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“I think it’s possibly the most romantic thing you’ve ever done. Learning to pilot yourself so that we can do this.” She throws her arms wide to the grounds of the estate spread out below us. The movement makes her wobble in my arms, and she giggles as I curse.
Her sweater dress slips off her shoulder as she regains her balance, and the cloud tattoo peeks out. I reach up and run my thumb over it.
“Knowing you thought about covering it up when we were apart…” I force away the sourness creeping over my tongue. “It made me realize how much I fucked everything up.”
“Hey.” Rose turns and grabs either side of my face and brings my eyes to hers. “Don’t. It’s in the past. And I would have never done it. I told you that. We don’t need to think about the time we were apart. It’s gone. It’s done.”
She swipes her lips over mine in a gentle kiss. I do well most days not to curse myself for almost losing her. It used to creep up on me sometimes. But time and talking about it has helped since Rose came back to England with me.
Jasmin persuaded me to try therapy to process finding out about Julian being my biological father. Rose came with me once and talked about Julian and what he almost did to her. But she seemed content to let it go, burning the word fear on the bonfire afterward. For the first time, we burned the same word at the same time. I can’t be afraid that I almost lost her anymore. I can’t let the past stain our future. Time is too precious.
She is too precious.
Julian’s still awaiting trial. The bastard shows no remorse at all, and I cling to the certainty Rose has in her eyes each time she tells me I am nothing like him. She believes it, so I have to. I have to be the best man I can be for her.
And Sophie’s confident Julian’s going to be locked up for years. Maybe the trial will act as closure. Alistair said as much to me. My half-brother wants to see our father go down as much as me.
Rose strokes my cheek, reading me. She always knows when I’m torturing myself. Blaming myself.
“Don’t,” she whispers against my lips.
“I can’t help it.” I squeeze my eyes shut and kiss her back, allowing her scent and her touch to center me again. The way they always do.
It’s strange how things work out, when given time. Sometimes the estate is so busy I can go an entire day without remembering all Rose and I have been through. And other days, like today, it can hit me at any given time. Some days, it hits me the second I wake up.
But now I wake up with Rose in my arms, and nothing can ever distinguish the way my heart pounds with joy when I see her face first thing in the morning. When I kiss her, sink myself inside her, love her with everything I am.
Because I do. Fuck, I do. And I’m determined never to live in the past again.
I kiss her again, and she nips at my lips playfully, making me groan. She giggles as my fingers flex on her waist, and I curse softly at the way she feels beneath my palms. She always makes it better, makes it sting less. Just by being her.
I kiss her once more, then spin her, wrapping my arms around her from behind as I leave the burner and allow us to float through the clouds.
“Go on then.”
“Go on what?” She leans back against my chest and sighs happily as she looks out at the view.
“Look for the silver lining.”
I wait for her to scan the clouds and pick one. But instead, she turns inside my arms and looks straight into my eyes.
“I’m staring right at it.”
“Nope.” I shake my head with a small smile and try to turn her again. “I’m not accepting that answer.”
“Stop.” She balls my shirt in her fists. “Remember what you said to me once?”
“That I’m going to marry you.” My lips twitch. I’ve made no secret of telling her that she will be Rose Silver before the year is over.
She thinks I’m joking.
I’m not.
She rolls her eyes with a smirk. “I mean when you said that I thought the world only saw my worst. But that you saw my best. That’s what I mean, Dax. I see yours. I see the beautiful shining parts of you that light up like glitter.”
She bites back her grin as I narrow my eyes at her. I was finding silver glitter for weeks after we came home from New York. Rose thought it was hilarious.
“It’s a trick of the light.” I look up at the envelope of the balloon.
