Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 553

"Celeste," I said, and my voice came out lower than I had intended, rougher, raw with everything I had been holding inside. "I have spent my entire life building walls. I built them brick by brick, year after year, because I believed that was the only way to survive. I believed that love was a weakness. And then I met you."

Her hand pressed against her mouth, her chest rising and falling with the effort of staying still.

"You did not tear down my walls," I continued. "You simply walked through them like they were not there, because you saw through me from the very first day. You saw the man I was trying to be, and you loved him anyway. You have made me braver. You have made me kinder. You have made me believe that I am capable of being the man you deserve."

I took a breath. The room was silent. The whole world was silent.

"I do not have a speech written. I did not want to read words that someone else had arranged for me. I wanted to tell you, from my knees, in front of everyone who matters, that I am yours. Completely. Desperately. Forever.

I want to wake up next to you every morning for the rest of my life. I want to fight beside you, grow old beside you, hold your hand while we watch our children run through the halls of this house. I want to be the man who makes you laugh when the world is heavy. I want to be the arms that hold you when you need to fall apart. I want to be your husband, Celeste. In every way that matters. And I promise you, on everything I am and everything I hope to become, that I will spend every single day of my life trying to be worthy of the love you have given me."

I held the ring up to her.

"Celeste Adams. Will you marry me?"

She did not speak. She could not. Her hand was still pressed against her mouth, and tears were rolling down her cheeks, and she looked at me with an expression I will carry to my grave. Wonder. Love. The quiet, radiant certainty of a woman who had found her home.

She nodded. Then she found her voice.

"Yes," she said, and the word broke open and flooded the room. "Yes, Dominic Ford. Yes, I will marry you."

"This is perfect," she said, looking up at me with that smile that undid me every time. "Everything is perfect."

"That is because you are here."

She laughed and sipped her champagne. "You are insufferable."

"You love it."

"Unfortunately for my pride, I do."