She laughs, a sweetest melody to my soul, and threads her fingers through mine. “I mean, you were a stranger drinking from a drink I drank out of.”
“Say that five times fast,” I joke. My smile grows deeper and warmth spreads through my chest as I stare back at the woman my heart belongs to. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but somewhere along the road, I must have done something right. You are the kindest, most amazing person I’ve ever met. You constantly keep me on my toes and you’re not afraid to call me out on my shit.”
She smirks. “Well, someone has to keep that ego in check,” she winks.
“There’s no one else who could.” I release her hands, pulling the black velvet box from my pocket. Her eyes drop down to my hands and back to me as I slowly begin to lower down onto one knee. “I have a question I’ve been wanting to ask you for quite some time now.”
“Matteo,” she breathes, her eyes wide, searching mine as I pop open the box, revealing the diamond ring inside. “Oh my god.”
“You’re the only one I could ever imagine spending my life with.” She stares back at me with tears shimmering. “Will you marry me, Sunny?”
“Yes.” The word falls from her lips without hesitation. “Yes. Yes. A million times, yes.”
I pluck the ring from the box, sliding it onto her finger before she reaches for me, hauling me back to my feet. Her hands find the sides of my face, tears streaming down her cheeks as she smiles up at me.
Everyone in the theater is on their feet, clapping and shouting.
“I love you, Matteo,” Jade breathes, lifting onto her toes, her lips seeking mine. And they find them… just as they always do.
When we first met, she needed a muse and I needed a distraction. Our pact was supposed to be a simple agreement. It was all for the plot—until it wasn’t.Somewhere between the lines she was writing and the ones I kept crossing, it stopped feeling like a transaction.
I broke our one rule without even realizing what was happening.
I wouldn’t change a thing about the way we fell and how we got here. The ending I want now isn’t written on a page… it’s written in the stars. Her and I? We were inevitable.
And standing her with her now—my fiancée—I know it was never about the plot
It was only ever about her.
THE END
CHAPTER ONE
JADE
“The moment he walked into the room, everything else seemed to fade away. How strong was the presence of a stranger—yet he wasn’t a stranger at all... he never truly was.” - Clara Foss, Painted Inferno
My soft pink, manicured nails tap rhythmically against the mahogany top of my desk. My heart thrums against my ribcage, a bit erratic and uneven as I stare back at my agent, Meredith, through the screen. Her lips are moving, but I am no longer focused on anything she is saying.
One sentence hangs heavily in the air, settling around me, the weight astronomical.
“They’re going to drop you if we can’t come up with something else fast.”
The worst words any author wants to hear in regards to a publishing contract. At the ripe age of twenty-nine, I have managed to stay on a steady schedule, pumping out four books a year for one of the biggest publishing houses in the country.
My first deal with them fell into my lap by the grace of God. I met my agent through a mutual friend and she was immediately interested in my debut romance novel. It was something Iworked on while in the trenches of college, mainly because I loved to write and was dragging my feet on what I wanted to major in.
I ended up majoring in English Lit and had my first book deal secured before graduation.
“Jade.”
The stern sound of her voice snaps me out of it, forcing me back into the moment.
“Sorry.” I let out a deep, ragged breath, shaking my head. I twist my lips to the left, biting down on the inside of my cheek. While my brain went on a side quest, it had to have miraculously retained at least one word Meredith said.
She arches a perfectly sculpted brow. “So, what do you think?”
Heat spreads across my cheeks and I nervously tuck my hair behind my ears. “I—uh—I didn’t catch everything you said. You kept freezing.”