The Executive's Decision
Page 56

He reluctantly crossed the room and sat down on the couch, shoulders hunched and head down. She knew he was reconsidering the way he’d come across.
Zach lifted his head, and his eyes had softened. “Regan, I’m sorry.”
“I know you are.” She leaned closer to him and kissed him gently.
He sipped his water and sat back on the couch. “I haven’t been very good company lately.”
“No you haven’t, but I understand.” She snuggled closer to him. “It’s been a hard few weeks. It’ll get easier.”
“I just feel like I have to do it all right now. I can’t miss one step or he’ll be disappointed. I’m afraid of messing up what he and my grandfather built together.”
“You’re amazing at what you do. Do it your way, and you’ll be fine. John and I will be here to catch your back.” She smiled and he pulled her closer.
“I know you will be.”
“Just think. In another week you’ll be in L.A. finalizing your biggest project. The one you brought to the company. The one you designed yourself and will see through until the end. I’m very proud of you for that.”
“It will be the finest building we’ve ever done,” he said as he pushed her back on the couch.
She forgot about his mood and the lunch that went uneaten as he pressed his lips to her neck. There wasn’t anything better than breaking her own rules over lunch.
The moonlight gave the bedroom a silver hue. Zach stood in the doorway of the bathroom and watched Regan sleep. He hadn’t slept well since his father had died, and this night had been no exception. It was two in the morning, and he’d had to leave the bed that the woman he loved slept so peacefully in, and take a shower to release the tension in his shoulders and neck.
Zach ran the towel over his wet hair and ambled back toward the bed. He pulled the robe from his warm skin and slid into bed next to her. He watched her and smiled. Her eyes darted beneath her lids. She was dreaming. He wondered what went on in her head when she slept.
He touched her shoulder gently, but she shrugged off his touch and rolled away from him, still sleeping. He smiled and touched her again.
“Stop!” she said, her eyes still darting beneath her lids. “Don’t touch me again!”
“I’m sorry.” He pulled back and studied her.
Regan pulled her knees up, and tears squeezed from her closed eyes. “Don’t touch me. No!” she repeated.
Zach took a breath to speak before he realized she wasn’t talking to him. She was dreaming. A moment later, she sat up and screamed, “Take her away! Take her away!”
“Regan, I’m here.” He reached for her.
Sweat had beaded on her brown. Her pulse was racing under his fingers, and she was fighting for breath. Her eyes shot open, but he wasn’t sure she even saw him for a moment. Then the haze that clouded her eyes cleared, and she stared at him.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. You had a nightmare.” He drew her close. “What happened?”
“I need water.” She gasped, and tears continued to roll down her cheeks.
“I’ll get you some.”
He was back a moment later with a glass of water from the kitchen. Regan took it with both hands and sipped it slowly as Zach sat next to her. He switched on the lamp on the nightstand and watched her.
She took deep breaths. The water in the glass sloshed from the shaking of her hands. She sipped again and then handed it back to him.
He set the glass down on the nightstand. “What happened?”
Regan gathered the sheets up around her neck. “I just had a bad dream. It’s nothing.”
“I’ve never seen you have a dream like that. Someone was hurting you.”
“No one hurt me. It was just a dream, a reaction from what happened a few weeks ago.”
“Regan, someone hurt you before that.” He pushed on. This wasn’t about Roger Byers and he knew it. “Curtis mentioned it at the hospital. Tell me what happened.” He watched her tense.
“Damn it, Regan, you can’t hide this from me. Not if you love me.” He stood and paced by the bed. “You’re holding on to too many secrets. We can’t have secrets between us. Not anymore.”
Regan shook her head and bit down on her bottom lip, still clinging to the bed sheet. “What happened to me before doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“It does now.” He turned to her, though he knew he wasn’t doing a good job of concealing the frustration in his eyes. “I love you. I care for you. I want to marry you and have a family with you. But if you lie to my face, we can’t have that. What are you hiding?”
Her lip was trembling now, and her eyes filled with tears. “If I tell you, you won’t want to marry me. You won’t want me to carry your children.”
“That’s not true.” His voice rose, and he took a deep breath to calm himself, but it wasn’t working well. He sat back on the bed and gathered her hands in his. “That is what I want. I love you.” He couldn’t contain what was on his mind. “Will you marry me?”
She wiped her eyes and stared at him. “Is this my proposal?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Oh.”
“This is you telling me whether you would marry me. It would be nice to know before I set up a romantic evening and buy a ring and then you turn me down.” He set his jaw.
Regan touched his cheek. “You really want to marry me? I wasn’t brought up in a fancy house. I didn’t go to school in France. In fact, the only French I know does not suggest nice things.”
“You think that matters to me?” He tightened his grip on her hands. “I love you. My parents—my mother loves you. That’s all that really matters to me.”
“But what about children?”
“What about them?”
“I’m adopted. I don’t know any history about my parents. I don’t know if they carried genes for disease. I don’t know if they lived to be fifty. What if I pass something on to my children that I don’t even know I could?”
“Our children,” he reminded her with a bite to his words, “and we would deal with it all.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Yes would be good.” He shook his head, frustrated with the whole conversation. “Regan Keller, please tell me you’ll marry me, you’ll have children with me, and you’ll grow old with me.”