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  “So…” she began, looking about her nervously and I cleared my throat. I wanted to jump in and confess everything before she had a chance to change her mind again.

  “Look, I meant every word I said. In college I wanted to get to know you and we didn’t have an opportunity to, so I want to take the time to do so now,” I said and realized that my words had come blurting out. Beverley looked surprised to hear me say them and she straightened herself and licked her lips.

  “I wouldn’t have thought that you even saw me, back in college,” she said and I smiled and shook my head.

  “You misjudged me, Beverley. You thought I was competing with you or that I was like all the other guys I hung out with. Well, you were wrong,” I told her and she looked at me with her large green eyes. Her face had softened, she wasn’t as defensive against me any more.

  “You didn’t give me any reason to doubt my judgement,” she said.

  “What? Because I dated cheerleaders?” I asked with a laugh and she shrugged her shoulders.

  “Yeah, too many of them. And now, after we’ve been out of college…you’ve had the reputation for dating models and actresses. Nobody would have thought that you could be attracted to someone like me,” she said. She was still nervous, but that could be because of how she was laying her heart bare.

  I leaned towards her desk, still on my chair and arched an eyebrow at her.

  “You mean someone attractive, and intelligent and successful like you? Yeah, sure, what’s there to like,” I said and finally, Beverley was smiling. Just a soft grin that made the sides of her lips rise up but that was enough. She had no idea how I truly felt about her and it was baffling that she thought so little of herself.

  “Well, one thing I’m not is successful. At least not as compared to you or what I thought I’d be able to achieve,” she said and I shook my head.

  “You’re wrong, Beverley. You focused on your product, on your technical skills while I spent time on my business, to finding investors. Which is why I think that we’d make a great team,” I said and looked deep into her eyes. I wanted her to see me, to truly see me and trust me.

  “So, you do want me to come and work with you?” she asked and I nodded.

  “Yes, I do. We just have to find a way to make this work on both a professional and personal level,” I told her and she was blushing again.

  We were looking at each other, till she drew her gaze away from me and tucked in some of her hair behind her ears.

  “I never thought that someone like you could like me. Not in this way at least…like actually be attracted to me,” she said and I stood up from my chair and walked over to her. Beverley craned her neck to look up at me and I pressed my forefinger on her lips.

  “I don’t want you to talk that way, Beverley, please. You don’t know how special you are. What you do to me and how you’ve always inspired me to work harder. I’ve always wanted to live up to you. This was never a competition for me, rather I wanted to prove myself to you,” I said and she stood up from her chair.

  Silently, she placed her head on my shirt. A few buttons were missing now, from the force with which she had ripped my shirt off my body earlier. I cradled her in my arms and swung her gently from side to side. I had never experienced this raw tenderness before, this feeling of being able to hold a woman in my arms and not worry about what she wanted from me. I was willing to give Beverley whatever she wanted.

  Her arms had wound around my mid-riff as she pressed herself closer to me. We had been standing there like that for a relatively long time. I could sense that she was thinking as well, just like my own mind was racing with thoughts. Finally, she raised her head and looked up at me.

  I smiled when I saw her face, still ruddy on the cheeks but bright and excited. For the first time, Beverley looked truly happy and I couldn’t believe that I’d caused it.

  “When can I start?” she asked and I smiled wide.

  “So you’ve accepted my offer?” I said and she nodded her head.

  “I want to work with you and I want to be with you, Grant,” she added in a quiet voice and I lowered my face to kiss her on her lips again.

  Chapter 23

  Beverley

  Eight months later

  I didn’t walk to work any more, so when I looked at my watch and it was seven already; I wondered where Grant was. We usually left the office together. We worked on different floors. I had my office space with Susan, John and Sasha while he still worked from his own. Usually at six thirty, Grant buzzed me on the intercom and asked me what time I would be finished. This evening, he hadn’t and I pressed the button to reach him.

  Instead of Grant, his secretary answered the call.

  “He’s already left the office, Ms Wade,” she said and I had my brows crossed. In the past eight months, since I started working at Lonex, Grant had never left without calling me first.

  “Is he coming back?” I asked her and she sounded nervous, like she didn’t want to come between a quarreling couple and she definitely didn’t want to betray her boss.

  “I’m not sure, Ms Wade. He didn’t leave a note,” she said.

  “No problem. I’ll get a hold of him on his personal phone. Thanks,” I said to her, as politely as possible and hung up the phone.

  I hadn’t been paying attention to the time, but I would have heard him calling if he had. This was unlike him, and also made me wonder if something had happened.

  The past eight months had been a whirlwind of experiences and emotions. We had started off by testing the waters with a few formal dates, he drove me back home on all those occasions till one night I asked him to come in. We hadn’t had sex for a month when we officially started dating, because I wanted him to prove to me that it was more than just about the sex.

  After we had been together for three months; Grant asked me to move in with him. I was skeptical initially, not because of my feelings for him which were stronger than ever, but because I didn’t think he knew what he wanted.

