“Maybe I should be the one making you beg for it for a change.”
“Nah. Now that you mention it, maybe I should make you beg me to move in with you. What was I thinking?”
I grab my phone to check the time, swearing when I see we’re already half an hour late. May have forgotten to set my alarm. Caleb’s going to send my sister over if we don’t get over there ASAP. I sit up, pulling Aura with me.
“Well?” she asks.
“Well, what? We’ve got to get ready and get over to the big house.”
“Beg me to move in with you.” The question is light and teasing, but her dominant side dances around the edges, and it twists me up even worse. As if I wasn’t already completely ready to give in and let her fuck me so hard Idon’t remember my name.
“Please, please move in with me, Hollywood. I need to know that I’m yours. That I’m the one you always come home to. You make every day brighter and I don’t know how to go back to life without you in it. So, move in with me. Marry me.”
The question slips out before I realize I was even thinking it.
“Wait, what? Did you just propose to me naked? With no ring?”
I wince. “Maybe? I’m sorry. I’ll take it back. Please move in with me. Forget I said anything about the M-word.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“You don’t want to move in with me?”
She crawls over to settle in behind me, one small hand stroking down my chest and abs, but stopping before it gets distractingly low. “What if I don’t want to forget about the proposal? I kind of thought I’d have to be the one to propose. I like it. Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. And not just to prove to everyone how not-fake this thing is, although I will say, that’s a major bonus.”
My head feels light, and a hot feeling rushes over me. At least I’m in bed if I happen to pass the fuck out from surprise.
“You will?”
“Yes, let’s do it. Let’s get married. But you do have to buy me a ring, you know.”
I toss the sheets aside, and she reluctantly lets me stand up. I walk over to my dresser drawer and dig through my balled-up socks, reaching all the way to the back until my fingers close over a little box.
I drag a pair of boxers up my legs, drop a T-shirt over my head, and go back to her. She’s still sitting there on the edge of the bed, naked and unashamed, so I drop to one knee in front of her and hold up the velvet box.
“Aurelia Lane, will you marry me?”
And in a rare moment for her, I don’t think she knows what to say. She just stares at me, eyes wide and glistening with tears. A single one escapes, leaving a trail down her cheek.
I brush it away, then open up the box to show her the ring. It’s not too big or too fancy, a simple gold band with a round diamond flanked by two smaller ones, but she’s staring at it like it’s the rarest diamond in the world.
“Well?”
That seems to jolt her out of her trance, and she slides off the bed to kneel in front of me. “Yes! Yes! Of course I’ll marry you.”
It feels like my heart is about to explode in my chest as I slip the ring onto her finger, and she holds it up to let the rainbow of sparkles shine under the beam of light coming through the window.
“When did you buy this?”
“I didn’t. It’s my mom’s ring. I wasn’t planning to propose…yet, but Mom left this to me, and it’s been sitting in my drawer. It was hard to look at before, but now I know it won’t be anymore, because you’ll be wearing it. If that’s okay. Or would you rather I buy you a new one. Maybe you’d like something different. Maybe you don’t want a used ring.”
“It’s gorgeous and perfect. I don’t need some twenty carat monstrosity. This is part of your family, and I want to be part of your family, so there’s no way you’re prying it off my finger.”
The bedroom door creaks and Blink’s nose pokes through. She shoves the door open enough to slip through and pads over to hop up on the bed and insert herself between us. Then she swipes her long tongue up my cheek before turning to do the same to Aura’s.
Aura squeals.
“Blink. Stop,” I say, but all I get is a big goofy doggie grin, complete with lolling tongue.
