I should have been over the moon to be here, but I was hardly aware of it at all, and only just barely managing to be polite. I was too heartbroken with Asher, and too furious.
Speak of the fucking devil—
There he was, now fully dressed in the kind of insanely well-fitting suit that normally made my knees go weak but which currently only served to sharpen my rage. How dare he have the gall to look so good. I saw a horde of blondes preparing to descend on him, and with a speed I’d never shown while jogging with Lacey, I dropped my drink and made sure I got to him first instead, grabbing his arm and hustling him off to the emergency stairwell.
“You—jerk,” I spat out the second we were alone. “You complete—fucking—complete—”
Words failed me, and I could only sputter in incoherent rage.
Asher raised his hands defensively. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! I know I should have told you, but secrecy was one of the conditions, and if Dalton found out he never would have accepted it—I couldn’t have him think I was a welsher, could I?”
I knew the individual meanings of the words, but his sentences weren’t making any sense. “What?”
“The bet wasn’t just for ten million,” Asher explained. “There was also a forfeit.”
“You lost?” I said, confused. “I thought you won?”
“I did, the first time. But then Dalton called double or nothing after your opening, and I didn’t want to back down,” Asher said sheepishly. “And since you turned down the buyout, and Dalton persuaded his business partner to sell out to Walmart last week…well, I lost this one, and I had to walk the runway.” He took my hand, looking deeply into my eyes. “I thought it would be worth it, to see your business take wing. And it has! I mean, Kate—you’re amazing. But it wasn’t worth your pain. I’m sorry.”
I yanked my hand away. “Oh, so noble. I bet you’ll really miss that twenty million. That’s like pocket change to you!”
“It was donated to charity,” Asher said mildly. “That’s the only way I’ll compete with Dalton anymore, if we do that. It’s the only way the hassle is worth it.”
“Oh,” I said. “Oh.” I wanted the earth to swallow me up forever. “Okay, that actually is pretty noble. And I guess walking down that runway was at least as embarrassing for you as it was for me. Although you did look pretty good, considering.”
Asher grinned, tilting my chin up gently with his hand.
“Ass.”
“Jerk.”
We were smiling at each other like a pair of complete idiots.
I reached up, tracing the outline of his beautiful face with my fingers. “How could you bet that much on me?” I asked softly.
“It was easy,” he murmured. “Kate—you’re so talented. You’re so dedicated.”
He leaned down to kiss me again, but I pulled away. “Careful, your girlfriend will get jealous.”
Asher looked more confused than Bugs Bunny after a wrong turn at Albuquerque. “My what?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Uh, Evangeline?”
Asher looked confused a few seconds longer—it was a stupidly adorable expression on him—and then embarrassed—also stupidly adorable. “Oh—that. Evangeline hasn’t been my girlfriend in years, Kate. I was just trying to make you jealous.”
“Well, it worked,” I admitted grudgingly, even as my heart soared and I recaptured his hand, squeezing it tightly. “I thought—I mean, well, she’s so polished and sophisticated, and I babble on about detectives and call you names and—”
“And that makes you unlike anyone I’ve ever met,” Asher said. “I think I fell in love the first time you called me Flash Gordon.”
“Fell in love…” I repeated, dumbstruck.
“Yeah.” He blushed. “I hope…if, I mean, if you don’t feel—”
I leapt into his arms, wrapping my own around his neck. “Of course I love you, you gorgeous idiot!”
Asher laughed and kissed my neck. “Then I look forward to a long life of you calling me names.”
“What?”
He set me down and then—oh God, was this happening? This was happening!—got down on one knee, pulling a small black box from his suit jacket pocket. When he turned the box towards me, lifting the lid, I felt my mouth fall open.
The engagement ring was a flawless marquise cut emerald set in a framework of diamonds and intricate scrollwork. Asher took the ring out and held it out, tilting it so I could see the engraving on the inside.
“‘A dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars,’” he read out loud.