14
MITCH WATCHED REECE escort Belle into the foyer of the hotel, his heart stuttering a little at how gorgeous she was in the morning light. Apparently she took the phrase dress to kill seriously. A short, fitted skirt hugged hips his fingers itched to hold and her blouse wrapped around her torso enticingly, highlighting her cleavage. Power heels in a kick-your-ass-red completed the look.
Her face was set, like a beautiful ice carving. Her eyes, though, sparkled with fiery anger. God, he loved her. His gut hurt at the idea of how much pain he’d caused her last night. As soon as she’d left, he’d told Reece it was a setup. He was sure of it. Despite the mountain of proof Diana had offered—emails, faxes, Belle’s signature on everything, he knew she hadn’t done it.
Starting with the papers Belle had left him, they’d spent the entire night digging for the answer. An answer that had hurt like crazy but one that Mitch knew was true.
Now all he had to find out was why. And that, he figured, Belle had a right to know, too.
As they reached him, he murmured his thanks to Reece, who nodded and tilted his head to indicate that he’d be waiting in the restaurant.
“How fun. We’ve gone from unsubstantiated accusations to goon patrol?” Belle commented, giving him a dirty look. “Am I so worthless that you can’t just come talk to me directly? You need to send your big security chief to fetch my criminal butt?”
Mitch opened his mouth to explain, but one of his aunts walked past just then and yelled an enthusiastic hello. He grimaced and shut his mouth again. He’d almost blown it. This was too important to screw up with a lame explanation. He had to show her. To show her and his entire family that Belle was innocent.
Belle frowned in confusion when he didn’t say anything. Then she glanced at his departing aunt and got one of those you-are-such-a-pig looks on her face. “Ooh, I get it. I have cooties. You need to distance yourself from me so you don’t tilt any further off that precarious pedestal you’re perched on.”
Even though he knew he was being a jerk and that she had every right to be angry, Mitch couldn’t stop from giving her a narrow-eyed look and asking, “Alliteration so early in the day?”
Anger spat from her sea-green eyes and her mouth thinned. She looked like she was going to slug him. Mitch realized he was a sick puppy when the idea turned him on. God, he had it bad when any sign of passion from her, even nonsexual, got him all hot and horny.
“Let’s walk,” he suggested.
“Let’s not,” she returned. “You were too rude to talk to me privately before I’m escorted off the premises, so you can tell me what you want right here.”
Mitch grinned and took her arm to pull her to his side. Yeah, she was one helluva turn-on. “C’mon, I’ll show you.”
Her fury was clear in the snap of her heels against the floor and the stiff set of her shoulders. Of course, the sharp elbow in his gut was a good indicator, too.
But she didn’t pull away as he escorted her into the packed restaurant. She hesitated in the entrance, her step hitching just a little. Realizing she must think he was furthering that public-lynching thing she’d accused him of last night, Mitch shifted his hold, releasing her arm to wrap his hand around her waist.
Her accusation about him using her echoed in his head. Had been echoing through the long night. She was right and he hated himself for that. He’d hoped that publicly vindicating her would start to make up for his previous dicklessness, but once again, he’d miscalculated.
“It’ll be fine,” he whispered. He knew Reece wanted the element of surprise on their side. That for the trap to work hinged on Belle’s unscripted reactions. But he couldn’t stand seeing her suffer. If it meant only that he, Reece and the culprit knew the real truth, that was fine. He realized he didn’t want the public vindication at the cost of Belle’s feelings.
“Look, let’s go to my office,” he said softly, watching the nerves play over her features at the sight of his entire clan gathered in the dining room. The need to protect her overwhelmed him. Whispers carried around the room, fingers pointed and angry looks flew at Belle. Mitch shot a blanket glare at everyone.
He’d been a total idiot to give in to Reece’s plan. All he’d thought of was to publicly prove Belle’s innocence. To push Lena to admit in front of everyone here that she was behind the problems. Not to vindicate himself, but so nobody, ever, could doubt Belle again. He hadn’t thought the scheme through enough to realize what she’d have to endure in the process, though.
“Let’s go,” he repeated. “We’ll talk there.”
Some of the tension left her body as she leaned into him just a bit. She started to nod. Then something, or someone, caught her eye and she went steel-straight again and gave a little growl under her breath.
“That bitch is eating my afterglow special?” she asked.
Mitch followed her gaze and pulled a face. He glanced at Reece, seated across the room at the table next to the afterglow special, and grimaced.
Guess the show was still on. Belle pulled away with a hiss and stalked across the dining room. Yep, show on, whether he wanted it to be or not. He shoved his hands into his pockets and, body tensing for battle, followed her across the room.
