Closing and locking the door and rearming the security system, she took the stuffed animal and the flowers and left the entry, passing white-and-dark-wood-trimmed stairs and a console table. In the spacious, high-ceilinged living room, she went to the seating area, which was furnished with off-white chairs and a sectional sofa around a rectangular wooden coffee table.
Smiling to herself, she put the flowers on the coffee table and inspected the wolf, thinking this quite a creative gift. Looking for a card, she found it in the flowers.
Dinner was nice, but just a taste. I’ll have a car pick you up at seven for another. Just you and me this time. Formal attire. D.
He’d gotten her wildflowers because she’d told him she loved the outdoors and he’d gotten her the wolf because she’d told him about the pack she’d spotted. How very thoughtful of him. She hadn’t expected that.
Nevertheless, she wasn’t sure if she liked his boldness. What if she had plans tonight? Did he expect her to drop everything just to go out with him? She’d have to ask. One thing she’d establish right from the start—she would not change her life to suit his schedule or his business aspirations. She had her standards and she would not compromise herself for him. He had to respect her.
Would he?
Decker hadn’t heard from Kendall, so he assumed she’d be ready when he had his car pick her up. He waited for her in the Columbine off the main lobby of The Lodge, where he’d reserved a section just for them. He had warned the staff to be at their top performance. Tonight he wore a suit and tie. He couldn’t wait to see what Kendall had decided to wear, although she would look great in anything, even if she showed up in jeans just to spite him.
He received a text indicating Kendall had arrived. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back; soft jazz music played. No center candle tonight, instead, a brass table lamp. The small bar had a bartender who waited in his suit and tie. Decker had put them in a room often reserved for moderately large dinner parties. The two double-door-sized archway entries had glass French doors with draperies for privacy that he’d ordered closed, but the lights from the start of the gondola could still be seen from here.
He spotted Kendall walking toward him and froze for a second as her beauty dazzled him. Adorned, in a simple long black dress that V’d modestly at the bodice, it complimented her tall, graceful physique beautifully. She wore a sapphire necklace and matching earrings and had put her long blond hair up.
“You look radiant,” he said, lifting her hand to his lips to plant a soft kiss along it as he had the other time.
Behind her, one of the waitstaff closed the French doors.
“You did say formal,” Kendall said.
Straightening, he thought he detected a slight edge to her tone. “You could have come in jeans and I wouldn’t have minded.”
“You could have asked me to dinner instead of summoning me.”
Oh, yes, definitely an edge. “I wouldn’t call it summoning. Charming you into joining me, perhaps.” She’d taken offense.
“It was presumptuous of you to assume I wouldn’t have any other plans and if I did, that I’d change them.”
He grunted, trying to smother a laugh. He would never presume anything of her. “Actually, I was sure you’d turn me down. When I didn’t get a call, I got excited.”
He saw her immediately soften. “Okay, you’ve redeemed yourself.” She smiled. “Thank you for the flowers and the wolf. They were very considerate gifts.”
“As was my intention.” He indicated for her to join him at the bar.
She preceded him there, giving him a view of the scooping back of her dress and the curves it accentuated.
Champagne in hand, she faced him as he took a glass from the bartender.
“Do you have another elegant dinner planned?” she asked, taking a sip.
“Of course.”
She moved away from the bar and went to the windows. He followed.
“Do you do this for all your girlfriends?”
He quirked a brow. “Are you my girlfriend or my fiancée?”
She glanced at him without replying.
“No,” he said.
“Why are you trying so hard?” she asked.
“Because I want you to marry me.”
With another glance, this one quicker and more uncertain, she turned and wandered into the space between the table and the bar.
“You fit me.” He went to stand behind her, giving her plenty of distance to adjust to his blunt announcement. “You have a career you love. You come from a family that’s similar to mine. And I get the feeling you want a no-fuss relationship as much as I do. I already know you’re a great kisser. The only thing I don’t know is if you want children.”
Slowly she faced him, not as rattled. “No fuss?”
“We both want to continue to pursue our careers without worry that the other will walk away due to lack of understanding.”
“Okay, but I’m not sure I want a relationship where I never spend any time with the person I’m with.”
Had he gotten that wrong about her? She hadn’t struck him as a woman who’d complain when her man didn’t pay enough attention to her.
“We’d spend plenty of time together. We’d just have to work around our schedules, that’s all.”
That seemed to placate her. She continued to look at him and he fell into the spectacular blue of her eyes.
“Aside from the suddenness, what’s holding you back from committing to marriage?” he asked. She was far too cautious to take marriage to him seriously. Yet.
“Remember that man I told you about?”
The jerk she’d caught with another woman? “Yes.”
“That’s why.”
“You want my assurance that I’ll never cheat? You have it. That’s not my style. I’d divorce you before it came to that.”
“Gee, that’s comforting.”
He chuckled. “I doubt I’d ever have a reason to divorce a woman like you. I’d have to be an idiot to do that.”
“How can you be so sure when you barely know me?”
“I have a pretty strong feeling on the matter.”
She met his eyes a moment and then went to the dining table to set down her glass. He waited for her to turn.
“It’s more than that,” she confided, bracing her hands on the back of a chair. “I loved him. His betrayal and the rude awakening that I never saw it coming made me withdraw from men. I like relationships that don’t threaten to make me feel too much.”
He failed to follow her meaning. Did she think she would feel too much with him...or did she worry she’d marry him because she knew she wouldn’t feel too much?
He suspected it was both, but more of the latter. “Then it’s good you won’t feel threatened by marrying me. Whatever comes after that will happen on its own and in time.” Whether they truly fell in love would remain an unknown until after they married. He saw that as a bonus. If they fell in love, great, but if not, they’d still have a solid companionship.
A slow smile emerged on her pretty face. “I like that. A lot.”
“Good.”