‘Excuse me, but here’s your hotel,’ the driver interrupted them.
They broke apart with an unspoken promise this kiss and its consequences were not over, merely on hold until they were upstairs in their room.
Upstairs on the top floor, Kelli discovered, when the lift doors slid open to reveal two apartments, one apparently theirs for the weekend. ‘Oh, Mac, you’ve gone overboard, but I won’t let you change your mind.’ She did a twirl of the massive lounge room before going to check out the bedroom and en-suite. ‘Come in here. This bed is ridiculous.’ It was the size of a football field. ‘I’ll never find you in the night.’
Mac stood in the doorway, laughing. ‘I’ll wear reflective pyjamas.’
‘The day you wear any pyjamas I’ll know you’ve gone off me.’
His laughter stopped. ‘That’s never going to happen.’
‘Good answer.’ Her smile was filled with love for this man who’d seen behind her barriers to the fears that had dogged her most of her life and still loved her. With her forefinger she beckoned him into the room. That bed was made for using, not staring at. ‘Come here.’
‘Hate to disappoint but we’ve got a booking down on Darling Harbour.’ He didn’t look at all repentant, more like cocky. Or was that pleased with himself?
‘We have?’ What was going on? He hadn’t mentioned anything until now. ‘We’re not going to meet Gabriella?’
‘A man’s allowed to surprise his woman occasionally.’
Her tummy sucked in on itself. Stepping up to him, she peered into his eyes, trusting him with everything she had. ‘Mac?’
‘We will be using that bed, just not yet.’ He hooked an arm over her shoulders and turned them to the door leading out to the lift.
Once again the excitement was bubbling. ‘Where are we going specifically?’
‘Which part of “surprise” don’t you understand?’ he mock growled before dropping a kiss on a particular hot spot below her ear.
Snuggling closer, she refrained from uttering another word for the next ten minutes as they made their way out of the hotel and down to the pier and along to... ‘The restaurant Tamara and Conor were married in. Where our gazes got all fogged up staring at each other,’ she gasped.
‘We’re having brunch. Along with champagne. Thought we should celebrate where it all began.’ Mac wasn’t smiling now; instead he looked purposeful and serious as he gave his name to the waiter.
There was a lot of activity amongst the waiters and the sound of a cork popping, champagne being poured, chairs pulled out, serviettes shaken open, then the staff disappeared.
As Kelli sank onto the chair Mac held for her she caught his hand over her shoulder. ‘You’re such a romantic, you know that?’
He came around to face her and picked up both glasses and handed her one. Then he dropped to one knee.
Kelli’s heart went into overdrive and she had to pinch herself to see if she was alive and this was real. The glass wobbled in her fingers; cool liquid splashed over the rim.
‘Kelli.’ Mac reached for her other hand. ‘I can’t imagine my life without you in it. Will you please marry me and make me the happiest man on the planet?’
‘You’re proposing.’
‘Yes, sweetheart, I am. No way were you getting away without a proper proposal.’
‘Like I said, a romantic. And yes, Mac Taylor, I will marry you.’
‘And make me happy as I will you.’
‘All of that.’ Leaning forward, she kissed those accomplished lips. ‘I love you.’
Pulling back, Mac removed her glass from its precarious hold and placed both on the table before wrapping her into the biggest, warmest, lovingest hug of her life with a kiss to match.
Sometimes life did deliver on your wishes, Kelli acknowledged silently as she melted further into the man who’d brought her all the happiness she could want. More importantly, she was able to pour her heart into giving Mac all his heart’s desires.
Then Mac stood up and put his hand in his pocket, retrieved a tiny jeweller’s box and opened it, held it out to her. ‘I know I should’ve got you to choose a ring but when I saw this sapphire I had to have it. It’s the same cobalt shade as your eyes when you’re laughing.’
Slowly she held a now very shaky hand out to him. Her gaze was fixed on the sapphire set in gold. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she choked. ‘You got it so right.’ Not that she’d have been able to describe something like this if asked.
As the gold band slid onto her finger she sighed. What a ride, but worth every bump and glitch along the way to be here with Mac.
Sure, there was champagne, and a ring, and Mac had got down on his knees, but this time she heard the love, the genuine need to be with her and love and cherish her and accept her as she was. Love. This proposal was all about love, the right kind of love. Sharing, caring, happy.
Picking up the glasses again, she handed one to Mac and raised hers. ‘To us, and whatever the future brings.’ They had another wedding to look forward to.
Mac clinked his glass against hers. ‘To us, my love.’
And then they drank the nectar of love, the bubbles fizzing along Kelli’s veins to her toes, along her fingers where that ring gleamed, and slap bang into her heart where her love for Mac sat ready for anything.
* * * * *
Read on for an extract from THE FAMILY SHE’S LONGED FOR by Lucy Clark.
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT