Awakening Beauty Part 18

Her shoulders s.h.i.+fted. "It's one thing living in the public eye, and another when they know what you wear to bed. But I can't change who I am. I tried and failed."

"I don't want you to change. The thought of not being with you has scared me for weeks now."

"Why?"

"Because I know you wanted to be with me for who I am as a man, not for the McKay name and all its trappings. It never mattered to you what I had, but who I was. That was so foreign to me. And it had never mattered who you were, either. Lane or Elaina, you are still the same person."

"But you let me leave, Tyler."

"I know, baby, and I'm ashamed of it. I should have fought your battle with you. I'm sorry." She was quiet and he tried to look under her bent head. "Am I forgiven?"

She met his gaze again. "Yes."

"I can't give you a life without notoriety, Elaina. My company, my family, we draw attention."

Her heart did a funny little skip. "Privacy has its drawbacks. I don't think I realized how lonely I was till I met you and your family."

"Me, neither." He frowned. "I had family and friends, but I was as alone as you were."

"What do you mean?"

He drew a deep breath. "I was alone till I fell in love with you."

She shot off the seat and moved away, choking on her tears. "Tyler, please don't say it if you don't mean it. I couldn't take it."

He came to her, forcing her around and tipping her chin up. "Listen to me, Elaina Honora Giovanni. I look at you and know that I've never been in love before." When she opened her mouth to remind him of his past, he hushed her. "No, never. Because I'm dying without you. And I'll never survive if you don't love me back." Her eyes teared rapidly. "And I'm sorry I had to break your heart to realize it."

"Tyler."

"I love you, Elaina. I love you so much it's killing me to not be with you."

"Oh, Tyler. I love you, too!" she cried, and he slid his arms around her, gently pulling her close. He buried his face in the bend of her throat, inhaling the scent he'd missed like breathing. He leaned back, his mouth brus.h.i.+ng hers, and the heat between them ignited.

"I never could resist you," he said. "Never."

He smiled, cupping her face in his broad palms and kissing her hard, then meeting her gaze. For a long moment he simply stared, and Tyler saw their future in her eyes wild, pa.s.sionate and fun.

"I've been miserable without you," he said. "The past two days have been pure h.e.l.l, and I never want to go through that again."

"Nor do I."

"Then will you marry me?"

She blinked, stunned. He dipped into his pocket as he took her hand. "Marry me, Elaina. Come live in that big house with me and make it a home. Make babies with me." He swallowed, his emotions crowding in on him. "Let me spend the rest of my life showing you how much I love you."

Lane looked at the ring he held poised at the end of her finger. "Tyler."

He waited as she stared at the ring. At last she lifted her gaze to his. "Yes." Her smile brightened his heart. "Yes!"

He slid the ring onto her finger, then slipped his arms around her and kissed her hungrily. He showered her face with kisses, then picked her up, laughing as he spun her around. Lane felt light, the burdens she carried for so long lifting with his love.

Shouts from outside colored the air, and for a long moment they ignored them. Lane wanted Tyler naked in her bed to do some more making up, but he had other plans.

He let her go and headed to the door. "Tyler, don't! Talking to them will just make it worse."

"Not this time."

Tyler was downstairs opening the front door to her shop when Lane caught up with him. Reporters rushed the officers trying to keep them back on the other side of the street, and bulbs flashed.

Tyler just stood still and when his mother, sister, brother-in-law and brother pushed their way through the crowd, he smiled and drew Lane close. She was nearly in tears.

His mother glared at the reporters. "I can see no one ever taught you people good manners," she delivered with pure Southern sting. "You don't come to a house till you're invited. Now get off this porch." The intruders stepped back to the sidewalk.

Tyler stared at the reporters till they fell quiet, then said, "I'm Tyler McKay, and I'm in love with Elaina Giovanni."

Lane beamed at him. His mother gave a delighted shriek and his sister squeezed Lane's hand. He ignored the questions of her fake ident.i.ty and continued. "I've asked her to marry me and-" he looked down at her "-she's accepted."

"Miss Giovanni? If this true?"

"Yes, it most definitely is. I love him."

Laura, Kyle, Kate and Tyler surrounded her, and she knew she'd never felt so loved and protected in her life.

"She's a McKay now," Kyle said. "So if you mess with her-"

The matriarch interjected, "Y'all mess with all of us."

Lane laughed, hugging Tyler. Her world had been so dark and dismal before he came into it, and with his smile and Southern charm, he'd awakened her, made her see that hiding wasn't the solution and that facing problems head on, together, was the way to go.

As rapid-fire questions peppered the air, Tyler stroked her hair back and tipped up her chin, giving her a light kiss he knew would be on the front page of a tabloid in the morning. He didn't care. He wanted everyone to know that he loved her, that he'd protect her from anyone who'd try to destroy their happiness.

