Unwind My Resolve: Regal Rights Book #3 Page 10

  Would it turn out the same? Would I wake up every morning and want Sophia with me? Of course, I would. But would Sophia move on in the same way that she’d started to before I turned up? If I had appeared on her doorstep any other day, she would have already had a job lined up, and we would be in a different place.

  Did it mean something that I came to Dallas when I did? Did that mean we were meant to be, or was I sticking my nose where it didn’t belong?

  All I knew was that I didn’t want to be without her ever again.

  She seemed to be on the same page as me, but she’d held back from telling me about the job offer for some reason. Was it because she wanted to come with me, or was she afraid I would leave as soon as I heard it?

  Getting back into bed, I wanted to shake her awake and pick her brain, but if she was already pissed at me, forcing her to talk to me would make it worse.

  No, I had to wait until the morning. At least until her head was clear and we could have a proper conversation.

  I jumped out of bed and strode across the room.

  I couldn’t wait until the morning. I could barely wait another ten seconds. I had come here to do something, and I intended to do it. The choice was Sophia’s, but she needed to know exactly why I showed up unannounced and professed my love for her. I wasn’t going anywhere, and I hoped she wouldn’t either.

  Grabbing my phone from the table, I texted Gerard, telling him to prepare everything and that I would pay him double what we’d agreed on.

  He replied within a few minutes. As if a warning shot went off, I went into planning mode.

  The more I moved, the less my nerves got to me. If I stopped for any reason, I was afraid I would rip all the hair out of my head. Other than claiming my spot at the throne in front of the council, I had never been so nervous before.

  I sneaked into the bedroom and grabbed my suitcase, pulling it into the bathroom. Closing the door as silently as I could, I changed.

  Dressed in my last suit, the one I had saved for this very occasion, I stood in front of Sophia’s sleeping form and took one more shaky breath before leaning down and shaking her shoulder.

  “Sophia,” I hissed. I wasn’t sure why I was so quiet. There was no one else around.

  I cleared my throat and tried again. “Sophia, wake up!”

  She jolted awake and sat up. “What? Luke, what is it?”

  I sat on the bed next to her. “I need you to get dressed.”

  She shoved her hair off her face and turned to the alarm clock on the side table next to the bed. “What time is it?”

  “Three,” I said.

  “In the morning?” she asked, more confused than ever.

  “Just, please trust me,” I said.

  “Luke, I don’t understand.”

  I helped her out of bed. Turning on the light in the bathroom, it gave us enough illumination to navigate the bedroom. Injuring her before arriving at our location wasn’t in the plan.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Why are you dressed like that?”

  The more she asked, the fewer excuses I gave her. She would find out when we got there. I feared if I gave it all away too soon, she might refuse to come.

  I had chosen a good time because in her sleep-delirium, she was quite pliable and went along with helping me get her dressed.

  While I would have wanted to make it a formal affair, I wasn’t going to have her freeze to death. The temperature at night in Dallas put frost on the windows, so I dressed her in black pants and a nice blouse. I hoped all of this would be worth it for her. Years from now, we would laugh about it.

  Hopefully.

  After getting her fully dressed, Sophia shoved away from me and stalked into the bathroom. “I can dress, you know?”

  Whether it was because of the conversation from yesterday or me waking her up—or an unhealthy mix of both—she wasn’t pleased to be doing what I asked.

  While she was in there, I paced the room, cracking my knuckles until the pressure started to hurt.

  Had I been too quick to push us into the situation? In my sleep-deprived mind, this seemed like the only way. But was it? Should I have kept the schedule the way it was and done all the fanfare? Or would she appreciate the gesture?

  There was no going back now.

  My phone rang just as Sophia walked out of the bathroom.

  “Hello?” I answered.

  Sophia’s hair was back in a smooth bun at the nape of her neck. She wore a little makeup, enough to make it appear as if she hadn’t been sleeping ten minutes ago. Her eyes were slits as she grabbed her shoes and watched me out of the corner of her eyes. She wanted answers. She would have them soon enough.

  “Everything is ready,” Gerard said. “We’ll be waiting.”

  “Perfect,” I said, then hung up.

  “Who was that?” Sophia asked.

  “His name is Gerard.”

  “How do you know this Gerard, and what does he have to do with getting me up before the crack of dawn?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you going to tell me what this is all about?”

  “Not yet,” I said and indicated for her to follow me.

  She muttered something to herself, but I didn’t inquire about what she said.

  Outside, the Uber I’d called idled in front of the building. “Your chariot awaits.”

  I got a small smile out of her, but coupled with an eye roll, it didn’t quite have the effect I’d hoped for.

  Inside the car, Sophia peered into the front seat. Initially, I had no idea what she was looking for until I saw the driver’s phone attached to the dashboard of the car. The destination wasn’t listed, but even if it were, I’d only typed in the address.

  I was safe for now. It was only a matter of time before she found out about it, though.

  “I’m guessing you’re not going to tell me anything?” she asked.

  “Not yet,” I said.

