Chapter 17 - The Penthouse Above the Clouds
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One month later, just before Thanksgiving, Tessa and Chloe moved out of the Oak Brook surgical villa—not back to the burned shell of their Pilsen apartment, and not to a rental, because Roman had flatly refused to hear a word about them living anywhere outside the fortress of The Sovereign Hotel.
While Chloe was thrilled to have her own sunny, private bedroom suite on the sixty-fourth floor complete with a private tutor and unlimited access to the heated rooftop atrium pool, Tessa had stubbornly insisted on going back to her civil engineering degree at UIC—and working twenty hours a week auditing structural safety blueprints for Vane Development’s legitimate construction division so she never felt like a kept charity case.
On the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving, while Chloe was downstairs in the hotel’s private screening room watching animated movies with Dr. Rossini’s granddaughters and two armed bodyguards stationed outside the door, Tessa walked up the private spiral staircase connecting the sixty-fourth floor to Roman’s sixty-fifth-floor master penthouse.
She wasn't wearing a black maid’s uniform anymore.
Dressed in a soft emerald-green silk wrap dress that brought out the gold flecks in her hazel eyes, with the thin silver scar across her right palm barely visible now and her chestnut hair falling in loose waves over her shoulders, she found Roman standing out on the enclosed, heated glass conservatory terrace—sixty-five stories above the glittering lights of the Magnificent Mile.
It was the exact private conservatory dining room where she had dropped the silver tray of oysters thirty days ago—except tonight, the thirty-foot mahogany conference table was gone.
In its place, surrounded by hundreds of white candles and blooming winter orchids under the snow-dusted glass dome, sat a small table for two overlooking the lake.
Roman stood by the glass rail in a bespoke black suit with no tie, the collar of his black silk shirt open at the throat, holding two flutes of champagne.
When he turned and saw her walk through the archway in the emerald silk dress, his gunmetal eyes darkened with that slow, consuming heat that still made her pulse race every single time he looked at her.
"No Mr. Henderson tonight?" Tessa teased softly, stepping up beside him and taking the crystal flute from his hand without her fingers shaking once.
"Henderson was transferred to our parking garage division in Gary, Indiana, three weeks ago," Roman murmured, setting his glass down on the marble ledge so he could slide both hands around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. "Though if you want to throw a plate on the floor for old times' sake, I had the kitchen bring up an extra dozen."
Tessa laughed softly against his mouth as he bent his head to kiss her—a slow, deep kiss that tasted of champagne and dark, possessive devotion.
"Actually," Tessa whispered when he lifted his head, resting her palms against his lapels, "I passed by the human resources office on the third floor today after my engineering class. They told me my temporary housekeeping contract officially expired at five o’clock."
"It did," Roman agreed huskily, his hands sliding down to the small of her back as he backed her gently against the warm glass rail of the conservatory, trapping her between his tall frame and the city lights sixty-five stories below. "Which means I can finally renegotiate your terms without violating labor laws."
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small black velvet box, and opened it with one thumb between them.
Resting inside on black satin wasn't a traditional white diamond. It was a breathtaking, three-carat deep emerald surrounded by a halo of pavé diamonds set in platinum—matching the exact shade of her eyes and her dress.
Tessa’s breath caught in her throat. "Roman..."
"The night you dropped that tray," Roman whispered, his voice rough and completely unguarded as his forehead rested against hers, "I thought I was just protecting a brave girl from a coward in a tuxedo. I didn't know that within forty-eight hours you were going to crawl into a flooding river tunnel with a gun in your hand, save my family’s empire, and make me realize this whole glass tower was completely empty before you walked into it. Stay with me, Tessa."
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Tears of pure happiness shimmered on Tessa’s lashes as she looked up at the man who had caught her sister’s bed on his shoulders and turned the underworld upside down to keep them safe.
"Yes," she whispered fiercely, throwing her arms around his neck as he slipped the cold platinum band onto her finger and claimed her mouth in a searing kiss that sealed her to his throne forever.
