Page 160 of Dex

Oh my.

I feel myself choking up at his words.“Dexter ...”I stare up at him.Thankful for everything I have in my life now.Everything.“This is where we had our first date,” I whisper.

He chuckles under his breath.“We had stories and details to iron out.”

“I came here knowing that you hated me for choosing you, but by the time I left, I thought we had more in common than not.”

His brow furrows.“I spent so long carrying the burden of my guilt, that all I could ever think about was hating and exacting revenge.”His voice softens.“But then you walked in, and you made me see things.You made me believe things.You gave me peace.That’s what I really wanted.Peace, not power, not revenge.I wanted you.”

I let out a shaky laugh, looking up at him through a hazy blur.Batting my eyelashes to try to stop the tears.

“I don’t like the idea of you being my ex-wife.”

I giggle.

“So, I need to fix that.Quickly.”

He looks at me for a long moment before reaching into his coat pocket and slowly dropping to one knee.

Oh my.

I gasp, my hand flying to my mouth.

He’s not.

Everything fades into the background.All I see are Dexter’s eyes on mine and when I look down, he pulls out a black velvet box and opens it.Inside is a breathtaking ring.

"An emerald?"I gasp.I love the color green, and Dexter remembered.

“It’s a rare Colombian emerald,” he says quietly."Flawless, untreated, and worth more than most diamonds, because nothing about you was ever ordinary.”

The vivid green stone glows in a platinum setting, flanked by two tapered diamonds on each side.

I love it.

“I don’t want a life without you in it.I want your coffee breath in the morning and your smart-ass comments when I’m being an idiot.I want your trust, your laughter, your fire.I want it all, Daniela.”He looks up at me.“No contracts,” he says.“No timelines.No expectations.No loopholes.”

I can’t breathe.

This is ...a proposal.

A real one.

My eyes turn glassy, and his face loses focus for a few seconds until I blink back the tears.

“Will you marry me, Daniela?Again.For real this time.”

I nod, laughing through the tears.“Yes, again, for real, forever.Of course, yes.”

He slips the ring onto my finger, and it’s not flashy or ostentatious.It’s elegant.Simple.Perfect.

I remember the last time we did this, hurried, like an afterthought, him handing the ring to me under the table.

“Emerald,” he says, rises to standing.I throw my arms around his neck.“A symbol of love reborn, truth and loyalty.Like the love I have for you.Something that started under false pretenses and grew into something real.”

I didn’t think it was possible for my heart to overflow with even more emotion, but it does.“Dexter, I love you.So, so, so much.”There’s a wobble in my words, and a tear falls down my cheek.It’s emotion, pure and raw.

He wipes the tear away with his thumb.“You’ll marry me?”he asks, again, his scent intoxicating.

I press a kiss onto his lips.

“Yes.”

It feels like we’ve come full circle, having gone on a hell of a journey; we’ve been strangers who disliked one another then got married, and then we were a couple in love who divorced.This time, it’s real.We’re madly in love, engaged to be married.

“I love you, Daniela.”This time, when he kisses me again, it isn’t for show.

It’s love in its purest form.

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