Can't Buy Me Love (14 page)

“I was thinking we should ask Stan to sit on the Comnet board of directors.”

Cole stopped kissing her fingertips. “Really?”

“I think the transition for him from executive to retiree will be difficult. A challenge. It would be easier for him if he had something to look forward to. A place where his skill set might come in handy, even if only part-time.”

“The board, then?” Cole dropped her hand to the table. His shift in demeanor was like a cloud head thundering in on a sun-kissed day. “You know Comnet’s privately held and the board has little to do or say in the company’s affairs.”

She was trying to save the TBC deal. Why was Cole suddenly so frigid?

“I’m aware.” Meg wrestled with her irritation. “I’ve worked there for three years.”

Cole stood up and moved away from her, settling his hands on his hips. “And now you’re making board appointments?” The coolness of his tone accompanied a jaunty tilt to his chin.

Meg sat up straighter. “I made a
suggestion
. One I thought might make the transition for Stan a bit more palpable as well as support TBC’s transition into the corporate fold of Comnet.”

“I’ve built the entire place from the ground up.”

“Your business acumen and accomplishments are the primary reasons I took the job,” Meg said.

“And me then? Are they the primary reasons you’re with me?”

Meg’s stomach dropped and confusion collided with surprise. She’d been fighting her own doubts this entire night, silencing her worst fears, and now Cole smacked her with his. She leaned back in her chair. Cole believed she was with him because of his wealth? Because he was president of Comnet and could provide her with a certain
lifestyle
?

“Is that what you think? That I’m sleeping with you because you’re my boss? Because you’re wealthy? Because you own Comnet?”

“I guess we’ll never know the truth, will we?” Cole paced the kitchen, his feet slapping against the marble. “It’s not like you met me when I was a penniless mailroom boy. I’ve already accomplished quite a life.” Cole waved his hands, accenting the expanse of his abode and the magnitude of his existence. “I mean look around, twenty-thousand-square feet, an entire staff, and the ability to make board appointments on a whim.”

Meg’s bottom lip quivered and yet she felt herself ignite with rage. Her doubts were confirmed. Cole didn’t believe in them as a couple. If he did, how could he possibly say such hurtful things?

“Excuse me,” Meg said, and hopped from her chair. She bolted across the kitchen and toward the front door. Tears burned and threatened to spill. She wouldn’t cry—not in front of Cole.

A pulse of anger, a pulse of hurt, a pulse of confusion beat through her as she grabbed her purse and her keys from the marble-top table beside the door. She’d merely asked a question. Made a suggestion. She shoved her feet into her flip-flops. Cole had acted as if she were a gold digger. Her car wasn’t here and she wouldn’t take one of Cole’s. She wanted nothing from him. Not right now and quite possibly not ever.

Chapter Nineteen

What an idiot.

Cole paced in front of Meg’s apartment building in Venice. How could one man be so incredibly stupid? Meg made a suggestion—a good one—and he became a raging maniac. No wonder she walked out nearly barefoot, wearing only a pair of flip-flops. Where was she? She didn’t answer her cell. He’d sleep on her front steps if he had to. How could he have possibly been such a complete and utter boob?

Because she’d gotten to him.

Meg was under his skin, in his house, in his bed, and running a piece of his company. The most frightening part of that equation was that he couldn’t imagine his life without her in any of those positions.

Life without Meg.

The warmth drained from his heart with that perilous thought. She was sunshine and teasing fluttering kisses that woke him up each morning. To return to life without Meg was to shut out the sun and trudge the frigid tundra of lonesomeness.

Family situations caused Cole pain. But damnit, Meg was different. She knew him inside and out and yet she still wanted him. She didn’t recoil from his workaholic ways. Didn’t ask him to be different. Didn’t abuse his power or take advantage of his position.

 The interesting part was that with Meg in his life Cole
wanted
to be different. He wanted to work less. He wanted to spend time with her. His mind played hooky, thinking about her while in the office. Meg continuously crept through his mind. Thoughts of her body, her breasts, her hips, her smile played like a movie reel in his head. Damn that effervescent smile that she could whisper onto her face. A smile that sank any thoughts he had of the single life forever.

