“I just met you.”
“Yes,” she agreed, her expression quizzical.
“But I’ve bought companies in the space of hours. I’ve always listened to my instincts.”
Though she had no idea where he was going, Sophie’s heart began to race in her chest. “Yes?”
“And every fibre of my being is telling me that I’ll regret it for the rest of my life if I don’t ask you to marry me.”
The silence pulsed between them, heavy with shock and surprise. “Marry you?” Sophie finally broke it, her voice squeaky in the night air.
“Yes. Marry me.”
Her mouth gaped. She looked down the hallway, as if just remembering where they were. She pulled him into her bedroom and quietly clicked the door closed behind them.
“I’m sorry,” she spoke quietly, and Alex had a surge of panic. She was going to say no, and it would all be over.
He waited silently for her to finish her sentence, but he was far from patient. Inside, he was a ticking bomb.
“I don’t think I heard you properly. I do that sometimes. I vague out and fantasize.” She shook her head in a gesture that he found frustratingly adorable. “What did you say?”
Relief was spreading through him. “You heard perfectly, agape mou. Marry me.”
“I thought that’s what you said.” Her tongue darted out and licked her lower lip. “It’s so sudden.”
He laughed softly and linked his arms behind her back, pulling her against his broad frame. “Marry me.”
“But you live in Greece.”
His nod was droll. “And you’re from Australia. These are details, not significant factors.”
She made a chortling sound. “Easy for you to say.”
“Marry me.”
She stared at him with a strange, drowning sensation. “But why?”
“Because every fibre of my being tells me it is right for us to marry. And I believe you feel the same way.”
Their eyes clashed, and understanding throbbed between them.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” He laughed into her cheek and then kissed her.
“Yes! Of course, yes!”
The packet was waiting for him when he got home. It must have arrived with the day’s post, and he’d shuffled it all onto his desk for later attention.
Proposing to Sophie Henderson had taken the focus out of his mind for a moment. After all, it had surprised him as much as it had her.
But it had been the right call.
He would never know for sure if she and Eric were carrying on an affair, and how serious it was, but there was enough proof to have him seriously concerned. As his wife, she would be out of the picture.
She would be his. And only his.
A tight smile of anticipation spread across his features as he thought of long, Greek nights at his home on Corfu. How he would enjoy teasing her delectable body when she was fully his. No imperative to return her to the house on Herringbone Lane; he would take all night to pleasure her and take his pleasure from her.