Page 79 of Possessive Ink

“Now I’m convinced that when you find your one, there’s no point fighting it,” Holly says.

“Did Atticus tell you that I’m a jewelry designer and that I made your collar for him?” Gaelle asks after the last of the plates have been loaded into the dishwasher.

“No, he didn’t. You really made this?” I question, touching the tiny rose gold bow hanging from the collar at my throat.

“I did. When he asked for rose gold, I wondered if it was the best choice, but it looks perfect against your skin tone.”

“She designed some other things for me, but until I spoke to her yesterday, I had no idea they’d even gotten past being a drawing on paper. But I’m glad they have, because now I don’t have to wait to do this,” Atticus says.

Pulling me to my feet, he drops to one knee, reaches for me and slides something onto the ring finger on my left hand. “You’ve got six weeks to make that dress, Princess, because that’s as long as I’m willing to wait to marry you. You’re mine, Lemon, and I’m yours, and with my collar at your throat and my ring on your finger, all that’s left to do is to give you my last name. So tell me you’ll marry me. Say yes.”

It’s not a traditional proposal. He’s not asking me. He’s telling me, and oddly, that somehow makes it easier. If he’d asked, I might have said no. It’s too soon, too impulsive, too crazy. But he’s not asking me. He’s simply telling me to say yes. So I do.

“Yes.”

THIRTEEN

ATTICUS

“Yes.”

I hear the word, but it takes me a moment to process it. “Yes?” I question.

“Yes,” she says, nodding her head.

Leaping up from the floor, I pull her into my arms and spin her around. Her white, sexy dress twirls off her legs as I whirl us in a circle. Slowly lowering her to her feet, I kiss her, not caring that my friends are still in the room. Honestly, Gaelle and Holly wouldn’t care if I lifted her skirt and fucked her right here in the kitchen, but instead, I devour her mouth until we’re both breathless and I have to drag myself away from her.

“Congratulations,” Holly singsongs, rushing over to pull first Lemon, then me into hugs, her huge baby belly pressing against me as she holds me tight.

As Holly hugs me, Felix makes a beeline for Lemon, pulling her into his arms. When she melts into him, I exhale the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Felix is the other half of my soul, and I’m grateful that Lemon gets that. But I hope she understands that she’ll never need to compete with him, because he might be my soul, but she’s my heart.

After he lets Lemon go, Felix comes to me, and we rest our foreheads together the way we’ve been doing since we were babies. “I like her, Att,” he tells me softly.

“I like her too.”

“She’s family.”

“Yes,” I agree.

“One of us.”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” he tells me. “She fits.”

“Yeah, she does.”

“Love you, bro,” he says.

“Love you too.”

Felix and I don’t need to say a lot to understand each other. We never had. He showed me he approved of Lemon the very first time he met her, and he’s been showing her ever since. If he didn’t like her, I’m not sure what I’d have done, but I don’t need to think about that because he’s right. She fits. She fits in our home, she fits in our family, she fits me.

Once everyone has hugged and congratulated us, Felix and Marcus excuse themselves and head back down into the studio.

“Let me see how the ring fits,” Gaelle demands, and Lemon obediently holds her hand out to her.

“It’s a bow,” Lemon gasps, obviously not having really looked at the ring I slid onto her finger until now.