My One True North by Milly Johnson

Author:Milly Johnson [Johnson, Milly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

February, earlier that year

They peeled apart, sticky and sweaty from sex. She flopped backwards, head sinking deep into the pillow, fat with its newness, heart drumming a satisfied tattoo.

‘You are amazing in bed,’ she said.

‘You’re not so bad yourself.’

She laughed, closed her eyes, relived the moment when the climax shuddered through her body at the same time as she felt his last thrust inside her. There was an odd but thrilling synchronicity between their bodies – and their minds. People said they had found their soulmates when they hadn’t really, just the one who fitted the present requirements, but this, this was the real deal. They’d felt it from the first time they met each other; it rumbled through them like thunder and lightning, connecting them, binding them, with its energy. It had been all-encompassing, obsessional, a fire too hot to sustain and with the cooling came the guilt. It had parted them and they’d tried to move on, but everything was weaker by comparison, a watered-down version of what they’d had with each other.

He had picked up his life where he left it; she had thrown herself at anyone to stem the bleed from her heart that she thought would never stop. She’d met someone lovely, thought it could work – wanted it to work. Then she met him again. A chance encounter. More than that – a clear indicator that whatever direction they tried to go, all roads served to push them back together. So they gave up the fight and let themselves happen again. They were home to each other. Home and heaven.

He swung himself out of bed, strolled over to the scatter of clothes on the floor. It was part of their ritual, tearing them off each other. They both enjoyed the urgency, the chaos.

He lifted up his jacket, rifled in the pocket.

‘Too late if you’re looking for a condom,’ she called.

‘Good.’ He grinned.

He was as confident naked as he was dressed, and she sensed there was purpose in the slow swagger towards her. But not even when he dropped to one knee and held up a box to her in a fluid beautiful movement did she believe what that purpose was.

She sat up quickly.

‘No way.’

He smiled. ‘Will you marry me?’

She gulped. ‘Really? Are you serious?’

‘I was going to give this to you tomorrow, but how can I wait now? This is our most special day,’ he said. He jabbed the box at her, urging her to take it, open it.

Her hand fluttered as it reached out. She took the box. It opened with an old, satisfying creak. Inside the lid the words stamped on the silk, ‘Van Cleef & Arpels’ and a ring – platinum – and a central square diamond, simple and pure. She lifted it out, held it up to the bulb above her head, saw the words ‘Always on my mind’ inscribed on the inner side in tiny letters, because the circumference of the ring was so small. Their words. Nothing to do with Elvis or Dolly or Willie Nelson, there was no tune dancing at the side of them.

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