Page 212 of The Company

I look at the Admiral. He nods at me.

I take Harper’s hand and pull her close. She’s too at ease, so I need to put her back on alert. “Harper, you’ve been with me for several days now. And when I brought you here, you said you would never love me. But I think you’d have to agree that things have developed between us. I think you’d agree that being my promise isn’t as bad as you first thought.”

“I do enjoy being with you, Vincent.”

Jesus, we are playing for keeps right now. It needs to go off perfect. “And it’s no secret that we were to be wed. So instead of having the ceremony tomorrow at the party, we thought a nice quiet ceremony tonight would be in order.”

She squints her eyes.

“Marry me, Harper. I’m asking you to marry me.”

She shakes her head and I almost have a heart attack.

“That’s not how you ask a girl to marry you.”

Nick and the Admiral chuckle out some atta girls, and I nod and drop to one knee. The Admiral hands me a silver velvet ring box and I open it in front of her. “It’s your mother’s ring, Harper.” She looks up at her father and I see tears forming.

“It is,” he confirms. “Vincent asked for it yesterday. I keep it in the safe on the yacht. It’s the only thing I have left of her. And now it’s yours.”

I have a little stab of guilt that I’ll murder this man tomorrow. But it passes when Harper looks down at me and whispers, “Yes,” as she pulls me up off the floor. “Yes.”

And then I take her mouth, right there in Vincent’s living room.