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“Victoria,” I call, as she lays her hand on the brass handle. She turns to look at me and I’m struck with uncharacteristic nerves. “I…” I take a deep breath and collect myself. “I was going to do this at the party, although thinking of it now, I can’t imagine why I ever thought that was a good idea.”
Her eyes are narrowed as she waits in silence.
I slip my hands out of the pockets of my tuxedo pants as I close the distance between us.
When I drop to one knee, I hear her suck in a breath and smile.
Once again, I was worried for nothing.
“I know this might be a bit sooner than expected. Sooner than we had discussed…” I shake my head to get myself back on track. “Vic, you have changed my life in ways I never thought were possible. You saw something in me that no one has ever seen, and fought for me in ways I didn’t think I deserved. I don’t know if a hundred years would be enough time to repay you for how thoroughly you have saved me, but I want to try. And I want to start now. No more waiting. I love you more than life itself. Marry me.”
The ring is in a tiny velvet box, tucked into my jacket pocket. I retrieve it with surprisingly steady hands and present it to her. Its sparkle matches the glimmer in her eyes.
“Ben, goddamn it, I spent an hour on my eye make-up.” Her words come with a choked laugh as she shakes her head and dabs carefully at the tears pooling in her eyes.
“You look perfect. You are perfect.”
A smile spreads across her face as she looks down at me, make-up forgotten, tears now allowed to escape from her eyes and blaze little trails down her cheeks. “I would have been bawling my eyes out at the party in front of everyone.”
“Victoria, if you don’t say yes, I might die down here.”
“Yes, of course yes.”
She grabs my hands with both of hers and pulls me to my feet. Our lips meet and a calm washes over me like a cool breeze. This is the rest of my life. I get to have this woman. I somehow deserve this.
She lets me slip the ring on her finger, a delicate gold band holding the largest single cut diamond I could get my hands on, surrounded by a constellation of tiny rubies.
“Ben…” she whispers, turning her hand side to side and watching the gems sparkle. “It’s beautiful.”
I smile down at her, so much joy running through my veins that I feel buoyant and bulletproof. “It’s a beacon, one that will always lead me to you. No matter how well you try to hide.”
Her eyes drift back up to meet mine and I see a flash of playfulness before her gaze softens to reflect my love back to me. A sight I will never tire of as long as I live.
“Thank you,” she says finally.
I feel my forehead crease as I draw her now jewel-laden hand up to meet my lips. “You don’t have to thank me. This is my way of thanking you.”
She shrugs, not pulling her hand away. Not taking her eyes off mine. “I have a lot to be grateful for as well. Grateful that you stepped out of your comfort zone that first night. Grateful that you opened your life to a strange woman after years of being alone.”
I watch the emotions rise back into her face and when she speaks, I can hear them in her soft voice. “Grateful that you saw enough of what I saw when you looked beyond our little games, into the future. Grateful that you took a chance on this.”
“The bets with the longest odds have the greatest payoffs, after all.”
Her face breaks into a wide grin I can’t help but return.
“We were something of a dark horse, I guess.”
“I wouldn’t want it any other way. Dark horse, white horse, or, as fate has chosen, inside the black limo waiting outside—it’s us, together, against the world.”
Victoria
I began to understand the true meaning of wealth when I came to live in Ben’s New York estate eight months ago.
You’d think after all that time frolicking around the Merit Island house like a lady of leisure, enjoying the fruits of someone else’s labor, I’d be used to it. But the island life was different. It was easy to slide into the fantasy when everything around me was designed with vacation in mind.
Here in the real world, I feel like a goddamn princess.
Or maybe a queen…