  “Can you tell me why we needed to do this at three in the morning?” she asked.

  I wanted to take her hand and reassure her that everything was going to be okay, but then I thought better of it. My actions spoke louder than words and small gestures. “I’m not going to make the same mistakes I have in the past.”

  “With regard to what?”

  I turned to her. “To losing you. I won’t do it again.”

  “You could have told me that in the apartment,” she said.

  “I know,” I said. “But if I’m going to prove my love for you, I needed to bring you somewhere.”

  “Where is that?” she asked.

  I smirked. “Nice try. How about you stop trying to guess and just go with the flow?”

  “I’m a reporter,” she said and then frowned. “I was a reporter.”

  I knew she was thinking of our conversation from earlier in the night. I didn’t care that she already had another job lined up, but I wanted to throw my hat in the ring so she could make an educated choice about her future. I would accept her decision either way, even if I had to drag my tail between my legs all the way back to Qatar, but for some reason, I had a feeling that I held the upper hand. I just needed Sophia on board.

  “What is open at this hour?” she asked. “Unless this is an outdoor excursion?”

  “We’ll be inside shortly,” I said.

  “Good,” she said with a shiver. Maybe I hadn’t picked the warmest outfit for her.

  Soon enough, she would be fine.

  * * *

  The Uber driver pulled up to the curb in front of a building. The store was the only one with lights on. The glittering glass cases inside were a beacon for us.

  Sophia leaned closer to the window and peered inside the building. “This is a jewelry store.”

  “Yes, it is,” I said.

  Gerard came out the front doors and approached the car. He opened Sophia’s door for her and helped her out.

  “Good evening—or morning, I suppose I should say.”

  “Hi?” Sophia said, more o
f a question than a greeting. She glanced at me.

  I shook hands with Gerard, and he led us inside.

  “You’re going to have to explain this to me,” she said.

  “In due time,” I said, pressing my hand against the small of her back and leading her into the building.

  16

  Sophia

  In the past, I had worked into the wee hours of the morning on a regular basis. Living on coffee and other caffeinated beverages was my thing. After a month of not working, my sleep became precious to me.

  Luke waking me up in a panic drew forth terrible thoughts in my mind. Was there a fire? Or a burglar? My building was safe, but no place was completely safe in our day and age.

  Luke’s lack of information worried me. After he refused to talk to me about the job interview, I thought for sure he would be on a plane back to Qatar. Initially, I thought his early morning wakeup call was to do just that, but I was mistaken.

  My mood improved only slightly when the cold air blasted me as we left the building. We were really doing this, whatever “this” was.

  In the past, Luke had surprised me by taking me to unexpected places, but this little jaunt took the cake.

  From the way he woke me up, it seemed like an emergency. Questioning him got me nowhere, but asking him the right question got me a little closer to what he planned. He said he wanted to prove his love to me. But I already knew he loved me. Did he think I stopped loving him because of the conversation from the night before? Sure, I was upset by the way he reacted, but neither of us ended the night in a good mood.

  In the few times that I had drifted from sleep to wake, I knew that Luke hadn’t gone to sleep at all. In fact, it had worried me so much that I pretended to be asleep so that he wouldn’t know that he was on my mind as well.

  But a jewelry store? And not just any store. This was in a prime location downtown. Did he think a necklace or bracelet would solve our issues? He was going to leave me in a day. I didn’t want anything from him, just him. Having something to remember him by would only add to my torture.

  The strange man that helped me from the Uber was dressed in a suit as if he were going to a wedding. His hair was slicked back, and he didn’t appear to be fazed by the hour. What was it about these men and looking so dashing before the sun even rose?

  Walking into the jewelry store, there weren’t any other employees in the building. I assumed this man was the only person helping us. But with what? Did Luke want to get something for his mother? Couldn’t he have done that during normal hours?

  The more questions that formed in my mind, the more my stomach sank.

  Luke took my hand and walked me to one of the cases. Dozens of sparkling diamonds twinkled on gold and silver bands. “Do you see anything you like?”

  “I don’t understand all of this,” I said. “What are you doing? What are we doing here?”

  The man—Gerard—walked away from us and stood across the room behind a glass partition, giving us some privacy.

  Luke took both of my hands in his. “Sophia, ever since I met you, you’ve managed to make me rethink everything in my life. Never have I met anyone that challenged my way of thinking while grounding me in my life. You’ve always been so patient with me. You even went as far as pretending to be my girlfriend, traveling to a faraway place while keeping your head about you. I admire your intelligence, and I want you to know that I wouldn’t be the man I am today without you.”

  I glanced at the case next to us, and what he was doing smacked me in the face. I opened my mouth to say something, but he shook his head.

  “Please, let me finish. Being without you is an impossibility for me. You’ve turned my world upside down. I can’t feel or see anything correctly unless you are by my side. I came to America to check in with you, to make sure that you felt the same way. And over these last few days, I know you do. I don’t care that you lied about the job. I had planned to come here and bring you back into my life for good. I hoped that by showing you that through it all, we can be a normal couple, even though we’re going to live a very extraordinary life. I can’t live without you, and I wanted to tell and show you that.”

