floated on top of could not have been bluer. It reflected off the cave walls that were well above our heads—at least ten feet high.
“They call it the Blue Grotto,” Nico explained, pulling the oars inside the boat to let us drift. “You can see why. There’s an underwater cavity that allows sunlight to pass through, which creates this blue reflection.”
The whole cavern was illuminated in blue.
“Nico—” He’d rendered me speechless. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
I felt his eyes on me, but I couldn’t take mine off the splendor of that breathtaking blue water.
“That’s what I thought when I first saw it as a kid,” he mused. “Our parents saved for years to take a family vacation to Italy. We spent a couple of days on Capri, and they brought us here. I remember thinking I would never forget this color as long as I lived.”
Something in his voice drew my attention. There was a spark in his amber eyes I couldn’t read.
He tilted his head. “Are you happy, legs?”
I choked back laughter. I was near sobbing from happiness. “You mean you can’t tell?” I tsked my tongue, just as he had. “Still so much to learn about me, husband.”
His mouth twitched, though his eyes narrowed. “Do you still consider me your husband?”
What an odd question. At this point, he should have known better. “Aren’t you?”
He slowly nodded his head. “And I plan to stay that way. But I’m sure you’ve thought about the kind of wedding you always wanted. And what you got was nowhere in the realm of what you dreamed about, nor what you deserved. You didn’t get to wear a dress or be walked down the aisle by your father or—”
I placed my finger over his mouth, silencing him. “I don’t need any of that, Nico. Weddings, aside from being a giant party for both families, are all about joining two people for the rest of their lives. How could I regret our ceremony when that’s exactly what it did? In the end, it still gave me you. Even without a dress or a cake or—”
“A ring?”
Words escaped me when he held up a black ring box with the most exquisitely stunning sapphire shining up at me. On a single, diamond-studded band, the sapphire stone was pear-shaped and surrounded by another row of sparkling diamonds.
“You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to find the right one,” he said. “It had to match the color of your eyes perfectly. After days and days of looking, I realized what the problem was.”
I met his eyes. “What?”
His amber ones softened. “No blue gem on earth could outshine the ones in your eyes, legs.” He shrugged. “This was the closest match I could get. When I first came to this cave, I thought I’d never seen a more beautiful color. Then I met you and saw your blue…” He shook his head. “There is no comparison.”
I swallowed against the rise of tears. “It’s gorgeous, Nico. I love it.”
“I bought it over a month ago.”
My lips parted in shock. “You mean…?”
“Before the night you walked out of our home. Before I drove you to leave,” he amended self-deprecatingly. “I was ready to give it to you when I got home, before everything happened. It was in my pocket.” He chuckled. “I’d been nervous as hell all day.”
“Are you nervous now?”
He shook his head, grinning. “Just eager.” He scooted closer and frowned. “I hadn’t thought about this part.” He huffed in frustration. “Pretend I’m down on one knee.
Stifling a laugh, I nodded.
“I’m ready to start my life with you, Alexia Kozlov. Everything I’ve felt ever since we met has seemed like one giant cliché after another. But then I realized that clichés exist because they’re true. My life was empty before I met you. It didn’t even begin until you said ‘I do.’ It was black and white before you brought color into it. You’ve made me a better man than I ever thought I was capable of. You shined a beam of light in my sea of darkness. It all sounds corny and clichéd, but that’s because it’s all true. You did all of those things, legs.”
He removed the ring from the box and slipped it onto my finger.
Damn, he’d chosen well.
“And the biggest cliché of all?” He interlaced our fingers, his thumb caressing the sapphire. “You taught me what it was like to fall in love. You taught me how to love better. I never