A Cowboy in Disguise (21 page)

Scott carried Alexandra through the doorway to the most expensive honeymoon suite he could find in Helena. “I guess I really will get to see Paris in a couple days,” he said while thinking of their final honeymoon destination. “You’ll have to tell me what kinds of adventures Sarah claims I’ve had there. We’ll make all those rumors true together.”

Alexandra grinned. “Why, Mr. Falconer, are you coming on to me?”

“I wouldn’t dare. You know how these office romances always turn out.”

Alexandra looked around the suite and saw it had been prepared with lighted candles and flower petals. Sitting on the nightstand, she spotted a small wooden box. She slid out of Scott’s arms and walked over to it.

“Is this the box I admired at the holiday festival we went to?”

Scott smiled softly. “Look inside.”

She opened the box and pulled out a small, plastic card. “What’s this?” She laughed and flipped it over in her hand.

He walked over to her. “The number for roadside assistance in Montana.”

Alexandra put her arms around him. “Good idea for a present.” She nuzzled against him. “I tend to meet the most attractive men whenever I get a flat tire.”

Scott ran his hand through Alexandra’s thick hair and pulled her head back gently. How was it that this stunning woman had agreed to spend the rest of her life with him? He planned to live up to that honor if it took the remainder of his years.

Her green eyes and his blue ones shone like gemstones in the candlelit room as their gazes locked.

“I don’t think corporate rank counts here, do you?” she teased.

“Not at all,” was the last thing she remembered him say in that moment.

Days later, Scott and Alexandra returned to the headquarters of D. W.
Songstram
with a plan in mind. Even before their trip to Paris, they agreed that Montana would become home for them. Scott knew the time for him to start his own business venture had come at last. With Alexandra at his side, he wanted more than anything to build his guest ranch on the property he and his brother, Elliot, had just purchased.

Scott and Alexandra sat in David’s office, waiting intently as he thought in silence for a moment. David tapped the tips of his fingers together for a long while and hunkered down in his chair.

“I hate to lose you both,” he said with a misty, sentimental look in his eyes. He fancied himself at least partially responsible for Scott and Alexandra finally finding each other. Even his wife told everyone David had turned into a halfway decent matchmaker.

Scott smiled sadly, “But you understand why we have to do this? If there was any way one of us could stay and work for you, we would. It’s just that living in Montana would make for one heck of a commute.”

“Then let me run something by you two,” David said as he reached for a heavy file behind him. “Alexandra, this may be something you’d be interested in.”

“You definitely have my attention.” She hoped David had something up his sleeve. He often did.

“Well,” David said with a look of mischief, “after you brought back all that property information from Montana and we blew the lid off of that scam, Rio Safari won’t touch some of that property they once wanted to buy. There’s an office building in Helena that’s just gone into foreclosure—with Mac Stevens in jail not making payments and all. I put in a bid to the bank and it was accepted today.”

Alexandra looked from Scott to David. “So you’re opening an office there?”

“Honestly, I’ve been looking at doing just that for quite some time. What I need is a class act with enough corporate expertise to move to Montana and run the place.” He looked at his vice president in anticipation.

“You mean me?” she asked as her heart started to pound with excitement. She couldn’t ask for more. In one sublime stroke of fate, her career and love life had reached epic proportions. She suddenly couldn’t wait to call and talk to Mary. She wouldn’t believe it, either. She’d probably want to move to Montana, too.

Scott took her hand when she didn’t answer immediately, mistaking her pause for hesitation. “Think about it. While Elliot and I are up to our eyeballs in construction and cow manure …”

Alexandra shook her head and laughed. “No need to sell me on it. I’m convinced already. It’s the perfect offer, David. Thank you. Oh, and I’ll give you a call later to talk about that raise I just know you have in mind.”

David winced. After all, he knew that determined look of hers. He looked at Scott. “Ask the receptionist to screen my calls on the way out, will you?”

Alexandra smiled brightly and her heels clicked on the familiar tiled floor as she walked out of David’s office with her husband right by her side. They had a lot of packing to do, but it would have to wait. As they passed the supply closet, Scott grabbed Alexandra by the arm and pulled her inside.

He nuzzled her neck as she sat down on that stack of boxes she had come to know so well. “All right, Falconer. I sense grounds for a sexual harassment lawsuit coming on.”

He murmured against her, “I’d better make this worth all the dire legal repercussions—” He placed a sweet kiss on her mouth. “—and make this good enough that at least one person in the world will be happy with me today.”

Her former words came back to her. “Rest assured, Scott Falconer—I’m extremely happy.”

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