Page 52 of Indirect Attack
The world seemed to stop as I waited for her reply. Jasmine was just staring at the ring, entirely still, her eyes as round as saucers.
“Jasmine?” I asked again finally, my voice tinted with uncertainty.
Her eyes slid to mine, and I could see a tale-tell shimmering in them. “Yes.”
She said the word so quietly I wasn’t sure I’d heard it for a moment.
“Yes?” I repeated, hoping, willing my hands not to shake.
“Yes,” she repeated before breaking out in an enormous smile. “Yes, yes, yes, yes.”
She was repeating the word like a mantra as I got to my feet, only to have her arms around me instantly, pulling me into her with an almost manic strength.
I laughed and managed to disentangle myself enough to look down into her face.
“You will?”
“Yes, absolutely!” Unshed tears still glimmered in her eyes, but she pulled me down for a long, slow, fervent kiss until I pulled away again.
“I have one more question.”
“What?” Jasmine was still lost in her euphoria, and I wasn’t sure she even knew to what she was replying.
“Will you marry me—”
“Yes!”
“—Will you let me finish?”
She clapped a hand over her mouth, but her eyes danced with happiness and laughter.
“Will you marry me right now?”
Chapter 24
Jasmine
I WAS AWARE I WAS STARINGat Ben, blinking and open-mouthed, but his words made no sense to me.
Will you marry me right now?
I’d already said yes to marrying him—multiple times. So what was he asking now?
“What?”
They were the only words I could conjure at that moment.
Ben pushed to his feet, an affectionate smile on his face as he looked down at me. “Let’s make this official first.”
He pulled the ring from the box with two fingers, the long, blunt digits engulfing the delicate white-gold ring. I held out my left hand automatically, fingers spread, and Ben slipped the ring onto my finger.
I stared at it for a moment, moving my hand and watching the beautiful oval diamond wink in the bright spring sunlight.
Then something Ben had said about the ring slipped back into my mind, and I looked up at him. “You said you bought the ring a long time ago?”
Ben winced but nodded. “I bought it when I was home on leave. I’d realized over the time we were apart I wanted you in my life, even if I was going to be away.”
“Why didn’t you ask me?” I was aware I had narrowed my eyes in confusion, but he’d never once before mentioned a ring.
