Katherine Handel gasped loudly.

Liliana’s eyes practically bugged out of her head.

Allyson watched them both in horrified fascination. She had done it. Revealed the truth to the women who least wanted to hear it. Dane would probably be horrified. And she had no way of knowing how they were going to tell his father in the state that he was in.

“You dragged me out of the hospital to tell me this?” Liliana asked shrilly.

“I...you were at the hospital?” Allyson balled up her fists in rage as she turned to focus on Katherine. “How could you do something like this?”

Katherine blanched, her face as pale as the tablecloth. “You weren’t supposed to tell her. I just wanted to bring her here to force you to help Nicky. I wasn’t going to actually tell her—”

“Get out,” Liliana snapped. “Leave now.”

The other patrons in the restaurant turned to stare at their table. Allyson stiffened. Heat crept up her face. She forced herself to rise to her feet and leave.

“Not you.” Liliana gently grabbed hold of Allyson’s hand. “Katherine, please leave.”

Katherine mumbled something as she got to her feet. The quick movement knocked her chair over, the sound echoing through the restaurant. She didn’t even bother to pick up the chair. Humiliation and rage etched on her beautiful face, Katherine fled from the table.

Their waiter approached, but with one wave of Liliana’s hand he disappeared.

Allyson’s hands started shaking, but she grabbed Katherine’s chair to right it before she resumed her seat.

“You’re sleeping with my son?” Liliana hissed.

A cold, creeping sense of dread crept down Allyson’s spine. For a brief moment, she had thought Liliana might be on her side. But from the older woman’s tone, Allyson knew that support was probably slipping away. Fast.

“Is that why you were so nice to me at the country club?” Liliana demanded. “Trying to butter me up before you broke the news?”

“No,” Allyson said quickly. “I wasn’t. I didn’t like seeing you and Mr. Prescott fighting. And I wanted you and Dane to repair your relationship.”

“Sometimes I wonder if all this is an act,” Liliana said. “You can’t possibly be this nice without a reason.”

“I’m not that nice,” Allyson said darkly. “I lied about being married, remember?”

Liliana tilted her head. “I kept up that lie for you, dear. I tried being nice after you showed me kindness. But it just backfired.”

“Oh?”

“I’m the reason Mr. Prescott had a heart attack.” Liliana’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “After Dane scolded me about how ungrateful I was to you when you lied on my behalf, I decided to confess. To tell my poor Alfred the truth. I knew about the lie. I’m the one who helped you two pull off the lie about your marriage. I told him I knew for days that you two weren’t really married. That broke his heart. Then he started clutching his chest, and collapsed in the Prescott lobby.”

“Mrs. Prescott, it’s not your fault,” Allyson said soothingly. “Dane blames himself, too.”

Liliana’s expression turned harsh. “I should have known he’d want you. Powerful men like my son always want what’s forbidden.”

“It’s more than that,” Allyson protested. “We have feelings for each other.”

“Oh, please. Flings like this don’t last. He’s with you because he enjoys sneaking around. Defying his class. His mother. Eventually that will fade and what will be left?” Liliana stared at her. “Don’t let my grief and my newfound fondness for you lull you into a false sense of security. I don’t approve of this. And I never will.”

Emotions started to rage inside Allyson. Her feelings for Dane were so dangerously close to love. What if he didn’t feel the same way? He had wanted to tell the world about them, but what if his mother was right? What if he got tired of her after they stopped sneaking around? There was a certain kind of thrill in the danger of being caught.

For the foreseeable future, Dane wasn’t going to be her boss. She would be seeing so much less of him. What if his feelings for her cooled down?

A lump formed in her throat. “So, you want him with Katherine?”

“After that display?” Liliana practically sneered. “The problem with Katherine is she thinks she’s a much better schemer than she actually is. It’s always best to let spoiled rich girls like that think they have a chance with my son.”

“You’ve been playing her, too,” Allyson said in amazement.

“I got my merger, didn’t I?” Liliana said. “You all fight me, but in the end I get what I want. I wanted Dane to move you to another department. He refused. And yet, you two won’t be working together anymore. Maybe you never will again.”

“You got Nicky the CEO job?” Allyson choked out.

