Jayda was floored. What was wrong with that man? Being with him was like riding on a rollercoaster: up and down, up and down. But mostly down, she thought.
And that was beginning to anger her. He was behaving as if he hated what just happened when she loved it. Were they destined to never be on the same page about anything? She knew the only reason he had her in Maine with him was for business reasons. She already knew that. But she couldn’t pretend that was all that was going on between them. Even he couldn’t pretend that. But that was exactly what he seemed determined to do. Which just irritated her. Why was he treatingher like this? He didn’t want her, fine. But he didn’t have to treat her as if she meant nothing to him.
Unless, she thought, she meant nothing to him.
When she thought of that possibility, her anger turned away from him and toward herself. She got herself in this mess with her fantasyland ideas about a man who made clear what his intentions were. The fact that she could never say no to him in the bedroom wasn’t his fault. That was on her too. She created this situation. Why was she blaming him?
And that was when she gathered up her clothes, put them on hastily, and went downstairs. His bodyguard had brought their luggage inside the condo. She quickly placed her luggage in one of the downstairs guest bedrooms, closed the door, and took a long hot tub bath. He saw their relationship as only business despite everything else was fine by her. She was going to treat it that way too.
After she washed every inch of Harrison off of her, and he was all over her, she dressed in a coral-colored dress that hugged all her curves, and with a black-and-white chiffon scarf to match her black-and-white heels, and then she took care of her hair, draping it down her back, and she did her makeup.
When she looked in the mirror she saw a woman that was self-assured and confident and ready to take on the world. She wasn’t at all sure if she felt that way, but she absolutely looked that way. And on this pretend trip, where all of her true feelings had to be suppressed if she was going to survive it, looking good meant more than feeling good. She looked the part. That was all he could ask of her.
But since they didn’t have to be in Kennebunkport until eight-thirty that night, and it wasn’t even four-thirty yet, she knew she had a wait on her hands. But that was still better than being upstairs with a man who kept his feelings all bottled up.She’d rather have none, than to live like that. She went out front, to the living room, and took a seat.
Upstairs, Harrison had taken a shower while he was in the master bathroom. But not to wash Jayda off the way she had washed off him. But to deal with his Jayda situation once and for all. She was heavily on his mind. She might not have wanted to think about him, but she was all he thought about. That was why he had gotten out of bed so abruptly and gone into the bathroom to begin with. He had some serious thinking to do. He had decisions to make. Although, if he were to finally be honest with himself, he'd already made them.
He put on the bathrobe in his ensuite bathroom and went back into the bedroom. When he saw that Jayda was no longer in bed and her clothes were no longer spewed around the room the way his clothes were, a panic overtook him and he quickly grabbed his TV remote and pulled up his security cameras.
When he saw her in his living room dressed and waiting for him, his heart became overwhelmed. Because seeing her there only confirmed for him what he knew all along: she was his person. There was no denying it. That gorgeous African-American woman sitting in his living room in her beautiful dress, her legs crossed, her sophistication evident despite her station in life, washis.
And watching her sit there so patiently, even though she was probably pissed with him and done with him, got him off of that fence he’d been straddling ever since he met her.
He grabbed his suitcoat, pulled it out of the coat pocket, and went downstairs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
When Jayda saw Harrison come downstairs in his bathrobe, she tried her best to put her game face on. She was not going to let that man see her sweat ever again. She revealed her true feelings for him in the hospital when she couldn’t hide her displeasure about him having a date with another woman the very next day after he had what she thought was serious sex with her. But then, after spending the night with her in the hospital, he ghosted her until she saw him again in Maine. And then, after wanting her so passionately at the airport, he treated her as if she was a wham, bam, thank you ma’am kind of woman. That was too much rollercoasting for her. She wanted off.
Harrison could see that his abrupt exit from their bed had affected her when he walked over and sat beside her on the sofa. She couldn’t hide anything within those big, brown eyes and he could tell she was pissed with him. But that only made him more determined to get this right.
“Hey.”
“I know it’s early,” she said, “but I went on and showered down here and got dressed.”
“You look beautiful.”
Jayda didn’t respond to that because her response would not have been kind. Many men had told her she looked beautiful. But she was never beautiful enough or good enough for them to keep. To take to that next level. She wasn’t trying to hear about how good she looked anymore either.
Until Harrison did something strange in her eyes. He got down on one knee and pulled out a small box that looked like a jewelry box. And then he opened it.
At first, when she saw that big fat diamond ring, she wanted to leap with joy. But then she just as quickly realized what he was doing. They were a few hours away from meeting up with his father. If they were going to be “engaged,” she had to have a ring on her finger. This, she decided, was that.
But his words confused her. “I know I have not been kind to you,” he said. “I know I’ve caused you to feel as if I was all over the place with my emotions, which I was, and for that I am truly sorry. It’s just that . . .” He stopped as his emotions attempted to overtake him. Which confused her even more. Instead of looking excited, she looked terrified.
And then he continued. “It’s just that I never bothered to understand what love meant. Based on what I saw around me, I didn’t think falling in love was something I ever wanted to do. But then I met you,” he said so heartfelt that Jayda’s own heart began to pound. Could he be . . . Couldthisbe? But it couldn’t be!
“And now I know, Jayda, that there is such a thing as love. Because I love you. Because I want to be with you and you only. Because I want to marry you.”
Jayda was searching his eyes. This couldn’t be right! What was he doing? “What are you saying?” she asked him. “What kind of cruel human being are you?”
Harrison was puzzled. “Cruel?”
“Yes cruel! Why are you taking it this far, Harrison? We’re just pretending. Why do you have to make me feel like it’s true? Don’t you see I have feelings too?”
He got off of his knee quickly and sat beside her. “Jayda, no, this isn’t about that. This is true. I do love you. I do want you to be my wife. This isn’t about my father at all. Forget that!This is only about us. This is the first time in my life that I’ve been totally honest about anything.”
Jayda’s heart began to soar. “Are you saying that you, that you . . . Are you saying that you want to marry me for real?”
