“Very good choice, sir. Also platinum and it complements Ms. Corbin’s ring nicely.”
She nudged Mitch’s thigh. “Could I speak to you a moment?”
“Certainly. Excuse us.” He rose and escorted her toward the bow of the ship. Carly glanced through a doorway and gaped. The kitchen or galley or whatever it was called was roomier than the one in her house. Mitch stopped in a stateroom that put her Kincaid Manor suite to shame.
“I’m not sure I can afford that ring.”
“I’m paying for it and the rest of the wedding.”
“But the bride is supposed—”
“Supposed to let the groom take care of her.”
“But, Mitch—”
His mouth covered hers. He parted her lips and swept the protests from her tongue with his. Leaning closer, he sandwiched her body between inflexible wall and immovable muscle. His strength and his weight held her captive, freeing his hands to caress her waist, her h*ps and the outsides of her br**sts. Overwhelmed by his flavor, his possession, Carly’s senses rioted. The strength seeped from her frame until only the thigh he’d wedged between hers held her upright.
By the time he lifted his head, she couldn’t find her breath or gather her protests to argue her point. She now knew what kissed into submission meant. In a minute she’d work up a protest over such manhandling.
“Let’s get rid of Belmonté,” his rough voice scraped over her already heightened senses.
Protesting could wait. “Good idea.”
They returned to the salon. Within minutes, the deal was done and Belmonté had left on his boat. Carly stared numbly at the rings weighting her hand like concrete blocks.
She was doing the right thing.
She was certain of it. Almost.
Anxiety gnawed at her stomach, but then Mitch laced his fingers through hers and led her toward the stateroom.
She’d worry about worrying later. Because anything that felt this good had to be right.
Ten
“B oons! Boons!”
Rhett’s excited squeal drilled Carly’s eardrum and jerked her out of her inattentive funk. She looked up and stopped midshuffle.Helium-filled balloons in every color of the rainbow filled the breakfast nook. “Yes. Balloons.”
Rhett kicked and squirmed. She set him down and he scampered across the tile to the curling ribbon streamers tied to the back of the chair Carly always used.
Who? Della? And how had she known it was Carly’s birthday? The housekeeper wasn’t in the kitchen, but she’d been here because the coffee was on. The scent of Mitch’s favorite gourmet brew filled the air.
Mitch stepped up behind her. He didn’t make a sound, but Carly’s personal Mitch detection system kicked in and she knew he was there before his chest nudged her shoulder and his arm encircled her waist.
He pulled her against him. “Happy birthday.”
The balloons were from Mitch? She gasped in surprise and then promptly choked up. Not just because this was a totally unexpected and frivolous gift coming from a no-nonsense man like him, but because she couldn’t share it with Marlene. Her sister had loved over-the-top gestures like this.
As if he understood, his arm tightened. He rubbed his smooth, freshly shaven jaw against her temple and his cologne teased her nose. “Nadia says there comes a time in a woman’s life when adding more candles to a cake becomes annoying. But she says you can never have too many balloons or flowers. I don’t know your favorite color, so I covered the bases.”
“Blue. I love blue.” Boring, conservative blue. What did that say about her?
“Boons, Mitt. Boons!” Rhett trilled and jumped up and down on the tile by Carly’s chair.
“I take it he likes balloons?”
“Oh yes.” A crinkling sound caught her attention. She twisted to face Mitch.
He pulled a massive bouquet of long-stemmed roses in every shade from the purest white to the deepest burgundy from behind his back and offered them to her. “Twenty-eight buds for twenty-eight years. But no blue. Sorry.”
“They’re beautiful, Mitch. Thank you.” She accepted them and buried her nose in the fragrant blooms. Marlene would have adored this, too. Carly’s indrawn breath stuttered across each rib. She was not going to lose it. Not in front of Mitch. Not in front of Rhett.
“How did you know? About our—my birthday, I mean.” She had to force the words through her tight throat.
His gaze shifted briefly to the excited child before returning to hers and then he shrugged. “Tina must have mentioned it.”
“Well, thank you. This is a wonderful surprise and a great way to start the day.” She forced a smile.
He took the bouquet from her and laid it the on the table and then cupped her face in his warm hands. His thumbs lifted her chin. “You okay?”
No. How was it possible to be so happy and sad simultaneously? She squared her shoulders. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because you’re thinking about your sister.”
She snatched a breath at his perceptiveness. The fact that he could mention her sister without the usual sneer in his voice doubled her surprise. “How did you know?”
His fingertips grazed her cheek, her neck, and then his palms skimmed down her arms to catch her hands and squeeze. The gesture of comfort and support nearly made her bawl.
“Could be the way you slinked out of my bed this morning and crept back to your room to hole up in the dark instead of letting me be your wake-up call.”