“Hell, no. I’m not that good. But life for the idle rich has a way of working out for the best. Have your fun with my son. In the end, he’ll do what his father and grandfather did: Pick an heiress with a spotless pedigree. An heiress of his mother’s choosing.” Liliana rose to her feet and gently put a hand on Allyson’s shoulder. “One day, when you have a child of your own, you’ll realize that I wasn’t so bad after all.”

With that Dane’s mother swept out of the restaurant, leaving Allyson to stare miserably off into the distance.

***

When Allyson stepped back into the Presidential Suite, Dane’s heart actually started to race. She hadn’t been gone that long, but to him it really had felt like forever. The news he had been watching on the huge flat screen TV in the living room seemed to fade into the background as she approached him.

“I can’t stand to be away from you, you know,” he said, getting to his feet.

She didn’t respond. Instead she lowered her eyes, her hands nervously fidgeting like she couldn’t keep still.

“What did that viper want?” he bit out. Already, he regretted letting her go down to the restaurant alone.

“She tried to blackmail me,” Allyson said softly.

He cursed under his breath. “I don’t care what it takes, I’m firing her.”

“That’s not the biggest problem,” she whispered. “I think you need to sit down.”

Panic twisted in his gut. “It’s not my father, is it?”

“No,” she said quickly. “It’s nothing like that.”

Dane resumed his seat on the sofa and she sat beside him, an aura of sadness around her. He didn’t say anything. Just sat in silence, waiting for her to let it out. After their years together he understood that trying to force things out of her wouldn’t work. She would speak when she was ready. Allyson trusted him enough to want to share what was troubling her, and he was grateful.

She sighed. Then she started to explain what had happened downstairs in the restaurant. She told him about Katherine’s clumsy, desperate attempt at blackmail to secure her brother’s position as CEO. After that, she told him about Katherine having the gall to summon his mother from the hospital.

“So, Mother knows about us.” Dane gazed at her, drinking her in. Her beauty overwhelmed him. It wasn’t just the outside that stunned him. There was a light inside her that made his heart hammer in his chest. She was right beside him, yet a desperate, aching longing made his pulse quicken.

“I’m sorry. I’ve made a mess of things.”

He reached for her hand. “You haven’t.”

“Your mother wasn’t happy.” She shook her head. “She disapproves of us being together. Plus, she seems to think that this won’t last. That this is just a fling.”

Dane squeezed her hand gently. “I told you at the Lodge. This isn’t a fling.”

“We’ve been sneaking around for so long part of me feels like we aren’t real.” A tear slid down her cheek.

Determined to soothe her he captured her chin in his hands, forcing her to look at him. “We’re real.”

“But your mother—”

“Forget my mother,” he said firmly. “You’re what matters.”

“You wanted to keep your family business afloat while your father recovered, and now I’ve ruined that.”

“Allyson...” His voice trailed off. Did he really have the courage to tell her how he felt? Because, somehow, his entire world had changed. It had started at the country club, when he envisioned her as more than his girlfriend. When he imagined them being together forever. “Allyson, you’re my family.”

Another tear slid down her face. Her lower lip trembled. “I don’t know what to say.”

“I don’t know what to say, either,” he admitted. “But I have to figure out a way to say it. Look, today has been the best day of my life.”

“Oh.” She stared down at the floor. The floor they had made love on earlier. Her cheeks turned bright pink.

He followed her gaze and then laughed. “You have a dirtier mind than I do. That’s not why.”

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “It’s not?”

He laughed again. “Okay, it’s not the only reason.”

“So why is today the best day?” she asked.

He released her chin. “Because every day with you is the best day of my life. Tomorrow will be the best day, too. And the day after that. And the day after that.”

She turned to stare at him for a moment and then burst into fresh tears. For a second he thought she might be crying out of sadness, but she threw her arms around him and planted kisses all over his face, laughing between each kiss.

When she pulled away, a sudden insane thought struck him.

He took her hand again and said, “We don’t have to hide anymore. I want everyone to know that you’re mine. But most of all I want you to know that I’m yours.”

“Forever?” she whispered.

He nodded. “Let me show you. Right now.” He stood up, her hand still in his. “Come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“A place where I hope I can make today the best day of your life.”

A look of pure wonder lit up her face. “Okay. Just give me a second to freshen up.”

He waited for her while she washed her face. Then, he took her hand and led her downstairs and out of the hotel. It was nighttime now. The lights of the city bathed everything in gold and silver light. Dane knew where he wanted to go. With his heart racing and the blood rushing in his head, he held on to her hand as they walked the few blocks to the best jewelry store in town.

