‘We are going to be on the front page of every paper from here to New York.’
‘I don’t mind.’
She stared at him. ‘Really?’
‘Really.’ He gave her a wry smile. ‘In this one instance anyway. I want to show you I mean what I say. I love you and I’m happy for the whole world to know it.’
‘I love you too,’ Natalia said softly.
‘And then there’s this.’ Ben fished in his pocket and produced a small box of black velvet. ‘Natalia Santina, princess of my heart, will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?’
Natalia blinked back tears as she gazed at the antique
diamond surrounded by a circle of luminescent pearls. ‘Yes. Yes, I will.’
He slid the gorgeous ring on her finger and then nodded towards the still-shouting paparazzi outside. ‘Then perhaps we should go and make an announcement before I whisk you away again. I can’t wait to tell the world about my wife-to-be.’
Smiling, tears of joy still sparkling in her eyes, Natalia took his hand as she followed him out of the plane.
EPILOGUE
NATALIA was amazed at how easy everything became, with Ben at her side. Her parents were surprisingly and touchingly accepting of her engagement to Ben; her father King Eduardo said he could see how much Ben loved her. Even the Sheikh of Qadriah took the refusal of his offer with grace, laughingly saying he could hardly compete with a man who proposed with such style—and so publicly.
They were married six weeks later, on a secluded beach on Santina, with no photographers or reporters in attendance. A single photograph of her and Ben was sold to a respectable newspaper for a six-figure sum that was donated to a charity for helping those with learning disabilities. After years of shameful silence, Natalia went public with her own dyslexia and was now on the board of the charity and receiving tutoring herself to help her with reading and writing skills.
Their future felt as bright and newly minted as the sun that rose in the pearly pink dawn sky the morning after their wedding. Natalia stood in front of the sliding glass door in Ben’s beach house, watching the sun rise higher and higher in the sky, growing in heat and radiance, spreading its healing rays across the earth.
Ben came up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist, and kissed her neck before resting his chin on her head.
‘I’m just thinking about that bet of ours,’ she said, and she heard him chuckle.
‘And?’
‘I won.’
‘So you did.’
‘You’re mine to command for the day,’ she reminded him.
‘For the day,’ Ben agreed, ‘and for ever.’
Natalia smiled, happiness buoying her soul. ‘Then let’s begin,’ she said, and turned to kiss him.
* * * * *