CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
IVORY SPENT THE night at Curry’s apartment, in his arms, and the next morning she woke to the delight of never having to leave him again.
He was leaning over her. His expression would have told her he loved her even if he hadn’t said it over and over again all night long.
“Do you remember that I gave this to you last night?” he asked, lifting a gift-wrapped box from the bedside table.
“Yes, but you kissed me before I could open it and afterward I forgot all about it.”
He chuckled at her blush. “Well, open it now.”
She tore off the wrapping and uncovered the box. Within it was another box, a small square velvet one. She fumbled it open.
There, nestled inside, were two rings: a diamond in a plain Tiffany setting, and beside it a simple gold band. She had no words.
“I can wear one, too, if you want me to,” he offered.
“Of course, you’ll wear one, too,” she said immediately, finding her voice. “A great big one, so that Belle and Gaby can see it...”
He kissed her, laughing with explosive delight.
She pushed him over onto his back and loomed over him. “Did you sleep with them?” she demanded.
He stretched and sighed, moving lazily under the delightful pleasure of her hands on his chest. “No.”
“Not ever?”
The smile grew. “You made me impotent when I wasn’t with you,” he explained. “I couldn’t make love with anyone else. It would have felt like adultery.”
“Impotent? I don’t know about that, but you certainly lost weight.”
Her eyes lingered on his lean face. “You have to eat more, now. You don’t look healthy.”
“You’re pretty thin yourself,” he replied tenderly. He reached up and caught a lock of her hair, smiling at her. “We can be married Wednesday.”
She didn’t feel inclined to argue.
He took the diamond out of the case and slid it onto her finger, then lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it hungrily.
“When did you buy it?” she asked.
“Two days after New Year’s Eve.”
“It isn’t New Year’s yet. It isn’t even Christmas...” She stopped dead. Her lips parted. “Last...last New Year’s Eve?”
“Yes.”
She stared at him, uncomprehending.
“So if you think that wanting to marry you is something new with me, think again. I wanted it the first day I saw you, when I was sitting on the cathedral steps. I’d been praying and I looked up, and there was an angel standing looking at me.”
“Oh, Curry.” She kissed his closed eyelid. She slid her arm over his chest and nuzzled closer with soft contentment. “Do we have to go to work?”
“Not today. I’ll call in sick for both of us.”
“Everyone will know.”
“Of course they will. I’ll tell them when I call in that we’re getting married.” He chuckled softly. “The tabloids will have a field day with us.”
That worried her. She raised herself up and looked at his dark face. “What about my mother, if she sees that?”
He pursed his lips. “We still have enough evidence to hang her, remember?”
She relaxed. “I’m paranoid about her.”
“I can understand that. But she’s only a threat if you let her become one. Remember that.”
She searched his beloved face. After a minute, she sank down against him with a sigh and closed her eyes. It was the end of the rainbow to be with him this way, to know that she loved and was loved. “All right,” she whispered at last.
Audrey came to the wedding, along with Dee and Tim and his mother and sisters and the rest of the K-M staff. Of course, Ivory designed her own wedding gown, another in the growing Crystal Butterfly Collection, and swanned down the aisle with six of Kells-Meredith’s best models—not including Gaby—as bridesmaids, all dressed in pale pink gowns and big floppy hats. It was a showstopper; the bridesmaids carried crystal baskets to hold their flowers, and Ivory carried crystal roses tied with white satin bows, for a bouquet. The whole theme of the wedding was crystal, and it didn’t lack for press coverage. Curry said later that he’d noticed half the New York media in the cathedral.
After the ceremony, a reception was held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and Ivory stood close to her handsome husband with her hand locked firmly in his. When he looked down at her, she felt as if she owned the whole world and everything in it.
They flew to the Caribbean for their honeymoon and returned to Manhattan after two glorious weeks in a secluded resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, getting to know each other as they’d never had time to do before.
Shortly after their return, the Crystal Butterfly Collection won them one of the highest fashion awards and put Kells-Meredith on the cutting edge of couture competition.
Ivory’s keen insight into the market had made her as valuable an executive as a designer, and in short order, she was promoted to vice president of design.
She had everything in the world, and on Christmas Eve she gave her husband the most wonderful present of his life: the news that they would be partners in a new enterprise—bringing up their baby.