Undeniable Demands (16 page)

Glancing to her right, she picked up the shotgun and went to the door. She was in love with him, but she was still angry and hurt by what he’d done. He needed to know that.

Tori swung open the door and stepped down into the snow. A snowstorm had blown through the day after she came home, blanketing the property in white and making it impossible for her to look around and search for clues about what he was after.

When she turned, Wade was standing near the hood of his SUV, his arms raised in surrender. In one hand was a bundle of tulips wrapped in florist paper. “Don’t shoot,” he said with the smile she’d missed.

She raised the gun and studied his face. He looked older, more tired than she remembered. Hopefully he’d had as bad a week as she had. Knowing he might have suffered without her helped soothe her pride a bit. “What do you want?”

“I came here to make you an offer.”

It took everything Tori had not to pull the trigger and cover his body in painful welts. An offer? Here she was, designing their home, decorating their damn nursery, and he came here focused on the same old agenda.

“You’re too late,” she said. “I wouldn’t sell you this land for every dime you have. Flowers won’t help, either.”

Wade nodded. A flicker of amusement in his eyes sent a flame of irritation through her veins. “That’s fine. I’m not here to buy the land.”

Tori frowned. “If you don’t want my land, what do you want, Wade?”

“I want you.”

The intensity in his expression was undeniable. His green eyes were burrowing into her. It made it hard to breathe. He wanted her.
Her.
Not the land. Not what was hidden on it. Her. Her heart leaped in her chest for a moment, but she refused to so much as blink on the exterior. She wasn’t going to let him off that easily. “I’m not interested in any more dinner dates. All I got out of that was indigestion and rug burn.”

A smile curled Wade’s lips. Instinctively she wanted to smile back, but she wouldn’t.

“That’s okay,” he said. “I’m not here to ask you on a date. I’m here to tell you that I’m in love with you.”

Tori’s hands started trembling, the shotgun unsteady in her grasp. She stood there with her mouth open but without words as Wade came closer.

“Let’s just set this down, shall we?” He eased the gun from her hands and laid it in the snow a few feet away. “I’d rather not have our love story turn into one of those tragic tales.” Wade handed her the bouquet of tulips. They were her favorite flower. She hadn’t ever told him that.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“Brody is a genius. You can find out almost anything with a computer. I’ve waited seven years to give you those flowers.” He put his hands on her upper arms, gently rubbing her skin to warm her. “I’ve been miserable since we fought. I can’t get that night out of my head. I can’t sleep. All I can see is the look on your face when you walked away, and it breaks my heart. I’d give anything to see you smile again. Today, and every day of the rest of my life.”

If the mention of love wasn’t enough, he was making sounds like he wanted to…to…

“I want to tell you the truth. Every bit of it. But it’s not just my secret to keep. There are others who could get hurt if the story were to be made public. But I can tell you this much… I was once very young and very stupid. When faced with something no child should have to handle, I made the wrong decision. I believe the evidence of that night is somewhere on your property. I’ve been doing everything I can think of to make sure no one ever finds it. I’ve done some things in the past few weeks that I’m not proud of. But I did what I felt I had to do to protect my family. You know how important they are to me. I would protect them with my life, just as I would protect yours. And for now I have to continue to protect their secret, just as I would protect a secret of yours.”

Tori could see the pain in Wade’s expression. His past was eating at him, gnawing at his gut on a daily basis. She was amazed that she hadn’t noticed it before now, but maybe he just kept it too well hidden. He was letting down walls for her. Because she wanted him to. Even if he couldn’t tell her everything, he was making the effort. And she could appreciate that. If she could be certain of nothing else, she knew that Wade would do anything for the people he loved. And if he loved her as he said he did, she would be just as fiercely protected.

The sense of security and stability that washed over her in that moment was unprecedented. A lifetime of moving from place to place had never provided it. Even buying this land hadn’t provided it. But she’d found it in allowing herself to trust Wade and be protected by him.

“One day, I hope to be able to tell you the rest of the story. And that you’ll hear everything I’ve done and trust me when I say that, right or wrong, I only ever had the best of intentions. I pray for your understanding because you are a beautiful, intelligent woman and I adore you. You make me happy just lying in bed listening to you breathe. I want to wake up every morning to your messy hair and pouty face. And I want to do it here, in Connecticut, in the house you designed.”

Tori gasped. “You’d move here?”

He nodded. “I would. There isn’t much I can do in the office that I can’t do from here with teleconferences and virtual meetings. I might have to go to the city from time to time, but when I do, I want to take you with me. I don’t think I like the idea of traveling without my wife.”

“But I—” Tori started, then stopped. She watched as Wade eased down onto one knee in the snow. Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a small wooden box wrapped in a gold ribbon. “Wade…” she said, disbelieving. The flowers slipped from her fingers to the snow.

“Victoria Sullivan,” he began, unwrapping the bow. He eased open the hinge and held the box up to her. “Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”

Tori glanced down at the engagement ring in his hands. The nearly two carat round diamond was set in a multirow pave diamond band of platinum. It sparkled so brightly with the sunlight reflecting off the snow that she was almost blinded. She had stood in the snow very nearly dumbstruck for the past few minutes, but now she knew she had to find the right thing to say. And it should be easy, since she’d been screaming it in her head since he knelt in the snow.

“Yes,” she said, tears pooling in her eyes from the light and the emotions ready to spill out of her.

Wade stood back up, slipping the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly.

She tore her eyes away from the ring to look up at the man who would soon be her husband. “I love you,” she said.

“And I love you.” He leaned down to kiss her, almost the official sealing of the deal he’d come here to offer her.

