Page 231 of Sinful Desires
When I lifted the cover, there wasn’t food. There was a piece of parchment, sealed with red candle wax.
My breath caught as I peeled the wax away and opened it with shaking hands.
Scarlett,
All my life, I searched for a way out of the dark.
Not the kind with no light, but the kind where you forget how to live.
I never thought anything could touch what was broken in me.
Until you.
You didn’t just save me.
You saw me. The real me.
You are the wish I sent into the sky without even knowing I was asking for something.
You are the answer the stars whispered back.
Mon étoile filante
I have loved you in silence. I have loved you in shadows.
And now I want to love you in light.
Every day. Every night. Every piece of forever.
Will you marry me?
I turned, expecting to find him in his seat, but it was empty.
He was kneeling beside me, one hand steady on the ground, the other holding open a velvet box.
Inside sat a heart-shaped diamond the color of lavender, deep and glowing.
I gasped.
It was a Royal Purple Heart.
My breath caught.
“I told you before, Scarlett,” he said, his grey eyes burning. “I belong to you. My heart, my body, my soul. You already own them. Now I want the world to know it. I want to belong to you in every way that exists.”
His eyes locked on mine as he spoke the words softly, carefully.
“Veux-tu m’épouser?”
I cried.
The second he said it, the second his hands stopped trembling, I broke open.
“Yes,” I whispered, my voice caught somewhere between a sob and a laugh. “Yes, Théo.”
He slipped the ring onto my finger, then pulled me into his arms, circled my waist, and lifted me off the ground.
He spun me through the air, fast and wild, until my laughter shook out of me and my arms locked around his neck.
