The Billionaire's Temporary Bride (Scandal, Inc #3)(24)

"Yes," she said. "Jack, it's beautiful."

"It was my grandmother's," he said. "I wanted you to have it." He motioned to the waiter, who brought over a bottle of champagne.

Jack slid the ring onto Charlotte's finger.

"It's too much," she said. She locked her eyes onto his. "It's really too much, Jack."

Jack leaned in again, "Don't worry about it, ok?"

"I just, I don't know what to say."

"You already said yes," Jack said quickly. "What do you say we head home to celebrate?" He whispered, "After all, the happy couple should be celebrating, right?" He held her hand and smiled at her in the candlelight.

Charlotte bided her time until the end of the date. She just wanted to run outside into the night air and take a deep, long breath. She felt that if she could get a minute to herself, she could process everything and be fine. The check couldn't come quickly enough.

As soon as they left the restaurant and got in Jack's car, Charlotte pulled the ring off and handed it to him. "I can't let you do this," she said. "This was your grandmother's ring. I can't wear your grandmother's ring for a fake marriage. I'm sure this wasn't what she had in mind when she left it for you. It just feels wrong."

"I told you not to worry about it. My grandmother was married three times. This is from her second marriage. It lasted eighteen months. I thought you'd appreciate the parallel. It's not like this was the only one she left me."

"What?" Charlotte asked. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Let's just say that she'd appreciate the humor in it. When my grandmother died, my sister was already married, and my brother... well, you'll find out about him soon enough. So the rings came to me. Her last piece of advice to me was 'marry well, marry often.'"

Charlotte laughed. "Sounds like she had quite the sense of humor."

"She did," Jack said. "I want you to keep that ring, no matter what happens at the end of our contract. It will be something you can remember me by."

Charlotte examined the large center stone. She didn't want to remember Jack by anything. She wanted to believe that things would work out between them. "It looks like it would be a pretty good retirement fund, too."

"Or that," Jack said with a laugh. He pulled the car up his driveway and into the garage. After he cut the engine, he turned to her. "Will you come in?"

"Of course," Charlotte said. "I wouldn't want anyone to worry that something was amiss. I'll make sure they get a good shot of us holding hands as we head inside."

She checked her phone and tried to see what time it was. Half past ten. She'd probably hang around for an hour or so while Jack ignored her. She wondered if Callie and Amy already knew that Jack had proposed, then realized they had probably arranged the plan on his behalf.

"There aren't any cameras," Jack said. "And, I didn't tell anyone that I was proposing to you tonight. I'm asking you if you'd like to come inside with me. If not, I can bring you home. We can worry about the engagement stuff tomorrow." He placed his hand over hers. "Either way, I had a great time tonight. I want you to know that before campaigning and everything else make us both crazy."

"I'd love to come in," Charlotte said.

Jack led her into the house and tossed his jacket onto a hook.

Charlotte stood in the entryway as he headed to the kitchen.

"Can I make you a drink?" he called back to her.

Charlotte stared down at the ring on her finger. She was still in shock, and she wondered if the dizzy excitement she felt was from the proposal or from everything else that was happening between her and Jack.

"Sure," she said. "Do you need to get in touch with your campaign staff or something? You probably have a whole slate of publicity lined up to announce the engagement."

"I'll let the Havens worry about that," Jack said. "They're going to be pretty pissed though."

"Why's that?"

"They had set up this whole elaborate proposal for me downtown with the Capitol in the background. There would have been cameras everywhere. They wanted to treat it like an episode of the Bachelor."

"Wait, this wasn't the plan all along?"

"I was telling the truth when I said I wanted to make you happy."

Jack walked back over and handed her a glass of wine, and Charlotte braced herself for the moment where he turned his back and headed off to make a few phone calls or catch up on email. Jack poured himself a glass of scotch and downed it in one long gulp.

"Building up the courage to make that phone call to Amy and Callie?" Charlotte asked.

"Not quite," Jack said. "I've just been trying to keep myself from doing something I know I shouldn't do."

"Oh?" Charlotte asked. "And what is that?"

Jack walked across the room and placed his hand on her cheek.

"This," he said.

He planted a slow, tender kiss on her lips. The warmth of his kiss washed through her like a wave, and Charlotte felt like she might collapse against him from sheer delight.

"What was that?" Charlotte asked.

"I've wanted to do that since the moment I saw you tonight," Jack said.