The Lonely King

Thirty-Seven

I woke up because of fingers gently brushing my hair away from my face. I blinked my eyes open to see the most gorgeous part of silver eyes I have ever seen. I let a small smile appear on my face as I relaxed against his warm that radiated off his naked chest against my own naked skin.

I let out a languorous sigh as I took a moment to enjoy the present situation: being cuddled up with the man of my dreams in one of the most romantic places in the world, surrounded by beautiful culture, nature, and architecture. Plus, in about an hour or so, I will be eating amazing greek breakfast.

I took a moment to observe Nick. His skin was a shade darker due to all the sun exposure, making his eyes stand out even more. His messy dark hair laid across his forehead, making me want to run a hand through it. Even though he looked completely relaxed, for some reason, I felt like he was waiting for something, for me to do something.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"it's nothing," he dismissed. "I was just thinking about what we should do today."

"I don't know about you, but after last night, I'm pretty hungry."

His deep chuckled filled the room right after, his chest vibrating against my cheek. "What do you want to do after?"

"Hmmm...I liked laying on the beach yesterday."

"okay," he stroked my shoulder, barley touching his fingertips to my skin, sending a shiver down my spine. "There's this great beach about 10 minutes away by car. You can swim through caves and the sand is so white you can make a snowman out of it, but you have to be careful where you step since there are sea urchins everywhere."

I giggled before replying. "One time, I went sailing with some friends from college during spring break, and we all decided to jump off the boat and swim at night. But, the ocean was shallow where we were and I landed right on a sea urchin. One of my friends, who was a lifeguard during the summers, had to pluck the spikes from my foot. It was so gross."

His chuckled sounded again. "Let's not repeat that because I have no medical knowledge."

The first time we met came to mind, and I smiled at the way I never thought this would come from it. "Let's go get breakfast for now because I don't want to waterproof my gunshot wound right now." I still can't believe anything like that would ever come out of my mouth.

"Are you feeling better?" He asked.

"Much. I think being here is helping." I pecked his cheek before I made my way to the bathroom to shower and change.

Once I was finished, I came out of the bathroom to see Nick again after he joined me in the shower and left earlier than I did as always. In the morning, I can't not take 40 minute showers.

I looked at his face to find him searching mine for a reaction of some kind. What was he looking for? It seemed as if he didn't find what he was looking for and a small bit of disappointment flashed in his eyes before he smiled and held his hand out for me to take.

We walked together out of the villa and to a restaurant for breakfast. The man at the door looked up to us, straightened his back, and smiled.

"Καλημέρα κύριε κύριε, πώς είσαι," the man said in greek to Nick. (Good morning, sir. How are you?)

"Πολύ καλά, ευχαριστώ." Nick replied back to him before the man led us to the table. (Very well, thank you.)

"και συγχαρητήρια," the man said before he started to leave. (And congratulations)

"I didn't know you spoke greek," I started.

"It's not much. Just traveling phrases plus what I've learned for coming here so often."

"It still seems like a lot," I commented in awe of how sexy it is that he is so confident speaking a language that he claims to not know well.

"You know, you notice so much and so little at the same time," he commented.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"You'll know soon, hopefully."

"Okaaay," I said suspiciously before deciding to look at the menu.

After breakfast, which was lots of yogurt, honey, jam, and toast, we walked back together. While we laughed and talked on the way back, I didn't think too much about why he has been acting so weird today, but when we got back to the villa and he went to go change, I started to worry.

I went out to the balcony to let the view and sound of the waves calm my nerves. I just couldn't figure out what happened. Nothing bad happened yesterday between us and I didn't think anything changed.

What in the world is he acting so strange for?

It's kind of pointless to try to figure out what goes on in that mind of his. It basically could be anything honestly with the type of business he's in. It could be his men or leaders of other countries, maybe my restaurant, but with all those possibilities, I knew it was still our relationship.

What could I be missing? Am I just so oblivious to what ever is going on? What if he's stressed about work or something? What if I did something wrong and he's secretly mad at me?

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. He's not mad at me. If he was, it would be so obvious. Then what was it that I'm not seeing?

I moved my hand across the railing of the balcony. Clang!

What was that? I moved my hand away and looked down. There was nothing on the rail that would be out of the ordinary.

Then, I looked at my hand and noticed something that wasn't there before.

A ring on my left ring finger.

It was a platinum band, decorated with small diamonds around the whole thing, but my eyes were focused on the one large diamond set in the middle of the ring, glistening in the sunlight.

How long has this been here?

I marched back into the villa, my head down and eyes glued on the ring situated on my finger. My heart was thumping quickly as I had my mind set on finding the one man that could have done this.

"Nick!" I called out as I opened the bedroom door.

I looked up to see him look up at me at the same time, still in the same clothes as he wore to the restaurant, sitting on the edge of the bed. Briefly, I thought that he could have been worrying about what my reaction would be when I eventually noticed when I was down stairs. God, he's probably been worrying the whole morning.

"D-did you?" I couldn't even finish my sentence because of the shock.

"You took so much longer to notice than I thought," He commented before he stood up and came toward me.

"I'm so sorry!"

"Relax, Amelia." He took my left hand in his and got down on one knee. "I know we haven't been together for as long as most couples when they do this, but I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else. Before you, I had no one to come home to. No one to love, and no one to love me. But, then you came along and showed me what life has to offer. You constantly challenge how I look at the world by seeing the way you see it. You have made me laugh and smile more in the past 8 months than I have in the past 10 years. The way you're so passionate about cooking, your favorite sports teams, and even sneaking out to see the city always pushes me to do more. You showed me what there is to live for in life and I want to share the rest of mine with you. Will you marry me?"

I started to tear up as he finished his speech. I knew my answer from the moment I saw the ring. "Of course."

He instantly stood up to his feet, wrapped his arms around my waist, picked me up, and kissed me as he spun me around.

"I love you so much, Amelia."

"I love you more, Nick."

"Not possible," He shook his head and let out a huge minty breath. "God, you really made me worried today. I was just anxiously waiting for you to noice and that made me worry about your answer and I am so glad you finally noticed."

"I'm so oblivious." I shook my head.

He kissed me again out of pure happiness, and now it was time to enjoy the day as his fiancée.