Much More Than a Mistress (16 page)

He shrugged. “You beg?”

“And if she still says no?”

A slow smile crept across his face. “You're scared. You're afraid of being rejected.”

Damn right he was. He was Jordan Everette, billionaire. Ladies' man. Women chased him, not the other way around. But Jane, she was playing by an entirely different set of rules. She didn't want Jordan the billionaire, she wanted the man who, until recently, he'd kept locked up inside. She was the only woman who had ever really seen him.

“I don't have to tell you that this sort of thing doesn't happen every day,” Nathan said. “You take the risk.”

That was Nathan, still looking out for him. But this time Jordan didn't mind. Because Nathan was right.

Jordan pushed himself up from his chair and told his brother, “You've got a point.”

“I do?”

Jordan laughed. “Yeah, and I have to go.”

J
ane was still at work Monday evening when her sister stopped by her new office.

“It's after eight. What are you still doing here?”

“I was just going over a few of our active cases, bringing myself up to date.”

“So, how does it feel to be back?”

Last Friday after she'd left Western Oil, Jane swallowed her pride and went to see her parents. When she told them she'd just quit her job, they all but begged her to come back. She had insisted that this time things would have to be different. She wouldn't let herself fall back into the rut of doing everyone's grunt work. She planned to take charge of her career, build a client base. They promised to help make that happen. And on top of everything else, she even managed to negotiate a better salary. Then the family took her out to dinner to celebrate. They were happy to have her back, and it was good to be back, to feel as if she were in charge of her life again.

“Good,” she told her sister. “It's nice to be doing a job I know I don't suck at.”

“So…have you talked to him?”

Jane didn't have to ask who she meant. Jordan was all she had been able to think about. And she missed him. She missed their dinners in bed and the way he teased her. She missed the way she felt when she was with him, as if she were the most beautiful and desirable woman in the world. She felt as if a chunk of her soul had been ripped away, and she wasn't sure how she would ever feel whole again.

“Not a word,” she said.

“He'll call.”

“If he was going to, he would have done it by now.” It's not as if she hadn't expected this. She knew that when the truth came out, it was going to end. She just hadn't expected it to hurt this much.

“You're probably right,” Mary said in that deadpan tone of hers. “I'm sure he's completely forgotten you by now.”

Jane shook her head. “I really hate you sometimes.”

“Don't tell me you're still mad at him.”

“No.” Mostly just heartbroken. Because after obsessing over it the entire weekend, she couldn't honestly say that his lie was really any worse than hers. Yes, she had been doing her job, but if she had done it properly, she never would have slept with him. She would have drawn the line. She was just as guilty as he was.

But if he wanted to try to make it work, wouldn't he have called by now?

Maybe the sad truth was that when he had time away from her to think about it, he decided that he didn't love her as much as he thought he did. Maybe she had just been a novelty. Because she may as well face it, men like him didn't love women like her. Only in fairy tales.

“You want to go out and get a drink?” Mary asked. “Or ten?”

Jane smiled. “Maybe some other time.”

“If you need to talk, just call. I don't care if it's 3:00 a.m.”

“Thanks, Mary.”

After another hour, Jane packed up her things and walked out to her car. She considered stopping to pick up dinner, but she wasn't hungry. She hadn't been for days. She drove straight home instead, grabbing her mail and sorting through it as she walked up the stairs. Mostly junk, and a few bills, the usual—

“I was afraid you weren't coming home.”

She squeaked with surprise at the unexpected voice and dropped her mail all over the hallway floor.

Next to her door sat Jordan, on the floor, waiting for her.

Her heart instantly jumped up into her throat. He wore jeans and cowboy boots and his black leather jacket.

He pushed himself up to his feet. Then he looked down at the mess she'd made. “Aren't you going to pick that up?”

She crouched down and quickly gathered her mail. Then walked cautiously to her door and pulled out her keys. This didn't necessarily mean anything. Maybe he was just here to return her toothbrush, or to pick up the tie he'd lost under her bed last week.

“Can we talk?” he asked, and maybe it was her imagination, but he seemed nervous. She didn't think he got nervous about anything.

She opened her door and gestured him inside. She closed the door behind them and took off her coat. Normally he wouldn't hesitate to make himself comfortable, but this time he just stood there. She couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing.

“You can take off your coat,” she said.

He shrugged out of it and hung it on the coat tree beside
hers. He wore an emerald-green shirt that brought out the color in his eyes. He looked so good she wanted to cry. And she wanted so badly to throw her arms around him. She had to force herself to remain rooted to that spot.

