Chapter 45. The Romantic Proposal

In the second month, since they had spent so much together, Daniel finally started to show his affection toward Sienna. They were not just meeting each other for traveling around the city, eating cotton candy, or just talking merely about random books during the weekend. He began to make a bold move toward her.
And she was not clueless anymore. She was started to see the clear picture of where this relationship would flow.
Sienna felt so nervous every time she met him, especially when Daniel looked at her with his intimidating stare and talked with his deep manly voice. She just got so enchanted by everything about him.
Besides Daniel wanted to express more about his feeling, Sienna had been wondering what he felt toward her for the past few weeks. As if the universe sent the unspoken message to his soul, Daniel started to show it to her.
In the middle of the second month since they had known each other, they met privately in a mega restaurant in the city this time. He had reserved the VIP room just for the two of them. He asked her to dress prettily that day. While he was wearing a formal black suit.
It was for the first time Sienna came to meet him, dressing in a formal gown. She didn’t remember when was the last time she attended a formal event. Was it in her grandma’s birthday bash? Was it in her neighbor’s wedding party? She completely forgot.
That day, she dressed in a knee-length black gown and a pair of black high heels. She let her wavy hair hanging down loosely on the back. And it was the first time ever she tried to wear heavy make-up. She used a peachy blush, Venetian brown lipstick, and matte powder.
However, she had to sneak out of the house before she could dress herself properly. She couldn’t risk herself getting caught by her parents or even her aunt.
As usual, she pretended like she would meet up with Cora. She had to give them the right reason to let her go during the weekend. And none of them would be suspicious of her.
As soon as she arrived in the restaurant, Daniel had been waiting for her. Thereafter, Daniel walked her to the VIP room. At the time, she felt he was being kind of different. He became more and more gentle toward her. She felt he was preparing something special that day that would surprise her. And she wondered what could it be.
When she entered the room with him, her eyes saw the two glasses of red wine that were already served on the table. And she held her breath when she saw the candle lights displayed around the room.
“Daniel, oh… this is so…” she quickly glanced at him, “I don’t know that you can be so romantic like this.”
He smiled quietly. “I can be anything that you want, *Carmelia*.”
When he called her by a different name, Sienna almost forgot that she was not herself when she met him. She was Carmelia Rozewood. And she got to remember that to protect her true identity from him. Although she started to grow a feeling toward him, there was still a part of her that terrified of what her dad said about Daniel and his family.
Her feeling was still in between for him. She was standing in a grey area.
As she sat down at the table with him, she felt pretty anxious being in this enclosed room.
Soon, she had to ask him, “Daniel, why do you ask me to meet formally like this?” And then her eyes glanced around as she spoke unconfidently, “I mean, this place must be so expensive…”
“Carmelia, I want today to be special between us. I have thought about this for a while,” he told her happily. “There’s something that I want to talk seriously with you.”
The moment he said that, Sienna gulped down her saliva nervously.
“About what?” She blinked and chuckled awkwardly. “Daniel, you make me nervous.”
“I just think, this should be the right time to tell you,” he never looked away from her. And then he smiled widely as he changed the topic, “Oh, you look stunning today.”
She quickly stared down at the table. She felt shy when he admired her.
“You are beautiful, Carmelia,” he murmured. “I want you to know that.”
Then she stared back at him and said, “Thank you. And you are handsome as always.”
He chuckled for a second before he got back to the main topic, “Today, I’d like to give you something…”
Sienna looked at him observantly as he took out something from inside his pocket pants.
It was a small box. The navy-blue velvet fabric covered the box, making it looked like a wedding ring box. The moment she just realized what it was, she gasped the air.
“Oh, no, Daniel…” she murmured, hugely surprised.
He grinned eagerly as he opened the box for her. Then he said, “Isn’t it beautiful?”
She instantly bulged her eyes out once she saw what was inside the box. It was a diamond ring. A big one.
However, she didn’t want to believe in what she was seeing yet. “Are you teasing me? What are you going to do with that diamond ring?”
He smiled quietly as he raised from his chair. As soon as he approached her, he bent down close to her knees. And then he proposed to her, “Carmelia Rozewood, will you marry me?”
Her jaw fell opened instantly. She couldn’t believe what she just heard.
“Wh… what?” She murmured, astonished. “Are you serious?”
He chuckled when seeing how innocent her expression at the time.
“Carmelia, I am deathly serious with you,” Daniel said solemnly as he grabbed her palm hand to kiss the tip of her finger.
Her heart skipped a beat when she felt his masculine lips on her skin for the first time.
“Wa… wait, Daniel, this is too sudden!” She muttered, panicking. “Your marriage proposal seems… I mean, you shouldn’t rush it…”
Daniel narrowed her eyebrows, bewildered. “Don’t you want me?”
“Daniel, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m still too young for a marriage life!” Sienna tried to enlighten him.
He was quiet after she raised her tone at him. She felt guilty when she noticed the slight pain in his expression. He didn’t mean to hurt him, or even to refuse the proposal. She was just in a complete dilemma at the time.
“We can have a future together. We can build our life here in Canada,” Daniel murmured. “I’m not playing with your heart, Carmelia. I really do want you as my wife.”
She closed her lips tightly as she shook her head. “I don’t know, Daniel.”
“It took me a while before I finally know what I’ve been feeling toward you these days,” he spoke softly to her. “I feel that you are the one for me. I can feel it, why can’t you?”
Sienna shrugged her shoulders perplexingly. Then she said, “I… I don’t know what I’m feeling right now.”
He convinced her again, “You have changed something inside of me. I feel the sparkle every time I’m with you,” and then he confessed to her, “I love you. I do want to marry you because I love you.”
She blinked awkwardly. “You… you do? Do you love me? How…”
She couldn’t make sense of how he could develop his love feeling toward her so quickly during a month and a half since they met each other. And why she couldn’t understand her own feeling toward him at the time? Was love felt so complicated?
“I’ve never been in love with any woman like this before. You are the first one,” he spoke gently. Then he reached out for her palm hand to kiss her skin and whispered, “And I intend to be your last, my love.”
She shivered when the tip of his lips touched her skin again. Her heart raced nervously.
Deeply inside her heart, she wanted to accept his proposal wholeheartedly. But she was too terrified about what her family would think about this. Especially her dad, who seemed to despise the existence of the Wilson family. If her dad knew about her secret affair with Daniel, her dad would resent her so much for lying to him.
But if Daniel found out that her real name was not Carmelia, he would also despise her.
How could she become such a liar like this since she met him? Was it because her affair with him was like the story of Romeo and Juliet? It was like the forbidden love. This was just too complicated for her. She would need the time to think thoroughly about this.
“Carmelia…” he whispered again while staring up at her.
Sienna sighed, then she raised from the chair. He quickly followed to stand up with her.
“Daniel, I need time to think about this,” she told him carefully. “Please, don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not abandoning you…” she slightly shook her head while speaking, “I just need to settle my mind for now. There is so much going on inside my head.”
Daniel took a deep breath.
And as they exchanged a silent stare, then he nodded to agree with her.