Tori melted into his arms, losing herself in the feeling of being with the man she thought she’d lost forever. Her blood instantly began to heat with the desire he easily stirred in her. Just when she was ready to tug him into the Airstream and make love to her fiancé for the first time, he pulled away and looked down at her with a smug grin.

“Do you have any idea how hard it was to find the perfect diamond for you?”

Tori frowned. “Am I that picky?”

“I don’t know if you are, but I certainly am. It had to be perfect. So perfect, I was willing to fly to San Francisco and back to buy it from a jeweler there. This ring is from an environmentally conscious and well-regulated Canadian diamond mine. Certified conflict-free. The band is made of recycled platinum. Hell, the ring box is even made from Rimu wood, whatever that is.”

Tori grinned. Wade could have marched right into Tiffany’s, bought any ring he wanted, and she would’ve said yes. But he didn’t. He traveled all the way to the West Coast and back to get the ring he knew she would want. That was more precious than the large, flawless stone in the center.

“Rimu is a sustainable wood from New Zealand. And I love it. There isn’t a more beautiful and perfect ring in all the world. Absolutely perfect.”

“Like you,” he said.

Rising on tiptoe, she kissed him again. “Now, let’s go inside and get you out of those wet pants.”

Wade’s brow shot up at her suggestion. He glanced down at the wet knees of his trousers, then back at the Airstream behind him. “Okay, but after that, you need to get back to work designing that house.”

“Why?”

“Because,” he said, “I’m afraid if I make love to you the way I want to, we’re going to roll this sucker down the hill and into a ditch. I need a house. Without wheels. ASAP.”

“I’ll do my best,” Tori said. Taking his hand in hers, she led him over to the Airstream. “Until then,” she said, laughing, “if this trailer’s a rockin’…”

Epilogue

Two months later

“R
emind me again why we're hiding eggs? In
the dark?” Tori looked across the silver, moon-illuminated yard at Wade and
Brody. They were both chucking the plastic Easter eggs under bushes and behind
tree trunks.

Brody straightened and shrugged. “It's tradition. Like watching
the Grinch at Christmas. Don't question our methods.”

“But there aren't any children to find them.”

“It doesn't matter,” he explained. “For as long as I have lived
on this farm, Wade and I have hidden Easter eggs for the younger kids. I swear
to you, if Julianne and Heath wake up and there are no eggs to find, bunny heads
will roll.”

“You know, when Wade first told me about this, I thought he
meant the Edens hosted a community egg hunt here on the farm. I didn't realize
I'd be out in the middle of the night hiding candy for your twenty-seven-year-old brother.”

“It's good practice,” Wade replied with a wink. “If Mama has
her way, there will be grandkids hunting here in no time.”

“Yeah, well,” she muttered, “I don't know why all the pressure
is on me when there are four other kids in this family. We need to get Brody a
girl.”

“Ha, ha,” Brody said flatly. “You're funny. Why don't you get
me a unicorn and a time machine while you're at it? Then I can go back to the
nineties and gouge my father with the unicorn horn before he could ruin my
chances of ever dating.”

Tori shook her head and put an egg under the steps of the front
porch. Over the past few months she'd gotten to know Wade's family better,
including the grumpy and serious Brody. She found that he wasn't really that
grumpy or that serious. He had a marshmallow center under that hard-candy shell.
It made her want to help other people see though his defenses, as well.

“How do you expect to meet women if you never go out in
public?” Wade teased. “Have one ordered on the internet and delivered to your
office?”

Brody chucked an egg at Wade. The plastic shell separated on
impact with his chest, sending candy scattering across the grass. “I imagine the
shipping would be outrageous on that, so no. I have a woman in my life, thank
you very much.”

Wade retaliated with his own egg. Brody ducked and his egg
missed, hitting the tree behind him and flying open. “Agnes doesn't count. She's
your fiftysomething secretary. And she's married with grandchildren.”

“Don't I know it,” Brody complained. “She started making noises
a few weeks ago about her anniversary coming up in the fall. She says she wants
to take some time off for it.”

“That's nice. Are they going on a trip to celebrate?” Tori
asked.

“Yes,” Brody responded with a heavy sigh. “It's a milestone
year. Apparently they've booked a three-week Mediterranean cruise.”

“That sounds wonderfully romantic,” she said.

Brody shook his head, unconvinced. “Not for me.”

“Agnes is Brody's connection to the outside world,” Wade
explained. “Without her, he's helpless as a babe.”

“I am not helpless. There are just some things that I can't do
from my office. Or that are easier to have her handle. Like picking up my dry
cleaning.”

Tori couldn't imagine living in Brody's world without contact
with other people. From what Wade had told her, he had a housekeeper who worked
at his home during the day while he was gone, but she always left before he got
back. And he had his secretary. Aside from family visits, that was it. He lived
in seclusion. “What are you going to do when she goes?”

“I don't know,” Brody said. He put the last of his eggs in the
curled-up nest of the garden hose. “I've been trying not to think about it. I've
got months before I have to make a decision.”

“I'm sure you can hire a temp from a local agency to come in
while she's gone.”

Brody frowned at her. “I don't like new people.”

“I'm new, and you like me.”

“That's because I realized Wade was hopelessly in love and
there was no getting rid of you.”

Wade came up behind Tori and wrapped his arms around her waist.
She curled against him, seeking out his warmth in the chilly night air.

“You have to keep yourself open to the opportunities around
you,” he said to his brother. “You never know what you might find. Great things
can show up where you least expect them.”

Brody looked at the two of them and shook his head. “People in
love are disgusting.”

“Disgustingly happy,” Wade countered, placing a warm kiss just
under Tori's earlobe. The touch sent a shiver down her spine that made her want
to dump her basket of eggs and drag him back to the Airstream.

“Happily ever after,” she agreed.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
One Winter's Night
by Brenda
Jackson

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