Page 109 of Just Between Us

I looked up at Royal. “What is this?”

His finger stroked down my face and stopped under my chin. “I wanted a moment. Just between us.”

Heat flooded my cheeks. As he always did, Royal knew the crowd drained my social battery, and a quiet moment was exactly what I needed.

I stood in front of the calm pond and soaked in the moment. Royal’s hands smoothed up my shoulders and caressed my neck.

He turned to face me. His hands lay gently on my collarbone. “Veda, before I met you, I was lost. My soul was drifting without anything grounding me.” Love and passion poured out of him, and my throat grew thick as he spoke. “You’ve anchored me in a way I didn’t even realize I needed. You give me strength and confidence. Life with you is all the adventure I need.”

His hands were holding mine, and unspoken emotion was bubbling on my lips when he brought a hand to my cheek. “Idon’t know for certain you feel the same way, so I’m going to have to leap before I look, for one last time.”

Holding my hands, Royal lowered his hulking frame to one knee. “Veda Bauer, will you marry me?”

My hand flew to my mouth as tears flooded behind my eyelids. His brown eyes held mine, and I struggled to find my voice. “Yes!” I choked out with a laugh. “Yes!”

My arms flung around his neck, and I surged forward, knocking Royal off his knee and flat on his back. I peppered his face with kisses, and his arms banded around my middle. His rumbling laugh thumped against my chest as I kissed him.

When I finally looked down at him, his face was pure sunshine. “Don’t you even want to see the ring?”

I laughed again and grinned, nodding. Royal shifted, placing me next to him on the ground before he dug into the pocket of his slacks. Carefully, he removed a small wooden box. My eyes were transfixed as he slowly opened it.

Set against a navy cushion was a pear-cut salt-and-pepper diamond surrounded by small round and marquise stones. It was stunning and unique andperfect.

Royal grinned. “A black diamond for my black cat, because there’s not a damn thing about you I would change.”

I gazed down at him, my dark hair cocooning us. “I love you, Dwayne James King. Let’s get married.”

He laughed and rolled us so his weight pressed me into the soft grass. With nothing short of all the love in the world, he grinned down at me before pressing his lips to mine and pulling me under.