“Then I came to New York.” I look into Sterling’s eyes. “And I was tasked with my most difficult client to date. A man who’s sitting on the other side of the camera right now, looking at me in a way that’s making my entire body tingle all over.” I sigh tenderly as he smiles at me. “And I fell head over heels in love with him, despite fighting that feeling every chance I got.”
“You sure did fight it.” Sterling chuckles and I know the camera will have picked him up.
“He’s my client and I fell in love with him myself. And for a long time I was scared about what that meant for my business. For my reputation. But then I realized, how could I ever help another person find love if I’d turned my back on it myself? Nothing would make me a bigger fraud. Nothing would go against the whole reason I began Cosmic Connections in the first place.”
I open the hand that’s remained clasped in my lap the entire time and look at the small rose quartz heart. I saw it in Sterling’s luggage as he opened it to get his laptop to record this video for me. The fact that he took it traveling with him fills my heart with a sense of amazement.
“So there it is. I’m Halliday Burton. I run Cosmic Connections. And I can help you find love. And if you’re worried about the fact that I fell in love with one of my clients myself, then I guess all I can say is…” I turn the crystal over in my palm. “It will never happen again because he’s it for me. He’s my choice. The only one I’ll ever make.”
My tears fall faster. “You can stop recording now,” I whisper.
“Hallie.”
He’s there in seconds, wrapping me in his arms, holding me to him, anchoring me. Being everything I need him to be.
“I’m okay.” I sniff. “I’m okay.”
I lift my head and allow myself to be captured by warm blue. The way he looks at me makes me feel warmth all the way to my toes.
It will all be okay.
“I kind of need you to get me naked, though. Like right now.” I take his hand and place the crystal heart in his palm.
“Right now?” He smiles as he looks at it, before meeting my eyes again.
“I need you to make love to me. I’m feeling kind of needy.”
He sucks a breath in through his nose. “Baby girl, do you need me to worship every inch of your body until those tears stop?”
“I do,” I whisper. “If you can manage it?” I tease.
“If I can manage it?” He fixes me with a look that I feel deep in my core.
I squeal as he scoops me into his arms and strides toward the bedroom.
“I can manage it. In fact, I’ll manage it three times just to prove to you how well I can manage it.”
I sink my face into his shirt, the fabric drying my wet cheeks as I laugh. His matching chuckle rumbles in his chest as I grip on to him.
No longer afraid.
31
HALLIDAY
“Rory must have really hada thing for you to go all crazy like that,” Sinclair muses, sliding the diamond pendant up and down the chain around her neck with one hand while holding Monty’s leash in the other.
“He’s crazy, all right. I just hope he leaves us alone now,” I reply as we walk along Fifth Avenue.
I’ve spent a couple of days lying low, but I’m finally venturing out. Sinclair talked me into shopping and lunch. She insisted I need to treat myself to some new business outfits. Because ever since I sent that video out to my clients, my enquiries have tripled.Tripled!
No publicity is bad publicity it seems, just like Sullivan grunted when he came to see Sterling this morning. The two are working on something at Sullivan’s office today, but I have no idea what. Sterling seemed unusually coy about it.
“He’s out of ammo. He’s outed you to the world. It didn’t ruin your business. And Dad’s been labeled as some new face for the ‘fit, fifty, and finding love’ gang,” Sinclair says.
I smile for the first time in days, and it feels amazing.
“Yeah, he kind of has, hasn’t he?”
