Page 126 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

She leaned back. “Why?”

“I wanted to make you hate me. I thought it would make it easier for you to move on. It wasn’t right,” he added. “I made a choice for you that wasn’t mine to make.”

Her eyes grew hot.

“Thank you, Julius.”

“It feels like...” He looked at some distant point over her head. “Like I’ve been put back together. Like all the pieces are there.”

She forced a smile onto her face, trying to focus on his relief instead of her own selfish worry that in regaining his memory he’d lost a bit of the man he’d discovered here on the island.

“I remembered the ring, too.”

Her stomach dropped. She’d known this was going to happen. Once again, it had come too soon. But she would handle it better this time.

“I see.” She planted her hands on his chest and tried to push him back, but he held her fast. “I’m not comfortable standing here naked while you tell me about the ring you purchased for another—”

“I bought it for you, Esmerelda.”

For a moment she couldn’t breathe, could only stare up at him as the words repeated over and over in her head.

“What?”

“After you left, all I could think of was you. Just the thought of sharing dinner, let alone my life, was impossible.”

He reached over and grabbed the black box off a side table. Her heart surged into her throat as he opened the box to reveal the ring nestled inside.

“Esmerelda, would you be my queen?”

Her hand flew to her throat. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever thought she and Julius could be together. Could have a life together. It almost seemed too good to be true.

Something tugged at her, a thread of reality pulling at the beautiful tapestry of dreams Julius had woven around them.

“Julius, I... I don’t know what to say.”

He frowned.

“Say yes. We can have as long of an engagement as you want. Whatever kind of wedding you want. And then we can be together. Rule together.”

She stepped away, and this time he didn’t stop her. She grabbed her robe off the floor and pulled it tight around her. When she turned back, he was watching her with a hooded gaze, his fingers clenched around the ring box.

She pushed her curls out of her face.

“Julius...it’s very sudden.”

“We’ve known each other over a year.”

“Yes, in a professional capacity.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Would you prefer we date? Go public with a relationship first—”

“No.”

Frustrated with herself, with him for springing this on her so suddenly after the roller coaster they’d ridden over the past week, she wrapped her arms around her middle and moved to the windows. She heard him move behind her, felt his presence at her back.

“What’s going on, Esmerelda?”

“Why me, Julius?”

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