The Perfect Proposal Read online

  “I disagree,” Mitch told her. “We both love my uncle and the company. I should think that would be reason enough to discuss our objectives.” Mitch blew out a resigned breath. “I’m not trying to pick a fight, Annie. I just wanted to know.”

  If Mitch had been belligerent, Annie might have been able to refuse his request. The sincerity she heard proved to be her undoing. Really, what could it hurt? Les had already told him a lot about her life. At this point, what would a few vague comments about her motivation hurt?

  Annie heaved a put-upon sigh. “Oh, all right. We’ll discuss it. But on one condition—you go first. Why did you suddenly decide that you wanted to run the company? she asked bluntly.

  Mitch shot her a look and a chuckle rose from his throat. “I guess it was a little sudden, wasn’t it?”

  Annie nodded. “You hadn’t made an appearance in five years. Your bid for the CEO position was a surprise to me. So what prompted you?”

  Mitch gazed at her. “You want the truth?”

  “No,” Annie deadpanned. “Tell me a lie. Of course I want the truth!”

  Mitch chuckled at her, then his face grew somber. He stared at the fire until Annie feared he’d changed his mind about confessing.

  “My best friend died,” he said at last.

  Of all the reasons Mitch might have uttered, this was not one she had considered. The pain he’d managed to pack into that brief admission made Annie’s heart ache. “I’m sorry.”

  “Nick and I had been friends since college,” he continued. “He was like the brother I never had, and my partner at Micronet. A damn good one, a good man as well.” Mitch paused, remembering his friend. “He was thirty-two, Annie. My age.“ He shoved a hand through is hair. “Not old enough to even think about dying.” Mitch took a deep breath. “Anyway, Nick’s death made me rethink my priorities. Hightower became important to me.” He smiled sadly. “And you know the rest of the story.”

  For whatever reason, knowing that Mitch hadn’t made an impulsive decision to take over the leadership of his family’s company made Annie feel infinitely better about him. At least now if he won this blasted contest, she wouldn’t have to worry about him abandoning it again. She imagined he would do right by William and Hightower Advertising.

  Still, Annie suddenly wished she and Mitch hadn’t started this conversation. How was she supposed to remain objective and do her best to win if her heart felt heavy every time she considered what he now stood to lose?

  Disheartened, Annie told herself she wasn’t responsible for Mitch’s happiness. Only her own. That’s the way it had always been. All for one and one for me, she thought sadly. Funny how that old motto which had always provided such cynical comfort did nothing to lift her spirits now.

  “So what about you?” Mitch asked, interrupting her melancholy thoughts.

  Forcing her lips into a semblance of a smile, Annie sighed and said, “I just love it, Mitch. The company is like my family. That’s all there is to it.”

  Suddenly Mitch reached out and traced her cheek. His fingers were warm and surprisingly soft and Annie had to force herself not to lean toward his touch. The bleak acceptance she saw in his eyes told Annie that he did, indeed understand. A flood of emotion rushed through her, past her carefully constructed defenses and into her pounding heart.

  Then Mitch drew to him. Her initial response was to bolt, but the elemental need simply to be held by another human being made her clean into the warmth of Mitch’s embrace. He cradled her against him, then pressed a light, almost reverent kiss to her temple. “Aw, Annie,” he murmured.

  “Mitch, I don’t think this is a good —”

  He shushed her, putting a finger against her lips. His gaze caught and held hers in a way that convinced Annie he somehow looked into her very soul. “I want you, Annie. You know I do.” His voice was low and full of a longing Annie recognized because she felt it herself. “But right now, I just want to hold you for a while. Okay? No ulterior motive here.”

  Later, Annie would remember this as the exact moment she fell in love with Mitch Hightower.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mitch felt rather than heard Annie’s low, accepting sigh. She rested trustingly against him. Relief coursed through him and he tightened his hold. The look of utter longing he’d glimpsed in her eyes when she’d told him that Hightower was home had almost torn him in two.

