She stared at him, her gaze swallowed up by deep green pools of vulnerability. He saw her struggling with the wish to believe. There was no resistant strength in her hands when he took her handbag and tossed it onto the bench, no resistance in her body as he drew it against his. He gently cupped her face, the fire in his belly blazing from his eyes.
‘I won’t ask you to give up your farm. I won’t demand that you do anything you don’t want to do. We’ll sort out how best to work our partnership as we go along, find a balance that we’re both comfortable with. We’ve been good at that so far, haven’t we?’
She was listening, still wary of believing but weighing up what he was saying, wanting it to be true.
He had to make it ring true.
‘And if you’re ready and willing to mix in with my usual social scene, we can start that this weekend,’ he went on, driven to rid her of all doubt. ‘I haven’t been hiding you in my closet, Ivy. I’ve been waiting for you to feel confident at my side, confident enough to take on anything with me because I’m your man. Not a playboy. Your man,’ he repeated emphatically.
Tears welled into her eyes again, but there was hope shining through them, hope and something that twisted Jordan’s heart, making him want to wrap her tightly in his arms and hold her safe from the whole world and any hurt in it.
She lifted her arms and wound them around his neck. Her lips quivered invitingly. The tension inside him eased. He had won. She wanted him to kiss her and he did with a passion, determined on making her feel she was the right woman for him, the only woman. And the way she kissed him back made him feel it, too. Excitement sizzled through him, urging him to go further, take all he could of her, complete possession.
No. Better not to risk it. Not when she’d thought he only wanted her for sex. There had to be some talking first. Her body had always responded to him, but he had to be sure her mind was clear of all bad thoughts, clear on where they were now heading. She hadn’t agreed to it yet. Not verbally. Though one thing was certain. She was not about to leave him now.
He forced himself to check the desire that could so swiftly consume good intentions and slowly managed to control himself enough to murmur against her lips, ‘Say yes, Ivy. Say yes to us having a future together.’
‘Yes,’ she said on a sigh of surrender that was blissfully sweet to his ears.
She lifted her head back and gave him a tremulous smile. ‘I’m sorry I got it so wrong, Jordan.’
‘Not your fault.’ He stroked the lovely tilted corner of her mouth. ‘I did straighten Olivia out on how I felt about you. What we’ll do now is make it very public so there’ll be no mistake from anyone about where our relationship stands.’
‘Public?’ Heat rushed into her cheeks at the thought of being thrust into the kind of limelight that had never shone on her life. ‘Jordan, are you sure about this? Maybe we should wait awhile.’
He shook his head. ‘Yes means yes, Ivy.’ He wanted to get her tied to him as irrevocably as he could at this point. If either of them had doubts about marriage later, they could back out of it then. ‘You planned on staying here tonight. Before you go home in the morning, I’ll take you shopping for an engagement ring.’ He grinned. ‘What would you like? A diamond? An emerald to match your eyes? A ruby? Sapphire?’
She burst into nervous laughter. ‘I haven’t thought about it, Jordan. This is so … so … not what I expected from you.’
‘You can look at the ring on your finger and know it’s real. What’s more, I’ll have an announcement of our engagement put in Saturday’s Morning Herald so everyone will know it’s real. And an engagement party. I’ll ask my mother to put one on.’
Plans were racing through his mind. He’d sweep Ivy along with him so fast, she wouldn’t have time to have second thoughts; he’d open the closet door with a vengeance, plunge her into the society circus with his ring to make her sparkle at his side, then straight off on the cruise where he could keep reminding her of how good they were together. No negative comeback from that course of action.
‘It will have to be this Saturday night because we leave for our cruise next Wednesday.’
She looked dazzled. ‘What has to be this Saturday night?’
‘Our engagement party. Come on, Ivy …’ He dropped his embrace to take her hand and draw her with him. ‘Let’s go up to the house and break the news to Margaret. Ask her to cook us a celebration dinner. Call my mother. Call your mother.’
He grabbed her handbag and passed it to her, then saw the tray he’d set on the table. ‘Better take that with us. We can swap the bottle of wine for champagne. This is definitely the night for it.’