass and gulped down water as if her throat had gone suddenly dry.
“Yes, billionaire with a B,” he said over the rim of his wine glass, delighted that she was more surprised at his financial status than the fact that he’d specifically mentioned that they would be married.
“Is that why you’re using the alias ‘Mr. B?’” she asked, when her composure was once again intact.
“Actually, I’ve been using ‘Mr. Bennett.’” He chewed on some grilled vegetables.
“Azura’s maiden name.”
He nodded. “To the world, ‘Mr. Bennett’ is the CEO and owner of my company. Bryce suggested we used ‘Mr. B’ when I met Eli in his office yesterday. As you’re aware, he talks a lot. Didn’t want anyone putting B and Bennett together,” he added for good humor.
She wiped her hands down her face and shook her head as if to clear it. “After the dress, the jewelry, the limo, and now this,” she said, waving her hand around, “I figured you must have money. I thought you’d won the lottery or something. What I couldn’t imagine was that you’re as wealthy as Bryce.”
“I’ve only made my first billion. I have a long way to go before I catch up with Bryce and his friends.”
“So, I guess you also know Adam, Massimo, and Erik since you designed their honeymoon cottages?”
“I met them a few months ago on Baia degli Amanti. They are building a family compound on the other side of the island away from the honeymoon cottages.” He placed a slice of steak dog into his mouth.
“And here I was thinking you were a poor worker on an Iowa farm, who could hardly make ends meet, when you’ve been living the life of luxury all along.”
He swallowed his mouthful then washed it down with some wine. “Not all along. I worked as a field hand on Carver Farm until I bought all six hundred acres. My employees run it. I just use it as my headquarters for DC Architectural Designs.”
She tilted her head to one side. “DC?”
He held his humor as he recalled Lewis’ Dumb Chase remark this morning. Yeah, who was dumb, and who was laughing now?
“I named my company Desire and Chase Architectural Designs, but I emitted the ‘and’ and just went for ‘Desire’s Chase’ since that’s who I really am.”
Her hand went to her throat. “Chase, you named your company after us.”
“Yes, Desire.” He reached for her other hand lying on the table, and laced their fingers together. “It was the thought of coming back to you that gave me the drive I needed to be successful. I needed to be successful to take on and then take down the man who’s responsible for tearing us apart. He’s a devious little pig. I couldn’t take the chance of him knowing I was coming for him. I had to sneak back into my own town. There was no other way to do it. I’m sorry I had to lie to you.”
“You didn’t lie.”
“I did, by omission. Can you forgive me?”
She squeezed his fingers, sending joy spiraling through his veins. “I understand now. Since we’re discussing him, and since you had no hesitation to tell Kaya who you really are, I guess you’ve dealt with him?”
He nodded. “I took care of him this morning. His company will be liquidated by the time the stock market closes on Tuesday.”
“What did this man hope to gain from setting you up?”
“He wanted my designs.”
“But you told me that I was the only person who knew about your dreams of being an architect back then.”
“I’d told one other person before you, someone I thought was my friend. I was young and insecure about my ability, my purpose and direction in life. I wanted approval and feedback from him. I thought I could trust him, so I foolishly gave him my thumb drive. It was the only copy I had of my designs. He didn’t give it back to me until the night of the show. I didn’t have time to view it before I handed it to you.”
“He switched out the drive for the one with you and…” Her voice faded and she dropped her gaze to her empty plate.
“Desire.” Chase reached across the table and placed his hand under her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “He edited the timestamp on that video. It seemed he’d been after me for a long time. He used my weakness for sex against me. Yes, I was a hound. I did a lot of things that I wish I could take back. But I swear on my life that I never touched another woman after we declared our love for each other. I was celibate for a year after I left home. The thought of being with another woman made me sick to my stomach.”
Her entire body shuddered as she drew harsh, deep breaths into her lungs. Finally she spoke. “I believe you, Chase. But I don’t understand why you didn’t stay and clear your name? You could have told everyone what he’d done.”
Chase dropped his hand onto the table and sat back in his chair. “I couldn’t, not without destroying my family—my mother’s and my brother’s worlds.”
“What do you mean?”
