Chapter 14 #2
They crossed the wide porch and entered the front door.
It opened immediately into an immense living room.
Like at his apartment, he had two conversation areas.
One had five recliners, with tables in-between them, facing the largest television she’d ever seen.
The second one was a sofa facing two Queen Anne chairs.
The sofa had a table on each end and the chairs had a large, tall table between them.
A long, matching coffee table was in front of the sofa.
Tiffany lamps were on each end table and Meri was sure they were the real thing not replicas.
The wall next to the door had two large windows with vertical blinds that were currently open and letting in the sunlight.
The staircase was directly before her. The living room was to her right and a hallway to her left.
Chase headed down the hall.
She noticed Western and mountain scenes in pictures and paintings on the walls. With several windows on the left side of the hall, light filled the area.
At the end of the hall was the kitchen. It was amazing.
Granite counters and oak hardwood floors with gleaming black appliances that were all state-of-the art.
The cupboards above and below were oak. On one side of the six burners was a Jenn-air cooktop with a grill for steaks and whatever.
To the other side was a double oven. That would be perfect for large meals like Thanksgiving.
She’d be able to host that holiday if they lived here.
Chase wanted to, but would he make the leap… for her?
Beyond the kitchen was the dining area. It wasn’t a separate room, but an extension of the kitchen.
The table was oak, which matched the cupboards and the floor.
It was rectangular, about ten feet long, with room for eight people on each side and one at each end.
A matching buffet, for keeping things like desserts off the table when the main meal was being served, was on the right side of the room.
“This is incredible.” Meri walked into the kitchen and couldn’t help running her hand over the counters and the cabinets. “I love it. So far, I love everything about this house.”
“I’m glad. Would you want to live here? Away from your parents?”
She stopped for a moment. Meri hadn’t thought of that.
Leaving her parents. She looked up at Chase and realized her home was with him now.
“I admit that would be difficult, but they would understand and the first time they visit, they’ll want to move here, too.
Dad would be over the moon to go fishing any time he wanted. ”
“If they want to move here, I’ll build them a home on the ranch, so he won’t have so far to go when he wants to go fishing.”
“That’s very generous of you. Of course, the first time they ride on that plane, they’ll want to live there, too. You have good taste. Or whoever decorated it has good taste.”
“Rose did the entire kitchen, from top to bottom. I hired someone out of Bozeman to do the rest of the house. Do you want to see it?”
“Yes, but I was hoping to meet Rose?”
“This is her shopping day. She’ll be home in an hour or so.”
“Okay, let’s go upstairs then.”
He took her hand and walked out of the kitchen, heading back down the hall. She spotted two doors along this hall. Both were open. One was a half bath. The other looked like Chase’s office, with a large, old-looking wooden desk, a desktop computer on it, and a black leather chair behind it.
They headed up the stairs to a landing and down a long hallway. Three doors. Two on the left and one on the right were along the hall, with a fourth door at the very end.
“I thought you said there were three bedrooms?”
“There are. That door at the end of the hall is a linen closet.”
She nodded. “Ah. That makes sense.”
“The first room is the first of the regular bedrooms. The rooms have the same decoration, except for the color of the wall paint. The master suite is different.”
“Let’s start with these.” She opened the door.
The first room had light green walls. The dresser and chest of drawers were a light wood.
Oak, she guessed, since it looked like the same wood used in the dining room and kitchen.
The closet had pocket doors to give more usable space in the room itself.
The bed was a queen-sized brass bed. The head and foot boards were scrollwork and lovely.
“The room is beautiful.”
The next room had pale pink walls, so pale as to almost be white, with the same furniture and bedspread.
“I think I like the pink room the best.”
“I thought you might. Green doesn’t seem to be your color.” He lifted a brow and smirked. “At least not for offices.”
“Green accents are usually enough. Everything green? No, not a good idea.” Then she laughed. “I still can’t believe the waiting area in your Denver office. Where else do you have offices?”
“All the home offices for my businesses are in Denver. Harper Security has an office in Los Angeles and one in New York. Harper Dynamics has an office in New York. One or the other has an office in London, Paris, Athens, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Montreal.”
“You definitely are worldwide.” His companies are much more expansive than I thought,
“Yes. You can travel with me and, after my meetings or before, we can play tourists. These cities have so much to offer. Have you ever been to any of them?”
“No. Except for Maui and Georgia, for school, I haven’t traveled much outside of Colorado. I’ve never been to Paris or London or any of those cities you mentioned. Are you sure you want to tie yourself to someone whose life is as simple as mine? Don’t you need a hostess, and—”
He stopped her by melding his lips to hers.
She ran her hands through his hair and held his head close.
Too soon, he raised his head. “I don’t need anyone but you. If my contacts don’t like my wife, screw them. I can find other contacts. That’s the thing about being a billionaire. I make my own rules where my companies are concerned…of course, within the confines of the law.”
She finger-combed his hair. “I’m glad. I don’t want to be a detriment.”