  When Annie had signed on with the company some five years ago, she’d given more than her all—she’d given herself. Mitch saw that now. What he’d mistakenly perceived as tenacity on her part had simply been desperation. Annie had spent the majority of her life uprooted, but like a rare flower, she’d bloomed in adversity. She’d flourished at the company—with Will—and the possibility of losing all of that must have sent her reconstructed world into a tailspin. Mitch regretted that he’d caused her so much pain. Regretted the whole situation.

  Nevertheless, it couldn’t be avoided. They couldn’t both win his uncle’s challenge. And, despite the fact that Mitch understood and shared in Annie’s pain, he too had a stake in this unfortunate game. His future was on the line as well. Funny, he mused. Just several days ago he’d only been able to see black and white where the CEO position was concerned. All that had changed in a heartbeat.

  In his lap, Annie stirred. The soft hand that had been on his should slid down and presently trailed over his chest in an intimate circle that made his pulse race. Mitch swallowed hard. Did she know that she was doing to him?

  Annie looked up, her eyes dark with desire and something else, something he couldn’t readily identify, answer the question for him.

  She wanted him.

  “Annie,” Mitch breathed raggedly. “We don’t —”

  “Your back-up plan,” she interrupted huskily. “Looks like we need it.”

  “B-back-up plan?” Mitch wondered aloud.

  Annie sat up and straddled him. Mitch almost exploded. “Getting it out of our system, remember?”

  Oh, did he ever. Still, Mitch wanted to make certain that this was what Annie wanted. He didn’t want any regrets later. “Are you certain —”

  Annie nipped at his lips, stalling any further questions from him and moved against him in a way that made Mitch want to nudge her panties aside and sheath himself in her right then.

  The soft firelight outlined her womanly curves and turned her curls into a cloud of coppery-looking temptation. Mitch’s hands cupped her rounded bottom as he drew her to him to feel the full force of his longing. His tongue traced the sweetness of her lips, then delved inside and sampled the nectar within. Annie’s answering moan resulted in a quickening so swift he almost came undone. She caressed his chest, stroking him sensually until one hand swept up and threaded through the hair at his nape.

  Mitch drew his lips from hers and kissed her jaw, her neck, every bit of exposed skin that he could find. And when that wasn’t enough, he unbuttoned her shirt and discovered more. Much more.

  “You’re so beautiful, Annie,” Mitch breathed reverently. He palmed her perfect breasts, testing the weight in each of his hands, then bent and suckled one. Her nipples tightened with pleasure as he teased first one and then the other.

  Seemingly displeased with her lack of clothing versus his covered chest, Annie broke away from him, grabbed Mitch’s shirt and drew it over his. Mitch sucked in a breath from the contrast as Annie reveled in it. She murmured with pleasure, then came back to his lips. The combined sensations—Annie above him, naked, tasting him, her feminine scent—robbed Mitch of any further rational thought. Remarkably, he didn’t care.

  The idea that making love with Mitch might be a mistake occurred to her, but Annie pushed the thought away. She’d been fighting her desire for him for more than a week now and she simply didn’t have it in her to fight anymore. Something about Mitch drew Annie like a magnet to steel. It was a force she didn’t understand and didn’t want to.

  She needed him. And Annie understood instinctively that Mitch needed her
as well.

  Mitch’s tongue circled her nipple and sucked hard, snatching the air from her lungs. Annie ceased to think.

  She moaned and drew him away from her breast, back to her lips. He tasted all warm and male and forbidden. Which made him all the more appetizing. Beneath her Annie felt him strain against her panties. The thin silk slid across her most private part in a manner that left her wanting much more. As if he had read her mind, Mitch reached between them and stroked her. Her breath hitched.

  “Annie,“ he rasped.

  Annie’s fingers traveled to the waistband of his sweats and slid beneath the material. Emboldened, she touched him and felt him jerk against her. Mitch drew in a harsh breath. Pleased that she could elicit such a response, Annie leaned forward and smiled against his lips. Mitch slipped a finger inside her and she arched with pleasure.

  From there, Annie’s sense of time seemed to go haywire. She imagined they must have tumbled to the floor, but she didn’t remember falling. Still, the soft braided rug was at her bare back and Mitch, in all his naked glory, loomed above her like a dark sexy angel.

  “Mitch,” she begged at last.

