Midas left with a kick of a chair toward a window, leaving a web of cracks where it struck. He jerked his arm from the security guard’s attempt to hold on to it, but he left.
The whole room exhaled. Everyone looked to each other with mixtures of shock and astonishment.
They had done it!
Light-headed with triumph, Ilona tried to gather some semblance of order.
“Has everyone met my husband?” she asked, hand shaking as she indicated him, unable to resist a proprietary sweep of her hand down his silk tie. “Leander will be voting my shares for the foreseeable future. He’ll recuse when we negotiate my salary, obviously. Let’s finish this as quickly as possible.” She wanted him to herself. She wanted to go home.
She started to walk around to where Hercules was righting the chair Midas had vacated, but Leander caught her hand to draw her back.
“Do you know how incredible you are?” He stood her right in front of him and looked deep into her eyes, not seeming to care they had all these witnesses. “Do you understand how much I admire and love you? Because I love you more than I can express. Nothing matters if you’re not in my life.”
She had to swallow her heart back into place. His words shook her to her core. She was hardly able to bear the naked emotion in his eyes. He could have turned on her, but he loved her. She felt it soaking into her cells and membranes and soul. She might burst with the sheer volume of the seemingly endless pouring of joy into her being.
“I love you, too,” she assured him shakily.
His arm looped behind her back and he lightly crushed her into his front.
As his mouth settled on hers, she heard Hercules say with amusement, “That goes in the minutes, too, that they love each other. In case there’s any doubt in future.”
There wouldn’t be.