Chapter Thirty-One

Then

I wasn’t going to celebrate my degree. I was too old at twenty-nine for a graduation ceremony. Most of the college grads were twenty-two. I was definitely behind the rest of the students.

But Audrey and my father both insisted on attending the ceremony, saying it was a huge accomplishment and needed to be celebrated. So there I was standing in my cap and gown, my nerves raw. Portland State was a huge school and there were thousands of graduates. That helped. It wasn’t as if all of the attention was focused on me.

Some bigwig business guy who was fairly new to the city was giving a speech. Awards were handed out, and the students talked about interviews they were called for and the next steps in their lives.

None of that mattered to me. What did matter was I’d done something I didn’t think I could do. I was proud of myself. I didn’t feel the need to be on display in order to celebrate. But I was there anyway. I was there because of the people I loved.

But I couldn’t find my family in the huge crowd. Of course not. The hall was loaded to the brim. The noise was deafening. The music began and I joined the line of graduates and made the long walk to the stage, following other students to my seat.

The noise and cheers from the crowd didn’t die down until we were all seated. Then the dean stood up and gave a speech I’d never remember. I don’t know why I was so nervous. Maybe it was because I knew my life was changing. I could feel a shift in the air around me. It was just one more day in a slew of many days. It was just a ceremony to show we’d survived a voluntary extra four years of school. But still . . . something was different.

The dean announced the guest speaker and I turned, not really interested. But then I saw him and my heart sped up. My entire body stiffened as I watched him walk onto the stage with total confidence. I’d seen men walk like that before, I’d seen women accomplish the power strut as well. But none of them mesmerized me like this man.

He was stunning . . . but so were many other people. His good looks weren’t what had me holding my breath. There were plenty of tall, dark and handsome men in the world. There were men with charisma and talent, with power and authority. But this man seemed to have all of that and more. It was obvious he knew who he was and he didn’t care what anyone else thought of him.

He paused before he began his speech, and then his words came out. They were spoken in a perfect tone, with authority and security. The tone of his voice was mesmerizing. It wasn’t that I was able to pay attention to what he was saying — something about being what we were meant to be, and the world was in the palms of our hands. It wasn’t the words he spoke, though I was sure they were great. It was the way he spoke them.

I felt guilty for how quickly I had fallen under this stranger’s spell. I looked around and noticed the other students’ faces. They were as enchanted as I was. Their eyes didn’t leave the man. He turned several times, looking out over the vast number of students.

At one point his eyes stopped on me, as if he paused, and his gaze seared right into me, branding me, marking my soul. But it was only for the briefest of seconds and then he was turning back to the audience, finishing his speech.

I felt as if I’d been hit by a solar flare. My heart thundered and I had difficulty catching my breath. He must have told us to rise, because everyone around me stood. Lines formed as our names were called. The class moved quickly as each student walked up, accepting their diploma. I couldn’t think so I simply followed the person in front of me, hoping I wouldn’t trip and make a fool of myself.

I moved forward, realizing the man was more magnetic the closer I came to him. My heart thundered, my body tingled. It was strange to have this reaction. I’d never reacted like that before — not to anyone but Mason. And even with my husband I couldn’t remember having the visceral need that was overwhelming me.

I was only two students away when he looked up, almost as if we were connected. His crystal eyes met mine and I caught my breath, unable to exhale, unable to inhale.

He turned away as he handed a diploma to the next student, shook her hand, then turned to the one in front of me. He did the same thing with her. Then it was my turn. I stepped up to him as someone handed me my diploma. I was nervous to shake hands with him, afraid of what it would feel like to touch him.

But he held out his hand and I lifted my own. Our fingers connected and a zap rushed through me. I couldn’t form words. He said my name.

“Miranda Dagwood,” he breathed, the sound almost a seduction. I opened my mouth to thank him. He was still gripping my fingers. Had we been standing there too long? What would my family think? What would my husband see?

I heard my name shouted and a roar of clapping in the crowd. It seemed so far in the distance. I wanted to break the spell this stranger held over me, but I didn’t know how.

“Kaden Alexander,” he said. I shook my head as I finally managed to tear my gaze from him. That was his name. The dean had said it. He’d said it before Kaden’s speech. But my brain wasn’t computing any of it.

Somehow I managed to thank him. Then I moved on. I was caught up in the ceremony again. I refused to look his way. It had been a fluke, a misgiving from my raw nerves. I told myself I wouldn’t think of him again. There was no point in it. Thankfully by the time I moved away, the ceremony was breaking up. Kaden was gone. I laughed when I realized how foolish I’d acted, how ridiculous it was to have felt the things I thought I’d felt.

I found my family and pushed the incident from my mind. I forgot about Kaden — or at least I pushed him so far back in my mind it was like forgetting about him. It had only been my nerves. It was the excitement of the ceremony. I’d read into something that hadn’t been there.

Mason caught me in his arms and kissed me before handing me over to my dad who gave me a bear hug, telling me how proud he was of me, that the sky was the limit, and there was nothing I couldn’t do.

We left the school. I took the first steps into my new life. I didn’t think anything of it when I got a job offer a week later . . . from the Alexander Corporation.