Dance With Me - By Hayden Braeburn Page 0,2
course you're not. I know you're not.” He spun her around to face him. “I love you, too. I was going to ask you to marry me after I offered to pay off this place,” he paused at her shocked expression. “That didn't quite work out how I'd planned it.”
Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she found her voice. “You were?”
“I was.” He grinned at her then. “What would you have said?”
“I would have thought you just wanted to save me.” She sighed. “You'd just promised to make all my financial troubles go away.”
He shook his head. “I only wanted to help.”
She went up on her toes to kiss him, her eyes sparkling. “Is the offer still open?”
“Until you say yes, the offer is there,” he promised as he tightened his hold on her.
She gave him a mischievous smile before she said, “Good to know.”
He laughed. “Good to know? Good to know? I lay my heart at your feet and you say, 'Good to know'?”
She kissed him again. “Also, yes.”
“Thank God.”
~*~
Stepping away from her was one of the hardest things he'd done in a while. Willing his erection into submission, he dropped a soft kiss on her lips. “I have to go back. I have a meeting.”
Had she really just agreed to marry him? “I have a class in less than an hour.” If he didn't go now, she'd jump him.
“Come home with me tonight.” He softly kissed her again. “Please.”
“I don't think I can wait that long,” she murmured.
He gave her a slow, sexy, panty-melting smile. “You will come home with me every night.” He kissed her fully then, his hand finding its way back into her hair. “Oh, you will come,” he promised, “after dinner at my parent's.”
That jerked her out of her hormone-induced buzz. “What?”
“It's Thursday. Cassidy, Camryn and Caleb will be there too.”
She briefly wondered why all his siblings had names that began with C, but pushed the thought away. Tilting her head, she asked, “Earlier today I thought you were ashamed of me, and now you want me to come to family dinner?”
“Yes,” he answered with a sharp nod. “I'll pick you up at six.”
She flashed a nervous smile. “I guess you will.”
~*~
She changed from her purple wrap dance dress into a more sophisticated blue silk sheath paired with a pair of silver ankle-strap stilettos. She'd curled her long black hair and artfully applied her makeup. She knew she looked good on the outside even if her stomach was a butterfly sanctuary.
True to his word, he arrived at six, still dressed in his immaculate grey suit, pale blue shirt, and blue and grey striped tie. He looked gorgeous and she realized she'd chosen her dress to coordinate with him. She couldn't help it, she laughed.
“You're laughing?”
“We match!” she exclaimed through her fit of nervous giggles.
His eyes traveled slowly down her body, snagging on all the good places. “You look wonderful, Katerina,” he said, his voice rough.
She swallowed. “We match, Mason. We look like we're trying too hard.”
“You were made for me, babe. Matching or not won't change that.”
She heaved a sigh, pushing her breasts high against the square neckline of her dress. “Remember that later,” she warned.
He tucked her into the passenger side of his silver Audi coupe, kissing her briefly before making his way around the car. “My family really isn't that bad,” he said as they drove the short distance to the Everett estate.
“One sister is a prosecuting attorney, the other is a Broadway actress, and your brother is a doctor.” She ticked his siblings off on her fingers as she listed professions. “And you,” she pointed at him,“you are the Executive Vice President of Tyler Central Banking.”
He chuckled. “I, I am the Executive Vice President of Tyler Central Banking,” he mimicked, “because my last name is Everett and NationBank thought it best to keep me on when they bought us out.”
“You have an MBA,” she protested.
“So does everyone else.” They stopped at a light and he turned to look at her. “My family is wealthy, that's just the truth, but they're not going to look down at you.”
“You're a banker, your father is a banker.” She blew out a breath as she tossed her right hand out, hitting the window. “Ow. Look, I am in debt up to my eyeballs, my mother is in prison, and I don't have a father.”
He jerked the wheel at her revelation about her mother. “Your mother's in jail?”
“I haven't seen her in years,