Chapter 17 - The Real Proposal
Clara didn't take off the ring; instead, she stood up from the leather chair, walked around the obsidian desk, and stopped right in front of him.
“You are the most brilliant investor in New York, Gabriel,” Clara said softly, looking up into his shocked, dark brown eyes.
“Yet you are remarkably stupid when it comes to understanding how human beings actually work.”
Gabriel blinked in total confusion, his hands coming out of his pockets as he searched her face for the meaning behind her words.
“Clara... I am giving you your freedom back. I don't want you to feel obligated to stay with me because of Lucas.”
“Do you honestly think I defended you to Eleanor Vance because of a contract?” she asked, stepping close enough that her chest brushed against his vest.
“Do you think I let you hold me every night for the last month because a piece of paper told me I had to perform for the cameras?”
She reached out, grabbing the lapels of his expensive suit coat with both hands, pulling him down slightly so he had to look directly into her eyes.
“I stopped acting three weeks ago, Gabriel Thorne. I fell in love with the man who brought orchids to my brother's hospital room and fought a billionaire nephew to protect my dignity.”
Gabriel let out a ragged, breathless sound that was half-laugh and half-sob, his large hands reaching out to grab her waist with desperate, crushing strength.
“Say that again,” Gabriel commanded, his voice trembling with a raw, overwhelming emotion that completely stripped away his Midas persona.
“I love you, Gabriel,” Clara whispered, a radiant, happy smile breaking across her face as tears of joy swelled in her eyes.
Gabriel didn't waste another second; he dropped to one knee right there on the hardwood floor of his sixty-fifth-floor executive office.
He took her left hand in his, looking up at the woman who had transformed his cold, solitary world into a home filled with warmth and light.
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“Clara Hayes,” Gabriel said, his dark eyes shining with absolute, eternal devotion. “Will you do me the honor of wearing that ring not as my employee, but as my wife?”
“Yes,” Clara laughed, pulling him back up to his feet and throwing her arms around his neck. “Yes, Gabriel, absolutely yes!”