“What are you doing here?” Meg stood five feet from Cole, her keys in one hand and her bag in the other.

“Did you…did you walk?” Cole asked. Miles separated his Bel Air home from her Venice apartment, and while it was relatively safe he didn’t want Meg to walk alone at night anywhere.

“My wallet was in my other bag.”

“Why didn’t you call I would—”

“Because I didn’t want to get a ride from the man I’m mad at. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of storming out.”

A part of Cole wanted to smile but that would merely send her further into anger. He wanted to wrap her up in his arms and lift her into his car and cuddle her all the way back to his house. A house that was monstrously big without her.

In the darkness with only the front light from her apartment building she looked sad but not nearly as angry. Still, there was the angle of her chin that indicated she didn’t forgive him—at least not yet.

“Meg.” Cole stepped forward and held out his hands.

She crossed her arms over her chest, blocking her heart from him.

Regret wound its way through his body and lodged in his throat. He hurt her. He’d accused her of being a conniving thief—a gold digger—someone only out for his money. An accusation that Cole knew both in his heart and his mind was completely untrue.

He had worked with Meg for three years. He had to fight his way into her bed. If Meg wanted anything it was a career and a promotion based on merit. Not to become his lover. This relationship wasn’t something Meg wanted or planned. This relationship was something that couldn’t be stopped.

“I’m…I’m sorry.” Words that rarely came from his mouth. Words uncomfortable on his tongue. Words that he felt deep in his core. “I know you were making a suggestion, actually a very excellent suggestion, and well, I let my mind…I let my past…I—”

He didn’t say another word because she was in his arms. The magnolia scent of her mixed with ocean breeze and the outdoors filled him with the sweet sense of relief. Relief that his past, his fears, his inner demons hadn’t destroyed the very best thing in his life. Meg looked up into his eyes.

In that instant, the door to his heart burst open. He wouldn’t doubt her again. He would trust her. This woman would be his.

“Meg, I want this to work. I haven’t felt this way about anyone ever. I don’t want to hide these feelings. To pretend they don’t exist.”

Tumult passed across her face, and she looked away from him. He was asking her to confront her biggest fears. To face the innuendos and rumors and gossip that their relationship would inevitably churn up. To trust that this relationship meant more to him than just a quick affair.

“You’re asking a lot from me,” she said honestly. “If we tell people about this, us, then suddenly I become the woman who got her promotion by sleeping with her boss.”

“But you didn’t,” Cole said.

“I know that, you know that, but where will most people’s minds wander to?”

He didn’t want to admit she was right. People would forget her stellar education or that she worked tirelessly for three years to get her promotion or brokered an amazing deal between Comnet and TBC. Her reputation would forever be tinged with the implication that her promotion was based merely on her abilities in bed.

“If this doesn’t work out I leave and I don’t even have the reputation I’ve worked so hard to maintain.”

“Doesn’t work out?”

Cole’s heart beat faster. This relationship had to work out. But if he kept acting like the crazy accusatory person he’d been tonight then, yes, there was a possibility she would take away her love and turn her back on him forever.

 His irrational overreaction tonight was all about fear. Fear he hadn’t addressed because he never got this close, felt this strongly about a woman. Cole tightened his arms around her as if the strength of his embrace could will away all that was frightening.

“This will work.”

“We both know about the best-laid plans,” Meg said. Her lips turned down as if the idea of this relationship failing would drive her to tears. “I can’t risk it. My job, my reputation, my work if I lose that…” Her words drifted into the stillness of the night and she looked away, as if following them with her gaze. “If I lose that and then I lose you too, what do I have?” She stared at him. “You? You keep Comnet. You keep your life and only enhance your reputation as a ladies’ man. Whereas I become a bit of a tart who has to seek out a new job with each employer looking at me as a possible conquest as well as an employee.” Her body stiffened in his arms. “I’ve seen women on that road before and it isn’t pretty.”

 Ahhh, and here was the rub.

“Perhaps this explains why you moved about so much as a child,” Cole said. She refused to meet his gaze and instead stared intently at the collar of his shirt.

