Under the Millionaire's Mistletoe (8 page)

C
hristmas was over and New Year's Eve was just a day away. Anna had buried herself in work, wishing away the holidays, wanting to get lost in the dark, gray days of January. A storm was settling in over Crystal Bay and the cold damp suited Anna's mood perfectly.

Maybe her father was right. Maybe the new year would be filled with lots of opportunities. But at the very least, time would be passing. And the more time passed, the easier it would become to get over Sam.

At least, that's what Anna fervently hoped.

“For now, though,” she told herself firmly, “I'm going to concentrate on work and try to put everything else out of my mind.”

Sounded good in theory, but Sam's image would never completely leave her thoughts. He was with her, sleeping and waking. He was always there, just behind the mental door she tried repeatedly to close.

“How's it coming, Anna?”

“What?” She jolted and her grip on the paintbrush in her hand tightened. Whipping around, she looked at Mateo Corzino as he walked toward her. The owner of Corzino's, home of the best lasagna on the California coast, Mateo had hired her to do a mural on the wall of his restaurant.

It was a big job that could keep her busy for a couple of weeks. He wanted a view of a Sicilian harbor, fishing boats tied up at a dock, complete with cliffs and sand-colored buildings in the background. And he wanted it to look as though the view was seen through a crumbling wall. She was eager to dig in, loving the challenge and a crumbling wall was one of her favorite effects. If only she could fully concentrate instead of having her heart and mind torn in two.

“Jeez,” he said with a grin, “didn't mean to scare you.”

“Sorry.” She shook her head and laughed a little. “I guess I was just thinking so hard I didn't hear you come up.”

He glanced at the wall where she'd just begun laying down the dark brown tracer lines that would eventually look like cracks in old plaster.

“It already looks real,” he said, a touch of awe in his voice. “I don't know how you do it.”

Pleased, Anna smiled and wiped her fingers on a paint rag. “Well, I don't know how you make that amazing sauce of yours either, so we're even.”

“Speaking of that, I'd better get back to the kitchen. My wife's minding the stove
and
the baby.” He looked at the wall again and nodded in appreciation. “You need anything, you give a shout. The restaurant won't be open until dinner, so no one will bother you.”

“Thanks, Mateo,” she said, but he was already gone, hurrying back to his family. She heard a deep baby giggle coming from the kitchen and then Mateo's wife laughed along.

Anna sighed and turned back to her paints. Emptiness filled her as she reached up to paint another jagged line on the wall. As she did, she felt as though she were capturing in paint the cracks in her own broken heart.

She worked for another hour or two uninterrupted. Then she heard a frantic knocking on the glass door behind her. Anna ignored it, figuring that Mateo would be rushing out to take care of an overeager customer. But when the knocking continued, Anna sighed, and stepped out from behind a tall, potted ficus tree.

Clarissa was standing outside the restaurant, leaning up against the glass, shading her eyes so that she could look inside. A second later, that frantic knocking started up again.

Mateo finally headed out of the kitchen and Anna stopped him. “I'll take care of it, Mateo. Sorry.”

“Oh, sure,” he said, recognizing Anna's stepmother. “No problem.”

Anna hurried to the door, turned the lock and opened it. “Clarissa, what is it? What's happened?” Then she saw her stepmother's eyes were red and swollen, tears streaming down her face. Grabbing hold of the woman, Anna demanded, “Is it Dad? Is he okay?”

Clarissa nodded, gulped audibly and lunged for her. Hugging Anna tightly, she tried to talk around her own tears, but the words were garbled.

Relieved that her father was all right, Anna patted the woman's back until she calmed down, then pulled away and said, “What's going on, Clarissa? Why are you crying?”

“Oh,” the woman said, rummaging in her black bag for a handkerchief, “it's just so wonderful…”

Anna's heart picked up a normal rhythm. Not bad news, then. She waited impatiently for her stepmother to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. Then, at last, Clarissa spoke again.

“I had to find you, Anna,” she said. “Tell you right away. I know how worried you've been for your father and you just had to know the good news.”

Patience, Anna reminded herself, though the opposite feeling was pumping through her fast and hard. You needed patience with Clarissa.

“If it's good news,” Anna said softly, steering Clarissa to a chair, “then I definitely want to hear it.”

But Clarissa didn't want to sit down. She stopped suddenly, gave Anna another hard, tight hug and stepped back, giving her a brilliant smile. “Thank you, Anna. I don't know how you did it, but thank you.”

“I don't understand,” she said, feeling that hard-won patience begin to dissolve. “What are you thanking me for?”

Clarissa's eyes widened and her smile got even brighter.