Belle, apparently the consummate hostess even when blinded by spitting fury, sidestepped his family’s snide comments and rude questions graciously. But she didn’t slow down.
Thankfully his legs were longer, so, by the time she reached Lena’s table, Mitch had caught up. Mitch joined her as she sat, uninvited, at the damask-covered table.
“Lena,” he greeted quietly. He watched his stepsister’s eyes, knowing they gave the only clue to what was really going on behind that wide forehead of hers. They showed curiosity. He had to admire her. She was so damned sure she’d won, she didn’t feel a speck of fear.
“I realize it’s a public restaurant, so to speak,” Lena said in a haughty tone, “but I think I have the right to enjoy my breakfast without being interrupted by a traitorous sex-peddler.”
Mitch glanced out the dining room window at the gorgeous view of his beloved woods. The woods that had made him buy this property. The ones that made him feel like he’d finally made it. The woods where he’d been made to look like a loser idiot. And not, he knew, turning his gaze to Belle, by the woman he loved.
No, he had family to thank for that.
“I’ll give you sex—” Belle started to rage, leaning across the table.
“Really, Lena?” he interrupted, laying a hand on Belle’s knee. She shot him a furious look. Her anger turned to confusion when his eyes asked her to trust him. He was asking for the moon, he knew. That, the sun and a few planets, given that all he’d ever done was betray her.
But damned if she didn’t give it anyway. With a tiny furrow of her brow, she gave an infinitesimal nod and released her breath.
“I’m surprised you can sit there eating like you haven’t a care in the world,” he continued, gesturing to her almost-empty plate as well as the two side dishes she’d apparently enjoyed. “Are you so sure of yourself that you aren’t the least bit worried?”
Lena scooped up a bite of strawberry mousse and gestured with her spoon. “I haven’t done anything wrong. Although I’ve been hearing whispers from your staff, one of your cute security guys to be precise, that the same can’t be said for everyone at this table.”
Belle looked positively feral and Mitch decided he didn’t want to play the game. Unable to keep the hurt and anger from his voice, he leaned across the table and asked quietly, “Why’d you do it, Lena? Why’d you try and sabotage my resort?”
At Belle’s loud gasp, the few people that weren’t already watching the tableau looked their way. Her hand covered his where it lay on her knee and squeezed. Satisfaction and a spark of hope that she might forgive him sprang to life in Mitch’s heart.
“What’d she do, screw you stupid?” Lena shot back.
Belle surged out of her chair so fast, it toppled over. But she wasn’t as fast as Mitch or Reece.
Mitch was around the table before Belle’s chair hit the floor, grabbing his stepsister by the arm and pulling her to her feet. Reece put his hand on Belle’s arm, probably worried she’d resort to the same type of violence Sierra had tried the night before.
“As always, she’s a public embarrassment to you, isn’t she, Mitch?” Lena mocked.
“Kiss my ass,” Belle suggested sweetly. But Mitch could see the pain the comment had caused in Belle’s eyes.
“Oh, please,” Lena snapped. “I don’t know what kind of game she’s playing, but this is ridiculous. She’s making a fool of you with your entire family as witnesses. Again. Keep this up and nobody’s going to have to wonder if they should doubt your judgment or not. They’ll know you’ve let them all down.”
He had to hand it to her, she definitely knew where to twist the knife. Mitch saw a movement out of the corner of his eye and winced when he recognized the straw purse. Grammy Lynn had joined them. Good. He didn’t want one single person missing the proof that Belle was innocent.
“You know, the funny thing about computer messages is that even though you can fake an email address, you can’t fake an IP address,” Mitch said quietly. “And that paparazzi you hired? He’s the kind of guy who ignores orders to delete phone records. You—or Diana—covered your asses when you made the calls from the resort. But those text messages you sent him last night? They traced right back to your cell phone, Lena. It was a clever plan. But not clever enough.”
His stepsister hissed and wrenched her arm away. With a glare of hatred, she said, “You’re just Mr. Golden Boy, aren’t you? You think you’re so perfect. Everything just falls into your lap. You deserve all these problems. These and more.”
“You’re such a nasty bitch,” Belle accused in a shocked whisper.
“And you’re an interfering one. I was this close,” she spat, holding her fingers in front of Belle’s face, “to winning. You just lucked out, that’s all.”
Mitch gave Reece a look, and in an instant his cousin had switched places with him. Now Reece had Lena cornered, leaving Mitch free to put his arm around Belle’s shoulder.
“No. Even without proof, I knew Belle wasn’t behind this.”
“How?” Belle asked quietly beside him.
