She sighed. “If I put this on, we’ll have a lot of questions to answer. Can you handle that?”
He nodded.If she puts it on, I’ll have a lot of explaining to do. Why the hell didn’t I wait?
“I love you, Merry.”
She plucked the ring from the box and slid it onto her ring finger. Stretching her arm out in front of her, she admired it and grinned. “It’s gorgeous.”
Relief washed over him, but it didn’t last long. Now he should tell her the rest.
She leaned over and kissed him. He cupped the back of her head and pulled her back for a longer, deeper kiss that he hoped would convince her she’d made the right choice—no matter what.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“Good. Hold that thought, because I have to tell you something about myself that you deserve to know if you’re going to be my wife.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“How much time do we have?”
Her expression turned to concern and she checked her watch. “We’re supposed to arrive in five minutes.”
“Five minutes? I thought we had longer than that. When didyou say we’d get there?”
“Eight o’clock.”
“Oh. I thought it was eight-thirty for some reason.”
“Well, it was, but I decided to move it up a bit. I thought I’d try a new recipe and wanted to give myself extra time.”
“In that case, the rest of this conversation will have to wait.”
“You’re kidding!”
“No, I think it’s best.”
“Wait a minute. You ask me to marry you. I accept.Thenyou tell me there’s something I have to know about you. And now you won’t tell me what it is?”
Jason leaned back against the seat and frowned.Damn.She’s right.She’d probably go crazy all day if he didn’t tell hersomething.
“What is it? You owe the Mafia money? You murdered your ex-girlfriend? Your AIDS test was negative, but you have syphilis?What?”
“Look, it’s nothing bad, all right? Think of it like this: I’m really Superman, and you only know the Clark Kent version of me.”
After a long pregnant pause, she burst out laughing.
Between Jason’s extreme embarrassment, her waffling, and the prior stress of proposing taking its toll on his emotions, he felt himself beginning to shift.No, no! Not now!
The next thing he knew, his talons gripped the steering wheel and his wings flapped wildly.
Merry screamed, jumped out of the car, and darted between the buildings, out of sight.
Fuck!If only he were out of the car. Peregrine falcons could fly up to two hundred miles an hour, and he could track her down before she reached her family. But try as he might, he couldn’t shift back.
Chapter 11
“Merry!” Jason’s voice yelled from outside as he pounded on her father’s front door for the third time. “Merry, come to the door. We have to talk.”
She held onto her younger brother’s arm in a death grip. “No. Don’t answer it.”