“You could never be that. Now, come look at our room.”
Meri lifted a brow. “Our room?”
“After we marry, of course. Although, I’m glad you preferred the pink room, it’s closer.
My original thoughts were to make that the nursery, but what I might end up doing is moving the linen closet and expanding that area to make a nursery.
It doesn’t matter now. We have a long time before we need to think about that. ”
“I don’t know. That is something we definitely need to talk about more than we have. Like when do you want to have children, given that I’m thirty-two and you’re thirty-seven? I don’t want to be having kids just graduating when I’m retired.”
“You’re right. Maybe we should start trying to have children right away. Are you on birth control?” He led her across the hall to the door to his bedroom.
She looked at him, a little alarmed. Did he want to have sex now? “No. After Jared, I determined I wouldn’t have sex again until after I got married, so there was no reason for me to have the hormones in my body. If I had needed them, I’d have taken them. I’m not against birth control of any kind.”
“Well, I think you’re correct about starting a family soon. By the way, when do you want to get married?”
She grinned. “I’m ready, willing, and able.”
He stood, holding the doorknob. “Even though we haven’t known each other that long?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Yes, even so. Sometimes, you don’t need to know someone a long time to know it’s right.
I knew Jared for five years before we decided to get married, and that wasn’t the right thing for us.
I didn’t really know him at all. And he didn’t love me.
He loved Angela. He just wanted my money.
With you, all the feelings are right. I love you and you love me.
And you respect me. He never did. Our relationship was wrong in so many ways. ”
“Well, I’m thankful to him.”
Her eyes popped open. “For goodness’ sakes, why?”
“If he’d been a better man, you would have married him, and then you wouldn’t be marrying me.”
She thought about that. “You’re right. And I wouldn’t have found you. I should have known long ago that he and I were oil and water.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist. “So, you never actually answered my question.”
“I want to get married as soon as possible. I don’t need a big wedding. Just family and close friends. What about you? This is as much your wedding as mine.”
“I’m perfectly fine with a small, intimate wedding, but didn’t you have dreams of a perfect wedding when you were a little girl?”
“Not really. I had dreams of becoming a great artist and that’s what I’ve worked toward.”
“You are a great artist. I love your work. That’s why I want it in my offices and not just in Denver, but all over the world.”
She stared at him. How fantastic would that be? My art everywhere. “The world?”
He wrapped her in his arms. “Yes, I want to share your art with everyone.”
Meri wrapped his arms around his neck. “You know how to appeal to a woman, and I don’t just mean your hot body.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “You think I’m hot, huh?”
“Oh, yes. Very. I love the way you smell. The way you look at me. I know every woman we see will be green with envy.”
“Every man will feel the same.”
“I don’t know.” She put an index finger to her chin. “I think you’ll appeal only to the gay men.”
He laughed. “About you, ornery. The men will envy me because I have you.”
“That’s a nice thing to say, but I don’t believe that. Men haven’t exactly been pounding my door down to get to know me or even take me to dinner. You’ve done both.”
“Then I’m the lucky one. They obviously haven’t got good taste.”
She laughed and pulled out of his arms. “Show me this last bedroom.”
He opened the door.
The room was massive, even larger than her bedroom in the loft.
It had a sitting area separated from the bedroom by a half wall.
A cream-colored material covered the sofa and went well with the light tan walls and white ceiling.
A repeating mountain range stencil adorned the top of the wall next to the ceiling.
Someone had folded a crocheted Afghan on the end of the sofa. She immediately fell in love with it, as it was of a Native American design.
The bed featured a king-sized mattress and a carved wooden frame with a mountain scene on both the head and footboards.
The two nightstands, the bureau, and chest of drawers, all matched the dark wood of the bedframe.
Chase kept his an arm around her waist. “Do you like it? You can change it, if you want.”
“I think it’s beautiful.” She turned and put an arm around his waist and the other hand on his chest. “All the rooms are beautiful and I probably won’t change what’s there, but I might add to it. I’d like to put murals on the walls…after we have children and know what variety of human they are.”
He laughed. “I’ve never heard it put quite that way when talking about babies.”
“All these odd and old sayings I got from my grandparents. Grandma told me the old sayings and Grandpa told me the risqué ones that he thought Grandma didn’t know. But she did. She said I shouldn’t believe a word of what the old fart said.”
He smiled. “Your grandparents sound like quite the pair.”
“They were. And they were perfect for each other. They were married for fifty-six years before Grandpa died.”
“That’s a long time. Think we’ll make it that long?”
She leaned against him and cupped his jaw. “Without a doubt. You and I will see our kids and grandkids grow up. We might even see a couple of great-grandkids before we go.”
He bent forward. “I like the way you think,” he whispered just before their lips met.
And then he was kissing her. Her mind and heart were full of him: his smell, his touch, his taste, his feel.
She sank into him and let him take her where he would. She’d follow him wherever he wanted her to go. When had he become her everything? When had he become her reason for living and breathing?