He looked down into her face, her beautiful green eyes glistening with tears and happiness. Mitch’s heart shifted, all the worries and fear dropping away as he leaned down to brush a soft kiss over her full lips.
“Because I trust you.”
* * *
“I WANTED TO SMACK you silly when I first saw you this morning,” Belle murmured to Mitch an hour later. After the big show and resulting fallout, she and Sierra had watched gleefully from the sidelines as Lena was hauled off the property by the cops.
Now, an hour later, she and Mitch had escaped to the serenity of the woods for a “picnic” and a talk. She’d rather picnic than talk, but he’d told her to keep her clothes on until he’d said his piece.
Then he’d proceeded to pull her down on the blanket and kiss her silly instead of talking.
“I could tell you were eyeing me like a punching bag,” he acknowledged against her hair. His chest shook as he laughed silently. “Don’t actually hit me when I tell you this, but it was a total turn-on seeing you that pissed. I wanted to strip you naked and do you on the registration desk.”
She pulled back to look at his face and laugh, then she shook her head. “Crazy. You’re absolutely crazy.”
“I can’t help it. It drives me nuts when you get all confrontational.”
Belle ducked her head back onto his chest to hide her tears. The one thing she’d always been so afraid of and Mitch loved it. A bubbling kind of joy burst inside her, sending sparks of happiness through her system. Belle wanted to laugh and cry and dance around wildly. She swallowed, not willing to cry all over him again. Apparently she was free to hit him, though.
A beautiful sense of peace washed over her. She had no idea where they were going from here, especially since her contract with the resort would be fulfilled by the end of the month. But she did know she was holding tight to Mitch, and hey, if she wanted to get in his face about any issues that came up, she’d just been green-lighted.
Still giggling at the idea of her aggression being a turn-on, she wondered if the registration area was ever completely private. Belle snuggled deeper into his arms and sighed as she watched the breeze dance through the canopy of leaves overhead.
After a few more idyllic minutes in his arms, though, Belle started squirming. All this cuddling stuff was sweet, but she wanted her picnic.
“I’m still waiting to hear your piece,” she finally reminded him. “If you’d get on with it, we could move on with this afternoon’s entertainment.”
Mitch laughed and hugged her even tighter.
“Why’d she do it?” she asked quietly, afraid to ruin the tranquility of the moment but needing to know.
“Money. Apparently she was livid that her father willed his company to me. He’d left her a small fortune, but she thought she should have gotten more. She saw his leaving me anything as a betrayal. She said that’s why she refused to sit on the board, to have anything to do with me. She’s partnered up with a rival developer and I guess she figured when I tanked here, she’d swoop in and buy the place cheap.”
“Crazy,” Belle breathed. “She really thought that would work?”
Mitch’s shirt rubbed softly against her cheek as he shrugged. “She had the financial backing. Real estate is plummeting and she’s got the inside track. Hell, if her plan had worked instead of us...you...catching her, I’d have probably thanked Lena for bailing me out.”
“That’s like saying if pigs could fly then Manolos would fall from the sky,” Belle scoffed. Mitch’s brows drew together as he tried to decipher that, but she kept going before he could ask. “Her plan couldn’t have worked. At best, it was an annoyance. A pain in your butt and a crash test in ‘what could go wrong’ for the resort.”
“Sure, now,” he agreed. “But you read the list. Hell, you found it. She was saving the big guns for after the resort was actually open to the public.”
“What’s going to happen to her?” Belle asked quietly.
“We’ll press charges. I don’t want her jailed or anything, but Reece pointed out that we need to take legal steps just in case she tries something in the future.”
She could tell he was beating himself up over it all. Determined not to let Lena leave a nasty aftertaste, Belle pushed the issue.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re a success for a good reason, Mitch. You bust your ass, you’re a brilliant strategist and, like my daddy always said, you have the touch. She couldn’t have hurt the resort. Not really.”
Belle bit her lip after saying that. While she thought of his hurt as having to do with business, maybe Mitch was suffering emotionally. After all, family was everything to him. “I’m sorry she hurt you, though,” Belle added softly.
Mitch’s eyes, so hard and irritated a second ago, melted to that soft, sexy cinnamon that she loved so much. He shook his head and grimaced. “She didn’t hurt me so much as she slapped at my pride.” He took a deep breath that made his chest do yummy things against Belle’s breasts and shrugged. “It was bad enough her gunning for me. I mean, yes, her thinking was twisted, but there is some justification in her anger that I took her father’s business and not only made it mine but brought my entire family on board and left her out in the cold.”