Desire burned through her like a blown gas main. Since Sunday, he’d awoken her every morning with his hands and mouth and passion.
At the risk of ruining the mood, she decided to be honest. “Marlene and I usually spent our birthdays together. When we couldn’t we talked on the phone early in the morning. This is the first time we w-won’t. I—” She paused to swallow an immovable lump. His grip tightened around her fingers. “I didn’t expect it to be so h-hard.”
Their gazes held and the understanding softening Mitch’s eyes made hers sting. “I didn’t always like my father, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss him every single day or think of things I want to tell him or show him.” His gaze shifted over her shoulder to the child still enthralled with the boons.
“I’m sorry he missed out on Rhett.” Raw grief roughened his voice.
She loved him.
The emotion didn’t sneak up on her as it had with her past loves. It hit like a head-on collision, winding her and making her adrenaline race and her heart thump wildly. In that instant Carly knew without a doubt that she’d fallen hard for Mitch Kincaid.
Hoping her discovery wasn’t written all over her face, she searched his eyes, looking for reciprocity. But, as usual, Mitch hid his emotions well. That’s why the rare glimpses into his head like the revelation about his father meant so much to her.
He blinked, breaking the spell, and then a wicked smile slanted his lips. “Call in sick today. We’ll play hooky, hang out at the beach or laze by the pool. Spend the day in bed. We’ll do whatever you want.”
She was tempted. “I can’t. I’ve already had to shuffle too many patients because of the wedding…and it’s better to keep busy, I think.”
“I can keep you busy.” The sensual promise in his words threatened to hijack her brain on a hormone express train.
“If I didn’t have people counting on me to help them get their lives and bodies back together, then I’d jump on your offer…and you.” Her face burned. She’d never made such a forward statement before.
His nostrils flared and his chest and pupils expanded. “I like the sound of that. And I’ll hold you to it. Tonight.”
He brushed a kiss over her lips, a kiss that tasted like a promise. A kiss that upped the stakes.
Because now she not only had to make Mitch love Rhett, she had to make him fall in love with her.
“Where are you racing off to?”Rand’s question cut Mitch off midwhistle. He stopped in the hall outside his brother’s office.
Whistle? Had he been whistling? He had. “I’m headed home.”
“You’ve left early every night this week.”
“Six isn’t early.”
“It is for you.”
Couldn’t argue with facts. He stepped into Rand’s—formerly their father’s—office. Strange how the anger and resentment he’d experienced upon hearing the terms of the will had faded. But Rand had proved his worth, so maybe not so surprising after all. “I want to have dinner with Carly and Rhett.”
And not just because he knew he’d have Carly nak*d seconds after Rhett crashed for the night. Anticipation kicked his pulse up a notch.
“Didn’t you and the kid take Carly to lunch today?”
“I thought she needed the pick-me-up of lunch with Rhett. It’s her birthday. Her first without her twin.”
Rand’s eyes narrowed. His leather chair creaked as he leaned back. “You have a thing for her. Got her in the sack yet?”
“That’s none of your business. But, yeah, I have a thing for her. We’re getting married Friday night. Be my best man?”
Rand’s jaw dropped and his eyebrows shot up. “You’re getting married in two days and you haven’t mentioned it?”
He’d intended to ask Rand sooner, but they’d spent the past three days in confidential meetings trying to unravel some issues their father had left behind. By the end of each day, Mitch wanted nothing more than to leave the stress of his father’s sloppy management behind and go home to the warmth and the laughter that now embodied Kincaid Manor. The current atmosphere was a big change from the meat-locker chill of the past.
“I’m telling you now.” He’d delayed informing Rand about the wedding because he knew his brother would want explanations—explanations that would delay his departure.
“Are you out of your mind? What happened to your conviction that Carly is a mercenary bitch identical to her twin in more than looks?”
“I told you I’d misread her.”
“You told me you might have misread her and that she’d rejected the million-dollar offer to hand over Rhett.”
“She also declined the five million I offered in the prenup.”
Carly’s attorney had nearly had a heart attack at the conference table when Carly had refused to sign until the settlement clause was struck from the document.
Rand’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why?”
“She said the money wasn’t hers and she didn’t want it.”
And surprisingly, Mitch believed her. Carly’s stubborn insistence had initially shocked the hell out of him, but then he started replaying details in his mind. She’d lived modestly even since moving into the manor, and the house she’d left behind was no showcase. She budgeted her expenses and paid Rhett’s day-care bills without asking Mitch to pitch in. In fact, she hadn’t asked him for anything that came with a price tag other than fencing around the water features to keep Rhett safe.
Maybe she was the real deal. He’d seen so few altruistic women in his lifetime he probably wouldn’t recognize one if she bit him on the ass. Which Carly had. Several times. And he’d liked it.