“You don't know? I can't believe you don't know,” she said. “I thought for sure you were behind this somehow, but now…”

Anna took a breath and blew it out again. “Honestly, Clarissa, I do love you, but if you don't tell me what's going on soon—”

“Of course, of course.” Clarissa grabbed hold of Anna's paint-stained hands and said, “It's Sam Hale. He contacted your father yesterday…Hale Luxury Autos has signed an exclusive contract with Cameron Leather.” Her tears started again in earnest, but her brilliant smile
never wavered. “Your father's company is safe, Anna. He's so relieved. So happy. I thought you had talked to Sam about this. Somehow arranged it all and I had to come and thank you for whatever you'd done.”

“Sam called Dad?” she echoed, her heart jumping into an accelerated beat. She hadn't talked to Sam in days, but he'd called her father. Done this to help her father.

Hope leaped to life in her chest and she silently prayed that this meant what she thought it might. Dazzled, confused, Anna realized that Clarissa was talking again and forced herself to pay attention.

“He did. They met this morning with Sam's and your father's lawyers and settled it all in an hour. Everything's taken care of and, oh, Anna, it's so wonderful to see your father really happy again.” Clarissa reached out and hugged Anna tightly before letting her go. “It's as if a boulder had been rolled off his shoulders.”

“Why would Sam do this?” Anna wondered aloud, not really expecting an answer. Was it possible that he did feel more for her than want?

“I don't know, dear,” Clarissa said softly. “I thought he'd done it for you.”

Why would he, though? she asked herself. Why, when she'd broken it off with him, refused to take his calls? Why would he do something so wonderful?

Anna tore off the oversize apron she normally wore when she was working. Bunching it together, she passed it off to Clarissa and said, “I have to go. Will you tell Mateo I'll be back?”

“Going to Sam?” Clarissa asked softly.

“Yes,” she said, frantic now to see him. She had to know why he'd done this. Had to know if he felt even half as much for her as she did for him.

“Good for you, honey,” her stepmother told her, reach
ing out to pat her cheek. “You go on. I'll tell Mateo. But come to the house for dinner tonight, all right? I know your father will want to share this with you. We can celebrate.”

“I will, Clarissa,” Anna said and impulsively kissed the woman's cheek.

Hopefully, she thought as she ran out the door, there would be a
lot
to celebrate.

S
am cursed as he jammed his thumb on the undercarriage of the Bentley. Should have known better than to be out here working, he told himself as his thumb throbbed in time to his heartbeat. His mind wasn't on the work and that was a recipe for danger.

But as he'd given his staff two weeks off, he hadn't been able to face going into an empty building. Instead, he turned and went into the small office off the garage. He stood in the doorway, staring at the painting Anna had completed what now seemed like a lifetime ago.

The illusion of the ocean view was so clear, so real, he half expected to feel a breeze sliding through that painted-on window. Then his gaze dropped to the hidden snake peeking out of the flower vine. He scowled as he realized that he'd deserved to have her immortalize him like that. Damn it, he cared for her and he hadn't told her. He'd let his own suspicions drive her away when all he really wanted was her. Here. Now.

“This isn't helping,” he muttered, trying to find something to do. Something to occupy his mind so it wouldn't automatically turn to—

“I thought I'd find you here.”

He went still as a post. Her voice came from behind him and he'd hungered to hear it for so many days, he wanted to just take a second to enjoy it. But when she didn't speak again, he turned around to face her.

Her long, auburn hair was pulled into a ponytail and she was wearing paint-stained jeans and a black sweatshirt, also decorated with splotches of paint. Her eyes were locked on his and Sam thought he'd never seen anything more beautiful.

Behind her, he could see that the promised rain had finally arrived. The sky was gray and trees were bending in the wet wind.

“I went to your office first,” she said.

He just looked at her. He couldn't seem to get his fill. “I closed it until after the holidays.”

“Yeah, I saw the sign.” She walked closer, the heels of her boots tapping in tandem with the rain.

It took everything Sam had not to go to her, wrap his arms around her and hold on. He wanted her with an ache that had only gotten more overpowering over the last few days. And he knew unless he had her in his life, he was doomed to misery.

“You've got paint on your cheek,” he said.

She shrugged. “I'm working at Corzino's.”

He nodded and wondered why they were suddenly being so damn polite.

“I know what you did,” she said and walked close enough that he could smell her. The scent of her shampoo mingled with the sharp scent of paint and he almost smiled. Because to him, that was the essence of Anna.

“And?” he asked, staring down into her emerald green eyes.

“And, I want to know why,” she told him softly.

“You know why,” he admitted, his blood stirring, his body quickening. She was so close and he'd missed her so much.

After his meeting with Dave Cameron, he'd known that he'd have to face Anna. But he hadn't been sure what her reaction would be. Hell, she was a hard woman to predict, which was only one of the reasons he was crazy about her.

She watched him through guarded eyes. “I hope I do. Why don't you tell me?”

Grumbling now, he admitted, “I did it because I love you, okay? You wouldn't answer the damn phone and I knew you wouldn't see me. So this was the only way I had to tell you.”

“Sam…”

“It's not the only reason,” he told her, talking fast now that he had her here and it was so important to make her see what he was feeling. “Your dad's a good man and it's a good business decision for both of us, but you're the main reason I did it, Anna. I did it because of you.
For
you.”

