I. Love. You. You bared yourself completely to me, and now I’m doing the same thing. Please put me out of my misery and marry me. Be with me forever. I promise I’ll stay beside you whatever our future holds.
She looked from him to the rose in her hand, realizing that there was a beautiful diamond ring on the stem of the flower.
She looked at him with her heart in her eyes, knowing he was risking everything by coming out here in front of millions of people and placing his heart in her hands. He was willing to make himself as vulnerable to her as she had to him. He was just doing it in a different way.
“Oh, my God.” Tessa put a hand over her face and started to cry again, her heart racing with excitement and her nerves so raw that she couldn’t help but cry.
“Don’t cry, Tessa.” Micah rose up as he signed.
She dropped her hands and gaped at him. “You really want to marry me?”
He grinned. “I really, really do.” He nodded to the crowd. “I think they just realized that you’re deaf. They’re so loud that I can’t hear a thing.”
“Welcome to my world,” she answered with an enormous expression of joy on her face.
Micah reached out and slid the ring down the stem and held it out to her. “Well, I’m making a total ass out of myself right now. Are you going to marry me or not?”
Her hand trembled as she stuck it out. “How can I say no? There are millions of people watching,” she teased.
“Don’t say yes because you think you have to. Say yes only if you want this as much as I do,” Micah answered with a grim expression.
“Then, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.” She told him happily, “I want to be with you forever. I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”
“I don’t want to imagine life without you, Tessa,” Micah answered as he slid the gorgeous diamond on her finger.
She admired it for a moment, the beautiful platinum band with an enormous diamond in the center and a circle of smaller stones around the centerpiece.
Tessa took the rose and flung herself at her new fiancé, a man so strong and powerful, yet so vulnerable at the same time. “I love you,” she told him before she hugged him tightly.
He tipped her chin up, his eyes a stormy sea of emotions as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “Your devoted audience is chanting for a kiss.”
“Then don’t disappoint them,” she murmured, staring back at him lovingly.
He swooped down and kissed her, right there in front of millions of people, but he didn’t seem to care. He kissed her until she was breathless again, her heart ready to burst from her chest.
When he finally released her, he advised, “Wave to your crowd, sweetheart. They’re going crazy. They all adore you, especially now that they know that even with challenges to overcome, you skated like an angel. You were amazing.”
She faced the audience in each direction, waving enthusiastically with an ecstatic expression that she couldn’t hide even if she wanted to.
Young skaters were coming to collect the flowers that had been thrown onto the ice by fervent observers as Micah took her hand and led her slowly to the exit.
He held the door open and allowed her to get out of the rink first. She nearly bumped into the next performer. “I’m so sorry,” she muttered, looking up as she apologized.
She cringed as she saw Rick standing behind one of her former female competitors, Shannon, a woman she’d never liked because of her cruelty to all of the other women in her profession. The female skater had medaled in the same Olympics that Tessa had; she’d gotten the bronze.
“Theresa,” the dark-haired female acknowledged. “You could watch where you’re going.”
“Now, darling. Don’t get upset. She is dealing with a handicap,” Rick said rudely.
Micah moved in front of her. “Shut the fuck up or I’ll lay you out on the floor in so much pain, you’ll wish you were dead.”
Tessa moved to Micah’s side. “Don’t.” She grabbed his hand. “He’s not worth it.”
“Aiming your aspirations a little low, aren’t you, Sinclair?” Rick asked drily.
Micah lunged and grasped Rick by the collar of his polo shirt. “Honestly, I think she’s way too good for me, but for some reason she wants to marry me anyway,” Micah said with what appeared to be a growl. “Get the fuck out of my event.”
“I have a ticket. I came to see my new girlfriend skate,” Rick protested.
Shannon ignored the two men when her name was called and stepped out onto the ice. Then, as she approached the middle of the rink, she got tripped up and fell on her ass before she’d even started her routine.
Tessa bit her lip to keep from smiling.
Is it so bad of me to be happy that an old member of my team took a fall?
Her ex-teammate got to her feet with a volatile look on her face, and Tessa decided she didn’t care if she was being bad or not. She smiled.
Micah pulled his arm back and smashed Rick hard in the face, watching as the man hit the floor. “There. Now both you and your girlfriend have fallen on your asses,” Micah said with a smirk. “Karma can really be a bitch sometimes,” he added nonchalantly. “Enjoy the show. I’ve seen everything I care about.”
Tessa followed Micah back to the preparation room they’d been in before the performance. He tugged her inside and closed the door behind him.
She found herself immediately boxed in, Micah pinning her to the door. “How in the hell did you ever put up with that jackass?”