“Yeah, uh,” Lucas said, gathering his clipboard from the shining granite countertop. “I’ll be going. You two work this out, and let me know who wins.”
Nicole shot him a look that should have curled his hair. But clearly Lucas was accustomed to dealing with furious women. He just gave her a smile and slipped out of the room like a damn ghost. So much for family loyalty, Griffin told himself. Who knew a King could be a coward?
Well, fine. He could handle Nicole on his own. He’d been doing it for almost three weeks, right? He knew her, body, heart and mind, and he knew damn well that underneath all of her protests, she wanted this kitchen.
“Go ahead, Nicole. Look.” Even God was on his side in this, Griffin thought, since the late-afternoon sunlight washed across the dream kitchen in a sweep of gold. The pale-oak cabinets looked as golden as the light. The floor gleamed, and the granite countertop shone like a mirror.
He ran one hand over the granite and her eyes were drawn to the motion. “It’s exactly as you described it,” he said softly.
She swallowed hard and scooped up Connor when he would have scuttled out of the room. “I know. And it’s even more beautiful than I imagined it would be.”
“And the stove.” He moved toward the professional-grade appliance. “Six burners, and they all work.”
A smile teased at the corners of her mouth, but disappeared way too fast. “It doesn’t change anything, Griffin—”
“The fridge I had to guess at, since you didn’t really say one way or the other.” He pulled open the doors and let her stare into the interior. Boxes of Connor’s favorite juice drinks were on the top shelf, and in a wine rack was a bottle of champagne he’d planned to spring on her later.
He watched her expression, and in spite of the anger still churning inside her, he could see how much she loved her new kitchen. Her gaze swept over the tile floors and across the freshly painted walls and landed, for just a minute, on the rooster teakettle he had cleaned up. An unexpected emotion rushed through him and caught Griffin by surprise.
This had started out as a way to pay her back for what he’d done to her house. Then it had become a way to please her, more for his own sake than anything else, he could silently admit. He had wanted the fun of giving her something she hadn’t expected. But now it was more than all of that. He wanted her to have it because he knew how important it was to her. The dream she’d described had been too detailed to be just idle wishful thinking. Watching her eyes as she’d told him had convinced him that this dream meant more to her than even she had known.
And besides all of that, he realized now, he’d wanted her to have it so that she’d never forget him. So that his presence would be stamped on her house. Her world. He wanted her to remember him long after he was gone, because Griffin knew he wouldn’t be forgetting her.
“It’s really beautiful, Griffin,” she said on a sigh. “But that’s not the point.”
“Then what is the damn point, Nicole?” Annoyance chewed on him. He kept his voice low and even because he didn’t want to scare Connor, who was watching him through wide blue eyes. “Tell me, because from where I’m standing, I did something nice for you and I’m getting slapped by it.”
Shaking her head, she looked around the kitchen again, and when she finally turned her gaze back to Griffin, she said, “Don’t you get it? You doing all of this—” she waved one hand in the air, as if to encompass the entire room “—it’s like you’re paying me to have sex with you.”
“What?” Okay, that he hadn’t expected. Insult slammed home, and he gaped at her in astonishment.
“It’s the big payoff,” she continued. “Most men give tennis bracelets or a necklace or something—”
As she spoke, guilt and something he thought might be shame nibbled at him. That’s exactly what he did when he walked away from whichever woman he was spending time with. Usually he didn’t even bother buying the trinket himself. He simply had his assistant, Janice, pick up something at the jewelry store and send it in his name. Did those women feel like Nicole did? He wondered but had no answer.
But that wasn’t important here, was it?
“That’s insane. And insulting,” he added, before grinding his teeth again. “I don’t pay for sex.”
“Ah, well,” Nicole said, “You don’t have to, do you? Women just line up and take their turns, hoping you’ll smile down on them, is that it?”
Uncomfortable with the shift in conversation, he tried to turn it back. “Where the hell is this coming from?”
“I’m sorry, am I not being grateful enough?” she asked, bouncing Connor on her hip. The little boy didn’t look happy, and Griffin knew just how the kid felt.
Before he could think about it, he snatched Connor from Nicole and held the boy up close against his chest. Connor leaned his head on Griffin’s shoulder and sighed. “Griff play ball?”
“Soon, buddy,” he promised and ran one hand down the boy’s back in a comforting pat.
“Griff, wanna play.” The little boy gave his best begging smile and a curl of something warm settled in Griffin’s chest.
“Pretty soon, kiddo,” he said, then turned to look back at Nicole. “Now how about we just get down to it? I wanted to do something nice for you,” he started.
“I didn’t want you to—”
“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t need your permission to do a damn thing.”
“To my kitchen you do.”
“Apparently not,” he mused and leaned back against the cold granite counter. New tack, he thought. Don’t fight fury with fury. Instead, brush it off. Let her know that her anger wasn’t changing anything.
“Your cousin—”
“Is out of this. I told Lucas to do it, so your issue is with me, not him.”
“Oh,” she said with a grimace, “trust me, I know who I have issues with.”
“Good, then let’s get this settled now.” He moved in closer and she didn’t budge an inch. “I set fire to the kitchen. It’s my job to see it fixed.”
“The way I can afford it.”
“Fixed. Why the hell are you fighting me on this?”
“Because I take care of myself, Griffin.”
“Who’s arguing?” he demanded and jiggled Connor when the boy made a sound of distress. “You’re the most self-sufficient person I’ve ever known. I respect that. Hell, you’re smart and funny and capable and—”