Page 68 of Dead Drift

Without her, he didn’t exist—not fully, not the way she awakened the light within him. Around her, his every sense was alive and on fire.

He existed to be at her side. To be one with her.

She was the piece his soul was missing.

She pushed off the panel and walked toward him. “Too tired to reply?” she asked softly at his silence.

“Too mesmerized by you.” She’d always had that effect on him. Ever since he’d first laid eyes on her, he’d been hers.

She looked down, her hair slipping forward, hiding the blush he knew was creeping across her skin. He knew her, mind and soul. Now, in a moment of perfect clarity, he longed for nothing more than to marry her . . . and soon. Making her fully his, and him fully hers.

He swallowed and dropped to one knee.

Her eyes widened. “Wh-what are . . . you . . . doing?”

“Katie.” He pulled the ring he’d worn for years on the chain around his neck, hidden by dog tags—dog tags of a true friend, one who’d died in front of him in Baghdad.

He slipped the ring off the chain and offered it to her with a trembling hand. “I bought this the day I left as a promise to myself I’d return and make you my wife. I’ve been married to you this whole time in my mind, but I know there’s so much more to it than that.” He bent his head, praying for the courage to be brutally honest with her. “I promise you, I will leave the Agency as soon as Ebeid is stopped and I know you are safe. Then I am going to marry you.”

Her chin jutted up at his bold declaration. “Oh, you are?”

He stood. “Yes.”

She shook her head and moved to turn.

He tugged her arm, wrapping her into his hold. He backed her up against the window, unwilling to let her pull away or shut down. “I know there’s a part of you that hates me, and you have good reason.”

She sighed and looked down.

He tipped her chin up, unwilling to let her hide any longer. It was time to have this out. He was a man of action, after all, and he desperately needed to get this off his chest.

“But,” he said, softening his voice, “I also know you love me.”

Her jaw shifted. “Someone thinks highly of himself.”

“Tell me I’m wrong.” Kate was never one to lie. Never had been. It was one of his favorite qualities about her.

She nibbled the corner of her lip. “You’re awfully confident for a man I slapped not too long ago.”

She held true. Not lying. Not denying. Only attempting to misdirect.

“Only a woman still in love would be that angry.”

She laughed. “That’s your reasoning?”

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

“What does it matter? I won’t marry you.”

“But you love me.”

“I loved you then, and look where it got me.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“And it will take the rest of our lives for me to make things right, but please, Katie, give me the chance. I’m only asking for the chance.”

“You’re asking me to risk my heart getting pummeled again.”

“Your heart is already pummeled because of me.” He rested his hands over hers, intertwining their fingers. “Now let me do the right thing for once and start mending it.”