Saving Cinderella! (16 page)

“I know. I knew it couldn’t last forever. Even though I wish that it could.” He stared into her eyes, and then he went down on one knee right in the middle of the crowded lobby.

“Wyatt? Are you okay? Wyatt?”

“I’m better than I’ve ever been in some ways, Alex. And all because of you.”

“Did we…did you win, then?” Her voice was a choked whisper.

“I won. I don’t know about the hotel yet. But here in this city, where anything can happen, something wonderful hap
pened to me. You came into my lobby and you taught me about possibilities and friendship and—”

His deep voice seemed to break. He looked down for a minute. When he looked up again his eyes were fierce and glittering and…

“You taught me that I didn’t have to hide inside myself all the time, that I could take chances with my heart. The lives of everyone here in this room have been changed by you. We were going along, picking up our accolades, doing a good job, and then you came along and showed us how to put our hearts into everything we did.”

“We’ll never forget you, Alex,” Jenna said suddenly, and the room was suddenly less hushed as other people chimed in. But then they all turned to Wyatt, and were suddenly silent.

“
I’ll
never forget you,” he told her. “And I want you to know that if you’re ever looking for a home again, if you ever need a place to go, you have one here. No work required.”

Alex stared down at him, her heart in her throat. A lone tear escaped her lashes and she walked up to him. “You’re breaking my heart.”

“That wasn’t what I wanted to do. At all.”

Alex cupped her palm against his cheek. “What did you want to do?” she whispered. “Wyatt, I don’t want you to do or say anything you’ll regret.”

He grasped her hand and touched his lips to her fingertips. “I could never regret anything I ever did with you. And what I wanted was to tell you publicly, so you’ll never doubt that I mean it, is that there is one man you helped who didn’t just feel grateful when the day was done. One man who loved you with every ounce of his being. Even if I have to let you go, even if I look like a fool for telling a woman who’s leaving me that I love her, I’m telling
you
, Alexandra Lowell. You
crept into my heart and I’m never going to stop loving you, no matter where you are.”

Alex’s heart overflowed. Somewhere she heard the snap of a camera, and she turned. “Don’t print that. I don’t want anyone to think Wyatt is…crazy just because he’s down on his knees.”

He smiled, a slow, sad smile. “I
am
crazy, Alex. And you’re not helping. You could at least tell me that you’ll think of me now and then.”

“Wyatt—” Her voice broke; she wrapped her arms around his neck, sinking to her knees. “I couldn’t
not
think about you. Every day. Every hour. How could I forget you when I love you so much? And you’re driving me crazy, too.”

“In what way?”

“You could…you could at least ask me not to go.”

He closed his eyes tightly, pulled her against him. Tightly. “Don’t go, Alex,” he whispered against her hair. “Please stay. Marry me. Love me.”

She launched herself against him so forcefully that they went tumbling backward, and she ended up sprawled across his chest with one of his arms wrapped around her. “Yes, yes and
yes
. I love San Diego, but I can visit. I can open a shop here, where you are, where my home and my heart is.” She kissed his chest right over his heart.

Another camera snapped. “That had
so
better not end up in the newspaper,” Alex said, while smiling down at Wyatt. “Something like that could cost McKendrick’s the award.”

“Well, the award wouldn’t have mattered if Wyatt had sold the hotel,” someone said. “That’s what he said he was going to do.”

Alex raised her head and frowned down at Wyatt. “Why would you have done that?”

He put one arm behind his head and lay back, staring into her eyes. “I was prepared to follow you if you were determined to go. If you wouldn’t have minded a stubborn hotelier hanging around, that is.”

She snapped her head up, raising her chin. “I would have minded you selling this place very much. What would McKendrick’s be without McKendrick to run it? Although that
is
the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me. And I loved hearing you say it.”

He kissed her. “Let’s get married this weekend.”

“That’s what I like—a man of action.”

“You can choose the place.”

She kissed
him
. “I choose the Haven.”

He laughed, a deep, hearty, wonderful laugh. “You always liked a challenge. We’ll never get it done in time.”

“Oh, yes, we will. We have friends.
You
have friends.”

“I do. And you have family here. A home,” he said, indicating the roof high over their heads. “We’ll manage.”

As they lay there Randy came forward, carrying a bag.

“What’s this?” Wyatt asked.

“My winnings. Your wedding present,” Randy said. “When it comes down to the wire, I find I can’t profit off my friends. But I won the bet,” he told Alex as he opened the bag, threw its contents in the air and let the dollars rain down. “I always knew that if Wyatt ever fell in love you would be the one.”

