He was kissing her. He was burying himself in her, and as angry and frustrated as she was, Tracy couldn’t hold him off. She wanted to touch him as much as he seemed to need her. But eventually, she was able to pull back.
“Nathan—”
“I had to go,” he said. “By contract. Stephen made me put it in the contract that I would leave the very next morning.” He shrugged. “I think he wanted to make another play for you with me gone.”
She thought back. Stephen had been there that afternoon, but her decision had already been made. She’d refused to see the man, sent a message that their partnership was off, then got Nathan’s brother to bicycle-cart her to the airport.
“But I didn’t leave right away,” Nathan continued as he pulled something out of his pocket. “I stopped long enough to buy something. Because I thought…I hoped…” He dropped down onto one knee and held up a ring box from an exclusive Hong Kong jeweler.
Tracy stared at it. Then she looked at him, her thoughts whirling.
“I have enough money now,” he said. “To pay for my schooling. For yours. For whatever stockbrokers need to—”
“I don’t care about that,” she whispered. “I don’t care about the money. If I did, I would have stayed with Stephen.”
“Will you marry me, Tracy? I love you. I lied when I said I love all my students. What I feel for you goes way beyond anything I’ve ever done or felt.” His hands were shaking but his eyes were crystal clear and filled with hope. “It’s love like I can’t describe. I want to go to bed with you every night, work my fingers to the bone for our children during the day, and then—”
This time she was the one who cut him off with kisses. She wrapped her arms around him and didn’t give either of them time to breathe. Not for a long, long time. When she finally broke away from him, she whispered, “Yes. Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!” Then she dropped her forehead against his, her heartbeat still skittering inside her chest. “So, wanna take me to heaven for our honeymoon?”
Nathan lifted his head, and the look in his eyes took her breath away. “Anywhere, anytime, anyplace. Tracy, so long as you are by my side, I will go wherever you want.”
She smiled, stunned to realize that she felt as much love now as she ever had in heaven. She was surrounded, infused and steeped in love. And it was all for him and from him. “We’re already there, aren’t we?” she whispered in awe. “We’re already in heaven.”
“Yes,” he answered. Then he kissed her and she realized that it was true. Everything they needed was within them. And what was within them was love.