done.’ He grinned as he swept her into his embrace, his eyes teasing her caution. ‘So here it is—the next morning—and I still want to marry you, Sunny York.’
‘Mmm…have you had breakfast?’
He laughed. ‘I was waiting for you.’ His mouth grazed over hers with tantalising sensuality. ‘And you taste so good,’ he murmured.
‘Food is good, too,’ she choked out, struggling to keep her mind clear of the seductive web he was weaving again.
‘Then we shall order breakfast right now.’
Everything she wanted, when she wanted it… It was terribly difficult to keep her head on straight around Bryce. He swamped her with such tempting attractions, most of all himself.
Over a sumptuous breakfast, she finally managed to focus on addressing the question of business. ‘We haven’t settled on the kind of position you’re offering me, Bryce.’
‘First and foremost, the position of my wife,’ he answered, his eyes unmistakably reflecting very determined purpose.
Sunny’s heart skipped a beat. ‘What if I say no to that?’
‘You haven’t said no yet. Until you do, Sunny, I’ll be doing everything within my power to persuade you to say yes.’
She could feel his power winding around her and wondered if it would prove irresistible in the end. ‘I really don’t know much about you, Bryce,’ she stated defensively.
‘What do you need to know?’
His heart, she thought, then doubted her own ability to judge that, given her terrible misreading of Derek’s heart. Needing to start somewhere, she said, ‘Well, I know you have a father. What about the rest of your family?’
‘My mother died when I was three. I was her only child.’
No wonder he’d counted so much on his father being there for him! ‘I’m sorry. That must have been hard…to be left without a mother,’ she said with sincere sympathy.
His mouth twisted with irony. ‘Oh, my father kept trying to provide me with mothers. He married four more times, resulting in four divorces. I have a half-brother and two half-sisters, but their respective mothers took their children with them. I was…am…the only constant in my father’s life as far as family is concerned. We are…very attached to each other.’
‘I see,’ she murmured, thinking his father hadn’t exactly set an example on how to make a marriage work.
‘Do you see that I don’t want an easy-come, easy-go marriage?’ he countered as though he could read her thoughts. ‘That I want a wife who is as committed to me and our children, as I would be to her?’ he pressed on. ‘Parents together, Sunny. A stable home.’
All that he felt he hadn’t had himself? It was strong motivation, but was motivation enough when faced with a clash of needs? Sunny suspected Bryce was very used to getting his own way on most things.
His eyes glittered knowingly as he added, ‘You’ve come from a stable home, haven’t you? It means something to you.’
‘Yes. It’s why I don’t want to rush into such a serious step as marriage.’
‘What reservations do you have about me?’
Sunny frowned, not having any criticisms to make except… ‘I don’t understand why you’re so keen, so quickly.’
Her eyes flicked to his in sharp challenge, determined on getting a reply that satisfied her sense of reality—a reality that was not wrapped in hothouse passion or persuasive patter.
He leaned back in his chair but it was not a move that held relaxation, more putting a weighing distance between them as he considered what answer to give her. She could almost feel the wheels clicking around in his mind, and there was no mistaking the tension emanating from him as he came to a decision.
‘I’ll tell you why, Sunny,’ he said quietly, and she tensed, every intuitive instinct telling her that something important was about to be revealed, and he was counting on her understanding, counting on a positive response from her, as well.
‘My father has a heart condition. Every day he lives is a medical miracle. For some time he has been agitating for me to marry, have a child. I know this is a symptom of his own rather immediate sense of his mortality, but it is his dearest wish and I would like to give him that sense of our bloodline going on before he dies.’
A bloodline! It sounded almost Medieval. Like feudal lords securing a succession. ‘You want to marry me for your father’s sake?’ she asked incredulously.
‘No. I could have married any number of women for my father’s sake. I am considered…’ His mouth took on a cynical curl. ‘…very eligible in the marriage stakes.’
Sunny did not doubt that truth.
‘But I didn’t want just any woman as my wife, Sunny. I wanted a woman who felt right to me. A true partner on many levels.’ His eyes blazed with conviction. ‘Every instinct I have is shouting that I’ve found her in you.’
Her heart jiggled with an intemperate burst of joy. It took a tremendous effort to override the wild response and keep boring in on her misgivings. ‘You trust your instincts so much?’
‘In every aspect, you shine with rightness. No other woman ever has. Not to me.’
‘Then I’ll still be right to you in a month’s time,’ she argued.
‘And my father might be dead in a month’s time.’
It was softly said, yet it hit Sunny hard, making her remember her own father’s death. He’d been a volunteer fire-fighter, supervising a burn-off. The wind changed unexpectedly, trapping him and two others. No goodbyes. No chance to tell him how much he’d given her and what it had meant. Not even a few moments to show him she loved him.
Bryce leaned across the table and took her hand in his, pressing his sense of urgency, his caring. ‘I want to marry you now, Sunny. Today. And present you to my father as my wife for him to see what I see…so he won’t fret about the future anymore.’
What she saw was how much it meant to him to answer his father’s need, and she remembered him saying his father had always been there for him.
She understood the urgency he felt, and was moved by his reasoning, honoured that he had chosen her to be the wife he took home to his father, yet she could not get over the uneasy sense of being an instrument to resolve a situation, rather than a woman who was loved for herself.
It was difficult, knowing where Bryce was coming from, to set his proposal aside. The impulse to give him what he wanted was strong. She’d always wanted a marriage based on the kind of values she believed in, and in a way, Bryce was offering that—solid family values—yet…
‘I’m sorry. I…I need to think about this.’ Her eyes eloquently pleaded his patience. ‘I can’t do it today, Bryce. I can’t just…walk straight into it.’
He brushed his thumb over the back of her hand, as though wishing—willing—to get under her skin. ‘What’s troubling you most, Sunny?’ he asked quietly, his eyes meeting her plea with a caring concern that stirred more emotional confusion.
She shook her head, thinking she was probably being a fool, putting what had proved to be an illusion with Derek over the substance Bryce probably represented.
‘Tell me,’ he softly pressed.
‘I always thought I’d get married for love,’ she blurted out. ‘Not…not for convenience.’
‘Convenience,’ he repeated with a harsh edge, frowning over the accusation implied in it. ‘If I’d wanted convenience…’ He bit off the thought, shaking his head. His gaze flashed to hers, searing in its intensity. ‘I swear to you this marriage is not a convenience