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“We face this together,” Natches told her, his voice hardening. “As a family.”
Family.
With Duke on one side, a father she had no idea how to deal with on the other, and dozens of other Mackays, in-laws and outlaws, surrounding them, they met the surgeon and Ethan at the door.
Their faces were exhausted. Ethan looked haggard.
“Natches.” The surgeon stepped to him, his blue eyes weary. “Before I begin, she made it through surgery. She’s in ICU for now, but we’re optimistic. She’s alive. We work from there.”
She was alive.
That was all that mattered. She was alive.
TWENTY-TWO
Two days later
Angel woke in Duke’s arms, the warmth and strength that surrounded her sinking all the way to her soul.
She was content, she realized.
No, she was more than content; she was happy. She was fully happy, something she’d never known before, something she’d never imagined she’d have a chance to know.
Would she have known this without Duke?
She wouldn’t have, she didn’t believe. She would have died in a no-name country and she would have never known what could have been or how happy she could be.
“You think too hard, baby,” he drawled, his voice sleep-drowsy and sexy. “I should spank you for waking me.”
She smiled at the threat. “Keep threatening to spank me, Duke, and I’m going to end up spanking you.”
He chuckled. “Hmm, I go first.”
Rolling to his side, those gorgeous too-thick lashes opened just enough to allow a glimpse of mossy green eyes and male hunger.
“I’ll be happy to spank you first,” she assured him, twining her arms around his neck as his head lowered, his lips brushing against hers as laughter rumbled in his chest.
“I doubt that’s going to happen, darlin’,” he assured her. “At least not without a hell of a lot of convincing. For a hell of a long time,” he tacked on.
She smiled against his lips.
“Marry me, Angel.”
Her eyes jerked open in shock.
Pulling his arm from beneath his pillow, he picked up her hand and slid the most beautiful diamond she’d ever seen over her finger.
“I’m tired of carrying it around,” he told her. “I told Uncle Charlie I was marrying you three years ago and he gave me his mother’s engagement ring for you. Marry me, Angel.”
Marry him? Wake up with him every morning? Lie down beside him every night?
“Really? You’re serious?” She was almost too scared to believe, to accept that it could be real.
“Honey, I’m so serious my dick’s hard,” he groaned, with feeling even.
He sounded so serious it took a minute to really grasp what he’d said.
She couldn’t help but laugh.
