CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
God, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
Ever.
Period.
The simple emerald-green sundress showed off her gorgeous, tanned shoulders and on her feet, she wore a pair of simple white sneakers. To him, she looked like a million dollars.
She also looked like she was about to crumble to the floor.
“Hey,” Daniel said, flying across the room and gripping her hips. She stared at him with parted lips as his heart pounded in his chest. “Harper, speak to me.”
“What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“You know what I’m doing here, baby,” he said and brushed a lock of hair from her forehead. “I’m just praying I’m not too late.”
She swallowed and looked around.
“No flowers or grand gestures?”
Daniel smirked. “Okay, in my defense, I had eleven hours to overthink this. I was going to fill the lobby with roses or rent one of those planes to fly over Waikiki Beach with a banner declaring my love. Or I thought about intercepting you at the airport with aloha dancers and a band.”
Harper let out a tearful laugh.
“Then I rang my jeweler to organize a ring.”
“A ring?” Harper gasped, a tear on the tip of her eyelashes.
“But then I decided when I ask you to be my wife, I am not doing it in one of my hotels,” he said, capturing the tear.
Harper’s lips opened and closed, clearly speechless. Then she swallowed slowly, blinking at him.
There were so many things he wanted to say, but he had to take this step by step. He slipped the Cartier watch back where it belonged and smiled. “You left something in my room.”
“Thank you,” Harper said, emotion thick in her voice. She looked up and gave him a watery smile.
He took her chin and gazed into her beautiful blue eyes. God, he’d missed them.
“I finally realized what you want from me—no, what you need from me—is to show you how much you mean to me. And I intend to do that.”
Another little tear escaped, and he caught it with his thumb.
“You deserve better than how we started, Harper. I lost you because I put everything else before you. I will never do that again. I love you. You are the sole most important thing to me. This is not a promise – I’m going to show you every god damn day of my life.”
“Daniel,” she said, a little hic in her throat.
“If you’ll have me?”
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Harper asked.
“I just flew across the world to tell you, so I’m pretty sure.” He smirked. “I know it’s going to take some time to earn back your trust, and I’m willing to do everything it takes.”
“God, I missed you.” she cried, and he pulled her into his arms.
“Can we do this?” he asked, his face buried in her hair. Daniel was a confident man, but he felt his body shiver at the thought of Harper saying no. “Please?”
She nodded.
Daniel pulled back. He had to be sure.
“I mean really do this,” Daniel said. “Because I am going to ask you to marry me, Harper. When I do, you will know my priority is making you the happiest woman alive.”
And he would.
Because Daniel Dufort never failed, and he most definitely wasn’t failing Harper Kane—the woman he loved.