Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 28458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 142(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 142(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
And yet there was only silence.
The flame of hope inside him was dying a slow death, but still he waited, his fists clenched, telling himself that if he believed hard enough, maybe a miracle would happen and she would...forgive him. Because she really did love him.
Not because she had to – the way his parents should have but didn’t.
Not because she needed to or wanted to – the way like all the Thelmas in the world were eager to even though they really didn’t.
His head bowed, Nic said rawly, “If you can’t love me again now, can you just let me...can we please fucking start again? I’ll do it right this time. I’ll tell you who I am, show you the real me. It’s not...it’s not much, but I can change. I’ll fucking change into whatever you want me to be.” The silence was killing him, making his heart start to shatter into a thousand pieces of lost hope.
“My name is Nic de Koningh...”
“Stop.” She had finally broken her silence, but it wasn’t what he had hoped to hear.
Fear threatened to choke him, and he desperately continued, “No. I’m not finished. You have to listen to me. I’m twenty nine—-”
“Please—-”
“I work in the family business, solving shit around the world because I don’t really have a home. I’ve got four brothers and two sisters. I come from a huge brood—-”
“No—-”
“—-and they’re all here.” He felt her stiffen and he made himself look up.
Her eyes were swollen with tears, her lips trembling.
“Everyone in this plane is part of my family, lieverd. This time, I really want to do it right. I want to ask you in front of all of them—-” He went down on one knee. “Will you marry me?”
She sobbed out, “Do you really mean it this time?”
“With all my heart.”
Tears streaming down her face, Ayah demanded shakily, “Do you really believe in us now?”
Nic said savagely, “I’ll still believe in us even if it means having to believe everything else in this world is untrue.” His voice broke off, the fear of being too late strangling him. Was this it, he wondered dully. Had he lost his final gamble?
He forgot about pride and arrogance, forgot about everything except the fact that he needed her to love him. He begged, “Ayah, please.”
Click.
His head snapped up.
A smile wobbled on her lips as love shone from her eyes. “For the digital scrapbook we’ll build together.”
Before he could react, she had bent down and kissed him. Her tears seeped between their lips, but it only made the kiss sweeter, not bitter, because the tears came with a promise for the future.
She whispered in his ear, “I love you...Nic.”
~ Epilogue ~
“That was Johnny?” Nic demanded hours later as he crossed the threshold of Venetian Macau’s largest suite with his bride in his arms. It had been a beautiful wedding, even though it had been organized with mere hours to spare. His whole life, he had disliked being a de Koningh but now he had a reason to treasure it. Only his last name had made it possible for Nic to give the woman he loved the kind of wedding she deserved.
An entire ballroom had been transformed into a recreational park that bore a striking resemblance to Ngong Ping 360, complete with a replica of the Giant Buddha at the corner. Willem had taken one look at it and gave his bride an impressed smile. “My brother likes his urban pleasures, you know. The fact that you were able to convince him to go all the way up...he must love you very much.”
“You make me sound like a lazy piece of shit,” Nic had growled. He turned to Ayah to reassure her that he wasn’t as lazy as Willem had made him sound – and he wasn’t, considering the fact that he went hiking once a month –
Ayah had been looking at him with a lovestruck expression. “Is it true?” she whispered. “You’re not into stuff like that and you did it for me?”
Ignoring his brother’s knowing look, Nic said, “Yes, lieverd. I’ll do anything for you to keep loving me.”
And he should, Nic told himself, since too many men were after his wife. He glared at her. “You made him sound like a young boy when you talked to me about him.” He was still stinging at the way the Taiwanese brat had tried kissing his wife right in front of him. Damn kissing monster, Nic thought.
She kissed his cheek. “He is a boy. He’s just nineteen, you know.”
“A boy is a boy if his cock is no larger than my finger.”
Ayah gasped. “Nic!”
“But that boy...” He raised a brow at her. “Unless you’re aware he’s got a small dick?”
She groaned. “Stop it. I don’t want to imagine anyone’s dick but yours.”
Silence.
She dropped her head on his shoulder. “That sounded too graphic.”