I touched my face. “I didn’t say it was easy. I’m just telling you, it’s the right thing to do.”
He pulled my hand away and turned from me. The space between us expanded.
“Then that settles it,” he said with all the finality of a nail in a coffin.
The floor dropped out from under me, though I seemed to be miraculously standing there still. This couldn’t be it. Could it? I didn’t need to breathe, but I felt suffocated. My core froze, adrift on an icy ocean.
We went from being to enemies to lovers, and I feared we were on the precipice of being enemies once more. But even if we went to war over this, I’d never stop loving him. I couldn’t if I tried.
Turning back toward me, he smoothed back the hair that had fallen in his eyes. “You’re going to have to marry me.”
My jaw dropped. “Wh-what?” My mind spun wildly, trying to figure out what was happening.
“Immortality, and favoring tradition, has made me blind to certain aspects of this world, and obviously the only way to rectify the situation is to make sure I have you by my side. Since you are the only one who isn’t afraid to show me a different and much-needed perspective.”
Then I squinted an eye at him. “You want to marry me because you want me to be your politically correct officer for the rest of time?”
He grabbed me, kissing me so thoroughly he didn’t let go until my hair was mussed, lips swollen, and I was left dazed. Desire struck me hard and fast, riding the waves of my rage and fear. How could he do that? Affect me so completely.
Resting his forehead against mine, he said, “I want to marry you because I’m madly, deeply in love with that smart mouth of yours and everything attached to it.”
“We are already stuck in an eternal blood bond,” I pointed out in a husky whisper.
We’d never discussed marriage. Who needed to? We were bonded for all time. So then why did his proposal send feelings rocketing through my entire body?
He smirked, eyes sweeping down to my lips. “Call me old-fashioned, but my essence craves the public declaration that comes with a wedding and marriage.”
I opened and closed my mouth.
Doubt flickered across his face as he pulled back. “Do you want to marry me?” The way he stilled told me he was bracing himself for whatever my answer would be. If I said no, it would devastate him. But he’d likely take it with the stiff upper lip of an ancient god.
I wasted time before, and I knew better than to hold back now. “Fuck yes, I do.”
He crushed me against him, kissing me, evoking liquid heat to flow through my body. His hands roamed, stoking the fires inside me. I was hungry again, and for more than just his blood.
When our kiss broke, I said, “Okay, but if you think you can wriggle your way out of a fight every time by proposing, you got another thing coming.”
“The only thing I care about is if you are coming,” he whispered against my lips.
My brain fritzed right out. Okay, so he had more in his arsenal than a proposal to throw a girl off her argument.
Then he dropped to one knee and removed the skull ring he wore and slipped it onto my finger.
It was far too big for me, but he closed his hand around it, warming the metal. When he pulled away, it melded perfectly to my size.
“Just for now,” he said.
Emotion swelled in my chest as I looked at my hand in his. “No, it’s perfect.” Then clearing my throat, I said, “Well, if we are going to get hitched, we better spring our friends out of whatever prison Galina has them trapped in. It won’t do to have a wedding party of zero.”
23
Vivien
Grim and I were engaged. My mind still struggled to wrap around that fact, but I’d dig into it later. Right now, I had an opportunity to deal with this issue quickly before anyone else got hurt.
I strode up to the Martini Hotel. No one stopped me. I had a standing invitation. The fresh air of early dawn surrounded me.
Vegas felt so quiet. It unnerved me. The stakes of the supernatural battle were dangerously high, but the humans were likely sleeping off their hangovers or a night of partying on the Strip. The world was on the precipice of spiraling out of control and they had no idea.
