Remember When

'What?' He stared at her in disbelief. 'Why not?'

'Because I'll have to tell my family. I'll have to tell my sister. You know— Corey?' she provided helpfully, and Cole suddenly suspected that she was either far more tipsy, or far more nervous, than he'd supposed a few minutes ago.

'I know Corey,' he gravely assured her.

Behind her back, he lifted his wrist and tipped the face of his watch to the light from the doorway. It was ten minutes past eleven. The pilots of his Gulfstream jet were staying at a motel near the airport and they both carried pagers. His limousine was on twenty-four-hour call. If the wedding chapels in Lake Tahoe didn't stay open all night, he knew they did in Las Vegas. The logistics were not a problem. Diana was.

'I'll have to tell my whole family. And Spence, too. He's part of the family.'

'What if I refuse to agree?'

She rolled her eyes at him in amused superiority. 'We can't very well expect them to believe we took one look at each other tonight, fell in love, and eloped, now can we?'

'They can't prove it isn't true. Let's stick with that story, anyway.'

She stepped away from him and lifted her chin to its haughtiest and most obstinate angle. 'I will not upset my family with a lie, and I will not knowingly make a promise I can't keep.'

She meant every word, Cole realized. Obviously, Texas's Businesswoman of the Year hadn't sacrificed her scruples or her youthful idealism during her climb up the ladder of success, and his voice was gruff with pleasure and something that felt like pride. 'In that case, I concede.'

'You—do?' Diana was feeling more dazed by the moment at everything he said and did. One moment, he was offering her marriage as coolly as he'd offer to hold the door open for a stranger, and the next, he was yielding a point to her with a distinct warmth in his eyes. Trying to shake off the heady effect of the alcohol and his silvery gaze, she said, 'You said there were two other concessions—'

'The second concession is that you agree to accompany me to my uncle's ranch sometime during the next week or two and spend a few days there, allaying any suspicions or fears he may have about our sudden marriage.'

'I probably have some meetings.' She frowned, a troubled goddess with the summer breeze blowing her hair and ruffling her gown. 'I always have meetings. I suppose I could rearrange my schedule and either visit your uncle next week or the week after.'

'That settles it then,' Cole said briskly.

She was so nervous, her voice actually shook. 'I— Shouldn't I have terms?'

'Tell me what they are as you think of them. I've already promised to do everything I reasonably can to cooperate.' Convinced that the moment was now exactly right to stop talking and put the plan into action, Cole walked into the suite, phoned his pilots at their motel, and then ordered his limo to be brought to the front of the hotel. After that he dialed his secretary's number in Dallas and gave the sleepy but stalwart woman a set of instructions that snapped her awake and made her stammer.

'Everything is arranged,' he said as he walked back out on the balcony. He lifted the bottle of champagne out of its icy nest and refilled both glasses. 'The limo is waiting downstairs, and my plane is being refueled. This definitely calls for a toast,' he added, holding a glass toward her.

Diana looked at the glass in his hand and her faltering courage collapsed. 'I can't!' she cried, crossing her arms protectively over her chest. She'd spent the time while he made phone calls trying desperately to decide whether her misgivings were based on good judgment or whether her panic was the result of the same cowardly, conservative streak within her that she hated and that frequently paralyzed her and caused her to pass up unique business opportunities.

Wordlessly, he put both glasses on the table with an ominous little clink, then took a step toward her. 'What do you mean, you 'can't'?' he demanded.

Diana jumped backward out of his reach. 'I can't! Not tonight.' Her voice was shaking so hard that she scarcely recognized it, and she bumped into the railing in her desperation to escape from what she perceived to be a threat. 'I need time!'

He was blocking the path into the suite, and Diana started to sidle behind one of the balcony's chairs, but the urgency and regret in his deep voice checked her in midstep and made her fear of him absurd. 'Time is the only thing I can't afford to give you, Diana.'

Diana heard all sorts of confusing signals in that sentence—from a desperate attempt at bribery, to an effort to salvage his pride by impressing her with his wealth. 'With everything you have to offer,' she assured him as she reached behind her neck and unclasped the heavy necklace he'd bought earlier, 'you'll find lots of women who will jump at your suggestion in the hope it might lead to permanence—including some in the ballroom downstairs.'

'I imagine you're right,' he said, his voice suddenly flat. 'Possibly I was reaching far above myself, but I would have liked the wife in this scheme to be a woman I'm proud to have share my name, which happens to limit my choices to one—you.'

He said it so coolly that it took a moment for Diana to hear the meaning behind the words. 'Why me?'

'A variety of reasons,' he said with a shrug. 'Not the least of which is that despite your lofty social status, you also knew me when I was paid to muck out horse stalls, and you don't seem to find that repellent.'

His blunt reference to his lack of social status, combined with his earlier attempt to bribe her, made Diana's chest ache. Tears stung her eyes as she gazed at the powerful, dynamic man before her who, for some reason, was oblivious to his own worth. His face was almost too rugged to be handsome, and yet it was one of the most attractive faces she'd ever seen. Masculine pride and granite determination were sculpted into every hard angle and plane on his face. Cynicism had etched lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth, but in the strength of his features, Diana saw the mark of battles fought and won, of lessons learned the hard way. And there was no overlooking the sensuality in the mold of his mouth, not even when it had a sardonic twist, as it did now. If he hadn't had money, women would still have thrown themselves at him—and yet, for some unfathomable reason he was willing to settle for an empty marriage and a life without children.

She herself had been little more than a child when she first started visiting him at the Haywards', and he'd seemed to enjoy her company very much. He'd even gotten her a stuffed toy kitten for her sixteenth birthday, she suddenly remembered, and while she'd been melting with joy, he'd leapt to the conclusion that it wasn't good enough. 'You've probably had dozens of really exotic stuffed animals.'

Cole had been her friend, her fantasy lover, her mentor. Tonight he had been her knight in shining armor.

How foolish she was being now, to mistrust him and turn down an opportunity that was heaven-sent.

Guilt swelled in her chest and she wondered when she had become jaded and cynical. 'Cole,' she whispered, and watched his expression soften at the sound of her voice. 'I'm sorry—' She held out her hand in a gesture of conciliation, but his gaze riveted on the forgotten necklace in her palm, and his expression turned to stone.

'Keep it!' he said shortly. 'I bought it for you.'

'No—' she began awkwardly; then she wished she'd had that other glass of champagne for courage when she saw the ominous expression in his eyes. 'What I mean is, could you possibly repeat all those excellent reasons you gave me earlier?'

Cole saw the yielding softness in her eyes, and somewhere deep within him, he felt the faint stirrings of an emotion so long dead, or so foreign to him, that he didn't recognize it. And even so, it made him smile.

It made him reach out and lay his palm against the side of her cheek and tenderly smooth a lock of gleaming russet hair off her warm cheek.

'I can't decide,' she told him a little shakily.

'Diana,' he whispered, 'you've already decided.'

Diana's senses were beginning to reel with the shock of her decision and the touch of his hand. She tried to make a joke of it. 'I have? What did I decide?'

His eyes gleamed with laughter, but his tone remained solemn. 'You decided you'll marry me in Nevada tonight.'

'I will?'

'You will.'