When a Champion Wants You (15 page)

She especially enjoyed it
when her parents met Dimitrius. He had insisted that they come over
to his house for dinner, and they had done so last week. He had a
good time talking to her parents about her, learning things he
hadn’t known about her and from the wonderful night they’d spent
together, her parents liked him already. Or maybe they were just
overjoyed that Melanie had started dating again.

Melanie stretched her
hands high in the air, then glanced towards the clock on his
nightstand. The time was 8:03 a.m. This afternoon, they would be
flying out to Vegas since The Champion Corporation was unveiling
the new and improved eRoll payroll system along with the brand new
application that Dimitrius had been diligently working
on.

After stepping out of the
bathroom, Melanie pulled her hair in a ponytail and walked
downstairs. She followed the scent of bacon to the kitchen,
thinking that Gino must’ve been here since there was food cooking,
but when she walked in the kitchen, she was surprised to see
Dimitrius standing near the stove wearing a white T-shirt and a
black pair of boxers.

She smiled. What was he
doing cooking? He had told her that he hadn’t cooked in years and
now, he was taking a stab at making breakfast.

“Good morning.”

He swung his head around
quickly to look at her. “Good morning.”

Melanie walked closer to
him, watching as he took a few pieces of bacon from the skillet.
“Since when do you cook?”

He shrugged. “Just felt
like cooking for you this morning.” He wrapped his arms around her
and took a kiss from her lips. “Now if you would have a seat, my
lady, I’ll serve you your food.”

“Okay,” Melanie said
smiling, walking to the table.

When she did, Dimitrius
eyes fanned up and down her fully clothed frame, after which, he
took his attention back to breakfast. Serving her a plate of food,
he made one for himself then joined her at the table. “So are you
ready to fly out today?”

“Yep,” Melanie said. She
had already packed a suitcase and left it in the foyer.

“Are you ready for the
presentation?” she asked him. “You’ve been working really hard on
it these last two weeks.”

“I’m ready. The app is
ready and the presentation will go just fine, Melanie.”

She smiled. “You’re so
confident.”

“That’s because I know
what I’m doing. That’s why I’m confident about us, and speaking of
us, how confident are you? How do you think things have been
between us this last month?”

A smile touched her lips.
“Things have been great. I must say, Dimitrius…I really have
enjoyed spending time with you.”

“Good, because I have
something I would like to give you.”

“What’s that?”

Dimitrius dabbed his mouth
and said, “I told you that when the time came, and we were in
Vegas, if you thought we had a chance, we would get married. So,”
he stood up, walked around the table to her and took a ring from
the pocket of his shorts.

Melanie opened her mouth,
in shock, watching as he lowered himself to both knees in front of
her. Taking her left hand inside of his, he said, “Melanie Summers,
will you marry me?”

“Dimitrius…what are you
doing?”

He grinned. “I’m proposing
to you,” he said.

“I know but—”

“Marry me,
Melanie.”

She wondered how it was
that her heart didn’t jump out of her chest as she watched
Dimitrius slide a ring onto her ring finger. When she felt tears
escape her eyes, she knew this was real. Like Emily told her
before, Dimitrius didn’t do experiments. He intended on going all
the way all along without an ounce of hesitation.

“Melanie,” he said to take
her out of her reverie. When she looked at him, connected gazes
with him, he said, “Marry me.”

Melanie swiped tears away
with the backside of her right hand. “What if I say no?”

“I won’t accept that. I
know you want to say yes, and I know this is scary and
nontraditional…all of that. But you knew of my intentions when I
first approached you, did you not?”

“I did.”

“And we enjoy each other’s
company, don’t we?”

She nodded.

“Then I want this. I want
you to be my wife. I want us to learn each other as we grow in
love. I want to spend the rest of my life getting to know you,
Melanie. And I want that journey to start this weekend. Marry
me.”

Melanie dabbed her eyes
again and nodded slightly. “Okay. I will marry you.”

He pulled her close to him
and held her in his arms, relieved that she said yes. Now, he
couldn’t wait to get out of the house, go to Vegas, make the
presentation and claim his woman.

Chapter 20

The presentation
that
Dante, Dimitrius and Desmond
delivered to well over two-thousand business men and women had been
a success. Most of the attendees on Friday and Saturday had signed
up for the new eRoll software and downloaded the payroll
application.

Melanie was impressed as
she watched Dimitrius work. Not only was he gorgeous, he was
sophisticated too. She watched as women stared him down, sliding
him business cards and trying to flirt with him. She was too busy
watching her soon-to-be husband work to be worried about other
women.

Melanie thought about how
her mother and father seemed to take so well to Dimitrius. He was
certainly a welcomed sight for them, since they thought she wasn’t
trying to date again. When she called them Friday from the hotel to
announce her engagement, they were beside themselves with joy. When
they learned she would be getting married on Sunday, they were
shocked. Melanie explained to them that it was how she and
Dimitrius had wanted things to be. She told them she was in Vegas
and by the time she was back in Asheville, she would be married.
After a few more convincing words from her end, they seemed a bit
calmer about their daughter’s quick marriage. As long as Melanie
was happy, then so were they.

* * *

Melanie closed her eyes to
draw in a deep breath and slowly pushed it out of her mouth.
Dimitrius had left the suite to go to Dante’s room, and Emily was
with Melanie, helping her get ready.

“You alright, girl?” Emily
asked her. “I hear you sighing heavily over there.”

“This is so
stressful.”

“What is? Getting married,
or getting married to Dimitrius,” Emily said, then
laughed.

“Both.”

Emily grinned. “You said
it yourself that Dimitrius was showing you a good time these last
four weeks, and that you thought you were falling for
him.”