“Jane, I screwed up,” he said. “I am so sorry for lying to you. And I don't care that you ratted me out. I deserved it. And the only reason I didn't want to tell you that I knew who you were is that I was so afraid of losing you. I just… I can't live without you and I'll do anything—”

Before she even knew what happened her arms were around him and she was holding him, and he was holding her, and she had never felt anything so wonderful in her life. She buried her face in the crook of his neck. “You're forgiven.”

He was quiet for a second, then he said, “That was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I really expected to have to grovel.”

She laughed and hugged him harder. “Honestly, you had me the second I saw you sitting outside my door. I missed you so much. I
love
you so much.”

He caught her face in his hands and kissed her. “Not half as much as I love you. Whether you like it or not, you are stuck with me.”

She was so completely okay with that.

“But if this is going to work,” he said, “we're going to have to make some changes.”

“Changes?”

“Well, first, your car.”

“My car?”

“It doesn't suit you.”

“It was a gift.”

“
Six
years ago. I think you've pushed this polite thing a little too far.”

He was probably right.

“We're both going to take Friday off to shop for a new one. And this apartment…” He shook his head. “Either decorate it and get some furniture, or give it up.”

“And go where?” Another apartment that she wouldn't furnish or decorate?

“Move in with me. You're there most of the time anyway.”

He had a point. She basically only came home to change her clothes and do her laundry. But that was a pretty huge step. “You're sure you want that?”

“Do you think I'm the type of guy to ask a woman to move in with me on a whim? I mean, considering you're the only woman that I ever have asked.”

She smiled. “I guess not.”

“And the final, most important thing, I want us to be a
real
couple. I want to go on dates—in public. I want to show you off to my friends. And I don't care how obnoxious or overbearing they are, I want to be a part of your family. And I want you to be a part of mine. And if your bosses at Edwin Associates don't like that they can—”

“I quit.”

“You did?”

She nodded. “Friday right after I left Western Oil. I'm back at the family practice.”

“Is that what you really want?”

“I think so. I definitely want to be practicing law. If not with my family, then at some other firm. But for now I think this is where I need to be.”

“I don't know if you heard, but they announced the new CEO.”

She held her breath. “And?”

“Emilio Suarez.”

“Oh Jordan, I'm so sorry.”

“You know, I was so convinced I was in, you would think I'd be really upset, but honestly, I'm okay with it. Emilio is a good guy, and he worked really hard for it. Yeah, I wanted to be CEO, but I'm happy with what I'm doing right now.”

“By the way, I didn't get to tell you how amazing it was, what you did for Peter Burke.”

“And it almost cost me my job. He was responsible for the explosion.”

She touched his cheek. “I heard. I'm sorry he let you down. You deserve better.”

He smiled and kissed her softly. “What I deserve, what I
need,
I've got right here.”

She hugged him, wondering if this was really real, if maybe she was dreaming.

“Now that we're officially together, you know what this means.”

“What?”

He grinned down at her. “I can be your date for the reunion.”

She laughed. “Are we back to that again?”

“Come on, I
really
want to go. I even got you something special to wear.”

“Like a dress?”

“Nope. Even better. It's in my coat pocket.”

What could he have possibly gotten her that would fit in his coat pocket? She reached in and felt something small and hard, and as she wrapped her hand around it she realized it was a ring box. He got her a ring? The question was, what kind of ring?

She pulled it out and looked at it. It was white with the name of a local jeweler in gold on the top, the kind of jeweler only men like Jordan could afford.

This is not what it looked like. As much as she wanted
it to be, it wasn't even possible. It was just too soon, especially for someone like him. Yes, he wanted her to move in with him, but that was a far cry from a marriage proposal. They would probably have to live together for years before he was ready for that kind of commitment. It was probably just a friendship ring. Or maybe even earrings in a very small box.

“Aren't you going to open it?”

She turned to him, gasping when she realized he was down on one knee. “Jordan?”

He grinned. “Open it.”

This could not be happening. She opened it with trembling hands, and inside was the most beautiful and the
biggest
diamond engagement ring she had ever laid eyes on. “Oh my God.”

“I know it's fast,” he said. “But I also know that you're it for me. I think I knew it that first day when you tripped and dumped coffee all over me.”

She smiled.

“I love you, Jane, and that isn't ever going to change.”

She didn't need years, or even months to know that he was it for her, too. They were supposed to be together. She didn't even know how she knew it. She just knew.

“So ask me,” she said.

He gazed up at her with one of those adorable grins. The kind that made her knees go weak. “Jane Monroe, would you marry me?”

“Yes,” she said. “Absolutely.”

With the promise of everything she could ever want from a husband shining bright in his eyes, he took the box from her, plucked the ring from its satin bed and slipped it on her finger.