Page 311 of Under Her Skin

His body relaxes again and he smiles at me. “I knew there was a reason why I found you to my liking. You can get with your landlord while I take the meeting at four. It should only take me an hour to take care of that, then I’ll be through for theday.”

“Get with my landlord?About?”

“Moving out. Letting the place go,” hesays.

Then it hits me like a brick that he really wants a commitment from me. “That’s a great bigstep.”

Tension fills his body again, and this time, I can feel mine tense up too. “It is. I thought you understood. I want us to take this next logicalstep.”

“Yeah, I get it. But don’t you get that we don’t really know if this is going to work out and that I don’t want to have to start completely over? I’ll just keep my apartment. That way, if things don’t work out, I won’t bedevastated.”

“It wouldn’t devastate you for this to end?” he asks as he lets me go and turns away from me. “It would mess me up pretty badly if I never got to see youagain.”

“Wow! I didn’t say that,” I say as I throw my arms up in the air in exasperation. “I feel like I’m on a damn roller coaster with you today, Blaine. This is crazy. I mean seriously crazy. I think you need to see someone. A therapist or something. You have something going on inside of you that’s up and down and all over theplace.”

He walks past me, leaving the bathroom and going toward his desk in a hurry. “I’m not crazy. Crazy people don’t do the things I’ve accomplished. I feel odd right now. Uneven. Out of kilter. All because of my pops. Death is hitting me hard right now. I don’t know what the fuck you expect from me. I’m grieving in my own way and fighting myself about things. You have no idea what’s going on inside my head. My heart. Mysoul!”

My God, I’ve completely forgotten about him and all he’s going through. I hurry to him as he sits in his high-backed, black, leather chair behind his large, oakdesk.

“Baby, I am so sorry. I tell you what. I’m going to just stop all that now. I can give up my apartment. I get it now. You need to feel secure with me. I get it. I can do that for you. I’m so sorry I wasn’t thinking about all you’ve gonethrough.”

“No, keep the apartment if that’s what you want to do. I shouldn’t be bossing you around anyway. Do what you want to. Don’t let me do that to you. I’m sorry. I’m a mess and I’m not really in the right frame of mind to make any lasting decisions. I think I’ve proven thatalready.”

“Let’s take this one day at a time. I’ll bring the essentials to your place today. I’ll make sure I have everything I need to make the place a home for me too. And, one day at a time, we can take this wherever it’s going to go. And to start things off on the right foot, I’d like to let you know I’ve decided that it’s safe to say that I love you, Blaine Vanderbilt. I know it for certain because you are so deep in my heart that it actually hurts when I’ve hurt your feelings, eveninadvertently.”

“I don’t see how you could,” he says as he looks at me through his thick lashes, his head isdown.

“I can see you. I can feel you. I want to be with you and be here for you. So, how do you feel about me?” I ask as I take his chin and lift him to look atme.

I find his eyes a little glassy as he looks into mine. “I love you, Delaney. I’ve told you as much. Remember when I told you that I was falling in love withyou?”

“I do, then nothing else was said. I certainly didn’t want you to say anything you didn’t really mean, especially something like that. Now, let me get my coat back on to cover up my slutty, little elf outfit and I’ll go to my place to pack up my things. How about I meet you at your estate after your meeting?” I ask, as he looks a lotbetter.

“I would like that very much.” He opens his desk drawer and fishes around, then comes back with a key in his hand. “This will get you in the front door.” He writes down something on a piece of paper and puts it in my hand. “This is the code to the gate and the one under that is the code to the alarm system. The staff is there to let you in, but I want you to have this anyway. I’ll let them know you’recoming.”

With the key in my hand, it starts to feel real. I’m going to move in with Blaine Vanderbilt. My family’s enemy, who isn’t going to be doing anything he told me he was. And, still, I’m moving in withhim.

I have to ask myself, am I selling out my soul to the man who obviously isn’t about to change a thing abouthimself?

Then I look at his light-brown eyes as they twinkle and have to smile. My heart is with this man. Perhaps with my influence and time, he will make some better decisions with his business. Maybe he just needs a positiveinfluence.

He pulls one more thing out of the desk drawer and I see it’s a small picture frame. Placing it on his clean desk, he turns it so I can see. “That’smom.”

Strawberry-blonde hair and a smattering of freckles are outshined by a set of green eyes that sparkle like magic. “She has the same color eyes I do. But hers are muchbrighter.”

“Yours are equally as bright, in my opinion. You remind me of her. I think that’s why I took to you so easily. I think that’s part of the reason I gave you the chance I’ve never given anyone else.” I know his words are meant to comfort me, but they scare me alittle.

I don’t want to be the man’s mother. But maybe he needs me to fill the void she left when she passed away when he was only five. I hope I have what it will take to make things work forus.

I don’t think things are going to be easy.But things that come easily are rarely worthmuch!

Chapter5

BLAINE

The afternoon sun is peeking through the dark-brown curtains in Kate’s office and managing to hit me right in the left eye. As I ease over to avoid it, I catch Kate giving me that look again—the one that says she’s not a happycamper.

Picking up one of the dolls that resembles a Barbie doll, she shakes it a bit and the head falls right off. “See? Junk. And its brand new out of the packaging, which most likely cost more to produce than this piece of crap did. I bought thirty dollars’ worth of toys from the Bargain Bin here in Houston, and out of the fifteen toys I purchased, two are still viable. The rest were easily broken withinminutes.”