The longer he was with her, the more Dave figured he had the answer to a lot of problems. Over cake and coffee, he made his move.
“I think you should move into the ranch with me.”
Seven
Mia froze with the last forkful of cake halfway to her lips. “What?”
She looked like a deer caught in headlights. Good. He preferred her off balance. This would all work much better if he could keep Mia dancing in place just to keep up with him.
“Finish your cake,” he urged. “You know you want to.”
She popped the piece of double-chocolate lava cake into her mouth and chewed frantically. While she was quiet, Dave went on.
“Think about it for a minute. We’re engaged. We’ll be meeting with Buckley out at the ranch anyway. It’ll be handier with you there.”
She swallowed, waved her fork at him and argued, “But you told me that Buckley is really conservative. He probably wouldn’t approve of us, well, living together.”
“We’re engaged.”
She took a breath, blew it out and reluctantly set her fork down.
“Which reminds me,” Dave said, reaching into his pocket for the jeweler’s box.
When she saw the dark red velvet, her eyes went wide and she dropped both hands into her lap. “What did you do?”
“Mia, no one’s going to believe that a man like me proposed without a ring.”
Her eyes met his and he could see nerves shining back at him. Again, good. If her mind was whirring in high gear, she wouldn’t be thinking clearly about much of anything.
“I don’t know…”
“We’re already in this. The ring is just a symbol of our bargain.”
“A symbol.” She took another long, deep breath, then grabbed her fork again and scraped it across the dessert plate, catching every last drop of the chocolate sauce. She licked the fork clean and had zero idea what watching her tongue move across the tines was doing to Dave.
“It’s just a piece of jewelry,” he said and flipped the box lid open.
She gasped and he smiled. Eyes wide, she stared at the ring and slapped one hand to her chest as if to hold her heart in place. “You can’t be serious.”
Pleasure filled him. Her expressions were so easy to read that he could see that she both wanted the ring and wanted to run. When she reached out a hesitant finger to touch the five-carat diamond, he knew he had her.
Her fingertip slid across the wide surface of the diamond, then dropped to follow the smaller, channel-set diamonds that surrounded it. After a long minute or two, she lifted her gaze to his.
“It’s gigantic.”
“It sends a message.”
“Yeah. ‘Here I am, robber! Take me!’”
“In Royal?” He laughed, shook his head and plucked the ring from the box. Sliding it onto her ring finger before she could pull her hand back, he said, “What it will say to everyone here is, Mia belongs to Dave.”
“Belongs.”
She whispered the word, but he heard it. And just for a second, that imaginary noose tightened. He ignored the feeling and focused on the plan.
Her gaze fixed on the ring for a long moment before meeting his eyes again. “I’ll wear the ring—”
“Good.”
“But as for moving in with you—”
“It makes the most sense.”
“But I have to take care of Alex’s house.”
“Alex isn’t there,” he reminded her quietly.
“I know but—”
“And the longer he’s gone, the more intrusive the reporters are going to get,” he went on. “Right now, most of them are being stopped at the gate. But a few have gotten through to harass you.”
“True.”
“More will come. Especially once word about us gets out. They’ll start speculating about us getting together. Why not be at my place? No reporter will be able to reach you there, and you can check on Alex’s house whenever you want.”
“I don’t like leaving Alex’s house,” she admitted. “What if he calls? What if he needs help?’
Frowning, Dave paused and thought about it before saying, “We’ll have the phone company forward calls to my place. Good enough?”
She was thinking about it. He could see her working through internal arguments, trying to decide what she should do. But he’d have his way in this.