Sadie looked down at her hands, damp hair hanging forward across her cheek.
“I’m not the same girl you asked that question of all those years ago,” she said, her voice soft.
“You think I don’t know that?” he asked. “Look at me, Sadie.” She did as he asked, and Dylan took a long moment just absorbing everything she was now. Slowly, obviously, he looked over every inch of her, from her hair—shorter now than when they’d met by a good foot—down over her body, past every added curve or line, every soft patch and every muscle, all the way to her feet.
Did she really not know? Not realize how much she’d grown up since then—and how every year had only made her a better person? Who would want the twenty-year-old Sadie compared to the one who sat before him now?
“You are so much more now than you were then,” he murmured, knowing she’d hear him anyway. “You’re stronger, more beautiful, more alive … more than I ever dreamed any woman could be.”
SOPHIE PEMBROKE has been reading and writing romance ever since she read her first Mills & Boon® romance at university, so getting to write them for a living is a dream come true!
Sophie lives in a little Hertfordshire market town in the UK with her scientist husband and her incredibly imaginative six-year-old daughter. She writes stories about friends, family and falling in love, usually while drinking too much tea and eating homemade cakes. She also keeps a blog at www.sophiepembroke.com.
A Proposal Worth Millions
Sophie Pembroke
For Pete and Kate, for a truly wonderful, memorable holiday.
Contents
SADIE SULLIVAN BLINKED into the sunshine and waved goodbye to the rental car pulling away from the Azure Hotel. If she squinted, she could just make out Finn’s tiny face pressed up against the rear window, and his little hand waving back. Her father, in the driver’s seat, was obviously concentrating on the road, but Sadie spotted the glint of her mother’s ash-blonde hair beside Finn, and knew she’d be holding him in place, making sure his seat belt was secure.
He was in good hands. She had to remember that. Even if her heart ached at the thought of being separated from her little boy.
The car turned the last corner at the end of the drive and disappeared out of sight, behind the row of juniper trees, onto the road that led up the coast then back inland towards the main roads and Izmir airport. Sadie sucked in a deep breath and wiped the back of her hand across her eyes, quickly, in case anyone was watching. The last thing she needed right now was talk about the boss breaking down in tears. Professionalism, that was the key.
‘It’s one week, Sullivan,’ she muttered to herself. ‘Get over yourself. In seven days you’ll be in England with him, getting ready to bring him back. Enjoy the peace until then.’
Except next time it might be for longer. A whole term, even. And what if he didn’t want to come home to her in the holidays? No, she wasn’t thinking about that. Whatever her father said about British schools, about having family around, Finn’s place was with her. The local schools were great, and Finn’s Turkish was really coming along. He’d be fine.
She swallowed, and stepped back into the coolness of the Azure lobby. Even in late September Kuşadasi still enjoyed the warmth of the Turkish climate. In a few weeks, she knew, the locals would start pulling on sweaters and mumbling about the chill in the air—while she, and the few remaining tourists in town at the end of the season, would still be down at the beach, enjoying the sun.
This time next year Finn would have started school. The only question left to answer definitively was, where?
‘Did Finn and your parents leave for the airport okay?’ Esma asked, looking up from the reception desk, her long red nails still resting on her keyboard.
Sadie nodded, not trusting herself to speak just yet.
‘He’s so excited about having a holiday with his grandparents,’ Sadie’s second in command carried on, regardless. ‘And the timing is just perfect, too.’
Sadie kept nodding. Then she blinked. ‘It is?’
Esma tilted her head to study her, and Sadie tried to pull herself into her best boss posture and expression. She had the suit, the hair, the make-up—all the things she usually hid behind when she didn’t quite know what to do. That armour had