Chase wished he could avoid dredging up his and Azura’s past again, but a husband and wife should never have secrets between them. Since Desire would be his wife, it was only fair that she knew about his father. “He’d dug up some incriminating information about my mother’s past,” he said. “He threatened to make it public if I didn’t leave town. He warned me that he would follow through with his threat if I came back. It killed me to leave you without an explanation. I wanted to stay to fight for us, but I couldn’t let that man destroy my mother’s world. What kind of son or big brother would I have been if I’d—”
“Oh, Chase,” she cried, her lips trembling as if she were trying to combat her need to break down and weep. “I’m sorry that you were forced to choose between me and your family. You did the right thing, though. You had to protect your mother and your little brother, especially because I’d cut you out of my life. You didn’t even know if we’d get back together if you’d stayed.”
“I think we would have eventually, but I needed to go find out if what he’d dug up on my mother’s past was true.”
“You didn’t know about it before? She never told you?”
“Nope.” He dropped his gaze to the table.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” she said after an awkward silence dragged out between them.
“I do have to tell you,” he replied, raising his head to give her a smile he knew didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s only fair that you know everything about the man you love and the family you’ll be marrying into.”
He refilled his wine glass, and took a sip, wishing he had something stronger to ease the shame and pain he felt. “You sure you’re ready for this?” he asked Desire. “It’s heavy.”
When she nodded, he began with the story Azura had told him last night. He left nothing out. Then he told her about his visit to the jail to face the man who’d sired him. When he was finished, tears were streaming down Desire’s face, leaving two black streaks in their wake. “So, my dear, you are in love with the son of a rapist, a vile despicable murdering bastard, a jailbird. I’ll understand if you don’t want to be with me, if you don’t—”
“Stop it. Stop demoting yourself.” She was out of her seat and running around the table to sit beside him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his throat.
Chase closed his eyes tightly to stop the tears from falling, but they came anyway. He wished he didn’t have to burden Desire with a tale so gruesome, but he knew she understood. He held her close, breathed in her perfumed scent, and absorbed the warmth and comfort of her loving tender touch.
Way too soon, she raised her head, but kept her arms around him. Her damp eyes sparkled with a kind of fierce love and devotion Chase had never witnessed in another person’s eyes before—at least not when they looked at him. She was kissing him, caressing him with her eyes.
“I will always carry that shame surrounding my conception. How do I live that down? How do I shake it off? Even though I never felt it, since I learned the truth, I often wondered if my mother resented me each time she looked at me. I’m the son of her rapist, and the murderer of the man she loved. She claims she’s never once blamed or resented me, but I—”
“Of course she doesn’t. Azura loves you. It’s not your fault that your father is a rapist and a murderer, Chase. You’re doing to yourself what the people in this town did to me after Victoria killed Pilar. You’re no more responsible for your father’s crimes than I am for hers. Our parents, our families, don’t define us. I love you, Chase Hunter, and I don’t care who your father is. It doesn’t change the way I feel about you. I want to marry you and have your babies.”
Chase was taken aback when she pulled his head down and pressed her lips against his. Her kiss was demanding, reassuring, and it sang through his veins—songs of dedication, loyalty, friendship, and eternity. Chase wrapped her in his arms and his mouth covered hers hungrily as he relinquished all the pain and heartache he’d been carrying around for far too long. Desire loved him despite the fact that the blood of a rapist, murdering bastard ran through his veins.
He reluctantly broke their kiss, and said, “I told my mother about us, about that night in the garden, and about our reunion yesterday.”
She eased out of his embrace and gazed at him warily. “She must think I’m an awful woman to be engaged to one of her sons and in love with the other.”
He held her hands, stroking her wrist with his thumbs. “No, sweetheart. She understands. She knows true love conquers all. She’s happy for us. She actually feels guilty that I had to sacrifice my happiness to protect her and Chad.”
She quivered on a deep breath. “You never told me the name of the man who set you up. Who was it? I have a right to know.”
Chase took a swallow of wine. “You remember I was working as a gardener for Carron Architecture.”
Her fingers tightened around his. “It was Lewis Carron, wasn’t it?” she said in a bitter tone. “It was him,” she repeated, nodding in response to her own question.
Chase felt as if someone had dunked him into a tub of subtemperature water and was standing on his chest holding him under. “Yes. How did you know?”
She dropped her face into her hands and uttered a harsh groan. “That son of a bitch! I should have known. I’m so stupid!”
Chase could feel his breath solidifying in his throat. He pressed his hands to his chest to force himself to breath. If that bastard had touched her, he swore to God he would kill him. Now, he understood the rage that must have overtaken Troy when his sick brother, Roy, had raped the love of his life and then thrown it in his face. Chase’s hands curled into fists. “Desire. What is it? What did he do to you? Did he touch you?”