  I was still in disbelief, that my boyfriend Grant was the same Grant Jennings from college. The King of Silicon Valley. My impression of him was entirely wrong? Everyone’s impression of him? When I agreed to move in with him a few days later, I did so with doubts still whirling around in my head. I was still not a hundred percent sure that this was what Grant really wanted. I often caught myself wondering if he missed his old carefree life. I was his first real girlfriend…one who had lasted for more than just a couple of weeks. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was itching to go back to his old ways.

  In the past few days, I had noticed a change in him again. The first few months of us living together was happy and normal and we were getting comfortable together. And now suddenly, in the last couple of days, I saw that he had become a little reserved. He might have even been nervous around me. He was speaking a little less, and sometimes when we lay on the couch watching TV together; I’d catch him staring at me.

  So out of the blue, the fact that he had simply left for home without informing me unbalanced me.

  I stood up from my chair and grabbed my coat from the rack before heading downstairs. I could take a cab I thought, but I was nervous about how Grant was feeling. Was he cheating on me? Did he have second doubts about our relationship. There was no way of knowing unless I actually spoke to him about it.

  The whole way down the elevator, I could feel my heart racing. I was in love with him, had always been and I was desperate to not lose him. But somewhere at the back of my mind, I’d always known that he was way out of my league.

  The elevator doors slid open and I stepped out into the lobby of the Lonex building, to find all my colleagues, everyone who worked in the building gathered there. There had to be at least a hundred people, who were standing there, creating a parted pathway for me to exit through.

  I looked around me in surprise. I had no idea what was happening and I tried to catch someone’s eye who could tell me. When I looked ahead again, I saw Grant at t
he other end of the tunneled clearing. He was in a fresh black tuxedo with a red bowtie at his neck. He was smiling at me invitingly while I rushed towards him, still in shock from what was going on.

  As I approached him, Grant fell to one knee and a loud gasp rang out in the crowd around us. I could feel my fingers quivering as I slowed my pace. He was slipping out a small blue velvet box from the pocket of his pants. The smile on his face grew wider the closer I got to him and I placed a hand on my heart.

  “Grant…” I said, my voice was a near whisper.

  “Beverley, will you do me the honor of being my wife? I love you. I worship you and I have never been happier before,” he said, in a clear strong voice before I could say anything else.

  I could hear the murmur in the crowd. Everyone who worked with Grant was surprised. He had organized this grand public gesture for me, and nobody could believe that a guy like Grant Jennings could do something like this.

  “Yes, Grant, of course I will,” I said and everyone was clapping. Grant slipped the huge solitaire diamond ring on my finger as he stood up and swooped me into his arms. We kissed passionately, a little too passionately for a public place but neither of us cared.

  “I thought you were acting nervous the past couple of days, I was getting worried,” I whispered in his ear when I drew away from him. I could barely hear him over the applause and cheers from everyone around us.

  “I was nervous because I wasn’t sure if you’d want to marry me,” he said. As if.

  Cowboy Romance Series

  BOOK 1 : BILLIONAIRE COWBOY

  Celia shielded her eyes against the glaring Texan sun with the palm of her hand, this sun was going nowhere. She had just stepped off the train that had carried her from the Austin airport, and after a two-hour journey in a small cramped seat, she could feel her bones aching and her legs needing a stretch. How long would she have to wait here in the heat?

  Two stuffed-to the brim suitcases lay at her feet. She had packed everything she could, everything she would need, although she wasn’t quite sure what she might actually require. She had never been to Texas before, and definitely never to such a small town.

  Celia took in a deep breath and sighed. She had been standing there for over fifteen minutes now, and there was no sign of her ride.

  Her grandfather had written a letter to her a month ago. Initially she had smiled when she found the letter slipped under the door of her tenth-floor apartment in New York, by the postman. Who hand wrote letters anymore? Clearly her grandfather did. But when she eventually read the letter, the smile on her face had disappeared. He was sick, very sick, and he was her only remaining family. She had to be there for him in his hour of need, there was no other choice but that.

  So, Celia quit her job, not that it was much of a job. It was an internship at a fashion magazine, but it was also a stepping stone towards the actual job that she wanted. Sure, it would have taken time, a few months, maybe even a few years…but it would all be worth it. Now, quitting her job, moving to a small town in Texas to care for her grandfather was going to be a major setback. But what other choice did she have? She couldn’t simply allow her grandfather to wither away by himself.

  She had written back to him, probably her first handwritten letter in several years, telling him her plan. She would quit her job and move in with him to care for him, for as long as he needed. He was her only family, she had to do this for him and for the memory of her parents who had brought her up to care for those in need.

  The roar of an engine nearby distracted Celia from her thoughts and she whipped around to find a red battered truck making its way towards her, sending dust clouds up in the air in its trail. Her grandfather had mentioned a ride, but this wasn’t what she was expecting.

  The truck came to a sudden halt, right in front of her feet and Celia took a few steps back in surprise. It looked like an old dusty thing, with the red paint chipped in several places, the rearview mirror broken and dangling on the side. The engine made such a great sound that it was clear that it needed major maintenance.

  Celia still had her face shielded with her hand when the driver’s door creaked open and she saw the back of a man who jumped off the truck. She still didn’t know what to expect, was this definitely her ride?

