Page 100 of Bargain with the Bachelor
Proposal? So, I hadn’t misheard herorhallucinated. What was she doing?
Hadn’t she understood a word of what I’d been trying to tell her over the phone last month?
Confusion mixed with unwilling excitement inside me. I wanted to grab her and pull her close—I also wanted to get up from the table and run out the door in a last-ditch effort to save us both.
“Kristal… I told you… I can’t be with you. I’m no good for you.”
“You’re wrong,” she said pertly. “You see, when you were telling me about your supposed neediness and how it made you all wrong for me, you forgot about something very important.”
“What?”
“I need you too. Yes, I’m financially stable now, and I don’t need your money or a free place to live, but Idoneedyou. I need you to love me—and spend the rest of your life letting me love you.”
My heart ached. My eyes filled with tears I was powerless to control. I shook my head, still fighting it.
“I can’t. You know I—”
Kristal reached across the table and took my hands. “I wasn’t finished yet, Mr. Bigshot Billionaire CEO. I don’tjustneed you. Iwantyou—more than anything I’ve ever wanted. I want your big ego and all your insecurities, your brilliance and the foolish ideas you’ve allowed to take root in that head of yours, your beauty—andthe bits of ugliness that you carry around inside likeevery person who’s ever lived.I want your family, your messy past. I want your future. Hunter, I wantallof you. Forever. And I want to give myself to you. If you’ll have me.”
When I didn’t answer immediately, Kristal got up and came to stand in front of my chair, gathering the skirts of her sundress in her hands in apparent preparation to kneel.
I stopped her, wrapping my hands around her waist and rising to my feet.
Our bodies were very close, her upturned face just beneath mine, the red heart-shaped lips parted in anticipation of my answer.
Instead of giving her one, I asked a question.
“Do you know how much I missed you?” I whispered.
Her smile was accompanied by tears. “How much?”
“Enough to give you what you’re asking for… no matter how terrified I am it’s a mistake.”
“You know… being scared is not a bad thing,” she told me.
“It isn’t?”
Kristal shook her head and grinned. “It’ll make for a great damsel-in-distress moment. Where’s a camera when you need one?”
I laughed and blinked, trying to hold back the tears that insisted on spilling down my cheeks anyway.
“I love you so much. I can’t believe you came back to me. And I, for one, am happy there are no cameras around. So no one can tell me to cut-scene when I do this.”
Lowing my mouth to hers, I took it in a kiss worthy of Prince Charming.
All that was missing was the fairytale wedding.
Chapter Thirty
The Fairytale Wedding
Kristal-- Five months later
Standing beside Cinda in the opulent ballroom of Seacliff, I watched my reception guests dance to an upbeat tune played by the live band on stage.
The French doors that lined the ballroom stood open to allow in the cool September night air and the welcome ocean breeze.
Having danced for an hour straight myself and feeling the pinch of my blue pumps and the restriction of my white strapless gown’s snug bodice, I was taking a break. It would be only slow dances for me the rest of the night.
