Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Igauzu Falls, Brazil
ZOE
Ithought Rio would be my favorite place in Brazil, and I did love it, but the stunning mountain top house overlooking Igauzu Falls is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life.
Technically Connor is in Brazil on business, but in Rio he made time to sightsee with me and to go out at night. The music and dancing were fantastic, and it was so much fun. Being on vacation with him is wonderful.
The house over the falls is surreal. Morning mist greets me when I go out onto the deck to do yoga. The canopy of green stretches as far as the eye can see in one direction. In the other, there’s the massive range of roaring waterfalls. Here, nature is king.
“Morning. Sorry,” someone says.
I straighten and turn to find Derrick Miller on the top step just below the deck’s platform. He has binoculars in his hand.
“It’s all right.” I quickly grab my robe and wrap it around myself because I’m only wearing tiny boy short style undies and a camisole.
I wasn’t expecting to run into anyone, except possibly C.
The massive house has two wings that are connected by a stone-tiled glass corridor.
None of C’s men have used the walkway to come to our side of the house, not even Sasha.
“Are you working?” I ask as he starts to turn away.
“Derrick?” I grimace at my slip. Trick gave me some good advice on how to smooth things over between Miller and me.
Trick said to be polite but formal with him.
Because of that advice, if I call Miller by name, it’s using his last name.
I think it’s helped, which is important to me.
Miller has risen in C Crue and, next to Anvil, he’s C’s main bodyguard.
He also routinely bodyguards me again, too.
“I can wait,” Miller says. “Please finish. I’ll come back in…thirty?”
“What do you need to do?” I ask, beckoning him up onto the deck, trying to show him that I respect the importance of his doing his job.
“Security. We scan every day at four- to six-hour intervals. I’m on this morning. Thought I’d get the first sweep done.”
“Go ahead. Please.” I move to the back of the deck with my mat to wait.
He frowns, then finally nods and goes to the wood rail. He raises the binoculars and starts what seems to be a systematic process of examining pretty much everything in his line of sight. It takes several minutes for him to move from one side of the deck to the other. Very thorough.
“All set,” he says finally, striding back to the stairs.
I don’t speak again. That was Trick’s other advice. “Be nice, but don’t try too hard to be his friend. Miller thinks it’s disrespectful to C to get too friendly with you.”
When Miller’s gone and there’s no sound but the water and the wind again, I return to my morning yoga.
I’m almost finished when I hear the boards creak.
Pausing in my pose, I look over to find C leaning against the rail.
I close my eyes and try to concentrate. It doesn’t work. I finish my stretch and then stand.
“Good morning,” I say, crossing the deck to him.
“Why’d you stop? Because of me?”
“I was finished…or close enough.”
“You never stop dancing when I come to watch you in the studio.”
“No, that’s different. Working on choreography is kind of like rehearsal. Having people around doesn’t bother me, especially when it’s you. I like when you watch me. There’s a special energy from our chemistry. I’ve done some of my best work with you in the doorway.”
He smiles. “Yoga’s not the same?”
“With yoga, I’m trying to connect with universe in a different way. I’m searching for calm and serenity. When you show up looking so magnificent, I feel many things, but calm isn’t one of them.” My hands slide over his bare chest.
“Sorry to be a distraction, but watching you do yoga is better than porn.”
I laugh. “Come on, C. Don’t tell me that! How am I going to forget you said that?”
He smirks.
“All right. Let’s go inside,” I say. “I’ll make us coffee that we can drink out here. It’s so beautiful, right? Maybe we should work from here today.”
“I’m off today.”
My smile widens. “Really? So then I guess we’ll do what? A helicopter ride over the falls?”
“Yeah, I booked a private boat tour. Gonna be wet.”
“That’ll be amazing. Thank you,” I say, throwing my arms around his neck to give him a kiss.
