Mirabella
Silence.
It stretched thick and slow between us, sticky with tension and breathless wonder. My heart pounded in my ears like a drum, echoing louder than the words that had just been spoken.
Alex knelt before me still, the ring in his palm glinting softly under the warm light of the bedroom. His eyes—green and burning with devotion—looked up at me with something I couldn't name. Hope? Certainty? Desperation?
But all I felt was the flood of confusion roaring in my chest.
My mouth opened, but no sound came out.
“I…”
I began, my voice trembling.
He waited. Patient. Still. That was always Alex. He never pushed, never demanded. Even now, with his heart bared and his body quite literally kneeling before mine, he was giving me room.
And yet that only made it harder.
I stared at