"I love you," she whispered, and he knew he'd never get tired of hearing the words. Despite his wealth and power, no other moment compared to this. He felt humbled by the woman in his arms. A woman who'd given up her lifestyle for a little peace in a small Southern town.

And without realizing it, it was she who had rescued him.

She'd enchanted him from the first moment, and for a second or two, he felt like a prince, the one who, with a single kiss, woke Sleeping Beauty from her slumber, to be rewarded with her love and the chance of a real happily-ever-after.

Epilogue.

Christmas Eve, two years later Noise and music filled the cinnamon-scented air. His house was busting at the seams. There were so many McKays and Giovannis, it was hard to tell whose children were whose. Tyler searched for his wife, then gave up and leaned against the door frame.

The words eat, drink, and be merry didn't come close with these people, and here he'd thought McKays were loud. But Giovannis talked at the top of their lungs, and their hand gestures had sent more than one person diving to save a figurine or a lamp. But he liked them, had enjoyed their company off and on ever since he and Elaina had married in a wedding carried by the press and television news.

But that, thank G.o.d, had been the end of it. The FBI had cleared her family of any suspicion, and the press faded away. Life was oddly normal and happy, he thought, smiling as Elaina's mother, Lionetta, gave a gift to his mother.

"Hey there."

He twisted, watching Elaina come down the stairs, her body wrapped in floor-length burgundy velvet and showing off her round belly. Tyler didn't think he'd ever seen anything more beautiful and graceful than his wife carrying their child.

He held out his arm to her, and she cuddled close and sighed. "Tired?" He pressed his lips to the top of her head.

"A little." Elaina gazed out over the crowd. Her mother, for once looking like a normal mom, was sitting on her father's lap. This was the love Elaina remembered. The prospect of being a Nana must have changed her.

Tyler looked down at Elaina, noticing the strained look on her face. "You sure you're okay?"

"Uh-huh." Then she flinched and added, "but it's not something a doctor and a sterile environment wouldn't help."

Tyler nodded, then her words sank in. "Oh, man." His eyes widened as she clutched her belly. "You've been hiding this all day, haven't you?"

"I didn't want to spoil the dinner. You know how much food Nalla and your mother cooked."

"Forget the dinner." He scooped her up in his arms and for a second didn't know where to go. She tapped him and pointed to the sofa.

Everyone fell silent as he laid her gently on the cus.h.i.+ons, then the noise rose to deafening proportions. It was Kate who cut through the din.

"Kyle, get the car and bring it around. David," she said to her husband, "Get Elaina's bag from the front-hall closet and put it in the car. Mom, let's get the kids. Lionetta, you and Sophia go package up some food, and we'll take this party to the hospital."

"Thanks, Kate," Elaina said.

"I'll keep them busy," Kate said, and Elaina grasped her hand before her sister-in-law went to corral the children.

Tyler knelt beside her and gently rubbed her tight belly. "I love you."

"Oh, honey, I love you, too."

"We're going to have a baby tonight," he marveled.

"Looks that way."

He smiled and kissed her. Around him a dozen people rushed to get ready, and yet when Elaina gripped his hand hard, Tyler held her.

"This is gonna hurt."

"I wish I could take the pain for you."

"So do I, believe me." She gasped with pain, and Tyler lifted her in his arms, carrying her out to the car.

Six hours later, Elaina Honora Giovanni McKay presented him with a beautiful baby girl, and as Tyler held his daughter, naming her Honora after his wife's great-grandmother, he knew instant, unconditional love. He looked across the bed at Elaina, then placed the baby in her arms. Mother and daughter cuddled, the baby's flame-red hair peeping out from a knit cap. Lane patted the s.p.a.ce beside her and Tyler curled up in the bed with his family. The two people he loved most were in his arms, and he felt humbled by the love he felt. These two females had captured his heart at first sight.

A man didn't stand a chance around a redhead.

"Merry Christmas, sweetheart," he said.

"I bet you're the first in this town to get a baby for Christmas," Elaina whispered tiredly, and felt his chuckle rumble against her. "But then, you're always trying to show people up."

"I try." He slipped a thin diamond bracelet from his pocket and fastened it on her wrist.

Elaina gasped at the beauty of it. "Tyler, see? You're such a show-off." And she was glad of it.

He smiled tenderly, his emotions glittering in his eyes. "Thank you, Elaina. You've made me a very happy man."

A tear rolled down her cheek. "Oh, darling, you've given me my dreams."

"Funny how our dreams are the same, huh?" He kissed her hand where his rings sparkled.

"It's amazing what effect the words go away had on you," she whispered, touching his jaw as he smiled that irresistible McKay smile. Elaina had had no idea when she'd let him into her life, into her heart, that it was the start of something glorious, that for the rest of their lives they'd celebrate love and happiness.

The past was gone, reborn with a love that grew by the minute, and as she gazed into his blue eyes, she knew, it was the stuff made for legends.

end.