be okay if I do.”
My heart stumbled. I felt raw and I decided I didn’t really care anymore for relationships that did not serve me. If someone was going to leave me anyway then let them go. It killed me to say it, but I did. “It’ll hurt,” I whispered, “but I won’t die. I’ll recover. You don’t have to force yourself to stay just because you’re worried about if I’ll be able to take your absence or not.”
“Okay,” he said, turning his gaze towards me. “Then I’ll put it this way then. I’ll leave when I’m able to convince myself that I’ll be okay if I do.”
Shock reverberated through me. I returned my gaze to him, eyes round at what he had just said.
He released a shuddering breath. “I wanted to be sure you were the one. I wanted to give us some time. I had plans, but they needed time. After Fabio proposed to you last night though, I knew there was no need to wait a moment longer. You are the one. You always were. From the moment I saw you at the pool, you got into my brain, my blood. I’m going to fight for you, Sienna. Just be patient. As you know very well, I need your father’s approval.”
Tears fell from my eyes and splashed onto my cheeks. “He’ll never give it. Not to you.”
He took his hat off his head, placed it on his lap, and then curved his hand around the side of my face. “Will you trust me? I know what I am doing. I promise to be the man waiting for you at the altar.”
I leaned into his warmth and his touch, my heart close to bursting. I nodded blindly, tears filling my eyes. I breathed in the warm, male scent of him and felt like I was in a beautiful dream I didn’t want to wake up from. I wished I could remain inside my car in the car park forever. The rest of the world could go to hell. I would never have believed he would make such a promise. God, how I wanted to believe him. That we could actually have my father’s blessing. A part of me knew it was a lie, but with the same stubborn determination I refused to believe Christine could have been the one even though it was clear she was the only one who could have done it, I clung to his promise.
“When that bastard proposed to you yesterday, the look on your face … hurt me. I wanted to tear him apart with my bare hands. I hated him that much.”
I remembered it as clearly as he recalled it. I also remembered the one person I had searched for in the midst of it all, was him. That the only thing I could believe right then was that as long as he was still around, that somehow things would be okay. I didn’t understand when or why I had developed such a deep attachment and trust of him, but it had seen me through that incredibly dark moment. “Why did you shake your head at me?” I asked, more tears crawling down my cheeks.
“Because I saw you were at your limit, you were about to fall apart, and do something stupid like run to me. It would have ruined everything. Like I said before, I have plans. They have to be uncovered slowly. Your father’s pride has to be kept at all costs. He puts a high price on it.” He brushed my hair gently over my shoulders.
I felt my bones begin to melt. “Why can’t we just run away to Europe? I’ll get a job and you can open a gym while you carry on training to become a champion boxer. You can’t be a bodyguard because I’d be worrying about you day and night. Once we have a few babies, my father will forgive us and we can come back.”
His lips curved into a smile. “I ran away once, but it was the right thing to do, but running away is not the right thing to do now.”
Chapter 47
Sienna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAfAud_M_mg
I moved away from the driver’s seat and boldly went over to him. I positioned myself till I was sitting astride him and staring straight into his eyes. “So what do we do?”
With the edge of his finger, he stroked my nose. “That’s where I come in. It might seem most of the time that the world is conspiring to hurt