Caught in the Billionaire’s Embrace(41)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

Wait a minute. What was he doing here?

The thought made her pull away from him, but Marcus followed and captured her mouth with his again. Although he set her down on the step, he curved his hands over her h*ps to keep her there and kissed her more deeply still. She allowed herself to get lost in blissful sensations for another long moment. But when she heard the sound of not one, but two throats clearing not so indiscreetly behind her, she found the wherewithal to pull away from him again.

Marcus must have heard the marshals’ reactions, too, because he didn’t try to reclaim Della this time. He did, however, move to the same step she was on and loop an arm around her shoulders, then he pulled her close, as if he were afraid her guardians would try to take her from him again.

But neither marshal seemed eager to come between them. In fact, they were both smiling.

“He looks like more than…a friend,” Carson said.

“Yeah, I don’t have any…friends…like that,” Willoughby agreed. “I don’t think my wife would like it too much if I did.”

Della felt Marcus relax beside her. But he still didn’t loosen his hold on her. Not that she cared.

“Do you mind?” Della said to the two marshals. “Can I have a few minutes to talk to my…friend?”

Carson and Willoughby exchanged a wary look, then turned back to Della.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Hannan,” Carson said, “but privacy is one thing a federal witness doesn’t get much of. And you’re not out of protective custody yet. If you want to talk to your…friend…it’s going to have to be in front of me and Willoughby.”

“It’s okay, Della,” Marcus said.

With one more pleading look aimed at her escorts—who both regretfully shook their heads in response—she turned to Marcus. He lifted a hand to her face to trace the line of her cheekbone, her nose, her jaw and her mouth. He didn’t seem to be bothered by their audience. Then again, Della was so happy to see him, she didn’t really care who saw them, either.

“I’m going to have to get used to this witness security thing sooner or later, anyway,” Marcus said. “It might as well be now.”

The remark puzzled her. “Why do you have to get used to it?”

He inhaled a deep breath and released it slowly, then dropped his hand from her face so that he could take her hand in his. When her mittens hindered his efforts, he gently tugged one off. Then he wove their fingers together and squeezed tight.

“I have to get used to it,” he said, “because I’m going with you.”

Her mouth fell open a bit at that. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m going with you.”

She shook her head. “Marcus, that’s crazy talk. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I know exactly what I’m saying.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a small kiss in the center of her palm. Then he said a third time, “I’m going with you.”

“But you can’t,” she insisted. “You have a life in Chicago. A big life. A larger-than-life life. There are lots of people who will miss you if you disappear.”

“None that matters as much as you,” he told her.

“But your friends—”

“—are not particularly close ones,” he finished for her. “They don’t matter as much as you.”

“Your family—”

“—is more of a corporate entity than a family,” he assured her. “I’ve spent ninety percent of my life rebelling against them and the other ten percent taking advantage of them. We’re not that close, either. They definitely don’t matter as much as you.”

“But your business. Your job is—”

“—mostly as a figurehead,” he told her. “It especially doesn’t matter as much as you.” He gave her hand another gentle squeeze. “I don’t do that much for Fallon Brothers as it is now, Della. Once I’m in charge, I’ll do even less. I’ll just make a lot more money for that lack of performance. Corporate America is kind of funny that way.”

She latched on to the money thing. “Your money. You can’t walk away from all that. It’s—”

“—money,” he concluded easily. “That’s all. Just money. It doesn’t even come close to mattering as much as you.”

“That’s all?” she echoed incredulously. “Marcus, that’s a lot of money you’re talking about. Millions of dollars.”

He only smiled, tugged off her other mitten and took that hand in his, too, giving it a kiss identical to the other one. “Billions, actually,” he said matter-of-factly.

All Della could manage in response to that was a soft squeak.

That only made Marcus laugh. “Della. I would think you, of all people, would understand how that much money can bring a lot of trouble into a person’s life. It’s not that hard to walk away from it.”

“Oh, right,” she sputtered. “Spoken like someone who’s never had to go without money in his life.”

“Della, there’s more to life than money,” he stated unequivocally. “The best things in life are free. Simple pleasures are the best. Money is the root of all evil.”

She shook her head at him, but couldn’t help smiling. Probably because of the warm, gooey sensations meandering through her. “When did you open an unlimited account at Platitudes ’R’ Us?” she asked.

“Actually,” he said lightly, “the account is at words-to-live-by-dot-com. But you’re right—it is an unlimited one.” He leaned in close, moving his mouth to her ear. Very quietly, he whispered, “Besides, the woman I intend to spend the rest of my life with is adamant about rebuilding her career. She can take care of me. She loves me to distraction, after all.”

The warm gooeyness inside her swirled into a river of sweet, sticky goodness. Unable to help herself, Della leaned forward to press her forehead against Marcus’s shoulder. He looped his arms around her waist and settled his chin on the crown of her head.

“See there?” he said softly. “You do love me, don’t you?”

She was amazed to hear an unmistakable uncertainty in his voice. “Yes,” she whispered against the fabric of his coat.

Now he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “Good. Because I love you, too.”

He loved her, too, Della thought. He loved her, too. He loved her, too. It was like a magic incantation in her brain, breaking all the evil spells of her old life and bestowing new ones in their wake. He loved her, too. He loved her, too.