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“Didn’t your father force you to do the same thing? You didn’t want to marry me, Tam. You said so yourself. And I know you’d never be faithful to me. I guarantee you were back in the club, picking up other women the moment I walked out.”
His eyes slipped shut, and he lowered his chin. Grief pierced my heart. It seemed, after only a matter of weeks, I’d already got to know him too well. Or maybe it was simply the kind of man Tam was that I already knew. After all, I’d grown up with them; I had one as a father, and another as a brother. I was no stranger to this kind of life.
I wrenched my hands out of his grip. “You see. Actions speak louder than words, and frankly, your words don’t mean much either, except when you use them to hurt me.”
He dropped to both knees, and I gasped.
“Tam, what are you doing?”
“What do you think?” He took out a box containing a platinum ring with the biggest diamond solitaire I’d ever seen. Smaller diamonds were set around the large stone, and more ran down both sides of the band. “Ever since that night at the hotel when you were only eighteen, you captured my heart, I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.”
I shook my head. “You’re just saying that.”
“I could have died that night, saving you, Hallie. I’ve been in agony ever since—why do you think I’m always popping the pain pills? If it had been anyone else, I would have left them there to die, but I couldn’t do that with you. The look in your eyes that night, how you begged me without saying a word, changed something in me.”
“But you’ve only realised that now?”
We were in the middle of the street, and people were staring.
“I realised it before now. When I almost lost you again in the club a couple of weeks ago, I knew I wouldn’t be able to live without you. And you’re wrong about me not being faithful. I have no desire for any woman other than you, and I want to prove that to you. Marry me, Hallie, for real. Not because of any alliance or because of what our families want.”
I was in shock. “You still want to marry me?”
“I love you, Hallie Wynter. The past few weeks have been absolute torture, and I can’t see how I’m going to continue with my life if you’re not in it.”
I fell to my knees opposite him, bringing myself level with Tam.
Tam Cornell had proposed to me, actually proposed with a ring that could probably be swapped for a decent-sized house.
He loved me.
A tear spilled down my cheek. “You can’t just say it and think it fixes everything. Words are easy.”
“I know that. I’ll show you as well, Hallie, I swear it. With every single thing I do, I’ll make you understand that I love you. Nothing else is more important in my life, not my family, not the business. Nothing. If you want, we can leave London and start somewhere new.”
“No, this my home. I want to stay here.”
“Then we’ll stay. Whatever you want. My home is wherever you are.” He held my gaze. “So will you marry me? Please say yes.”
“Yes.” I nodded frantically, tears filling my eyes. “My God, yes, of course yes.”
Tam scooped me up in his arms and kissed me, and around us, the people on the streets burst into applause.
