"What do you think?"
The smile that sprang so readily to his lips made her as happy as him being here. "I think we've had a well-deserved weekend away from business."
"And a weekend to reconnect."
She half expected him to bristle at the inference or make some smart-ass comment that they'd never connected in the first place but thankfully, he didn't. That alone demonstrated how far they'd come this weekend.
Jax had opened up to her, had revealed more about his buried insecurities than she'd ever imagined, had cemented what she'd secretly hoped since he'd arrived unexpectedly.
That he cared as much as she did.
Everything he'd said, everything he'd done this weekend, proved it.
She'd have to broach the topic of their future eventually but for now, she was content to bask in the romance of a decadentweekend away with her husband, as they sat on the verandah of the cottage taking in the view.
"About that…"
The mischievous twinkle in his eyes made her pulse leap.
"What?"
"Reconnecting." He brushed a kiss across her lips and she sighed, content for him to kiss her forever.
He whispered against the side of her mouth. "I've got a surprise for you."
"I'm all for surprises," she said, thinking nothing could top the refreshing ways he continued to invent for pleasuring her in the bedroom.
He slid a hand into his jacket pocket, pulled out a small square box, and held it out to her on his palm.
Her heart stuttered and stalled before firing as if it had been shot with adrenalin.
If that box contained what she thought it did, she'd been wrong.
Surprise didn't come close to describing what she was feeling.
Elation? Joy? Love that defied logic?
She shouldn't have fallen in love with him so quickly, shouldn't have fallen at all. They were so different, worlds apart, but none of that mattered as he gazed at her as if she was the only woman in the world for him.
"Go ahead, open it."
Her fingers trembled and she shook her head. "You do it."
"Okay." His cocky grin reeked of a guy who knew he had her, a guy confident in his ability to woo and charm and confound.
She held her breath as he eased open the lid of the crimson velvet box, not caring it wasn't one of theSeabornsignature navy boxes, not caring much beyond anything but seeing the ring he'd chosen for her.
"For you."
The breath she'd been holding whooshed out in disappointment as she stared at the half carat ruby and diamond cluster.
She shouldn't be so ungrateful, but as an engagement ring, it ranked a lowly two out of ten. Not her taste, not her style, not what she'd imagined at all.
Oblivious to her shock, he plucked it out of the box and held it out.
"It's a promise ring. It means I promise not to be too much of a jerk about this fake marriage when we sort out where we go from here."
Numb with ice trickling through her veins, she watched him slide it onto the ring finger of herrighthand.
