And he kisses me, tenderly, with so much love that I can hardly stand it, and my world stops.
And another life begins.
Mrs. Miles.
Elliot takes me by the hand. “Do you have everything, sweetheart?”
I look around the airplane. “Yes, I think so.”
“Nice to see you, Mr. Miles,” the pilot says. He turns to me and nods kindly. “Have a nice night, Kathryn.”
“Thank you.”
Elliot shakes his hand and leads me down the stairs where the black Bentley is parked. Andrew gets out, and he smiles broadly when he sees us. “Hello Kate.”
I skip over to him and go up onto my toes and kiss his cheek. “Hello Andrew.”
“I hear that congratulations are in order.” He beams.
I giggle and hunch my shoulders up in excitement. “Can you believe it?” I gush.
“I can actually.” He smiles as his eyes flick to Elliot, who smirks in return.
Elliot can’t even act grumpy. In fact, that sexy-as-fuck smile hasn’t left his face, and after the dreamiest five days in Oahu, we’ve landed back in London.
Elliot publicly announced today that we are engaged to be married, and in some kind of strategic plan he told me that I would be photographed tonight, which I’m guessing was code for . . . don’t wear your sweatpants on the plane.
I did wonder why he changed into a full three-piece suit before we landed.
Andrew and Elliot load all of our things in the trunk and I get into the backseat. Elliot slides in behind me and picks up my hand and rests it on his thick quad; he always has to be touching.
“Are we still sticking to the schedule, sir?” Andrew asks as he makes eye contact in the rearview mirror.
“Yes,” Elliot replies.
Schedule . . . there’s a schedule?
We zoom off into the night and twenty minutes later we come around the corner into the street where Elliot’s swanky apartment is; there are photographers everywhere. I feel my anxiety rise and instead of pulling into the private undercover parking lot, Andrew pulls the car up right next to them.
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
Elliot leans over and kisses me. “Giving them what they want.”
“What?”
“Once they have the first photograph of us together, and it’s published tomorrow, they’ll leave us alone and we can go home.”
I stare at my beautiful man. This goes against everything he is, but he wants me to be left alone, he’s doing this for me.
The door opens in a rush. Andrew stands outside as the cameras flash.
Elliot gets out, takes my hand, and helps me from the car. I climb out to the blinding lights of flashes and the sound of photographers screaming over the top of each other. “When is the wedding?”
“Congratulations, Mr. Miles.”
“Kathryn, who’s designing your wedding dress?”
Elliot takes my hand and in slow motion lifts it to his lips and kisses it.
They go wild.
“Kathryn,” someone calls. “How does it feel to know you finally tamed the elusive Casanova Miles?”
Elliot chuckles, our eyes are locked as electricity bounces between us, and he raises an eyebrow as he waits for my answer.
If only they knew that the supposed Casanova is a romantic fool.
I turn back to them and smile. “Wonderful.”