Epilogue #3
Another of the thousands of reasons she loved her prince.
“Roger that,” Raul’s pilot said before his jet flipped up a wing and turned away.
“Well, I gotta say, that’s a first for me,” Rocky said.
“A marriage proposal in your plane?” Erica asked, feeling so buoyant with joy that she could probably hold up the jet if its engines failed.
“Not just any proposal. A royal proposal,” the pilot said. “Hella romantic. Congratulations!”
“Thank you. I’m over the moon.”
“Your prince went to a lot of trouble to make it special,” Rocky said. “And not everyone has the guts to get launched off a carrier.”
“Raul is the bravest, most thoughtful man I’ve ever known,” Erica said. And now he officially belonged to her. She hugged the knowledge to her as happiness surged through her.
“He’s not too hard on the eyes either,” Rocky said.
Erica laughed as she pictured him stretched out on their bed, naked, with a seductive smile lighting his blue eyes. “He sure isn’t.”
“Okay, we’ve been cleared into the break, so we’ll be at eight hundred feet coming around for landing,” Rocky said.
“You’re going to hear a bang and a screech as the arresting wire spools out, and then you’ll feel like your harness is going to separate your arms and legs from your body. So prepare yourself.”
Erica tried to pay attention to the skillful flying required to land a high-speed jet on a moving surface that only looked large enough when you got very close.
But her soul was already on the deck, searching for Raul.
Even the sense of hitting a brick wall as they went from a hundred and fifty miles an hour to a full stop in less than two seconds couldn’t shake her focus.
Staying strapped into her seat as the deck crew directed the jet to the parking area was the hardest thing she had ever done.
It seemed like forever before Rocky opened the canopy and a couple of crew members raced forward to help her out of the jet.
She just managed to thank her pilot for the ride of her life before she clambered out and ripped off her helmet, scanning the deck to find her brand-new fiancé.
And then he was there, picking her up and twirling her around, his arms wonderfully strong around her. “Mi amor, mi corazón,” he said. “Even better, mi prometida! My fiancée!”
He set her down only to lower his mouth to hers and kiss her with fierce passion. He released her and took both her hands in his before he sank gracefully to one knee. He had to shout above the noise of jet engines. “Just to make sure… Will you marry me and be my love for the rest of our lives?”
“Yes! Sí! Oui! ” she shouted back. “For the rest of our lives.”
“My heart is full,” he yelled before pulling a small velvet bag from his flight suit pocket and tipping a ring onto his palm.
She held out her hand, loving the feel of his warm fingers on hers as he slid on the ring. Of course it fit perfectly because he had planned every detail of this day.
“It’s blue,” she said, surprised at the color of the large square stone sparkling in the sunlight.
Raul stood, taking her hands again. “Like the sky you love so much. It’s a blue diamond that I took from a necklace in the royal vault. I had the setting crafted especially for you.”
She brought the ring closer to her eyes, their hands still clasped together. The gold prongs holding the stone were dragon claws. She looked up at him. “I love everything about it.” She stood on her toes. “But more importantly, I love you.”
And then she kissed him with all the adoration swelling in her heart.
******
Thank you for reading ROYAL CALEVA: RAUL!
I hope you enjoyed Raul and Erica’s journey to the happily-ever-after they so richly deserved.