turn it down.”
“Some people might think getting married is the biggest thing that ever happened to you.…”
Gerrick reached across the table, took her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it. “They would be right.”
Oh, boy. The pit of her stomach went soft again. Tears filled her eyes. He was so darned romantic. He even looked romantic. His dark eyes were warm with affection. His beautiful mouth held just the hint of a smile. Wearing jeans and a simple polo shirt he should have looked rumpled and unkempt. Instead, he just looked cute.
How could she give him up?
“So maybe then it would be appropriate to absorb one big change before making another?”
“Don’t be silly. We’re two of the smartest people I know. We can handle this transition in our sleep.”
It bowled her over that he so easily, so casually called her smart. A lot of people believed she was only in her job because of her family status. Hearing Gerrick acknowledge her intelligence and readily accept it proved he knew more about her than the simple surface things everyone else saw or assumed.
She licked her dry lips. He seemed so sure, so happy. He seemed to know her. He seemed to love her. His love made her long for things she never thought she would have and made her eager to abandon everything for the chance to grab the life he could give her.
“But I have family responsibilities.”
He looked her right in the eye. “Do you?”
She wasn’t a hundred percent sure what he was asking, but if he was hinting at what she suspected he was hinting at, she needed time to think about that, too.
Luckily, he smiled. “You know what? I think we’ve just jumped into the ‘too much too soon’ category. So what do you say we enjoy our breakfast, enjoy our flight and then talk when we get home?”
Because that sounded very good to her, Gina nodded. She had never been so confused in her entire life, but one thing was clear. Gerrick Green knew her. He anticipated her moods. He didn’t push too hard or too far. He respected her. Somehow even tipsy—or maybe because she was in a freer, more open state of mind—she had recognized all this more quickly than in real time. And that was probably why she had married him.
They made small talk waiting for the plane, then chatted about inconsequential things during the flight, and it soon became evident to Gina that this man really did love her. She could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. She might not yet be able to say she “loved” him, but she knew him, respected him, liked him.
And something kept nudging her into believing that she shouldn’t throw this away. Something was telling her that this was the chance of a lifetime. That if she didn’t stay in this marriage she would miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime love.
By the time they reached Atlanta, she knew what she was going to do. Roll the dice. She wasn’t sure how or why she had become such a gambler of late, but she had. She didn’t have a clue how she would break this news to her father, but she was going to do that, too. She might be the person in line to replace him, but he was only in his late fifties. Nowhere near retirement. He was spirited enough and healthy enough to run this company for another fifteen or twenty years. By that time, she and Gerrick could have raised a family.
They disembarked and made their way to the row of taxis. This time when Gerrick kissed her, Gina kissed him back. She didn’t merely allow her lips to slacken under his to accept his kiss. She returned his kiss, and when he caressed her lips with the tip of his tongue, she opened her mouth to him. She twined her tongue with his, enjoying every exquisite sensation, almost unable to believe that this wonderful man was hers, but more than willing to accept it as yet another stroke of the good luck she had acquired in Vegas.
And Gerrick almost relaxed. Almost, but not quite. He hadn’t exactly tricked Gina into marrying him, but he hadn’t let the opportunity pass him by, either. When she proposed, he jumped on it, ushering her to the hotel chapel where they found an official who was in between services and more than happy to perform their ceremony. The waitress who had been providing their champagne and to whom Gina had given a three-hundred-dollar tip was thrilled to be her maid of honor. One of their blackjack dealers acted as Gerrick’s best man. It was the most important, most exciting moment of his life, but he wasn’t so dumb as to miss that in the light of day, Gina was having second thoughts.
He could handle that. He might have been head over heels in love with her for the past few months, but he recognized all this was new for her because until this weekend she had been at the very end of getting over her last romance. In fact, his feelings for her began with his worry over her upset about the man who had thrown her over for a co-ed with whom he was having an affair. That caused Gerrick to make time to talk to her every morning, eat lunch with her at least once a week and walk her to her office after meetings. Ultimately, concern grew into genuine affection, and before he knew it he found himself absolutely crazy about her. But he didn’t think Gina had noticed him as anything other than a co-worker at Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods until Friday night. Still, once she had begun the process of seeing him as a person, a man, she seemed to catch up to his level of feelings with leaps and bounds.
And besides, she was the one who proposed to him.
Plus, he was leaving Atlanta in two weeks. Unless he married her he had no way of coercing her into moving with him, and no reason really to even keep in touch, except that they had had a fun time gambling in Vegas. That wasn’t much of a foot in the door and in his mind the marriage was a necessity.
On the flight home, the time difference worked against them, and it was already late afternoon when they arrived. They took a taxi to the bar where they had met on Friday night and each drove his or her car to her father’s mansion. She got there first, punched in the security codes that opened the big black gate and left it open. He drove through, then punched in the codes that locked the gate again. He wound his way up the long, tree-lined lane, taking his time, rehearsing in his head the speech he would give to his boss, searching for a way to describe their weekend without using the words tipsy or aroused. As he approached the house, he watched Gina pull her imported sports car behind the black sedan Gerrick recognized as belonging to Ethan McKenzie, head of the Legal Department of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and family friend of Hilton Martin.
Great. That meant they might have to wait hours before they actually told Hilton they were married.
Gerrick groaned. No, they wouldn’t. He had bought Gina a platinum band with three one-karat marquise diamonds. Nobody was going to miss that. Especially not eagle-eyed Ethan. They weren’t going to get to announce this to Hilton privately unless Gerrick did something fast.
He jumped out of his car and rushed toward the front entrance attempting to get to Gina before she walked in and flashed her ring, but he was too late. As if he had been waiting for Gina, Ethan opened the door and plowed forward before she reached for the knob. He took her by the shoulders and, if the look on his face was anything to go by, said something very serious to her.
Gerrick saw Gina gasp and crumple in Ethan’s arms, then both Gina and Ethan scrambled from the doorway to Ethan’s car.
Approaching from the other side, Gerrick was almost to the doorstep when they dashed away, ignoring him as if he wasn’t there.
He stopped.
Ethan drove up beside him, and lowered his car window. “Gerrick, I’m sorry. Hilton’s had a heart attack. He was in Pennsylvania