She raised her head and gazed at him through eyes laced with torment and regret. “He found me crying in a room at the club that night. He told me how sorry he was that you’d embarrassed me, and that I didn’t deserve it. He said he thought you were his friend, but that you must have been jealous of him and decided to hurt him by bringing disgrace on his father’s company since your presentation represented them. He suggested we could help each other deal with the disillusion that you caused.”
“How?” He ground the words out through his teeth.
She swallowed. “After you left town, he came to my house, to check up on me, he claimed. He asked me if I knew where you’d gone and if you were coming back. My father was all too happy that a nice young man was interested in me. He encouraged me to go out with him. After you told me about your letter, I know why he was so eager to pawn me off.”
“Did you go out with him?”
She shook her head. “No. I was still in love with you. I wasn’t interested in anyone. He was persistent though, calling me all the time. But then after Victoria killed Pilar, he lost interest, like a lot of the other men around here.”
Chase let out his breath. “He was fishing for information about me through you. I didn’t just abandon you, Desire. I left because I knew if he’d discovered I had feelings for you, he would have hurt you to hurt me, to threaten me into staying away. I’m so glad nobody knew about us. When I think of what he would have done to you…” He drew her to his side and placed her head on his shoulder. “He’s no danger to you anymore. He’s no danger to anyone,” he said, stroking his hand up and down her arm.
“He works for Fontaine Enterprises. I’ve seen him around town with Bryce. They have lunch together often.”
Chase laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
He refilled her wine glass and handed it to her. “Here, you’ll need this for a toast after I tell you how I met Bryce, and about the true nature of our relationship.”
“I’m listening,” she said, pulling out of his embrace and lying back against the cushions.
Chase ran his fingers through his hair, and tucked errant strands behind his ears. “I’ve known about Bryce since I was a teenager, but I’d never had the opportunity to meet him in person.” He shrugged. “He was a few years older than me and we didn’t run in the same circles.”
“He was in the top circle in Granite Falls, and you were an underdog at the time, a busboy, a waiter, and then a lowly gardener,” she said, tapping him playfully on the arm.
He appreciated that Desire could speak her mind freely to him without fear of upsetting him. She trusted in their love enough to know that he would get over it, and vice versa. “Anyway, my first design, the one I gave to Lewis, was the blueprints for the building that now houses Fontaine Enterprises headquarters.”
“Chase, you designed that?” she asked in awe. “That building has been voted the most beautiful in all of Granite Falls for the past ten years.” She shook her head. “And Lewis has been getting credit all this time for your work. Unbelievable.”
“I’ve had to sit back and watch him shine in my spotlight.”
“How did Bryce learn the truth? Did you contact him?”
“No. It was sheer luck. About nine years ago, I was in Chicago with my girlfriend at the time. She was interviewing for a job there, so we’d decided to make it a little vacation away from the farm.” He shrugged. “Anyway, Beth and I had an argument one night, so I went for a walk to cool down. I passed by this beautiful hotel, and was so awed by the structure that I wandered inside and went to the bar. I knew I could only afford one drink, so I nursed the hell out of it. And just when I was about to leave, guess who grabbed the stool next to me?”
“Bryce.”
“I recognized him right away and we started talking about sports and women. I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was the fact that we were from the same town, or because we’d both lost the loves of our lives—his by tragedy and mine by—well—I began unloading on him. I told him about Lewis, about that night and how he stole my designs.”
“Did you tell him about me?”
“No, sweetheart. He wasn’t ready to talk about any member of your family. He was still very angry, and still grieving for Pilar. I was sensitive enough to sense his pain.” He took a sip of his wine. “He told me that he loved my work. I mean he chose my designs above everyone else’s from the show. He just didn’t know the true artist behind them, although he said he’d suspected that they weren’t Lewis’ since all his future drawings were—how did he put it? ‘Crap.’”
They both laughed, and automatically clinked their glasses before taking sips.
“He told me success was the best revenge, but that I needed to be covert about it,” Chase continued. “If my enemy doesn’t know I’m coming, he can’t counterattack. It was best Lewis didn’t even know I was in the game. Bryce even put me in contact with a Hollywood makeup artist who created a face for Mr. C. Bennett.”
“Like Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible? Can I see it?” She grabbed his arm and stared at him like a kid begging for a dollar to buy cotton candy at the country fair.
