Excerpt of Diamonds and Toads: A Modern Fairy Tale by K.E. Saxon

Delilah was so high with happiness, she felt as if she floated across the parking garage toward her car. She sighed. They’d finally kissed. She lifted her fingers to her lips. They still tingled from the warm contact. It had been as wonderful as she’d dreamed it would be. He’d tasted so masculine, felt so strong. It’d made her feel feminine, sexy even.

She shook her head and grinned. She was going to marry Chas Regan. Amazing.

All this time she’d been pining away for the guy and—who knew?—he’d been doing the same thing for her!

Since he’d returned to the family business a year ago, moved back to Houston from Boston, they had formed a companionable friendship. Based mostly on their shared interest in charity work. He was very much involved in funding for cancer research—his mother had died of a rare form of it a little less than two years ago—and that was one of Delilah’s pet charities as well.

Once they’d met up again at a charity benefit, become reacquainted, they’d started sharing meals together several times a week, sometimes twice in the same day. He’d even begun confiding in her about his devastation at his mother’s sudden illness and death, a thing, she was sure, he didn’t speak of with others. And the more she learned about him, the man he’d grown up to be, the more she’d fallen in love with him.

Of course, she, being the fat one in her family, never thought for a second that he could ever think of her in any romantic way.

She stopped walking and thrust her hand out in front of her. The ring sparkled, even in the dim light, and the fit was perfect. He must have done some sleuthing to get it just right. The thought of him planning for weeks such a romantic proposal gave her a giddy feeling in her chest. He loved her! Oh, he hadn’t said the words—he wasn’t the sort, she knew. So many men weren’t. At least that’s what she’d read in loads of women’s magazines. But she hoped that one day, somehow, she’d finally get him to say them aloud.

She started to walk again, and then it became a jog, and then a full-out run, which wasn’t easy in her floral print slim lined dress. She couldn’t wait to tell her stepmother and half-sister! Wouldn’t their jaws drop to the floor! Not only had she managed to pull their family back into the financial realm they’d been in before her father’s imprisonment, but, she, Delilah Perrault, had snagged the one perfect prospect her stepmother had pegged to be her skinny, beautiful half-sister’s future husband.

* * *

Chas hung up the phone. Relief washed over him. The creditors were going to give him until a week from this coming Monday to wire them the money now that he had access to some funds.

He sat back and gnawed on a piece of dead skin next to his fingernail. Okay, asking Delilah to marry him hadn’t been the noblest way to deal with his dilemma. But he’d been desperate. He’d briefly thought of simply asking her for the money, but he’d quickly nixed it. He needed this all kept under wraps, and keeping her in the dark about it while he ‘borrowed’ some of her money—just long enough to swing things back in his favor—seemed the best plan of action.

His already burning stomach twisted into a knot and he popped several antacids into his mouth. Okay. He admitted it. He’d taken advantage of a sweet girl who had a crush on him so that he could keep the hounds at bay a little longer—and get hold of those funds he needed.

He’d pay her back. With interest. And heck, he just might go through with the marriage, too. If she really wanted him. He liked her a lot. She was a good friend. And easy to talk to. Most times, made him feel calm and settled inside. His stomach hardly ever gave him grief when he was with her. That was something, wasn’t it?

She was pretty, too. Electric blue eyes, dark silky hair, long limbs, but soft and curvy. At five-eight, she was just right for his own six-three height.

And, dear God, that kiss they’d shared! It had sent shock waves all the way through him. No, it wouldn’t be such a bad match. Not such a bad match at all.

Except, he needed her to be on his arm over the next few months while he proved to his creditors that he was a responsible sort—they could trust him with their money. So, he’d best spend a little less time at the office and spend some real time with her. Not in bed, of course. He wouldn’t be that much of a bastard. Once he’d paid back the money, then yes. After that kiss—hell yes. But not until then.

His gaze dropped to the ring box on his desk. Good thing his last fiancée—the fourth to be exact—had over-nighted that ring to his office eight months ago. It had come in handy.

* * *