The Billionaire Bargain #1(25)

“Please believe me,” he whispered. “I have nothing less than compassion for whatever has happened tonight. But the show must go on.”

And then he lifted his head, spun me around, and with a gesture of his hand, cut short all the music and brought the low-level chatter of the entire room to an abrupt halt.

Trust me, he mouthed, catching my look of utter confusion.

That was one hell of thing to ask, but with the eyes of at least two hundred people on us, I didn’t have much of a choice. Everyone was staring at Grant, waiting. Including me.

Damn, I really hoped my make-up was okay right now. Strange, the little things that pop into your mind.

“Lacey,” he said, in a voice that rang out across the room. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was facing me, but his eyes were just over my shoulder, gauging the reaction of his audience. “It’s true that we’ve only known each other for a short time. But in that short time I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t take long to know the truth, and the truth is that I need you. More than air, more than food, more than life itself. You are the beat of my song, you are the fire in my blood, you are the sparkle in my eye. You give me a reason to get out of bed in the morning—and a reason to get back into it at night.”

He actually paused for a laugh, the bastard. My head spun. What the hell was he doing?

“You give me a reason to go through the day trying to be the best man I can be,” he said, and he said it looking at me, and so softly that there was a murmur of discontent from the crowd, deprived of that sentence of his speech. “Because you deserve nothing less than the best.”

His hands were cupped loosely around mine, and his eyes were looking so gently into mine, so hopeful and pleading, and I was clinging to him for dear life, dizzy and about to faint, if he was saying what I thought he was saying…

And then a shutter went down in his eyes, and he was looking over my shoulder again, the mask firmly in place.

No, not the mask—this was his real self. I was a fool to think that his show of concern was anything other than that—a show. I was a fool to think that he was about to—

“Lacey, when I first met you, I knew you were special, but I didn’t realize how special you were, how special you would become to me,” he went on, his voice loud enough again to project to the back of the hall. “I can’t let you go, I can’t let this moment pass without showing you how much I care, how I can’t live without you. Life simply isn’t worth living without you, my life, my love, my dearest, and so I ask you—”

Oh no. Oh no. He wasn’t. He wasn’t about to—

Was he?

“Marry me!”

He pulled out a small black box from his pocket, and popped it open to reveal an engagement ring with a diamond the size of a robin’s egg.

My heart stopped. The crowd went wild.

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to say. I stood there like a deer in headlights, the flashbulbs of paparazzi going off around me, the shrieks and whoops of delight rising like a wave that was going to crash down around me and drown me.

“I think I’m going to faint,” I said, but it was drowned out by all the applause.

Grant raised his hand, and somehow, it all went silent again.

“Wait,” he said, “We haven’t actually heard her answer yet.” He turned to me. “Well, Lacey? Will you make me the happiest man alive?”

He actually had the nerve to smile at me. Like we were in this together. Like this proposal was all just a game.

Because of course it was. A man like him would never willingly propose to a girl like me. Not unless there was a hundred million dollars on the line.

I was mortified.

I was furious.

I smiled as sickly sweet as I could, stood on my tiptoes and hissed into Grant’s ear, “Are you completely f*cking insane?”

“I play to win,” he murmured without moving his lips. “Besides, this is your idea, my dear. I’m just following your plan.”

“You are purposefully misunderstanding my plan—” I whispered angrily.

“It’s only temporary,” Grant pointed out, pretending to kiss me on the cheek. “And it’ll be worth your while. You’ll be able to accomplish so much in such a short time—haven’t you been saying all along what you’d do with the company if you had the clout? Well, now you will. Besides—” His eyes cut to the side, indicating the crowd. “Are you really going to let all these nice people down? They live such boring, stilted lives of spreadsheets and financial quarters—let them have a little romance.”

I could care less about giving some vicarious thrills to a bunch of desk jockeys, but the company…All those jobs, everyone counting on us, counting on me…

I made the mistake of looking out at the crowd. Their eyes were wide as dinner plates, their shoulders tense as they waited with bated breath.

They were waiting for me.

I looked back at Grant, his dark blue eyes so open, so vulnerable.

So fake.

But we did make a good team.

I smiled sweetly and mouthed You’re a bastard at him. Alarm flashed in his eyes, but before he could do a single thing I turned to the crowd, gave the biggest, most genuine smile I could muster—

And cried, “Yes!”

If I’d thought the applause was loud before, it deafened me now, breaking over my ears like a falling wall.