“Yeah, Mia, share your news with the world!” Mason urged.
Oh. My. God. That dog. Called my ass out!
My underarms started to sweat, and I could feel moisture collecting at my hairline as the bright lights made me feel as if I were in an interrogation room with the Oakland PD.
“Uh…” I grinned, looked down at my ring, and couldn’t find it in myself to deny the best thing that had ever happened to me. Just as I was contemplating how to respond, get my panic under control, and at the very least, stop the camera and re-film the ending, I glanced up as if an invisible tether had pulled my chin up. The air in the room became charged in a way that I was sure if I touched any surface I’d feel a shock. My eyes met the ones I planned on looking at for the rest of my life.
As if on cue, Wes entered the frame and held his hands out to me. I put both of mine into his, and he tugged me up. Before I could respond, say anything really, he placed his hand on my cheek and his mouth over mine. He kissed me hard, long, and with intent. It wasn’t a wet kiss, but what it lacked in heat it made up for in heaps of love. All of this while the cameras kept rolling.
“Hi, sweetheart,” Wes said, his green eyes filled with humor. He was wearing a beautiful pair of dress slacks and crisp white dress shirt with a corduroy blazer. Positively scrump-didily-umptious.
“Uh, everyone”—I inhaled and looked at the camera, a little stunned—“this is Weston Channing, my fiancé.” I smiled like a loon.
Wes quirked his lips, looped his fingers with mine and waved at the camera with his other hand. Such a class act.
That’s when I pretty much lost all control of my own show.
“Now this just got interesting,” Mace said. “Tell us, Mia, what are you thankful for this year?”
I couldn’t have torn my eyes away from the man I loved if my body had been set on fire. “Wes.” I sighed. “There’s so much to be thankful for. My sister, my brother, my dad, my best friend, and all the new friends I’ve made that make me feel as though, no matter where I am, I’m loved. Really, I think that’s what I’m thankful for this year. Love. In all its forms.”
“I love you, Mia Saunders, and can’t wait to make you my wife,” Wes said as clear as day with a camera the size of a fridge right in front of our faces. All of the paparazzi that had been camping out around our Malibu home, the Century Production offices who were scrambling for any bit of information about Wes and his captivity, the millions in the movie that was being filmed that was currently just sitting, Gina DeLuca, and everything in between would be sorely upset about this newfound information blasted on my show and not in their smut rags.
On top of all of that drama, this segment was set to air this Friday, which meant not only would the entire world know that we were getting hitched, his parents would find out as well. We’d better inform them of our pending nuptials immediately after we left here today.
Wes turned me toward the cameras. I responded, jerked back to reality into the middle of the show. I gasped out my ending dialogue in an attempt to make it sound good enough that we wouldn't need to film this again. There was no way I was going through all of this twice.
“Thanks again to our guest, Mason Murphy, and his fiancée, Rachel, for sharing their news with us. I’m sure I can speak for Dr. Hoffman when I say you’re welcome on our show any time you want to make an announcement.” I glanced at the camera and grinned. “And well, folks, be thankful for your blessings because they are plenty. I sure know mine are.” On that note, I wrapped my arms around the man of my dreams, laid my forehead against his, and heard the director say cut just before Wes's lips sealed over mine.
My man had claimed me on national television. How the hell did one profess his love after that?
Chapter Five
“What are you doing here, and what the hell did you just do?” I scolded Wes while molding my body to his. Even mad, I couldn’t help wanting to plaster my body against his larger, much sexier muscled form. Yum.
He chuckled against my neck and placed a soft, warm kiss there. “Mia, relax. Mason told me about the plan for him to announce to the world that he was marrying the love of his life, and I thought…hell, I want to jump on that bandwagon too. No sense in it remaining a secret.”