  “Celia Ferro?” The man banged the door shut behind him and turned to look at her, placing his hands on the burning hot hood of the car engine. There was steam rising from it, it was so hot. But he didn’t seem to notice, he kept his hands on it.

  “Yes.” She replied, in a meek voice. She had obviously expected a stranger to pick her up, but not such a handsome one. This man was a cowboy through and through, the likes of which she had only ever seen in films or on TV. She hadn’t thought that people like him actually existed in real life.

  He was in a dark plaid shirt, with the sleeves rolled up. His jeans were dark too, with a wide boot cut at the bottoms. For shoes, he had ruddy dusty boots and a cowboy hat to shield his face against the sun. But the sun had definitely got to him, because his skin was darkened, and it glowed like bronze in the midday heat. His eyes were piercingly blue, and Celia dropped her gaze from his face when he looked at her, because his eyes nearly frightened her. He looked muscular and lean, like he worked outdoors all day. As hard as she tried to stop herself, she couldn’t help her mind from wandering and imagining what his bare torso would look like, underneath those clothes.

  “Do you have bags?” The man asked and she nodded her head.

  “They’re right here.” She said and pointed to her feet.

  He walked around the front of the truck silently, taking quick long steps and was by her side within seconds. She felt her muscles freeze from his closeness. She couldn’t remember the last time her body had reacted this way to the physical presence of someone else. Without a word, he picked up both the suitcases and tossed them into the open back of the van.

  Celia winced when she heard the thump of the bags as they fell. She didn’t want to imagine what the state of her perfume bottles and makeup cases were going to be inside them.

  “Get in.” She heard him say, and he walked back around to the driver’s side without waiting for a response from her. Celia gulped. How was she supposed to get in?

  She tried pulling at the passenger door, but it wouldn’t give. The man had already climbed back into his seat. He had his hands loosely placed on the steering wheel and was watching Celia struggling to get the door open. It was like he was enjoying her trying and failing and then trying again.

  She yanked and pulled, but the door wouldn’t budge; and the man wasn’t helping. She turned a sour face to him through the windshield, her lips quivering as she glared at him. What was wrong with him? She thought, but didn’t say anything. After she had glared at him for a good few moments, he leaned over and pushed the door open from his side. It slid open as smoothly as a knife through warm butter.

  Celia tried to haul herself up into the seat, as best she could. She wasn’t dressed for the occasion, she realized as she did this. Her pencil skirt clung tightly to her thighs as she tried to wriggle into the seat, her cheeks flushed and her neck burning red from embarrassment.

  He was following her every movement with keen watchful eyes, and when she turned to look at him, she realized that she hadn’t once seen him smile yet.

  “Thank you.” Celia said, as politely as she could, even though she didn’t exactly want to be polite to him, when he had been nothing other than rude to her.

  The man said nothing, but simply started the engine and the truck roared and came to life.

  Despite the fact that she was a little offended by this man’s coldness, she still couldn’t stop herself from admiring him. She couldn’t help but imagine what a big hit this man might be in the fashion industry; with his muscular physique and sharp jaw lines, he would look good in anything, and especially delicious in nothing.

  “So, you know my grandfather?” She said, trying to make conversation. He had been driving in
silence for a few moments now and she was beginning to grow uncomfortable in his presence. She didn’t want to simply stare at him the whole way.

  “Yes.” He replied, keeping his eyes on the road. Celia realized that he had barely even looked at her. The hat remained on his head as he drove, and she noticed the clenching of the muscles on his long arms as he clutched the steering wheel.

  “I’ve never been to Texas before. I grew up in Chicago and recently moved to New York.” She continued, looking over at him, hoping for a reaction, for something.

  “I can see that.” He said in the same heavy emotionless voice he used to say everything else. Celia blushed again.

  “I’m sure I’ll get used to this, won’t I?” She added with a smile, but he wasn’t looking at her to notice that she was trying her best to be friendly, to please him.

  “No, you won’t.” He said, keeping his eyes on the road. Celia’s brows crossed. How dare he form opinions of her when he hadn’t even looked at her properly, when he barely knew her or anything about her life. She turned her face away from him, trying to control her displeasure as best as she could.

  Everywhere she looked, it was dusty and covered in sand. The trees were sparse and they had crossed very few houses. She couldn’t even imagine this much open space in the cities. It was unheard of. The warm sandy air lashed against her face when she turned her face to the windows. She shielded her eyes against it and allowed the harsh rays of the sun to warm her face some more. She’d show him. She’d show this man, what she was really made of.

  “What is your name?” She asked him, turning to him again.

  “Wilder.” He replied, without skipping a beat. Just when she was least expecting it, he turned to look at her. Their eyes met. His blue eyes looking straight into hers, deep into her soul, studying her face. He held her gaze for several seconds before he looked away and Celia licked her lips nervously. She wanted him. As much as she wanted to dislike this man, she couldn’t help but acknowledge the fact that she wanted him. She wanted his rough hands on her skin, his blue eyes to look into her face, his shoulders to engulf her tightly…