“She was always the one,” Wyatt agreed. “From the first moment I saw her, she stole my heart.”

Alex smiled. She looked at the money lying around them. “Well, I think this would be enough for a very nice party for our McKendrick’s family, don’t you think, Wyatt?”

“You always have the best ideas, my love.”

She rested her arms on his chest and leaned closer. “I have another good idea, too.”

“What is it?”

“Kiss me again, Wyatt.”

“Best idea ever,” he said, sitting up gracefully and folding her into his arms. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.”

“You would have. In time.”

“I think you’re right.” And he kissed her one more time.

Two evenings later, Alex stood at the back of the short aisle of the chapel, waiting to meet Wyatt. All their friends had, indeed, worked a miracle. The tiny building was lit by hundreds of candles, their light bouncing off the creamy walls. The stars shone through the deep open windows. The rugged pews were draped in white satin, and the honeyed floors were strewn with blood-red roses.

It was so beautiful. But what mattered more was that her friends were there. Jayne, Molly and Serena smiled up at her.

“Be happy,” Jayne had said before the ceremony.

“She is,” Molly had answered. “You can see it in her eyes.”

“And she’s loved,” Serena had added. “You can see it in every look he gives her.”

Katrina and Beverly sat next to Randy, who had brought Wyatt and Alex a newspaper this morning that contained an announcement that McKendrick’s had nosed past Champagne for the award. The story had commented on the hotel’s tasteful décor, its enthusiastic and welcoming staff and exciting events.

“Thank goodness the photo is of the hotel and not of the two of us lying together on the floor of the lobby,” she’d teased.

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m rather fond of that photo. Jenna told me I could have one for my office.”

Alex had shrieked.

“Or our bedroom,” he’d conceded, with a wink and a kiss.

But all the teasing and kissing was over now, and Alex lifted her chin and gazed down the aisle to where Wyatt waited, looking tall and gorgeous, a man
any
woman would love to share her life and her bed with.

The lone wolf
, Alex couldn’t help thinking as she walked toward him. He’d been alone—by choice—for a long time. His proposal had been sudden, made soon after a euphoric, chaotic day. Those good feelings didn’t always last, as she well knew, especially when gratitude was thrown into the mix. And it
had
only been two days since Wyatt had proposed. Was there a chance he would change his mind eventually? Would he miss his solitary life, or feel trapped by the promises he’d made? And if he did…if he did…

Would he even tell her?
He’d always been so careful about not hurting her… A sudden frisson of fear rippled through her.

Alex smiled at Jayne and Molly, and at Serena, seated with her husband, Jonas, even as doubts assailed her.

Then she was walking down the aisle again. She was by Wyatt’s side. Her love. Her heart. The man she wanted to be with forever. And yet…

She turned to him and rose on her toes, putting her lips near his ear. “If you want to run, love, now’s the time to go.”

He gazed down at her, an intimidating expression in his eyes. She wasn’t intimidated, only worried.

“You’re offering me my freedom, Alexandra?” he asked.

She swallowed. “If you want it, yes.”

A slow smile lifted his lips. He swept her into his arms. “What I want is you. The only place I want to run is
to
you.” He kissed her lips, long and deep and slowly.

Every doubt and fear in Alex’s heart flew away. She kissed
him back with all the love in her heart. Her bouquet of blood-red roses dropped to the floor.

Behind her someone laughed. “It’s highly irregular for the kisses to come
before
the wedding,” they joked.

Alex smiled into Wyatt’s eyes. “There’s not going to be anything regular or ordinary about
this
marriage,” she said, loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Kiss me again, Wyatt.”

He did. With fervor.

“Thank goodness you had the good sense to choose a lot of fools before I came along, Alex. I would have hated it if I hadn’t gotten to be the one to marry you and love you and sleep with you and have children with you.”

“I would have hated that, too. So much. Let’s get married, Wyatt,” she said.

“The sooner the better. I want to be your husband from here to eternity, and I’d like to start that right now,” he said, taking her in his arms again, to the delight of all those assembled in the chapel.

It
was
a less than conventional wedding. The bouquet had to be gathered up again so that it could be tossed later. There was dancing in the aisles when the ceremony was over. There were kisses where there weren’t supposed to be kisses.

“The perfect wedding,” Alex said with a sigh.

“To my perfect bride.” And, lifting her against his heart, Wyatt McKendrick carried her away to his lair at the pinnacle of his hotel, in the heart of the city that had brought them together on one wild weekend that had turned golden.