‘YOU READY?’ Valentine is on my doorstep, looking model-worthy in his black sweater and jeans, his grin as excited as I feel.
‘Sure am.’
He turns his head a little, eyes me sceptically. ‘And you packed light?’
‘Of course. I do listen to you, you know.’
‘There was a time you didn’t.’
I laugh. ‘That’s nonsense and you know it.’ I step aside and show him my very modest suitcase, all packed and ready to go.
He picks it up, tests its weight with a downward smile. Impressed. ‘Best get a move on; the ferry won’t hang about for us.’
‘Lead the way.’
The Miura is gleaming in the sunlight, ready for its very first supercar tour across Europe. ‘And you’re absolutely positive your father doesn’t mind us going?’
‘I’ve already told you, he’ll come with us later in the year when a friend of his can join us. To be honest, he’s just happy we’re taking her out at all.’
He throws my tiny bag in the boot and we climb in. ‘We just have to make a pit stop on route.’
‘Really?’ I strap myself in, watch him get in beside me. ‘Why?’
‘You’ll see.’
‘You have me intrigued.’
He simply grins, covers his dancing blues with his sunglasses and starts the engine.
‘Is that really all I’m getting?’
‘Yup.’
As if to illustrate his point he turns the radio on and pulls out into the traffic. I smile and shake my head, pull my own sunglasses out of my handbag and slip them on before cosying down into the seat. It’s surprisingly comfortable, even with the engine vibrating through the cabin.
‘You are going to let me drive at some point, aren’t you?’
‘Play your cards right and I will.’
‘You say that a lot.’
‘Because it always brings me good things.’
I laugh. ‘You’re insatiable.’
‘You complaining, Little Kitten?’
‘Hell, no.’ I smooth my hand over his thigh and give it a squeeze. ‘Never.’
We slip into an easy conversation, me filling him in on the latest antics of my nieces and nephews and him telling me about his parents. He also tells me about a football day he’s got planned with Pete, the two of them having become firm friends over the last year. And I’m so engrossed in our talk that I don’t realise where we are until a low-flying plane rattles the windows of the car.
‘What the—?’ I frown as I watch it land on a runway beside us. We’re on a private airfield, one I’ve never been to before. ‘What are we doing here?’
I turn to him and that grin is back on his face.
‘Valentine?’
He cuts the engine. ‘Come on, they’re waiting for us.’
‘Who’s waiting?’
He doesn’t answer. Just slips off his sunglasses and steps out, walks around to my door and opens it for me, offering out his hand. I take it, my head shaking, a frown still tugging at my brow.
I scan the airfield, the hangar, the people milling about with equipment and what looks an awful lot like parachutes, and my stomach gives a little flip.
‘Valentine, what are we doing here?’
He turns into me, pulls me up against him. ‘We, my love, are taking a leap together.’
‘A leap?’
He nods and presses a kiss to the tip of my nose. ‘I want to prove to you I’m ready to live again.’
‘You’ve done plenty of that already; you don’t need—’
‘Shh.’ He kisses me quiet, his lips turning up into a smile as he looks into my eyes. ‘No more half-lives...for either of us. I want us to live it to the max.’
‘By jumping out of a plane?’ I say, feeling my pulse skitter nervously, my stomach doing another flip. ‘You do remember that I’m scared of extreme heights?’
He chuckles. ‘It’s as good a time as any to face that fear.’
I shake my head. ‘Why is it I feel like I could take on the world so long as you’re by my side?’
‘The feeling’s mutual.’ He strokes my hair back from my face, raises my sunglasses on my head and the look in his eyes steals my breath away. ‘Which is why the jump isn’t the only leap of faith I’m proposing.’
‘No?’
He presses a sweet kiss to my lips just as another aircraft zips past, whipping my hair up and around us.
‘No...’ He lowers himself to one knee as his hand lifts and in his upturned palm is an open box with a beautiful solitaire diamond at its heart.
‘Valentine?’ It comes out as a whisper. He can’t be. He can’t.
‘Olivia Carmel, I love you, I will always love you, and I want to live my life to the full with you by my side. Will you marry me?’
A sob chokes up my throat. I try to breathe, press my hand to my chest as my eyes well. ‘Yes, Valentine! Oh, yes!’
I drop to my knees, uncaring of my white jeans as I grip his face in my hands and kiss him. Once. Twice.
‘But, baby...’ I break away, stare up into his eyes that I have come to adore so much ‘...there’s no way I’m jumping out of a plane.’
‘Wanna bet?’
DARE to read more sexy stories!
Check out our other Harlequin DARE titles,
available now:
Just One More Night by Caitlin Crews
Tempting the Enemy by JC Harroway
Fast Lane by Margot Radcliffe
Discover more at Harlequin.com
Keep reading for an excerpt from Just One More Night by Caitlin Crews.