“A cold she chose.” Belle repeated what Reece had told her earlier. “You offered her a board position. She’s the one who turned her nose up as if it wasn’t good enough for her.”
As Mitch considered her words, some of the tension left his shoulders. Then he nodded and told her, “She never really connected with my family. Grammy Lynn said it was because she was a snob and we weren’t upscale enough. I just figured she felt left out.”
Then his expression hardened. “But as much as I might try to understand her reasons for aiming at me, there is no excuse for her trying to incriminate you.”
Belle searched herself, but there wasn’t any anger left. The sight of Lena’s arrogant ass being hauled off in handcuffs had satisfied her need for revenge. Not wanting to waste any more time on Lena or her twisted motives, Belle shifted just a little so her breasts brushed Mitch’s chest. Smart man that he was, he slid one hand inside her blouse to cup her, his fingers doing a soft, easy swirl around her hardening nipple.
“No matter, it’s done,” Belle said, angling her bent leg over Mitch’s thighs so she could feel his erection hardening. “She doesn’t matter, she’s finished. We’re not, though.”
“And that’s what counts,” Mitch said with satisfaction.
Their lips met in a kiss that scared the hell out of Belle. Not because of the intensity of it, but because of the sweetness. She could so get addicted to this kind of kissing. It felt like the promise of forever.
“By the way,” Mitch said as he curled his fingers through hers and lifted her hand to his lips, “I talked to your father this morning.”
Nothing said cold shower on an intimate moment louder than the mention of a parent. Belle automatically tugged her blouse into place and shifted just a little so she wasn’t pressed against his erection.
“Daddy?” she asked with a confused frown. “Why?”
“I didn’t realize until Reece did some digging that your father was in a financial mess, in part because of that property we’d planned to develop. Although he did say that you’d done a fine job of bailing him out of most of his problems.”
Belle blushed at the impressed smile he gave her, but didn’t say anything. She wanted to know why he’d called her father. More important, she wanted to know how the two most important men in her life had gotten along.
“Your dad and I are meeting next week. Apparently we already have a dinner date,” he said, giving her a teasing look. “We’re going to go ahead with our original plans and develop that property.”
Belle had to forcibly refrain from clapping her hands and cheering. She did grin, though, and gave Mitch a tight hug. When she pulled back, she noticed a look in his cinnamon-brown eyes. Dark, intense, direct. It scared the hell out of her. She swallowed. She’d promised herself the days of avoidance were a thing of the past, so instead of distracting him with sex, she asked, “What else? You look like there’s something important you want to say.”
He gave a snort of laughter and nodded. Then, her hand still in his, he kissed her palm and held their entwined hands against his heart.
“Through everything that’s happened, you’ve believed in me, Belle. I’ve spent most of my life trying to prove myself, wanting to impress people. But you never needed proof and were impressed despite my mistakes.” He looked deep into her eyes and sighed.
“Belle, I love you. I’ve always loved you, even if I wasn’t smart enough to know it. I wanted to marry you six years ago for a million reasons. But love was definitely one of them.”
Joy spun through her system so fast she was dizzy with it. Her laughter rang through the trees as she pulled her hand free so she could hug him close. Her body pressed against his, Belle could feel the beat of his heart and gave a giddy thanks, knowing it belonged to her.
“I love you, too,” she said softly, pulling back to smile into his eyes. “I love everything about you. Your ambition and drive, your integrity, your devotion to your family. I love your sense of humor and how freaking incredible you are in bed. I just love you, Mitch.”
He gave her a huge grin. “Good. Then you’ll say yes.”
“Sure,” she agreed. Then her brows drew together and she shook her head. “Yes to what?”
He carefully rolled aside and reached around to the picnic basket. Pulling a medium-size package out, he handed the festively wrapped box to her and motioned that she should open it.
Lecturing herself for wishing it was a smaller, jewelry-sized box, Belle leaned on one elbow and tugged at the bow. With an excited laugh and a questioning glance, she pulled the lid off the box.
Her jaw dropped as tears filled her eyes.
“Oh, Mitch,” she breathed.
Blinking furiously, she pulled out a pair of tennis shoes.
“I want to make sure you have a choice. Six years ago, I wanted to marry you for a million reasons,” he repeated. “This time, I only want to marry you for one. The only reason that matters. I love you.”
Belle wiped away the tears. She’d be damned if she’d be a weepy mess for the most incredible moment of her life. The man she’d been dreaming of forever, her perfect hero, was being all gushy and she wanted to enjoy every wonderful moment of it.
“Forever?” she asked.
“Forever.”
With a cheek-splitting grin, she handed him back the tennis shoes and shook her head. “Then I won’t be needing these, will I?”
* * * * *