“Speaking of amazing,” he murmurs. He pulls my arms from around his neck, making my smile fade. He holds my hands in his for a moment, and my heart starts to pound. What’s happening?
Then he lowers himself to one knee and I freeze, the breath catching in my throat and refusing to move.
“Oh, my God,” I whisper.
He waits for a moment, and my head starts to feel light. Is this…? Or isn’t it?
“Zoe, there’s something I need to say. The truth is…
a few weeks ago when you were excited about that collaboration offer with the prestigious theater company in the UK, you called it an honor.
Like winning a Tony. But to take the opportunity you’d have had to move to London for at least six months. ”
My mind’s jumping around. I don’t know why he’s bringing up something from weeks ago. These aren’t the words I’m waiting to hear right now, but I try to concentrate.
“The way the thought of a long distance relationship hit me told me a lot about the way I feel. The thought of your being gone again, even temporarily, felt like a kick in the gut. Then you smiled at your phone’s screen and sent an immediate reply.
It surprised me how fast you sent a response, so I asked what you decided. Do you remember what you said?”
I open my mouth, but my mind’s blank. Shaking my head because I can’t speak prompts him to keep going.
“You said, ‘I said no, of course. In another life maybe, but I’d be miserable living in London without you. I just got back my happy life, C. Nothing in the world would make me leave it.’” He swallows and licks his lips, pausing.
“No hesitation. No worry about regrets. You knew what you wanted. It’s for us to be in this life together.
That’s what I want, too. And I want it for more than a year or two.
I need you to know you’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.
And the one I want as mine for the rest of my life.
” He raises his fist up to his heart. “You don’t have to answer now.
You just turned twenty-three, Z. It’s young.
” He blows out a breath. “But it’s not too young to make this decision if you really feel ready to make it. ”
“Please ask me,” I say, tears welling in my eyes. “Please.” I can’t catch my breath.
He extends his hand and turns his fist up, so I can see his curled fingers. When he opens them, there’s a diamond engagement ring resting on his palm.
“Will you marry me?”
I cover my face with my hands, unable to stop myself from bursting into tears. Because he’s waiting on my answer, I nod vigorously. I’m crying so hard I can’t speak.
He stands and pulls me against him, pressing his fist against my lower back and cupping the back of my head with his left hand. Great wrenching sobs take me over. I literally can’t stop crying.
“Hey,” he says softly, holding me tight. “Come on, baby.”
The crying goes on for so long that he picks me up and carries me to a chair. I sit on his lap with my arms around his neck and my head buried against him.
Finally, finally, I get control of myself. “I’m sorry. I’m so happy,” I say, my voice breaking.
“You sure?” he teases.
“Yes,” I say with a broken laugh. I rub my eyes and my cheeks, trying to fix the mess I’ve made of my face. “Let me see my ring.”
He takes my hand and slides the ring on my finger. It fits perfectly.
There’s a massive round domed diamond that’s set in a sort of crown circle of other diamonds. Below the crown, there are vertical rows of more diamonds that finally give way to a platinum band. It’s the most stunning engagement ring I’ve ever seen.
My lips press together, and I catch them between my teeth. Then I shake my head at myself because I start crying again.
C huffs out an amused breath and sits back in the wooden chair, holding me against him.
“It’s so incredible,” I manage to say.
“It had to be to suit you.” He strokes my back, soothing me. “Wanna hear about it? Or is it less romantic to know the numbers?”
“Tell me. I want to know everything.”
“Center stone’s two-point-seven carats. There are a hundred and four half-carat diamonds making up the rest of the setting.
Total carat weight is about eight and a half.
It’s got a pedigree, too. A master jeweler in London made it sometime around 1849.
” He pauses, then says in his gorgeous low voice, “It once belonged to a queen. And now it does again.”
The tears continue to fall, but I kiss him anyway, trying to convey how much I love him and how much this moment means to me.
It once belonged to a queen. And now it does again.
Best ring. Best proposal. Best love. Ever.