  “Okay,” I said, for once in my life almost completely speechless.

  “What it all comes down to is that I want you to be my queen.”

  My breath caught in my throat. We always danced around that particular topic, so hearing it from his lips made it all very real.

  “Now, all we need is a ring to make it official.” Luke glanced at the case next to us, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

  “I didn’t say yes yet,” I said, getting his attention to move back to me. Nothing that Luke did was orthodox. Who took a girl into a jewelry store in the middle of the night?

  “Well, then,” Luke said, dropping down to one knee. “I suppose this is what you’re looking for. Sophia, will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?”

  “Yes,” I said without hesitation.

  He popped up from the floor and kissed me. Even though we were fully clothed and in the middle of a public establishment, the kiss we shared was the most sensual of my life. It was slow and tender and made my toes curl most deliciously.

  When we broke apart, Luke called Gerard over to us.

  The man grinned as if he were a proud friend of Luke’s. In fact, I had no idea how they knew each other. But I bet Luke had given the man enough money for his time, and he was about to give him more. I would have been smiling, too, if I were him.

  Gerard turned on his salesman speech and went through the different types of rings displayed in the case. None of them had price tags on them, so I couldn’t balk at how much Luke was going to spend on my engagement ring.

  Engaged! I was friggin’ engaged. It hadn’t sunk in until I started trying on the rings. They were the prettiest and most delicate pieces of jewelry I’d ever tried on before. I was incredibly gentle with each of them, afraid of breaking them on the spot.

  Luke had his own opinions and convinced me to get a white gold band while the cut and shape of the diamond was up to me. I wasn’t a jewelry person. I tended to stick with stud earrings and maybe a necklace.

  Gerard was patient with me and went through the different types of diamonds that I could choose from.

  After I narrowed it down to three, I forced Luke to make the decision.

  “I want you to pick,” he said.

  “I did,” I said before he could say anything else. If I could have the upper hand in any part of this conversation, it was going to be at this moment. “None of this is traditional. I want you to at least pick the ring.”

  Without any hesitation, Luke grabbed the middle ring. It was the one I would have chosen for myself.

  He slipped it on my finger, and I held up my hand.

  “Beautiful,” he said.

  “I know,” I said, glancing at him. He wasn’t looking at the ring. He stared right into my eyes.

  The world around us fell into darkness, and I was only able to focus on Luke. A month ago, if anyone had said I would end up in a jewelry store with Luke, I would have said he or she was crazy. But being in the moment with the love of my life, I wondered why we hadn’t made it there faster. All of the family and political drama seemed like nothing compared to the feeling of happiness zipping through my veins.

  Luke kissed me again, a small peck on the mouth. Gerard excused himself to bring the bill to Luke.

  I was torn because I wanted to know how much the ring cost, but I knew if I did, I would probably be too afraid to wear it.

  “Should I take it off?” I asked Luke.

  “Never,” he said, bringing my hand up to his lips. His breath moved across my knuckles as he kissed each one.

  I grinned, and I had the urge to call Matt about everything that happened since Luke came to Dallas. I hadn’t told my best friend anything since seeing Luke again, just in case it didn’t work out. But Luke had me for good now.

  I bet his mother didn’t
even know what he had been planning when he came to Dallas.

  “Oh my gosh,” I said, voicing my question.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Does your mother know about this?”

  “Not exactly,” he said. This wasn’t news to him.

  She had hated me the moment I passed through the palace gates as his fake girlfriend. How the hell was she going to deal with me being her future daughter-in-law?

  “It will be fine,” Luke said as if reading my mind.

  “I’m not sure I want to be in the room when you tell her,” I said.

  He snaked an arm around my waist. “You’re going to have a hard time of that.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “I don’t plan on letting you out of my sight for very long ever again.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “You’re mine and don’t you forget it,” he growled close to my ear.

  I shivered with pleasure. “I won’t.”

  Gerard waved Luke over, and he left me to take care of the finances. In a million years, I never thought I would be the one to pick out my gorgeous ring. I always thought the women who did that were a little ditzy and too controlling. But for Luke and me, this was his grand gesture. He wanted to make sure I knew what he wanted and that I wanted the same.

  And how I did.

  Wandering around the store, I checked out the other pieces for sale. Everything sparkled as if it belonged to celebrities or supermodels about to walk down a runway. As much as I tended to be the frugal type, if I were to become queen to Luke’s king, I would have to change my mind about a lot of things. Namely, the clothes, jewelry, and lifestyle that befit a royal family.

  Luke took a while with Gerard, so I grabbed my phone and punched in Matt’s number. I knew he wouldn’t pick up, so I left a voicemail. “Matt, you need to call me the second you get this. I have the most amazing news.”

  I hung up and shoved my phone into my purse before admiring the stunning rock on my finger. As beautiful as it was, it also represented a new life for me. One that I thought I would never have a chance to get again.