Proposal in Room 309 by Joss Wood Read Free Book Online Page A

I found it on the floor outside your door.’
    Ben looked at the velvet ring box in Jason’s hand and his heart nearly stopped. Inside was Joely’s ring, carefully designed and costing a bomb. It must have dropped out of his jacket when Joely took it off outside the door.
    ‘Yeah.’ Ben caught the box that sailed through the air.
    ‘It’s a hell of a ring. Congratulations.’
    Ben, the box in his hand, watched the door shut again. He closed his eyes and hauled in a long breath, opening his eyes only when he felt Joely taking the box from his hand. She slowly opened it up and sat on the couch, staring at the deep blue, square cut sapphire embedded in a band of platinum.
    When she didn’t say anything, Ben shrugged and walked to the bathroom, ignoring the petals on the bed and the profusion of flowers in the bedroom. Yeah, another wasted gesture as this evening had gone to hell in a hand basket.
    He grabbed two thick robes from the hook behind the bathroom door, shrugged one on and quickly tied it closed. When he returned to the lounge, Joely was still looking at the ring. He draped a robe around her shoulders and she pulled it on, her gaze still on the open box.
    ‘You want something to drink?’ Ben asked, his voice low.
    He waited for her response, saw the quick shake of her head, headed for the credenza and poured himself a healthy shot of whisky. After the evening he’d had, he was pretty sure he deserved it.
    Flicking on a lamp, he sat next to Joely, lifted his feet onto the coffee table and tipped his head back to rest it against the couch. ‘So, on a scale of one to ten, how do you rate this evening?’
    Joely traced the sapphire with one finger before lifting big eyes to meet his. The naked emotion in her eyes punched him in his heart. Then she looked around the room, taking in the profusion of tulips. Her eyes softened as they bounced from one bouquet to another and she sighed when she saw the expensive bottle of champagne in the silver ice bucket.
    ‘It’s beautiful, Ben. Did you arrange the flowers and champagne for me?’
    Ben shrugged, thinking that when The Chatsfield apologised for mucking an arrangement up, they did it with style. He’d ordered a flower arrangement, not Kew Gardens. And there were Belgian chocolates on the coffee table and a bottle of expensive cognac in case they wanted something other than champagne.
    ‘Actually, I ordered it for my other lover but she couldn’t make it…’ Ben teased.
    ‘Haha.’ Joely jammed a friendly elbow into his ribs.
    ‘Tell me again why you want to marry me,’ Joely asked him, her normally strong voice quavering and her eyes back on her ring.
    Realising that something had shifted between them, Ben sat up and put his glass on the table before choosing his words carefully. ‘Aside from the fact that I am absolutely, crazily, wickedly in love with you?’
    Delight flashed across her face. ‘Apart from that.’
    He snuck a hand up and under her still wet hair. ‘Because I know what marriage is… or, at least, what it should be.’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘It’s commitment and a lot of hard work. It’s us working together to conquer anything in our way, whether it’s financial or emotional or anything else life might throw at us. Together. It’s about pooling what we have, sharing what we have…’
    Ben stared at the hand Joely snuck into his. ‘It’s about putting the “we” before the “I”. It’s about us deciding that we are going to work and never wavering from that.’
    ‘I’m scared, Ben.’
    Ben pulled in a surprised, hopeful breath at her admission. ‘So am I babe, but being scared isn’t a good enough excuse not to do it.’
    ‘The odds are against us…’ Joely protested quietly and Ben didn’t hear the same conviction he heard in her voice earlier in the evening.
    ‘Let’s set our own standard, Jo, not the one set by society. Let’s decide that we are going to be better and bolder. Let’s decide not to run, to stay and