Page 166 of Cashmere Ruin

It feels like my ears are playing tricks on me. “Done…?”

“Done with this life. Done with all of it.”

I can’t believe it.Is he really saying…?“You’d give up on your revenge? For me?”

“I’d give up everything for you.”

“Don’t say that,” I warn. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.”

“Win or lose, I will stop living a lie. Iwantto stop living a lie. Because you’re the only truth that matters.”

“Matvey…”

“I will get down on one knee and I will put the biggest, gaudiest rock I can find on your finger,” he says, and I’m a mess of tears now, because how else can I react to that? How else does anyone react when being told that… that…

That they’re the most important thing in the world?

“You’re serious?”

“I’m serious,” he insists. “All this time, I’ve been chasing after the shadows of my past—but you’re my future, April. And I want it all with you.”

“I… I… I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. You just have to let me in.”

I look back at the dark penthouse. At the things I was ready to pack, the life I was ready to leave.

Then I turn and unlock the door.

50

APRIL

I crash into Matvey’s chest before I can even think about it. “You really mean it? You’ll marry me?”

“Yes.” He holds me close for a moment, then lets out a low chuckle. “But if you want me to do this properly, you’ll have to let me go.”

Reluctantly, I oblige. I don’t want to let him go—I never want to let him go again—but part of me is too curious to resist.

“Fine. Be quick?”

“Promise.”

Then he gets down on one knee.

My heart jumps. It’s like all the breath has been knocked out of my lungs. My mouth is hanging open like a goldfish’s, because this can’t be what he meant, can it? He can’t be…

Proposing.

“Actually, this isn’t proper at all,” Matvey corrects himself. “I’ve got no ring, no roses, not even a glass of champagne.”

“I’m in my pajamas,” I blurt back. “I look like a mess.”

“You look beautiful.” His eyes lock with mine, so blue and deep I could lose myself in them. Maybe I already have. “And I promise I will do this properly?—”

“When my hair is done.”

“When your hair is done,” he concedes. “But I couldn’t wait a moment longer.”

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