AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Marry me.”
I’d planned to discuss this with her earlier, but the stonemason had arrived two hours early and the rest of the day had escaped us.
“Huh?” Willa tried to rub the sleep from her eyes as she propped her elbows on my chest. “What did you say?”
“Marry me,” I repeated.
Her sweet laughter made me smile. Surgeons might have removed the bullets, but it was Willa who’d stitched me back together and made my life worth living.
“You’re such a weirdo,” she yawned. “We’re already married.”
Always the cheeky sprite.
I squeezed the globe of her ass. “We can have a real wedding. Father O’Brien can officiate.”
She blinked a couple of times, then flashed me a loopy grin. “Count me in. But I call dibs on Keegs.”
I quirked a brow. “Come again?”
She collapsed on my chest with dramatic flair. “He’ll be my man of honor, of course.”
I chuckled. That I would have to see. “He did help me pick out the ring,” I told her matter-of-factly.
Her head snapped up. “There’s a ring!” she whisper-yelled.
“Aye,” I growled. I captured her bottom lip with my teeth. She tasted like apples and sex. “Only a weirdo wouldn’t buy his wife a ring.”
Willa grinned, then buried her face in my neck. “I will marry you, again, Lucifer Flynn,” she breathed. “I will marry you a million times.”
I lowered my voice. “Niall would be honored to walk you down the aisle. Would you like that?”
Her head bobbed, and I was certain I heard a sniffle. “Aye. I would love it.”
I anticipated Willa struggling with the loss of her parents on her special day, and hoped that Niall’s fatherly presence might bring her comfort. If I was being honest, Willa wouldn’t be the only one feeling the sting of familial absence at our wedding. Raphael had gone underground after escaping the fire. My brother was alive—but that was all I knew.
Within a few minutes, her body stilled, her breathing became steady, and I knew she’d fallen asleep.
I pressed a kiss to her crown and let my gaze land on something that rested on the end table.
I’d finished reading Willa’s favorite novel last week and now had my own favorite line: “Woman is sacred; the woman one loves is holy.”
Embers crackled in the fireplace, the light from their orange glow dancing along Willa’s silken strands. I tugged at the blanket draped over the back of the couch and dragged it over us, shielding her from the encroaching chill.
I ran my fingertips along her spine while my rage gathered like a storm within me.
Willa said I was a good man, and maybe, on some level, I was. But a monster stalked my soul. He always would. And one day soon, this fucking devil would start an unholy war.
THE END
