The Billionaire's Con (19 page)
“That’s not what I said.” He shoved a hand through his hair
“But it’s what you meant.” She held up a hand to halt his denial, and her bark of laughter was harsh with derision. “God. I knew I’d been a fool. I just hadn’t realized how big a fool.” The smile she gave the big cop was sad, and her eyes glistened with moisture. “You’re wrong about Justin. Using me to get at the Ashford money isn’t his style.” She turned back. “But it is
your
style, isn’t it?”
His heart contracted at the bleak acceptance in her eyes. “Meggy.” He took a step toward her.
“No.” She retreated from his outstretched hand. “Damn you, Trevor Christos, or whatever you’re calling yourself today. Scam, you say? Of the two of us, you make the better con artist. You present yourself as a successful businessman, but you’re really that pirate you dreamed of being when you were a boy. You sailed into Palmerton under false colors to protect your treasure.”
She pushed by him to make her way to the bar and scrambled to reach over the top, pulling out a sheaf of papers. Spinning back, she closed the distance until they were toe to toe.
The papers hit him in the chest. He fumbled to catch them.
“Your fortune is safe from me, Trevor. That’s the waiver I promised you, signed and sealed. Go pillage and plunder somewhere else.”
He felt as though he’d been hit with a sledge hammer. She stood before him in her sparkling fairy costume with her jaw clenched against the quiver that threatened to break free. Her eyes, pooled with tears, broke his heart.
A fairy costume, for crying out loud. She’d worn it for him, he knew. Her choice meant something. She’d expected something of him tonight, but he’d managed to blow it without ever knowing what part he was expected to play.
His stomach clenched at the shimmer of unshed tears in her eyes. She hadn’t cried before—not when she’d discovered the man she loved wasn’t who she’d thought him to be, not even when she realized he’d believed her a thief. He couldn’t bear it if she cried now, not when he felt the urge to weep himself.
Wearily, he dropped his head to stare at the papers in his hand. They represented the dissolution of a fortune, of
her
fortune. She thought his interest in her was about the money. She believed everything he’d said and done and felt, everything they’d shared, was just part of his plan to protect his stake in the Ashford millions.
She was wrong, of course, and staring blindly at the legal documents, his mind searched frantically for a way to prove it.
She believes it’s about the money!
His heart began to hammer in his chest, shooting a red hot stream of adrenaline through his veins. “Grandmother,” he called into the silence while pinning Meggy with a steady gaze.
“Yes, darling,” came Elizabeth’s calm voice.
“The woman I love believes the Ashford fortune is more important to me than she is.”
“So it seems.”
“How long would it take your attorneys to change your will, cutting me out of it completely?” He held Meggy’s gaze even as her eyes widened and she began shaking her head. “Leaving everything to your great-granddaughter?” he finished.
Elizabeth’s clear voice could be heard over the sudden excited murmuring of the crowd. “They should manage it in a day or two, or I’ll damned well know why.”
“Will you see to it then?”
“Are you sure?”
He turned to meet his grandmother’s gaze across the room. There were tears in those eyes that had watched over him as he’d grown from scared boy to grown man, eyes the same color as Meggy’s, but there was pride as well. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”
Silence reigned, broken only by the ticking of the grandfather clock in the entry. Not a soul in the room dared to breathe as he turned back to Meggy.
Her eyes were closed, and she’d lost the battle with her tears. They left shiny tracks on her cheeks. She continued to shake her head.
He took the two steps needed to touch her and with a long finger curved under her chin, he lifted her face. “Look at me, fairy girl.” He waited until her eyelids flickered open. “I love you. You! Do you believe it?”
She nodded.
“And
you
love me. Say it.” He continued to push.
She whimpered, and her face crumbled on a fresh wave of tears, but she managed to choke out the words. “I love you, Trevor, but,” she gasped on a sob, “the money, I don’t want it.”
“Too bad.” His hand disappeared into the pocket of his slacks and reappeared with her sparkling charm bracelet shimmering in his palm. “I think you should put this back on.”
She didn’t argue.
As he attached the clasp at her wrist, he realized his hands were shaking. “I know it’s not a ring.” He spoke clearly, not caring they had an avid audience. “But it’ll have to do, because you’re marrying me.”
She blinked at fresh tears. “I am?”
“You are. Say, ‘Yes, Trevor, I’ll marry you.’”
“You’re very bossy,” she said soberly.
He held his breath for what seemed like a lifetime as he waited for her response then had to lock his knees to keep from falling. They went weak with relief at the return of her fairy smile.
“But yes, Trevor.” Her smile beamed through her tears, “I’ll marry you.”
Trevor stared down at her pixie face shining like the sun, and the love he saw in her crystal blue eyes took his breath away.
“Kiss the girl already,” Jasper called out from the crowd, bringing a roar of laughter from friends and family alike.
With a purely male smile, Trevor kissed his fairy girl.
A word about the author...
Mac is a wife, mother, really young grandmother, and breast cancer survivor living her dream. Along with her husband of thirty years, a neurotic Pomeranian, and a blind cat, she lives in Phoenix because the southwest feeds her soul.
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