Glow (Glimmer and Glow #2)(124)

She exhaled in exasperation. She knew a thing or two about Dylan’s financial standing, thanks to the research study she’d done. “You’re worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I realize you’re hardly pauper material, Dylan. Do you think I care?”

“I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish at Durand. But if some day, you decide you want to take the helm—”

“Oh God,” she groaned. “Dylan, that’s such a ludicrous possibility at this point.”

“At this point, it may feel like it,” he said quietly. He reached up and touched her cheek. She moved her chin, assured by his touch, and looked up at him in quiet desperation. “I assure you, with your talents, it won’t always seem so bizarre. I just want you to know, I’ll be okay no matter what. I could have a whole new future somewhere else.”

“I don’t want you somewhere else,” she said emphatically, alarmed at the mere thought.

He smiled that smile that always made something pull tight inside her, the one that made her feel so cherished. “When it comes to you and me, I’ll always be here. A job is something different. You know that.”

She nodded, a measure of relief seeping through her. “I can’t do this without you, Dylan. Don’t leave me just when I’m taking my first steps.”

“I’m not going to leave you,” he assured, his eyes flashing. “I just don’t want you to ever have to think twice again, like you did with Thad Schaefer, when he started in with his insinuations about me.”

“I didn’t ever believe you only wanted Alan’s money,” she denied hotly.

He quirked one brow. “You thought about it, even if not for long, and even if you did discount it in the end.”

“I never—” She cut off her defense, frowning as she considered how miserable she’d been the night Thad alleged Dylan had ulterior motives when it came to her. Maybe Dylan was right. The insinuations had created a splinter, one that could have easily grown into a giant wedge, if she’d ever let it.

“You see what I mean?” he asked, reading her expression. “Money can easily get between people and split them apart. It happens before they even realize it is. I won’t let that happen to us, no matter how unusual our situation is.” He leaned forward and kissed her brow. “That’s why I’m telling you right now.” His dark eyes gleamed with determination. “It will never, ever happen, that I will take anything from your estate; so you never, ever have to think twice about it. Alan left you a legacy—”

“One that you’ve more than tripled with your brilliant investments,” she inserted.

“—and I’m too proud of what I’ve accomplished on my own to start living off heiresses at this point in my life.”

“Dylan,” she remonstrated, scowling severely.

He laughed and stroked her cheek. “Do we agree on it?”

“Yes,” she grumbled. She found the conversation highly unsettling.

“Good, because now that we have that out of the way, I have something to say about us.”

“What?”

“I want you to live here with me.”

Her eyes went wide. In typical Dylan-like fashion, he’d stated his case with blunt succinctness. No beating around the bush with him. She reached for his other hand and stepped into him.

“Are you sure? You don’t think people will talk? If I take a junior executive position at Durand and move in with the CEO?”

“Oh, they’ll talk, all right,” he assured bluntly. “That’s a guarantee. Rumors are going to be off the charts, so if that’s going to bother you, then we’ll have to come up with another arrangement. I think we both have to be prepared for some major gossip and backlash when it comes to us. We can’t let it pull us apart.”

“That would never keep me from something that’s so important to me,” she insisted fiercely.

He touched her cheek again. “This is your home. It has been from the beginning.”

She squeezed his hand. “You’re right,” she said feelingly.

He looked mildly surprised at her easy acquiescence, and then very pleased.

“But not because it was Alan and Lynn’s house,” she added softly. She went up on her toes and brushed her mouth against his. “Because you’re here.”


*

THE first flickering of panic occurred as they drove to the press conference, and Alice noticed news vans parked on either side of the road a good half a mile from the hotel entrance. She heard a muted, familiar noise and peered upward through the windshield to see one hovering helicopter, then another.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Dylan gave her a quick, flickering glance, and suddenly he was putting on the brakes and sliding the sedan behind a white van. He put the car in park and turned toward her.

“The story itself actually broke this morning. The Durand public relations staff drafted a statement and sent it out to the major press outlets. It’ll have circulated by now. The statement basically said that Alan Durand’s kidnapped daughter is alive and has returned, and that the details relate to the recent attack of a woman named Alice Reed by Durand Vice President Sebastian Kehoe.”

“Oh,” she said numbly. “I thought that was what was going to be released at the press conference.”