“I was appreciating the investment.”
He leans back slightly in his chair, amused.
“Was that what you were appreciating?”
My cheeks warm. “Yes. Definitely nothing else.”
He looks at me knowingly, and my breath stutters. I already know I’m going to pay for this in the bedroom. Don Neri does not take kindly to secrets—and me keeping to myself just how much I want to jump his bones right now definitely counts as one.
Dinner is, in one word, perfect.
The food. The wine. The girls drifting in and out of the room, laughing like this is the last night of an old life before everything changes.
I soak it all in.
Because it feels like something important.
When the plates are cleared, I reach across the table and take Nico’s hand.
“Thank you,” I say quietly. “That was perfect.”
He studies me for a moment.
“Not everything is perfect yet.”
Before I can ask what he means, music starts.
A string quartet steps into the corner of the room.
I blink.
“What—”
Nico stands.
Then he walks around the table.
And gets down on one knee.
My heart completely stops.
“Isabella Eleonora Hartwell,” he says.
His voice is calm, but there’s something in his eyes that steals the air from my lungs.
“I spent most of my life believing kings stand alone.”
He takes my hand.
“You proved me wrong.”
Emotion rises so fast in my chest I can barely breathe.
“You are my queen,” he says quietly. “You always were. I was just too stubborn to admit it.”
He opens the small velvet box.
The ring inside catches the light. It’s a beautiful vintage piece, with a ridiculously huge diamond in the middle and a cluster of smaller stones crowded around it.
