Page 124 of Assistant to the Billionaire CEO

“I’m sorry if I’ve been acting a bit odd today,” he finally replied, staring up at me. His eyes sparkled far more brightly than any of the lights around us. “I was planning this…surprise. To be honest, I’ve been planning it for a while.”

He stuck his hand in his pants’ pocket and withdrew a small black box.

My hand landed on my mouth.

This was really happening. My heart!

This time, I was the one who didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say. For a brief moment, the entire universe rotated around us, and the stars shone just to illuminate the occasion. My heart was beating like a drum, and my pulse was almost deafening.

He opened the box.

I had to blink several times.

It contained a small silver key, resting on shiny velvet lining.

Ace took the key from it and held it toward me. “This is the key to my front door. The elevator code is 1891. I’ll write it down for you. You don’t have to move in with me right away, but I want you to know that the second you’re ready, you’re free to—and by that, I mean you better move in tomorrow.” He laughed, and so did I as he continued, “You can just walk right in and start calling this your home.” He placed the key on the palm of my right hand, closed my fingers around it, and kissed my fist. “There’s enough room in my apartment, and we’ll be a big happy family.”

“Oh, Ace,” I sniffed. “You silly man. Of course I want to move in with you. It’ll probably be a while. I need to give my landlord notice, and I can’t just move out and keep paying rent for the place.”

“Do it,” he insisted. “I’ll pay whatever rent you still need to pay.”

“You know I don’t like feeling like a charity case, you already got me a car, and—”

“That’s not what this is. What’s mine is yours now, and that brings me to my next point.”

He reached into the box and removed the velvet lining.

A diamond ring was nestled inside the bottom of the box.

I gasped.

He took out the golden ring. The square diamond mounted on it glistened in the starlight. It was huge! He took my trembling left hand and slid it onto my ring finger.

“You fooled me! Ace! You did that on purpose.” Tears started to roll down my face.

He laughed. “Of course I did.” He paused and looked up at me. “Stella. Will you marry me?”

I knew it was coming, but somehow it still caught me by surprise. I rocked back on my heels and stepped backward. His eyes grew large as he realized I was putting distance between us.

“No, no. Don’t do that, baby,” he said, his mouth agape. “You’re supposed to be happy. Don’t go…”

I took another step back, inhaled deeply, and rushed at him. We tumbled to the floor together, rolling around on the marble tiles that covered the balcony’s floor. “Iamhappy. I’m happier than I’veeverbeen,” I said, peppering his face with kisses.

“Jesus Christ, woman, you almost gave me a heart attack,” he rumbled, kissing me back. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me on top of him.

“It would have been well deserved!”

“So that’s a yes?”

“Yes. It’s a yes! A million times yes,” I squealed. I nestled my face in the nape of his neck and kissed his shoulder.

“I can finally call you Mrs. Windsor without having you laugh at me,” he announced, stroking my curly hair.

“Soon,” I replied, kissing his stubbly chin. I leaned back and put a hand on his muscular chest and smiled at him innocently. “Mrs. Windsor sounds good. I almost think a Mrs. Windsor has boss qualities.”

Ace grinned. “Definitely.”

I waited. It wasn’t like him to unreservedly agree with me on the question, “Who’s the boss here?”

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