Page 156 of The One
Ten Months Later
Lainey looked so fucking beautiful. She had on a strapless red jumpsuit with the diamondRaround her neck—an outfit that showed the dip of her chest and the cinch of her waist, the curve of her ass and the delicious muscle in her legs.
An outfit she’d purchased from a boutique in Reykjavik even though I’d had my shopper in LA send over a slew of things for us to wear this weekend. Lainey thought it was important to represent a local designer for the opening of my hotel. My shopper’s selections were added to our walk-in closet, Lainey insisting they get returned when we moved back to LA in a few weeks.
She tried to limit how much I spoiled her.
Most of the time, I won.
But tonight, with how sexy she was in red, I was happy to cave.
“Come here.” I turned her hand so she faced me at the mouth of the hallway, where we were about to do a final walk-through of the bottom level of the hotel—at least that was what she thought—followed by dinner with some officials of the island to celebrate the opening of the hotel. “I just want to tell you I love you. Spending the last eight months here with you by my side has been an experience I’ll never forget. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
She flattened her hand against the lapel of my suit jacket. “You could have. You just would have had a very lonely bed at night and no one to eat dinner with at midnight when you finally returned home from work every day.”
I wrapped my arms around her, holding on to her ass. “You did far more than keep me company, Lainey. You helped me make decisions. You picked out finishes. You weighed in on the hiring of certain staff.” I chuckled. “Cole and Spade Hotels might need to put you on the payroll.”
She gave me the smile that was reserved just for me. “It was an honor to stand by your side while you created this masterpiece.” Her hands went to my face, theRtattoo pressing against my cheek. “But maybe next time, you could pick a place that’s a tad bit warmer?”
“Baby, are you telling me you’re tired of shivering?” I squeezed her ass.
“And I thought London was cold. Jeez.”
“As long as you come with me, I promise the next location will be warmer.” I narrowed in on her mouth. “I want to kiss you, but that lipstick is just fucking cruel.”
“The red, you mean?”
I nodded, knowing I would be kissing her soon, but that color was going to paint my lips and never come off.
“Ah, let me show you something fun.” She dragged her thumb over each lip, and when she was done, her finger was free of red. “It’s smudge-proof. It won’t come off?—”
That was all I needed to see.
I pulled her face to mine and surrounded her lips, teasing my tongue around hers. Her rose scent was all I smelled, and I couldn’t get enough, drawing her in closer, pressing my body to hers.
“Whoa,” she moaned a few seconds later. “Are we going to make it to that dinner?” She winked.
I chuckled. “Let’s do the walk-through, then.”
I linked her hand in mine, kissing the top of her knuckles as I walked her down the hallway, pointing out the different spaces where, in the last few days, some tweaks had been made. Because we wanted privacy, away from the construction and hotel employees, Lainey and I lived about a quarter of a mile away in a house I’d rented within the heart of the capital. So, even though she was here a lot, she didn’t come daily to witness the progress.
We were only a few rooms down when I came to a stop outside a closed door. “Open it.” I nodded toward the handle.
“Isn’t this one of the ballrooms?”
“It is.”
“Did you add the lighting that we talked about—” She stopped herself mid-question, her hand going over her mouth after she gasped. “Rhett, oh my God!”
I moved us inside the ballroom. The scent from the roses instantly filled my nose, so I knew it had to be doing the same for her. There were thousands of long-stemmed red roses inside. They covered the four walls; they were in tall, clear glass vases every few feet throughout the room; the floor was made entirely of petals.
This didn’t feel like a space filled with flowers.
This felt as though we had stepped inside an actual rose.
And the only light inside were candles, the flickering flames creating an ambiance that I had been envisioning for weeks. There were hundreds of them, each wick ablaze, the white base the only color inside all the red.
I brought Lainey to the center and positioned her to face me. There wasn’t any nervousness running through me. What I felt was a calm. Because this was the woman of my dreams. The woman I’d waited all these years to be with. The woman who I knew, in my heart, would be with me forever.
