The Royal Fortune was the family’s smaller motor yacht that stayed in the City year-round. She was a hundred feet long and gleamed white against the dark water of the harbor.   

And even by her usual standards, she looked spectacular.

Candles in heavy glass storm lanterns lit the main deck. Their light played over the strategically placed arrangements of gardenias and white roses. An intimate table for two was set under the protective canopy in the back. Along the prow the all weather lounging cushions had been laid out, the perfect location for some romantic star-gazing. 

Tristan had to give the crew credit, they’d met and exceeded his requests.

The look on Katie’s face when saw it—the way her lips parted and the enchanted delight in her eyes—was worth all the hours he’d put into the manuscript, all the sleep he’d lost, and all the mockery he’d endured from various family members as news drifted around the grape vine that he was pulling out the big guns.

“I’m glad you like it. Shall we?” Tristan kicked off his shoes and gestured for her to do the same, his had white soles but hers didn’t and he wasn’t about to break the romance of this moment to explain deck maintenance.  

A member of the boat’s crew appeared to whisk their shoes away and then Tristan held Katie’s hand as she stepped onto the yacht.

“Cast off whenever the captain is ready, Paul.” Tristan told the crewman. “Let’s do the Statue of Liberty loop first.” He turned to Katie. “Sound good?”

She stood by one of the storm lanterns and was running gentle fingers over the petals of a gardenia. 

“Sounds amazing,” she said in a soft voice that was entirely unlike her. 

Tristan went over to her. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” She smiled, but still didn’t look up from the flower petal she was stroking. “This is all very beautiful.”

“Uh-huh. I might believe that if I didn’t actually know you.” He touched her shoulder and let his thumb caress the soft skin of her neck. “Katie, talk to me.”

This time she did look up at him. She leaned into his hand and let out a little half-sigh. “I’m not sure I can. It doesn’t make sense.”

“That would hardly be unusual for us,” he said with what would have been a laugh, except his lungs weren’t working properly. “Tell me anyway.”    

“This is our point of no return. It’s been all fun and games up til now. But if we do…” She gestured between them, “this, my life’s about to become very complicated.” 

“Ah.” His heart felt like a lump in his chest and it was physically painful to pry the words out. “Do you want me to tell the captain not to cast off?”  

Katie blinked up at him. “What?”

“This isn’t a trick,” Tristan told her plainly and stepped back. “This isn’t a game. And it sure as hell isn’t something you owe me. All jokes, deals, and bets aside, if you don’t want to be here…”

He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence. It made him feel ill.

“But I do want to be here.” Katie stepped into his space this time. Her hand came up to touch his cheek, in the same way she had on the night she’d first kissed him. “I shouldn’t and it’s a suicidally bad idea professionally, but…I do.”

Her words hit a chord inside him.

Tristan had never thought about his wedding before. He’d been to too many of them over the course of his life. And most of those had ended badly. But he knew with sudden resolute clarity, this was the woman he wanted walking down the aisle toward him. 

He’d never really understood why his father had kept proposing the way he had. But it felt like the words ‘marry me’ were trying to leap off his tongue. And because that was a stupid idea if he’d ever evolved one, instead he said, “I love you.”