Page 104 of The Promise

“Thanks, man—for everything, yeah?”

“It wasn’t a problem,” Alec returned easily, “my pleasure.”

Alec quickly slipped back inside the car and headed off, no doubt back to New York to meet with Roman’s father, and receive his next set of orders. Whether that was returning to Vermont, or otherwise, he wouldn’t be punished for doing what Roman had asked.

Karine came to a stop only a couple of feet away from him, staring like he had all the answers in the world. She was far away enough that he couldn’t touch her, but close enough that he wanted to pull her into his arms.

And that was exactly what he did, closing those two feet with one long stride before he’d caught her in his arms. The quilt flew off her shoulders when Roman dragged her into his chest. Instantly, she had tipped her chin up, lips pursed for his kiss, demanding he give it to her before he could even offer it.

Roman didn’t mind, and by the time he was finished greeting her with tender sweeps of his lips against hers, her sigh was pure pleasure. All happiness.

“I thought something happened to you,” she whispered when he pulled away from the kiss. The pad of her index finger traced the cut below his eye. “Nope, don’t like that. At all.”

Her joking tone was still laced thick with fear, the undercurrent shaking her words just enough for him to hear it. He didn’t look great, but she had better things to be worried about other than him. The last thing he was ever gonna do to this woman was make her worry about him.

Simple as that.

“I promise I only look like damaged goods right now,” he said with a smirk.

Karine swallowed hard, but her finger didn’t pull away from the one visible injury she had decided to focus on. Little did she know, there were more where that one came from. So to speak.

“Dima did this to you,” she murmured.

“But he’s never going to do it again, and he’s definitely never taking you away from me. That’s what’s important here.”

Karine licked at the seam of her lower lip, and gripped his arms tighter. “Do you have a plan?”

He couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on his face.

The next part of this was easy. Like breathing, his mother might say, if it was just meant to be. He dared to believe it was, even if he wasn’t that kind of guy. He wanted to be—for Karine. He did.

“I have something even better—that’s why you’re here, remember? I have the woman I’m going to marry,” he replied.

The stretch of dirt road was quiet but for the woosh of passing cars every so often from the highway, hidden only by a thin patch of trees and darkness. In his arms, her head tilted back so he could see her smile.

He hadn’t expected to be nervous, really. Roman had already figured out what he wanted, after all. So when that smile of hers landed on him, he realized that he’d been right not to worry.

This—her—was everything he wanted.

“I wasn’t really sure if you meant that literally,” she said, soft but sweet.

“Really?”

Did he seem like the kind of guy to just say that kind of shit? To anybody?

Roman released her from his hold, dropping down on one knee in front of Karine. Her giddy laughter fell into the darkness surrounding them. He tugged on her hand, making her wild gaze dart to his.

“What are you doing?”

“I can’t believe you didn’t think I meant it literally, babe.”

She dragged her bottom lip under her top teeth, unable to contain her grin. “Well—”

“Well, I guess you should think about what you’re going to say, because I’m asking you to—wait, what’s your middle name?”

The ridiculousness of his question even had Roman laughing, but he eventually calmed them both down with another gentle pull on Karine’s trembling hand still safe inside his own. Her laughs silenced with a little gasp when he had her stare locked on his once more.

“I was serious—what’s your middle name?”