Page 44 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

"I know. But I told her all about what happened. She seemed sympathetic. And impressed with your transcript. If you still want to go, you're in."

"Really?"

"Really. So, what do you say?"

She was quiet for a moment. I looked down at our intertwined fingers.

And I realized that this was the first time we’d ever walked hand in hand on Main Street.

There was no one around. It was the weekend before Halloween and it wasn't even 8 a.m. on a Sunday.

No one would be up for hours. This is what I wanted.

I wanted for us to be able to be us. That was only going to happen super early on the weekends if we stayed here.

But New York was different. In New York we could be whatever we wanted to be.

It was our fresh start. And I wanted that with her.

"Did you bribe her with lots of money?" she asked with a smile.

I laughed. "I didn't need to."

"So you didn't donate any money to the school?"

Well… "I didn't say that either." I gave her an innocent smile. The donation was trivial. Penny really did have good grades. And I could be very persuasive.

"You're infuriating."

"No, that's you." I squeezed her hand. "So, what do you say?"

"I say we should start packing."

"I was hoping that would be your answer. Maybe we can go back up in the next few days to look at apartments? Something cozy of course." I’d already lined up a real estate agent too.

"That sounds perfect."

"I guess there's just one last thing I need to do here." I stopped outside the coffee shop where we had first met.

"What, get a cup of coffee?"

Not exactly. I smiled at her and walked into the coffee shop, holding the door open for her.

Penny walked in and immediately froze. There were rose petals all over the floor and there had to be at least a hundred candles. The whole shop was empty except for us. The owners had set it up exactly as I requested.

"Penny." I grabbed her hand again and dropped to one knee.

She turned and the smile on her face made any nerves that were left go away.

"This wasn't just where I first met you. This is where I fell in love with you.” I stared at the flush crossing her cheeks.

“You took my breath away when you bumped into me.

It was something that I've never experienced before.

I've never been so attracted to someone in my life. It's very distracting when you blush."

My words made her blush even more.

Fuck, I was forgetting what I was going to say.

I looked down for a second, took a deep breath, and then looked back up at her.

"You made me realize that I hadn't been living.

Really living. Because life without this feeling, the feeling that you give me, isn't a life that I'm interested in at all.

You chose me even though I told you I wasn't good for you.

You've always seen the good in me, which was something that I couldn't see in myself.

You made me realize that it doesn't matter who I was before.

It's about who I've become. Because of you. "

"Yes."

I smiled up at her. "I have more to say."

"If you're asking me to marry you, the answer is yes."

I laughed and kissed each of her knuckles.

I needed to get the rest of this out. I needed her to know how important she was to me.

And how excited I was for our future. "I'm yours, Penny.

I've always been yours. I love you with all that I am.

And I don't want to go another day without knowing that you're mine.

Not just for today and tomorrow and the next.

I want you by my side forever and always.

Penny Taylor, you are the love of my life. "

I let go of her hand and pulled the ring box out of my pocket.

"You asked me if I was a believer in fate.

I am now. I don't know how I ended up as a professor in Delaware.

But I know why I did. Because you were here.

And my life would always be meaningless if I had never met you.

Because without you, I'm not whole. Penny.

" I grabbed her hand again. "Will you marry me? "

"Yes!" She threw her arms around me.

I laughed and pulled her down into my arms.

"James, I love you so much." She put her hands on both sides of my face and kissed me.

I’d wanted to pull her into a kiss the morning we first met in this coffee shop.

But everything we had been through, all the ups and downs, had led us to this moment.

And this moment was perfect. I wouldn't have wanted to change a thing even if I could. I’d take all those moments of pain any day if they led me here.

"Don't you want to see your ring?" I asked.

"How did you do all this?" She turned and looked at the candles and rose petals. "How did you know no one would be here this morning?"

"It's closed today."

"I've been here on Sundays before."

"It's closed today because I bought it and I closed it." I smiled at her.

"You bought it?"

"I don't want anything to ever change about this place.” The owners would stay on to keep the place running smoothly. But they couldn’t make any changes without my permission.

“I want to be able to come back here when we're old and gray and talk about how this is where we first met.

" I put my hand on the side of her face. "This place changed my life."

"So last night...you weren't out drinking?"

"No. I didn't even have one drink."

"But Melissa said..."

"What I told her to say. I knew you'd be totally consumed thinking that I was out getting wasted and never suspect that I was planning to propose. I told her to say she thought I was drunk if you started to get suspicious. Which I guess you did."

"You're such a jerk." But even as she said it she was smiling.

"I am sorry that I worried you. That wasn't my intention. I just really wanted to surprise you."

"You did surprise me. But wait, Rob was definitely drunk when I talked to him last night, though."

"No. Rob is great at pretending to be drunk. I had to make it seem like the story Melissa fed you was true. And Rob was definitely up to the challenge."

Penny laughed. "So you went to New York last night and got me into a new school. And bought a coffee shop. You've been busy." She couldn't stop smiling.

"And I went and talked to your parents."

"You did?"

"I wanted your father's blessing."

"Did you get it?"

I smiled at her. "Yes, I did.” Rob, Ian, and I had somehow forced it out of him. “Although I still would have proposed without it."

"I love you so much."

"I also bought you a ring. Don't you want to see it?" I was still holding the box in my hand. She had launched herself at me before I’d gotten a chance to show it to her.

"Yes."

I opened up the box.

"James." She looked at the ring. And then back up at me. And then back down at the ring. She looked so damn happy. The same way she looked when I’d bought her all those clothes. She never asked me for anything. But I’d give her the whole world if I could.

"Do you like it?" I asked.

"It's beautiful."

I took the ring out of the box, grabbed her hand, and slid it onto her ring finger. It was the perfect fit. I took a deep breath and stared at my ring on her finger. "Now you're mine."

"I've always been yours." She looked back down at her hand and then smiled up at me. "So why did you call Melissa?"

"I wanted her help deciding what kind of ring you might like. And I wanted to run the proposal by her. She knows you best."

"You know me best."

I smiled. I wasn’t sure when that had become true. But it was. And Penny knew me better than anyone else. She was the first person that I could be myself around. She loved every side of me. The good and the bad. And there was a lot of bad. But she was still all in.

I never thought I’d find someone who would love me.

I didn’t think that I was capable of being loved or loving someone.

But as soon as she fell into my arms I was a goner.

And now she was mine. I couldn’t stop smiling.

"I'm excited to introduce you to everyone as my fiancée.

" I ran the tip of my nose down the length of hers.

"I'm excited to introduce you to everyone as my fiancé."

"Hmm." I kissed the side of her neck and placed my lips next to my ear. "I still prefer when you call me Professor Hunter."

"You'll always be Professor Hunter to me."