“My mother,” Meg started, and stopped. Her whole body rigid in his arms. “My mother couldn’t seem to keep her legs closed when it came to her boss.”

His heart split wide with the pained look in Meg’s eyes.

“We moved a lot due to her…weaknesses.”

“I see.” Cole pulled her even tighter to him. He didn’t care about her mother, her father, or any other individual haunting her past. He cared about now, this moment, and the future he wanted them to build together.

“And you’re fearful that you’ll acquire a similar reputation,” Cole said softly, knowing that he tread on painful ground.

“I’ve tried very hard not to follow in her footsteps. To remain solid, above reproach. To make sure there aren’t rumors or innuendos.”

“I’ve gone and ruined that for you.”

He wanted her to feel safe in his arms. She needed to know that he was solid. He wouldn’t hurt her. He wouldn’t slander her. He wouldn’t use her up and then toss her away. Meg was much too precious to ever let go. If Cole got what he wanted, Meg would be in his life always.

“You’re not her,” Cole said, and rested his chin on her head. “And I’m not them.” Meg could recite the exact words back to him. He’d placed her in the role of his uncle a mere two hours earlier. He had been convinced she plotted and schemed to get Stan Morton on the board of directors.

Her body was still stiff. He leaned back and tilted her chin up. How could he convince her? What could he say to make her understand how important her role was in his life? He wanted her to be a permanent fixture, not a transient plaything. He wouldn’t ever be finished with Meg. Couldn’t be finished with Meg. Heat stirred within him with the thought of her permanently in his bed and his life.

“Marry me, Meg,” Cole whispered. Unplanned, the words floated from him, necessary and perfect.

Her eyes widened. Her heart fluttered against his chest.

 “That’s not a question you ask just to make up after a fight,” Meg whispered.

“This isn’t about a fight,” Cole whispered. “This is about our future. Marry me.” He’d never thought he’d have to ask twice. Hell, he’d never thought he’d ask once.

Her lips on his were her only response.

Chapter Twenty

Not the marriage proposal of her dreams, but most definitely the man. From the third-floor window in Cole’s en suite bathroom, Meg watched as dusk captured day and the event staff scurried around the fairyland decorated with thousands of tiny white lights completing preparations for the ball. The hairstylist and makeup artist futzed around her. She was unaccustomed to such attention, but according to Allison Morton she’d have to get used to it if she wed Cole.

If.

Meg had yet to answer Cole’s question. She’d spent the last few days avoiding his question. Her heart said yes, but her head—well, her head thought they hadn’t dated long enough to consider marriage. Yes, they had worked side by side eighteen hours a day for nearly three years. She knew Cole’s shoe size, his jacket size, how he liked his steaks, the name of his doctor, and what time he got up each morning. She new the internal machinations of his mind—or thought she did. Cole had surprised her with his ability to love and to engage on a deep and earnest level. She’d not thought it possible that he would allow himself to be vulnerable or even consider settling down permanently.

Did Cole know her as well as she knew him? Would he love her when he’d seen each and every one of her personal foibles and flaws? Did he know she snored when she had a cold or that she cried buckets during romantic comedies? They weren’t from the same world, the same background—not even close. Yes, they shared loss and a violation of trust. For Meg, it was the doubt formed in childhood that her life as she attempted to create it would remain secure from day to day. Cole’s childhood scar was the loss of his parents and the violation of trust by his uncle.

The makeup artist finished, and Meg held up the hand mirror to examine her work. The stylist had swept up her hair and left delicate tendrils framing her face; her makeup, while understated and elegant, accentuated her eyes.

“Thank you,” Meg said to the stylist and makeup artist as they packed up their wares and left for the evening. She walked from the bathroom into Cole’s bedroom, where her blue evening gown hung. She slipped off her silk robe, wearing only a strapless bustier, garters, silk hose, and heels.

“That’s exactly the outfit I would choose for you.”

Meg blushed in spite of the fact that Cole had seen her in much less than this. Cole leaned against the doorframe wearing his black Armani tux.

“This might be a little too much skin to show your guests,” Meg said.