by Heidi Rice
He stepped forwards and as he spoke his gaze locked onto her eyes and held them transfixed.
‘Can you forgive me? What happened at the show was all my fault. I am so sorry for letting you down, and you know that I love you so very, very much.’
‘You love me? But I am not one of those sleek girls.’
‘I don’t want a sleek girl. I want you.’
And then he opened the jewel case and presented it to her. And there, nestling in the midnight-blue velvet, was a pink heart-shaped diamond ring. Brilliant cut, gleaming, every surface reflecting back the candlelight. It was magnificent. And the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life.
‘I want to give you the most precious thing I possess. My heart and my love. This was the nearest thing that came close.’
Andy looked into his face and her eyes filled with tears.
‘You are the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.’ And his voice broke. ‘If you will take a chance on a madcap ex-surfer who is looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each-other love that defies logic and interferes with everything in your life—but you cannot live without it. And I think that love is here. With the girl I am looking at right now.’
He hugged her close inside his coat, then closer, chest to chest, his arms wrapped around her body, his forehead pressing against hers. ‘Take a chance on me, Andromeda Davies. Take a chance on the greatest adventure of our lives.’
‘You want me? Me? Oh, Miles. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.’
Miles replied with a great whoop and by grabbing her around the waist and swinging her off her feet and into the air, both of them laughing like children. So happy. So very, very happy.
Andy stepped into the space between his legs, looped her arms around his neck.
And it was only as her feet hit the ground that she realised that outside the coffee shop window the snowflakes were falling. Thick large flakes. The air was thick with them, transforming the London streets into a winter wonderland of white trees and shrubs and statues.
‘Miles. Look. Look.’
She snuggled back against his warm, solid chest, which held a heart as wide as the ocean.
It was truly magical. She was in the arms of the man she loved who loved her back in return. And there was nowhere else in this world that she wanted to be.
Because she had his heart and he had hers.
And all because of a few little white lies.
k.a.t
ISBN: 978-1-472-09706-4
MISBEHAVING UNDER THE MISTLETOE
On the First Night of Christmas © 2011 Heidi Rice
Secrets of the Rich & Famous © 2012 Charlotte Phillips
Truth-Or-Date.com © 2012 Nina Harrington
Published in Great Britain 2014
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
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