Page 73 of The Billionaire's Second Chance
“You left, and I waited for you,” she said. “I was younger then, too, after all,” she added with a small smile. “Iwaitedfor you. I didn’t know how to get what I wanted back then.”
“And now?” I asked, my feet carrying me toward her involuntarily. She looked up at me from under dark lashes that she’d never fluttered in her life, her eyes flicking between my own, a deep, melting chocolate brown. “What do you want, Sami?”
“I don’t want you to leave, Charlie,” she said, barely a whisper. “Not again.”
The bubbles in my stomach burst into a cascade, escaping my stomach and flowing into the far reaches of my fingertips, my toes, my lips, my eyes fixed on hers.
“You’re sure, Sami?”
“Yes,” she said, and when she blinked, twin tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. I swiped them away with my thumbs. “Please, Charlie.”
“Oh, Sami,” I said, a smile slipping onto my face. “You don’t need to beg.”
Our lips crashed together almost before I grasped her face in my hands, tilting her face up, her mouth opening under mine immediately. Her hands came up to my chest, clinging tight to my dress shirt, holding me close, too close and not close enough.
“Sami, sweetheart,” I said, resting my forehead on hers, her breath sweet on my face as I drank in her familiar scent. “I love you so much. I always have–fifteen fucking years.Longer. And I would give anything–anything–to stand by your side, from today on, for the next fifteen years, and the fifteen after that, and after that, as long as you’ll have me.” I placed a kiss on the top of her cheekbone, salty with tears, and drew back to look at her. Sami Scott, with sweet eyes and a soft, nervous smile. I slid my hands from her cheeks down to her shoulders in tailored navy wool, then to her wrists. Her palms were still pressed flat against my chest, and I knew she could feel my heart beating, strong and sure and all for her. I was sure she could feel the way it leapt, too, when she nodded, an impossibly dear expression on her open face, and told me she loved me, too.
“And,” I said, “I’ll make a very, very good trophy husband for you someday,” I said, and was gratified to see Sami’s eyes widen. “If you want that.Manhattan’s most eligible bachelor? A real prize.” I grinned.
She shoved me, two hands against my chest and a bright, unshuttered smile on her pretty face. “Shut up, Charlie,” she said, and when I stumbled back, I pulled her with me, catching the both of us. I closed my eyes, looping my arms around her shoulders to hold her even tighter.
I would never let her go.
Epilogue
Samantha
“How didyou get them to let us in here?” I whispered, holding tight to the hand leading me into the darkened room.
“How do you think?” Charlie said, and I rolled my eyes. He couldn’t see them anyway, it was too dark. “I’mcharming. Elena loves me.”
“Of courseElenadoes. But even still, ‘please let me into my old school library after hours for no reason’ is a tough sell, you know it is, Charlie.”
“A tougher sell than sleeping with the man you hate?” he asked. I could feel him turn to face me, his grip on my hand changing, his gait as he walked us backward toward the bookshelves. “Tougher than agreeing to marry him despite having sworn off marriage?”
“Charlie,” I said as he pulled me against him, our hips together, our chests rising and falling, and he reached for my left hand, the left hand on which a beautiful diamond rested. I never thought I’d allow myself to wear an engagement ring, but when Charlie had slipped this one–a cushion-cut diamond larger than any I would have ever dared select for myself, with a band set in even more glimmering, perfect stones–onto my waiting finger, I knew I never wanted to take it off.
“Are you sure you can afford this on a teacher’s budget?” I’d asked him, and he’d raised his perfect eyebrows at me, his signature smirk on his lips.
“Look at you, deflecting with humor,” he’d said. “Everyone will know you’re mine even without the ring if you start doing that.” I’d smiled from the ring on my finger up at him to see his face more serious than I’d ever,everseen it before. “Samantha,” he’d said. “Sami… Fifteen years ago, I listened not to my heart, or yours, but to someone else, and I hurt you. So when I ask you this, remember: this is a question, not a command, a question.” He hadn’t gotten down on one knee, just held me closer. “I wasted fifteen years of my life without you by my side. And if you say no, know that it’s just as you said: wherever you want, whenever you want. I’m yours. I always will be.”
But I’d said, with every cell of my body, every drop of blood, every muscle of my quickly beating heart,yes.
His finger traced the underside of the band...
“You should know by now not to underestimate my charm,” he said.
“If youseducedthe superintendent…” I threatened, squeezing his hand tighter.
“Well, that’s where beingrichcomes in,” he said. “If I can’t charm Elena into letting us in, I can pay off the janitor.”
“Youdidn’t,” I choked.
“Do you want to know?” he asked, leaning closer. His warm breath brushed my cheek, then his lips. “Or do you want to pretend I didn’t say anything?”
I thought for a moment–and then Charlie’s hand was in my hair, tilting my head to one side, his lips on my pulse point, and I didn’t think anymore. “Yes,” I said. “That.”
“Are you going to beg for it?” he asked, a familiar lilt to his voice that sounded like his crooked smile, his ever-ready grin.