  He took her hands, then threaded their fingers together, and sank slowly into her.

  An intense pleasure rocketed through Annie’s body as Mitch withdrew, then thrust again. Then again, until she felt a powerfully erotic sensation start deep within her in long, insistent waves. Annie wrapped her legs around his waist and drew him deeper. Mitch sucked in a swift breath. “Annie,” he growled.

  In answer Annie upped the tempo, thrusting harder against him. Three incredible strokes later, they climaxed together, lost in the fulfillment of sensual desire and the blissful wonder of their joining, body and soul.

  Breathing raggedly, Mitch rested briefly atop her, then rolled off and snuggled her to him. With one arm, he snagged the afghan from the couch and covered them with it. Annie’s last thought before she drifted into a sated sleep was simply, “Wow.”

  Mitch awakened to the feel of Annie at his side and the taste of her still on his lips. It was a sensation he could easily get used to. Even addicted to. While Mitch wouldn’t consider himself a Don Juan, over the years he’d had his share of women. And he’d had great sex.

  But what he’d shared with Annie this rainy afternoon equaled nothing in his experience. Making love with Annie was…pure heaven. Just knowing that she was beside him, feeling how well her body fit his, made him hard. He wanted her all over again. Partly because he knew how wonderful it would be and partly because he had to see if they could equal what had just happened here.

  Her small hand lay trustingly across his chest and all that amazing hair fanned over him as he’d imagined only a few days ago. Mitch touched one coffee-colored curl gently, and twirled it around his finger. Realizing that Annie could just as easily curl herself around his heart hit Mitch hard. The idea equally humbled and terrified him.

  “It’s just hair,” Annie whispered.

  Mitch turned to look into her soft brown eyes, and felt a smile tug at his lips. “What?”

  “My hair,” Annie clarified, chuckling softly. “You’re looking at it like holds the secrets of the universe.”

  Maybe not the universe, Mitch thought, but mine. “Who knows? It might. It’s pretty amazing stuff.”

  She snorted at that, an unladylike sound that was so Annie, Mitch couldn’t help but smile. “I think you’ve got this courting thing backward. You’re supposed to ply me with compliments before you take me to bed.” She snuggled closer to him, sending a current of desire straight to his groin.

  Mitch laughed. “Okay.” He cleared his throat. “Annie, you’re beautiful. You’re gorgeous. You have the most amazing laugh. I admire your spunk, your tenacity —”

  Annie laughed with delight, then propped herself up on one elbow to gaze at him. Eyes twinkling, she said, “What are you doing? I told you before you take me to bed.”

  Mitch growled and pulled her on top of him. “I know,” he said meaningfully. “What do you think I’m trying to do?”

  Annie leaned down and pressed her smiling lips to his. “Well, then shut up and get to it.”

  Mitch needed no further encouragement. He took her lips in a fierce kiss. Tongues tangled, sighs echoed. Annie left his mouth and touched her lips to his neck, nipping him lightly. Mitch groaned and slid his hands down her back. Annie left his neck and moved on to more sensitive territory. Her hair tumbled over his ribs and her teeth grazed one of his nipples, making him flinch with pleasure. “Annie, that’s enough,” Mitch rasped. Any more of this and they weren’t going to make it to the grand finale.

  Seemingly in agreement, Annie sat up and settled herself on his manhood. Like a divining rod, Mitch felt himself drawn to the entrance of her perfect body. He held her hips tightly, studying her, loving the way she looked at that moment. Tender lips swollen from his kiss. Eyes soft and needy. Hair spilled around her shoulders like some sort of warrior goddess. Nipples pearled, awaiting his tongue. Flames from the waning fire sent light and shadows dancing across her gorgeous body, enveloping her in a glow which drew Mitch in like a moth to a flame.

  Annie began to move sensually against him, and he didn’t hold back, responding fully to her in ever way.

  As Mitch and Annie climaxed together, it occurred to him that something very important had happened, and he would never be the same. Nor would she…

  Rather than brave her assigned mount from yesterday, Annie had decided to ride with Mitch on his horse. Sometime during the night, and Annie wouldn’t know when because she’d been otherwise occupied, the clouds had rolled out, leaving the scent of rain in the air and a few scattered clouds in the sky.

