Falling Into Love with You (The Hate-Love Duet Book 2) Rowe, Lauren (read aloud TXT) 📖

to hang out with me. I mean, technically, she said she’ll come over to ‘help me with the house.’ But I’m going to make her sit down and hang out with me whenever she comes.”

Laila giggles. “I can’t believe you’ve kept this secret from me, all this time.”

“It’s been excruciating,” I admit. “I’ve almost blown it, like, a thousand times.” I kiss her cheek. “Sorry about the meal we’re not eating back at the mansion. I’ll text the chef and tell him to take it home to his family.”

“Why don’t we order cioppino to be delivered from Salvatore’s?” she asks.

“I already did.”

Laila laughs at that coincidence, that we’ve both planned the same celebratory meal for tonight, while I pull out my phone and send a text to our chef. We finish the tour of the house, with Laila reacting to each and every room with even more excitement than I’d hoped. And, finally, when the tour is done, I realize it’s time. This is it.

“While we wait for the food to arrive,” I say, “I have a little surprise for you, out on the balcony.”

“So many surprises!” Laila gushes, taking my hand and letting me lead her.

When we get to the balcony, I tell her to stay put at the railing. And then, with my heart crashing even louder than the waves in the nearby ocean, I grab a rectangular, wrapped box from behind a chair and bring it to her.

“For you,” I say, handing her the wrapped box.

After thanking me, Laila rips open the paper . . . and immediately bursts into tears when she beholds the token of my affection inside. It’s a rose encased in glass. The real-life version of the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast.

“Oh, Adrian.”

“Laila,” I say, my voice becoming thick with emotion. “Thanks to you, I’ve learned to love and to be loved, before the last petal has fallen. Thanks to you, I’ve transformed from The Beast into your prince. Hopefully, the kind of prince who won’t disappoint you.”

She touches her heart and whispers, “You could never disappoint me.”

“I hope this goes without saying, but I promise to keep fucking you like a Beast, forevermore, even if I’m going to be the Prince now, in all other ways.”

Laila laughs and nods with tears in her eyes. “I love you so much.”

I inhale a deep breath, take the box from Laila and put it down, and then take both her hands in mine. “Laila, what I’m trying to say with this Beast metaphor is that, from this day forward, you’re not only ‘allowed’ to go into the West Wing, it’s yours. Because the entire castle is yours. Literally and figuratively. Everything I own, everything I am, it’s all yours. Forever.”

“Oh, Adrian. I love you.”

Shaking, I pull a ring box from my pocket—the one containing the million-dollar rock I bought for Laila with my own money. The one I chose for her, that wasn’t supplied to me by some jeweler looking for a promotional opportunity.

When Laila sees the box, she gasps. And when I open the lid and she sees the rock nestled inside, she lets out a garbled sound of excitement and shock, the likes of which I’ve never heard from her.

I swallow hard. “I didn’t propose to you on the show tonight because I didn’t want you thinking, even for a second, my proposal was fake. And I didn’t want to do it for real for a TV audience. I’m sick of sharing our love story with the world, Laila. I’m not doing this for money or fame. None of that stuff matters to me, if you’re not there with me, enjoying it all, right by my side, forever.”

With that, I sink to my knee, making Laila burst into sobs. I hold up the ring and smile up at her, emotion turning into a hard lump in my throat. “Laila Fitzgerald,” I whisper. “Not too long ago, I felt coerced into a fifty-fifty partnership with you. But I want you to know, I’m now one hundred percent yours, voluntarily. With this ring, I give you all of me. I want you to take everything I am and everything I’m going to be. It’s all yours, just as long as you say yes to being my wife.” My hopeful smile broadens. “Laila Fitzgerald, will you marry me?”

“Yes!” she screams. “Yes!”

Tears threaten my eyes, but, somehow, I swallow them down while standing and sliding the ring onto her finger. The ring in place, and our agreement made, I pull my fiancée into me for a deep kiss, and then wrap my arms around her and hold her tight.

After a moment, when I’ve gathered enough control of myself to speak again, I take Laila’s hand and point at a cluster of diamonds nestled around the central rock. “See this little diamond here? That’s from the ring Jasper gave to Mimi—the diamond that was in her wedding ring.”

“Oh my gosh.” She physically convulses with emotion.

“Mimi wanted you to have that diamond in your ring, so you’d always know she was smiling down on us from heaven.”

Laila throws her arms around me. “I love it. And I love you. Thank you so much.” She pauses. Pulls back. “But what about Sasha? Shouldn’t Sasha have Mimi’s diamond?”

“No, Sasha wants you to have this.”

Laila returns to hugging me and loses herself to sobs.

I hold her shaking, quivering body for a long moment, feeling happier in this moment than I’ve ever felt in my life. I feel Mimi’s love and guidance all around me. I feel certain I’m on the right path, with the great love of my life—a woman I’m going to love and protect, forever. I pull back and look into Laila’s tear-filled eyes. “I love you, Laila, and I always will. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I love you, too.” She wipes a tear. “I’ve got a savage love for you, Adrian Savage. It’s infinite.” She touches my cheek. “And everlasting.”