He clinked his glass against mine, but the troubled look hadn’t left his eyes. “There’s one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
Jack reached into his jacket pocket, his movements deliberate, almost solemn. When his hand emerged, he was holding a small velvet box.
My heart stuttered. “Jack?”
He opened the box, revealing a stunning ring set with a deep blue sapphire surrounded by tiny diamonds. The elegant platinum band caught the light, throwing off glimmers that took my breath away.
“If we’re going to be convincing, we need to do this properly.”
I couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. Even knowing this was all pretend, the sight of Jack Sullivan holding a ring box across the table from me in one of the most beautiful restaurants in Paris made my pulse race and my mind spin with dangerous possibilities.
“Mia?” His voice broke through my thoughts, a hint of uncertainty coloring his tone. “We don’t have to?—”
“It’s gorgeous,” I managed, cutting him off. “Is this where you went this morning, while I was asleep?”
A hint of a smile touched his lips. “Yes.” With careful movements, he took the ring from its velvet nest and held it out. “May I?”
I nodded, unable to form words as I extended my left hand across the table. Jack slid the ring onto my finger with a gentleness that made my heart ache. It fit perfectly, as if it had been made for me.
“Perfect,” he murmured, his thumb stroking across my knuckles.
I stared at the sapphire, now resting on my finger like it belonged there. The deep blue stone seemed to glow in the soft lighting of the restaurant.
“It’s just for the trip,” I said, as much to remind myself as him. “Just pretend.”
Something flickered in Jack’s eyes, too quickly for me to interpret. “Of course.”
Yet as our dessert arrived and conversation shifted to lighter topics, I couldn’t stop stealing glances at the ring on my finger, a weight both foreign and thrilling. And I couldn’t quite shake the dangerous thought that took root in my heart:
What if it wasn’t pretend at all?
JACK
The weight of the ring box in my pocket had been driving me insane all day. Every time I’d reached for my phone, my fingers had brushed against the velvet, reminding me of the early morning trip I’d made while Mia was still sleeping. The jeweler’s knowing smile when I’d described what I was looking for. The way my pulse had quickened when I’d seen the sapphire. I couldn’t even say why I’d chosen it, when a diamond made more sense. I just knew it was exactly right.
“Ready for the tower?” I asked Mia as we stepped out of Le Train Bleu into the cool evening air.
Her face lit up with that smile always made my pulse leap. “I’ve been ready my whole life.”
The ride to the Eiffel Tower was mercifully short, because sitting beside Mia with my ring glinting on her finger was doing things to my head I couldn’t afford to analyze. When I’d slid it onto her finger, watching it settle into place like it belonged there, my heart had done a weird little flutter that I’d immediately shoved down. It was just a prop. An expensive one, sure, but still just a tool for our performance in Colorado.
Nothing more.
I shook the thought off as my driver pulled into the curb. I stepped out of the car, adjusting my jacket against the evening chill before circling around to Mia’s door. When I pulled it open, she looked up at me with those gray eyes that somehow managed to be both stormy and clear at the same time. The sapphire on her finger caught the streetlight as she extended her hand for me to help her out.
“Such a gentleman,” she teased, her voice carrying that hint of playfulness that had become so familiar over the past weeks.
As she stepped onto the sidewalk, the Tower was already beginning its hourly light show, thousands of bulbs twinkling like earthbound stars.
We’d only taken a few steps when Mia stopped walking entirely, her hand pressed to her chest as she stared up at the iron latticework soaring into the darkness.
“It’s so much bigger than I imagined,” she whispered. “And more beautiful.”
I watched her face instead of the tower, memorizing the wonder in her expression. “Want to go up?”
She nodded eagerly, already pulling me toward the entrance. “All the way to the top.”