He laughed and patted her hand. “Not that elaborate, my dear. She just made some minor alterations with makeup and props to make me look older when I played the role of CEO. I retired her when I left Iowa. It was time to leave that part of me behind. It had served its purpose.”
“Oh well,” she said with a deflated sigh. “Sounds like Bryce. He’s smooth, yet shrewd when it comes to business.”
“He’s the kind of mentor every green entrepreneur needs in his corner. I was very lucky to have him in mine. To set me on my path of revenge, he encouraged me to return to college and offered me a full scholarship. So I stayed in Chicago, enrolled in Illinois Institute of Technology, and earned my master’s and my doctorate degree in architectural engineering in five years.”
“So you’re a doctor? That’s impressive, Chase.”
“Thank you, baby. I worked my tail off. I didn’t want to disappoint Bryce. I worked on the Fontaine Towers while I was in school, and once I graduated and moved back to Iowa, Bryce hired me to oversee the construction of his estate and the honeymoon cottages. It was kind of difficult not being on-site, but we kept in close communication and he would send a liaison to meet with me once in a while. He recommended me to many of his billionaire friends and acquaintances. Before long, I had more work than I could keep up with. Following Bryce’s advice to stay off the radar, I founded DC Designs under the alias, Mr. C. Bennett, hired some of the best architects out there, along with a stellar staff to run my operation from Des Moines. I was Mr. C. Bennett in Des Moines, and plain old Chase Hunter on Carver Farm.”
“That is quite a story, Chase,” she said, in a voice bursting with admiration. “To Mr. Bennett and Carver Farm.”
They toasted again then Desire placed her glass on the table. “When did you know it was time to come home? I mean what triggered the decision?”
He cleared his throat. There was no need to give her all the boring details about his and Bryce’s Machiavellian machinations that finally caused the collapse and ultimate demise of Lewis Carron and his company. “As you know, Bryce started out in real estate. He owns half of Granite Falls and Evergreen. He’s finally ready to develop some of the land around Cedar Lake and the Mannis River. He wants me to plan the communities. I’d been putting him off, but after I saw that picture of you in Granite Falls People News, I knew it was time to come home. Last year, I met him on Baia degli Amanti to go over some last minute details.”
“Their honeymoon island.”
“Yes. When he told me that you would be planning the wedding, I thought it was only fair that he knew about our relationship, that I loved you, and have always loved you.”
“Was he upset?”
“No. He seemed genuinely happy for me. He’d already spoken to your dad. He told me that he thought you were an intelligent, beautiful, and remarkable young woman, and that he could see us working out our differences and getting back together. He told me not to give up on you, on love.”
She touched her fingers to her lips. “Bryce said those things about me?”
He nodded. “It was he who sent me the copy of the magazine with you in the garden, along with a note that it was time to strike down my enemy and come back to claim you before some other fool snatched you up now that you were famous.”
She bit down on her lower lip, causing his heart to jump a mile high in his chest. “I didn’t know he thought that much of me.”
“He does. But I knew all those marvelous things about you twenty-seven years ago when you crawled through the hedges from your yard to mine, wearing nothing but a pair of red cowboy boots, and branded me as your Chase. I’ve always been yours, Desire. I’d just been waiting for you to grow up, to understand the ways of love so I could teach you all the beautiful things, the lascivious acts that go on between a man and his woman.”
She glanced around their little private outdoor cave, like a bird scouting a tree branch in which to build its nest. Her gaze came back to his. “Chase, do you have a room here in the hotel?”
He cocked his head to one side. “Why?” Idiot, just say yes. “Yes. I have a penthouse suite.”
“A penthouse suite?” Her tongue rolled slowly and sensuously along her voluptuous lips. “I’m so turned on right now, baby. We should stop talking for the night, at least with our mouths. I just want…” She leaned in and whispered the most obscene requests Chase had ever heard fall from the lips of a woman, of anyone.
“Desire,” he exclaimed as his cock swelled and throbbed. He had no idea she had those kinds of words in her vocabulary, those kinds of prurient thoughts in her pretty little head.
“What?” She fluttered her dark long lashes at him. “I’m done being a good girl. I want to be bad, and I want to be bad with you, Chase Hunter. Are you too good, too rich to be bad now?”
Only a wimp would run from a challenge like that. And Chase Hunter was no wimp. Without saying another word, he grabbed her purse off the table, took her hand, and practically dragged her toward the door they’d entered a few hours ago.