He nodded. ‘I know.’ He should have thought to do that. That should have been him. But he’d been thinking too selfishly. ‘You’re a good friend to her.’
‘Only because she’s wonderful to me. It’s nice to be able to do something for her for once,’ Rosanna said. ‘She does so much for everyone else.’
‘Yeah.’ She did. She bent over backwards for the ones she loved. She was bending every which way for him. And he wasn’t happy about it. She deserved so much more. The feeling inside his chest tightened.
She was going to take him—like this—with nothing extra. She was too generous. And he wasn’t going to let her get away with it. Not any more. No matter the cost to him, she was too important. Her happiness was too important.
He could do it, sure he could—because she deserved it.
‘I’ve got a few other things I need to do for her.’ He swallowed and bit the bullet. ‘Are you up to helping me?’
Rosanna looked sharply curious. ‘What kind of things?’
‘Top secret things.’
‘Spend money kind of top-secret things?’
‘Lots of money,’ he acknowledged.
‘Then you’ve got an able assistant.’
He’d grin if he weren’t feeling so freaked. ‘Fantastic.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SOPHY let Lorenzo guide her to her seat. Honestly, she was over the cotton wool treatment. Four days since her accident and he was still handling her as if he was afraid she’d break any moment.
‘You’re into taking this risk a second time?’
‘The first wasn’t such a risk,’ she teased back. ‘It’s not like you’ve asked me for my passport.’
He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out two small blue books.
‘No way.’ Sophy stared at them. ‘You got my passport? How did you do that?’
He didn’t answer. Just grinned at her in a lazy way.
‘That was at my parents’ house.’ She frowned. ‘At least, I think it was. You didn’t break in there, did you?’
‘I never did breaking and entering. Not my strength.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. You’re capable of anything you set your mind to,’ she muttered. ‘It’s scary.’
‘Are you scared?’
She met his serious gaze. ‘No.’ She did up her seat belt. ‘Actually I’m hoping you’re going to make me a member of the mile high club.’
He laughed but she wasn’t kidding. He’d kissed her since the accident, but they hadn’t had sex. And she needed it—badly wanted to connect with him. There was a distance between them. She sensed his tension, as if he was keeping something back from her.
‘Are we going back to Hanmer?’
He just smiled.
She was sure of it when they got into the rental car in Christchurch and he took the road north again. Fine by her—she couldn’t think of anything nicer than making love with him in that wonderful warm water again.
But he turned off on a side road well before he should. Then took another, a gravel road this time. The building appeared out of nowhere. One of those churches that had been built a century ago and now was stuck in the middle of a field with nothing else around—no other buildings, no cars, nothing.
‘Sophy.’
He switched off the engine. He was so pale she was seriously worried.
‘Lorenzo?’
He turned to face her. ‘Will you marry me?’ It was only once he’d asked it that he looked directly into her eyes.
She blinked, stunned at the question that had come so suddenly out of the blue. ‘Yes. Of course I will.’ Her heart thudded hard enough to burst from her chest.
But he didn’t smile. Didn’t look even a smidge more relaxed. He just jerked his head in a sharp negating gesture. ‘But will you marry me right now?’
She stared from him, to the church in front of them. ‘Now?’
‘Right now.’ He sat still as marble.
‘Of course I will.’ She answered in a heartbeat.
‘You’re sure? You’re absolutely sure?’ He was the colour of marble too.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But are you?’
He smiled then. It was as if the full power of the sun had burst through the storm clouds—scattering them to the furthest edge of the universe. He got out of the car, strode round to her door and opened it.
She stepped out carefully, looking cautiously at him as he took her hand and led her to the closed doors of the old church.
‘We can’t really get married now can we?’ She climbed the stairs doubtfully. She didn’t think there was a minister in there—there wasn’t a car in the yard, there didn’t seem to be another soul around for miles.