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“It’s for you to decide what to tell them.”
“You know I’d feel a lot better if my, my… what are you to me? A boyfriend?”
“What? No. We’re more than…” He stops himself and runs his fingers up and down her arms before looking up to meet her gaze. “You mean everything to me.Everything. You know that, right?”
She holds his gaze but doesn’t answer him.
“Before you, I barely lived. I had no idea how I survived in the dark until that sunny day on the beach in Salvador when the light radiating from you almost blinded me. You’re the sun and the moon together, and I need your light, your warmth, and your magnetic energy to survive every day.”
Eden caresses his face, pushes long strands of hair out of his eyes. “And yet you’re about to send me home, aren’t you?”
He understands why she was defensive in their conversation. “It’s the safest option.”
“No. What I need is to be with the father of my baby. I have another month to decide what to do. I want to be with you.”
He pulls her onto his lap. “Let’s get something straight. I never considered our commitment to each other to be decided by a piece of paper or a ring on your finger, but I can arrange for it to happen tomorrow.”
Her eyes pop. “Just like that, you would marry me?”
Taking her chin between his fingers, he raises her face until she’s looking him in the eye. “Yes.” He kisses her cheek and wraps his arms around her.
“You’re right. Paper and rings aren’t a symbol of our love, and if I’m honest, if we were to be married, I’d want it to be in front of our family and friends.”
“If we do this now, it would be for you and me. We could have another celebration later.”
She takes his hand and places it over her heart. “It’s reckless for you to have my heart racing after all it’s been through.”
Samuel slides down onto one knee. “Eden. You steal my breath, and I’m often lost for words just by the sight of you. I know what I feel in my heart, and it beats only for you.” He takes her hand and places it over his heart in the same gesture. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
She kisses him again and again. “A thousand times, yes.”
* * *
Samuel assists Eden from the taxi and takes her hand as they enter the hotel foyer. Dinner at a romantic restaurant is what Eden had needed. They chatted about her family and friends while dodging the topic of her return home. Tonight, he’ll gently coax her into doing what’s right, and it’s not returning to Ulara with him.
He expects she’ll be tired and want to fall asleep. The remaining pathology results should be back tomorrow, so he’ll arrange for her to go home in the next week.
While Eden sleeps, he can research flights. He had overlooked the effort for her to come to him. Her flight to Sydney was a couple of hours. Then she took an international flight to Santiago, Chile, which was almost eighteen hours in duration. It took several flights from Santiago to reach him in Venezuela, all before boarding the curiara for the boat ride.
Their baby is growing. Flying for many hours can be problematic and not only for comfort. He’s concerned about deep vein thrombosis.
Eden showers before bed, and he smiles at how she’s showering at least three times a day while she can.
He opens his phone and scrolls through the news. Eden has forced his hand to face what’s happening in the world. He has only answered to the shaman for several years and thought every country’s leader insignificant to his chosen lifestyle. There’s political unresteverywhere.He had researched what his friend told him about Venezuela and was shocked to read how thousands of physicians had fled the country. Even in Chile, people sleep in airports where flights have been delayed because of an imposed curfew. He’ll fly as far as he can with her to Santiago before returning to Ulara to his quarantine camp. He doesn’t want to think about Eden leaving, the lonely nights and the days blending as one.
Every day she has chipped away at his armor, leaving his life and love exposed and his heart vulnerable. He wants nothing more than to be with her, spend the rest of his days with her, and until then, it’s his responsibility to keep her safe.
Samuel closes his phone when Eden exits the bathroom with a towel on her head and one draped over her breasts. The swell of her stomach gives the most beautiful shape to her curves, one he never expected to see on a woman who had captured his heart.
He falls to his knees where she stands, opens the towels and kisses her thighs, the dark line of her linea nigra, and turns his head as though listening to their baby.
Eden runs her fingers over his scalp. “You’ll only hear my belly complaining I ate far too much.”
He gazes up at her. “Do you mind if I have a word?”
Eden tilts her head and smiles.
“I’m yet to meet you, and already you have fulfilled my life in a way you’ll never know. As your father, I vow to do what’s best for you and your mother, even if it means sacrificing what’s best for me. So forgive me for sending you away when all I want is to be there when you come into the world. Your mother will take care of you until we can be a family.”
