The CEO’s Unspoken Love (Eleanor and Derek) novel Chapter 228

Chapter 228

The image made me smile through my tears. “That’s why you’ve been so secretive with your backpack? Alexander helped you pick the ring, didn’t he?”

Derek pulled back, surprise evident on his face. “How did you know?”

“I didn’t. But it explains the hushed conversations that stopped whenever I entered the room.” I looked down at the ring gleaming on my finger, overwhelmed by its significance. “It’s perfect, Derek. Absolutely perfect.”

He gathered me close again, his arms strong and secure around me. We stayed that way for a long time, wrapped in each other’s embrace beneath the vast expanse of stars. I thought about the journey that had brought us here-the arranged marriage, the gradual connection, the painful separation, the devastating accident, and now this moment of renewal.

“I love you,” I whispered against his chest, feeling his heartbeat steady and strong beneath my cheek. “I think I always have.”

Derek’s arms tightened around me. “I don’t deserve you,” he murmured into my hair. “But I’m selfish enough to keep you anyway.”

I pulled back to look into his eyes. “We deserve each other, Derek. All of it-the pain and the joy, the mistakes and the growth. It led us here.”

He nodded slowly, his expression softening. “When did you become so wise?”

“Somewhere between selling my flower shop and learning to change IV bags,” I replied with a small smile.

Derek laughed, the sound rich and genuine in the quiet night. “Come here,” he said, standing and pulling me to my feet. He led me back toward our tent, the campfire’s glow lighting our way.

The raw honesty in his voice humbled me. I remembered how he’d looked in that hospital bed-vulnerable, broken, stripped of all his carefully constructed defenses. How even then, at his weakest, there had been a core of strength that amazed me.

I will never take that for granted,” I promised, pressing my lips to his. “Seeing you. Loving you. Being loved by you.”

That kiss lingered, deepening slowly as the last embers of the campfire outside faded to glowing coals. What had begun as a gentle promise transformed into something more urgent, more primal. Derek’s arms tightened around me, drawing me closer until I could feel the steady rhythm of his heartbeat against my chest. The simple sleeping bag beneath us rustled softly as he shifted, his hand moving to cup my face with a tenderness that contrasted with the growing intensity of his kiss.

The cool night air slipped through the seams of our tent, but I barely noticed, too lost in the warmth radiating between us. My fingers traced the line of his jaw, feeling the slight stubble there, before sliding into his hair. Everything else-the proposal, the ring, even the stars above-seemed to fade into the background as our breaths mingled and quickened.

Here, miles from Boston, from expectations and obligations, something new was unfolding between us-something that had always been there, perhaps, but never fully acknowledged until this moment.