“I know, and I meant that,
but—”

“And, in my opinion, I
think you two are so good together. I’ve watched you with him. You
light up whenever he’s around and Dimitrius…let’s just say he’s a
different man when he has love in his life.”

“I know. He’s an amazing
man, Emily, and I think I love him,” Melanie said, fighting back
tears.

“Then why do you look so
pitiful on your wedding day, Mel?”

Melanie swallowed the lump
in her throat and said, “I think I made a mistake by not telling
him about my fertility issues. I tried several times. It didn’t
work out. So, I thought that if I got him to fall in love with me
first, then he’d be more receptive and understanding. Now I feel
like, once he finds out, he’ll probably never trust me
again.”

“So what do you want to
do?”

“I want to tell him right
now, but—”

“You’re afraid he’s going
to call off the wedding.”

Melanie nodded. “I don’t
want to lose him, Emily,” she said, feeling tears well up in her
eyes, but held them back. She didn’t want Dimitrius to see any
signs of sadness on her face when they stood face to face,
repeating vows. The last time she was emotional to the point of
tears, he’d picked up on it right away.

“Melanie, Dimitrius is
nothing like Scott. If you ask me, Scott wasn’t all that crazy
about you anyway. But Dimitrius went after you hard. You know he
did. Why would he end your relationship when he wanted you so
much?”

“He told me that he
thought I would be the perfect wife and mother.”

“And you will be.
Dimitrius knows you’re are a good catch. When you finally do decide
to tell him, I’m sure he would be fine with adopting some babies. A
man who truly loves a woman look for opportunities to make things
work…not run in the opposite direction.”

Melanie nodded.

“So, stop worrying and
start smiling. Dimitrius is waiting for you.”

Melanie smiled.

“There. That’s better,”
Emily said. “Now let me fix these flowers in your hair.” Once she
adjusted the row of white flowers with bobby pins, she said,
“Perfect.”

Melanie looked at herself
in the mirror. Emily had done an excellent job with her make-up.
She wore the fuchsia color of lipstick that Dimitrius seemed to
like so much, and the added touch of the flowers in her hair made
her look come to life.

Melanie pulled in another
long breath and said, “Okay. I’m ready.”

* * *

“So, it’s almost that
time,” Dante said, looking at Dimitrius. He and his brothers were
standing near the wedding chapel, all dressed in black tuxedos.
“You ready for this, man?”

Dimitrius nervously rubbed
his hands together and said, “Yeah. I’m ready.”

“You sure?” Desmond asked,
“Because it’s not too late to go running for the hills.”

Dante chuckled. “Des, when
you finally decide to get serious about your life, which I hope
will be very soon, by the way, then you’ll know why I married, and
why Dimitrius is getting married. I love Emily.”

“And I love Melanie,”
Dimitrius said.

“And I love my freedom,”
Desmond stated, then laughed.

Dante shook his
head.

“I know it’s strange,”
Dimitrius said, “But I loved her from the moment I saw her. I knew
she was the woman for me.”

Dante nodded. “It’s not
strange at all. That’s the same way I felt when laid eyes on
Emily.”

“Well, I don’t believe in
this love at first sight nonsense,” Desmond said, and just as he
was speaking, the women came walking in their direction.

Desmond frowned when he
saw Sherita. When had she arrived? And why did she have a camera
swinging from around her neck. “What’s she doing here?” he mumbled
to Dante.

“She’s the photographer,”
Dante answered. “Sherita is a destination wedding photographer. We
could really use her at the next mass wedding at the Grieving
Hearts Connect Resort, don’t you think?”

Desmond gritted his teeth.
Why did she have to be so gorgeous, wearing a teal dress that was
as light as wind? She had the front of her hair pinned up, the back
hanging long and pretty.

Dante glanced at Desmond
and chuckled. “For someone who doesn’t believe in love at first
sight, you sure are looking at Sherita like you could offer her a
marriage proposal.”

Desmond blinked out of his
trance and coolly slid his hands in his pockets. “That’s not going
to happen.”

“If you say
so.”

Dimitrius locked eyes with
Melanie and licked his lips. Without question, she was the most
beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And she was his…

His eyes roamed over her.
She was wearing a white dress, not the typical wedding gown style
of dress, but more like the type of dress one would wear to an
all-white party. It hugged her curves so perfectly that he was
already having thoughts of what her body would look like had it not
been hiding behind the dress.

Melanie smiled when she
saw Dimitrius, standing there waiting for her, and she was happy –
proud he had chosen her to be his wife. Over the last four weeks,
she’d learned so much about him, and she knew they had a long way
to go before they’d fully gotten to know each other, but they had
to begin their journey somewhere, and it was starting here, in
Vegas, at a quaint chapel.

The minister had walked up
to the podium and said, “So where’s the happy couple?”

“Right here,” Dimitrius
said, extending his hand for Melanie’s grasp. He gently pulled her
close to him and took a kiss from her lips.

“We haven’t gotten to that
part yet,” the minister quipped.

“Sorry,” Dimitrius said.
“I couldn’t resist.”

The minister began the
ceremony with opening remarks.

Dimitrius and Melanie
remained holding hands, then, gazing into her eyes, he mouthed,
“Are you okay?”

She nodded.

“Now, I want you, Melanie,
to repeat after me,” the minister said.

“Okay,” Melanie responded.
And, repeating after the minister, she began, “I, Melanie Summers,
take you, Dimitrius Champion, to be my lawfully wedded husband. To
have and to hold,” she said, tears rolling down her face. “From
this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in
sickness and in health, to love and to cherish ‘til death do us
part.”