There were store patrons milling around, but Dane knew he could empty the place like he wanted. He walked up to the sales rep at the front. The sales rep smiled broadly, his eyes twinkling the moment he recognized Dane.

Adjusting his thick glasses, the sales rep greeted them warmly.

“Do you think my girlfriend and I could get a little privacy?” Dane asked the sales rep.

“Of course,” the sales rep responded. “Anything is possible for you, Mr. Prescott.”

The sales rep scurried away, no doubt to find a store manager.

“You’re just going to tell that guy we’re together?” Allyson asked him.

He turned his attention to her. “Yes.”

“We’re not ready for the press,” she said. “Your father—”

“My mother is telling my father.”

Her dazzling green eyes widened. “How do you know?”

“Because I know them,” he said. “She’s probably telling him right now.”

“Dane, you’re acting strangely,” she whispered.

“I know. It will make sense soon. I want to give you the world, Allyson. And the only way to do that is to stop hiding and pretending,” he said. “Do you trust me?”

She smiled. “You know I do.”

He had always been a risk-taker in business. Maybe even impulsive at times. But what he was about to do was much crazier. Much riskier. Because he was about to hand over his heart to her and she had the power to smash it to pieces.

The sales rep returned and, as if by magic, the patrons drifted out of the store. Leaving him and Allyson alone. The store gleamed. The place was copper, silver, and gold. Gemstones of every hue made everything glitter. They were surrounded by millions of dollars’ worth in jewels and somehow all the glitter paled in comparison to her.

They were still holding hands. As if they couldn’t stand to not be touching. And he couldn’t stand not touching her. Moments without her stretched on forever. It was almost physically painful to be away from her. The fact that he had stepped down from being Prescott Global’s CEO and wouldn’t spend his days with her pained him more than he had ever anticipated.

Dane led her over to a section of the store where all the rings and bracelets were displayed. The sales rep followed, and started chattering about the merchandise. Dane watched Allyson peer through the glass, a smile on her face. “You can have anything you want,” Dane whispered to her.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Everything is probably really expensive, and it’s so hard to choose.”

“You don’t have to choose,” he said. “I’ll buy the whole store if you want.”

She gasped. “Dane, that’s crazy.”

“I know that,” he said. “But I’m crazy about you and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

She let out a soft laugh and turned to point at a thin gold bracelet. It was very simple. With no jewels on it. He could tell she was trying to choose something she thought was inexpensive.

“Allyson, if you don’t pick what you actually want I really will buy the entire store.”

“You really won’t stop until you get your way.” But she smiled and then excitedly pointed to something else. A slim bracelet with pink diamonds.  

Grinning, the sales rep pulled out the bracelet and helped Allyson pull it on. She extended her arm to admire the bracelet. The sight of her enjoying something special filled him with a sense of satisfaction. She deserved to be spoiled. To be happy.

As she admired the bracelet, Dane motioned to the sales rep and pointed to a ring. The sales rep gave him a sly smile and pulled the diamond ring out to hand it over to Dane.

His heart started racing a million miles a minute. He forced himself to breathe. His insides churned. He broke out in a cold sweat. Dane didn’t get anxious. Didn’t worry if the woman he was with wanted to be with him. Because he had never wanted a woman as much as he wanted Allyson.

Weeks ago, when he had first seen her in that sinfully red evening gown, he had told her he wanted her the next day, the next week, the next month, and the next year. But that was no longer true. Mostly because it was no longer enough. What Dane wanted was forever.

He down got on one knee and watched her while she still admired the bracelet, oblivious to everything else around her.

Dane took a deep breath, hoping to God that he had timed this right. He hadn’t planned this. Not really. It wasn’t until he had told Allyson that she was his family that he knew what he had to do. They hadn’t been dating very long, but they had known each other for years. And his father almost dying had reminded Dane how brief life really was. How fragile.

“You know, it really is beautiful,” she murmured with a happy sigh. Then she turned around.

When she looked down, shock made her gasp loudly.

With a shaking hand, he held the ring up to her. He knew this was crazy. But he also knew he had never been more certain about anything in his life. “Allyson Smith...will you marry me?”

He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t stand to live one more day without her.