Reckless Abandon(102)

“Fate meant for us to find each other. The day I dreaded is also the day you were brought into this world. How can I hate such a day that created the most perfect vision on the planet? So I waited for today, the day that I no longer want to look on with sadness but as the day my life begins again.

“Will you marry me? Will you make me the happiest man by being the first person I see at the beginning of the day and the last person I kiss at night? Will you be my wife and be my family? Will you, Emma Paige . . . will you be Mrs. Alexander Gutierrez?”

Io sono il suo.

I am his.

I practically fall to the ground and into his arms. Taking his head in my hands I kiss him. I kiss his eyes and his nose and his mouth and his chin. I kiss him all over and with each kiss I say the words. “Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.”

Those full, lush lips widen into a gorgeous smile as he takes my mouth into his, sealing the moment. He holds up my left hand and slides the ring onto my finger. I look down at it and can’t believe how stunning it is.

“This is too much. We can’t afford it,” I say and my heartbeat comes down from its historic elevation.

“Why can’t we afford it?”

“Because you kept your name. You gave up the business,” I say and then stagger back. “Didn’t you?”

He plays with the ring on my finger. “This looks perfect on you—”

“Alex—”

“I did. Are you mad?”

“Mad?” I blink back. “No. I’m relieved. But, you didn’t do this because you thought it’s what I wanted, did you?”

He slowly shakes his head, his hands holding me from behind, the warmth of them enveloping me. “No, I did it for us. Before you, I never believed anyone would want me as the poor kid from Pittsburgh. I never wanted any of it. I just needed someone to believe in me in order to give it up.”

“I do believe in you. I want to be your wife even if that means we have nothing.”

“I wouldn’t say we have nothing—”

I sit back on my knees and rest my hands on my thighs, my head tilting up at him for an explanation. So he gives me one.

“I signed the company over to the board of trustees, claiming my name and seizing everything that was bought under Asher Industries. But, I still got to keep a few things.”

“Huh?” Yeah, that’s all that I can muster.

“There’s Black Dog,” he says pointing to me as if I’m familiar with it, which I am. “I also own a production company and then there’s stock I purchased with my own money and a trust fund from my great-grandfather that’s untouched.”

“Oh.” My lips purse together in confusion. “Alex, that’s not considered poor.”

“It is when you consider the fact I just signed over a billion-dollar business.”

I laugh and shake my head at my sweet Alexander. He is going to have to give up his three thousand–dollar scotch. The plane is definitely gone too. I hope he likes shaving his own beard.

“How were you able to keep the recording studio? Wasn’t that an Asher property?”

“Actually, It’s an Emma Paige property. I transferred it to your name the day I saw you teaching that boy how to hold a violin. I fell in love with you in that very moment. Something changed in me. All the anger I was holding, all the doubt I had vanished. And when you threw that violin at me in the back of the car? That was when I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life chasing you until you came back to me.”

I feel like the Grinch whose heart grew three sizes because mine is about to explode. I’m not going to lie. I’m scared. I am absolutely petrified that this is too good to be true. Frightened how tomorrow it could all fall apart. I could lose Alexander and I could lose myself.

But I’m not going to let the possible hurt keep me from experiencing happiness. Never again. I am going to live and I am going to love and I am going to burn.

“What about the school? Will the Juliette Academy have to close?” The sudden guilt at what his decision means to the future of the greatest school I’ve ever known his me hard.

“The school is fine. They gave it to me as a parting gift. Looks like no one on the board wants to be bothered with it. What do you say, wanna run a school with me?”

“I’d love nothing more.” And it’s the truth. It’s not the life I chose but it’s the one that I was meant to live. “Thank you for choosing us.”

“Thank you for choosing me.”





ALEXANDER


A glass of Glen in my hands and the sun on my back. Not a bad way to start your day.

Especially when it’s going to end with Emma Gutierrez in your bed.

My hands are wrapped around the hand of the only woman I have ever truly loved. And she looks radiant.

Her hair is down and loose like the first time I saw her. She asked if I had any special requests for our wedding day and this was it: to have her hair down.

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I had just sent Malory back to the mainland when Mateo, our deck hand, alerted me of Devon’s arrival. I was looking for him when I heard a song coming from the one room on the ship no one was allowed. My music room was my space for personal reflection. The one place I could be me, the real me.

When I heard music coming from that room, I was livid. Knuckles ready for a fight, I stormed in there to find out who could be so defiant. Imagine my surprise to find an angel.