  Though Annie would have liked to spend the entire weekend in the supply cabin with Mitch—they would have to get back to reality soon enough—Les had called this morning, deemed the journey safe, and summoned them back to the ranch for the reunion.

  Their inevitable return had prompted a series of unsettling questions and conflicted introspection. What would happen when they got back to their cottage? When they got back to Atlanta? When she became CEO? Annie refused to think about those things right now. At the moment, with Mitch’s comforting chest at her back and his arm protectively clasped about her middle, Annie didn’t want to be anywhere else.

  She was happy. And happiness had been so rare in her life that, despite her misgivings, Annie wouldn’t do anything to shatter that buoyant feeling. She and Mitch had the weekend. Was a weekend of happiness too much to ask? Annie didn’t think so, and even if it was, she didn’t care. For a little while, she didn’t have to be Annie the orphan, Annie the rock, Annie the Hightower CEO candidate—she could be Annie the woman. And no one had ever made her feel more like a woman than the man she was with right now.

  Mitch peeked around at her. “What are you smiling about?” he asked, a grin in his voice.

  “Same thing you’re smiling about.”

  Mitch chuckled. “Oh, you’re still thinking about the shower, too, then?”

  Impossibly, her grin widened. Annie felt a flush warm her neck at the memory. Heat, steam, water…and Mitch. Mercy, what a combination.

  Seeing her reaction, Mitch let out a laugh laced with male satisfaction. “Just wait until we try out that tub,” he promised silkily, causing a sensual thrill to skitter up her spine at the idea.

  The ride back to the stable passed too quickly to suit Annie. Mitch regaled her with tales about his many adventures, and she did her best to look suitably impressed. They argued good-naturedly about books and movies, likes and dislikes. Annie had been appalled to learn that Mitch put ketchup on his eggs. Mitch had been equally appalled to learn that Annie didn’t particularly care for Clint Eastwood movies. All things considered, conversation flowed like a river to the sea, and if it occasionally lulled, it wasn’t because there wasn’t anything left to say, but because they could enjoy the silence together.

  Mitch urged his horse up a knoll which overlooked th
e impressive Peters estate. “I want to steal a kiss before we get down there with that little cowboy’s loony relatives.”

  Annie attempted an outraged laugh. “Mitch,” she admonished. “You can’t assume that all of Les’s family shares his affinity for rhinestones.”

  Mitch smiled grimly. “Let’s hope not. We’ll need awfully dark sunglasses if they do.”

  Annie chuckled again and turned her head to face him. “Are you going to kiss me or not?”

  A flare of desire lit Mitch’s blue gaze and he lowered his voice to an intimate level. “Kiss you.”

  He did.

  To Mitch’s surprise—other than great-aunt Ophelia who insisted she had been Cleopatra in another life and carried a snake around her neck—Les’s family was relatively tame. As soon as they’d made it back from the supply cabin, Annie and Mitch had gone quickly back to Rose cottage then, after several heated embraces, proceeded to get ready to attend the reunion.

  The hour had grown late, and still the party raged on. And no wonder, Mitch thought. Though reluctant to admit it, Mitch found his host’s eccentric clan utterly delightful. There had been plenty of good food, good music, and good company. Mitch had enjoyed all three.

  Having eaten his fill of the homemade ice cream, at the moment Mitch was enjoying his favorite of the three—good company. Annie’s hands were clasped about his neck in a fashion that made him long for a more private dance. As the band played a soft country ballad, her womanly hips rolled with his. Her scent, something musky and feminine, drifted around him, making him inhale deeply and savor it. His groin tightened and he fought the urge to press against her.

  By unspoken agreement, nothing concerning Hightower Advertising was supposed to intrude on their remaining time together. Annie hadn’t said as much, but Mitch knew. And it suited him just fine. Monday would roll around soon enough, and their brief but emotionally turbulent relationship would have to end. Though Mitch was reluctant to learn why, the possibility of never holding Annie again, hearing her intimate laughter, made him unreasonably dejected. More so than it should.