When she didn't say anything, he added, “I don't expect anything from you. You don't have to do anything. Hell, I don't even expect you to believe that I love you, but I do.”

She still wasn't talking, and Sam suddenly couldn't stand still under her gaze. He grabbed her, giving into the instinctive urge clawing at him. He pulled her close, stared down into those green eyes of hers and said, “I'd do anything for you, Anna.”

He loved her.

Anna sighed, grinned up at him and threw her arms around his neck, holding on for all she was worth. “Oh, Sam, I love you, too. I love you so much.”

“God.” He buried his face in the curve of her neck and swept his big hands up and down her spine, as if reassuring him that she was once again in his arms.

He kissed her, long and deep, and Anna felt her world right itself again. Fires burned inside her and she knew that with him in her life, she would never again be cold.

“You could have said something,” he accused, when he finally broke the kiss long enough to look down at her. “Did you have to let me keep babbling?”

She grinned and leaned into him, arching her body into his. “Sorry. But after you said you loved me, I sort of zoned out.”

“Is that right?” His voice was low and almost seemed to rumble along her nerve endings.

“Yeah, it is. I do love you, Sam,” she said, staring into his eyes and letting him see everything she was feeling. “And what you did for my dad—you didn't have to.”

“I know that,” he said, and bent to kiss her again. Once. Twice. “I wanted to do it, not because I had to but because I knew it would make you happy.”

“You make me happy, Sam. Just you.”

“I'm making that my mission in life,” he told her. “Because I never want to be without you again, Anna.”

“Never,” she whispered and sighed as he kissed her again and again.

At last, though, he pulled back and pointed at the mural. “This is the first time I've come in here since you left,” he admitted. “I couldn't look at that painting without thinking of you. Couldn't look at that snake without remembering that I'd let you go.”

She laid her head on his broad chest and smiled at the steady beat of his heart. “I'll paint over that snake,” she promised.

“No,” he told her. “Leave it. It's a good reminder to me.”

“Of what?”

“Everytime I see it, I'll remember how close I came to losing you, and that'll make me appreciate what we've got together even more.”

Tears filled her eyes as she smiled at him. “Tell me what we've got, Sam.”

“Everything, Anna,” he said. “Marry me and we'll have everything.”

“Yes.” She didn't have to think about it. Didn't have to wonder. Didn't have to ask herself if she was sure. It didn't matter if she'd met him two weeks ago or two years ago. This was the one man for her. The man she would love for the rest of her life. “Yes, I'll marry you.”

One corner of his mouth tipped into that delicious half smile she loved so much. “Just what I wanted to hear.”

His hands swept under the hem of her sweatshirt to cup her breasts and she groaned at the contact. He tweaked her nipples through the lace of her bra and Anna sighed in pleasure.

“I know a great way to spend a rainy day,” he said.

She sighed, and almost surrendered before she remembered, “Oh, I can't! I have to work. I told Mateo and—”

Sam kissed her again until she couldn't think, let alone speak. When he lifted his head, he smiled down at her. “It's okay,” he said. “We've got tonight to celebrate.”

She winced and groaned aloud as she remembered she'd already made a promise to her stepmother. “I promised Clarissa I'd go to the house for dinner. To
celebrate. You have to come, too, so we can tell them our news together.”

He laughed and rested his forehead against hers. “Dinner with the family. Agreed. And I should probably have a talk with your dad about us anyway. But
after,
it's just you and me.”

“Absolutely.” She couldn't wait to get him alone. To feel his body sliding into hers. To hear him say he loved her again and to know that she would be with him forever.

“Since we missed our first Christmas together,” Sam was saying, “we've got some catching up to do.”

“What did you have in mind?” she asked a little breathlessly.

“Well,” Sam said, “I'm thinking we'll have some wine, sit in front of the Christmas tree and open our presents.”

“Presents?” she asked, confused.

He dropped his fingers to the snap of her jeans and flicked it open. Anna gasped as he undid her zipper and slid one hand across her abdomen. Then she understood. “Ah.
Open
our presents,” she said, moving into his touch. “Yep, that's a great idea. We could even call it our first tradition.”

“You really are my kind of woman,” he mused, zipping up her jeans and snapping them closed again.

“And don't you forget it,” Anna told him, her insides melting at the wild, wicked look in his eyes.

“Not a chance, babe.” Taking her hand in his, he kissed her knuckles, then said, “Come on, I'll drive you to Mateo's. I don't want you taking chances in this rain.”

Anna hugged him and whispered, “Rain? What rain? All I can see is sunshine and rainbows.”

While the rain pelted down from a steel-gray sky, inside the garage there was warmth and love and the promise of tomorrow.

Sam held on to her for another long minute, giving each of them a chance to settle. To relish the realization that they were together now and everything was going to be just as it should be.

“Happy New Year, Anna.”

“Happy New Year, Sam.”