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He interrupted my speech with a loud, joyous belly laugh that sent a shiver of delight through me.
“You thought I wanted to back out?” He kissed my forehead, my cheek, my lips, then laughed again. “All this time you kept giving me these queasy looks, I assumed you had changed your mind.”
“I didn’t want to force you to stick to something you didn’t really want to do.”
“Man alive, Secret. I love you, but you’re so stupid sometimes.” He smiled at me, and it was hard to take offense. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled something out, setting it down on my knee. “I didn’t propose to you because we were in danger. I always, always, planned to ask. I was just waiting for the right moment, and when we were in the barn, it seemed like it might be the only moment. So I went for it.”
A black velvet box was balanced on my knee.
Hesitantly, and with my pulse trapped in my throat, I lifted the little box and opened the hinged lid. When Lucas had proposed, he’d done it with a ring so large and intimidating I’d sometimes been embarrassed by the sheer size and sparkle of it.
The ring Desmond gave me felt completely different.
It was a gold filigree band with a single diamond set into it. The stone wasn’t blinding or huge, nor was it small. It was a totally average, totally perfect ring. Something I might have selected for myself, if I was in the habit of choosing imaginary jewelry. The design screamed vintage.
“Desmond, it’s beautiful.”
“I know it’s nothing fancy…”
“No. It’s beautiful,” I assured him. Tears had started forming in my eyes, and I blinked hard. Nothing would ruin the mood quite like weeping bloodstained tears onto my new ring. “It’s perfect.”
“I asked my mom for it before we left.”
I recalled him asking her to join him upstairs, and now I understood he’d been plotting this the whole time.
He lifted my hand and placed a kiss on my fingertips before smiling at me in that Desmond way of his. He was just so handsome, so genuine, my heart physically hurt to look at him. How could one person be that in love with me? It radiated off him in a way I could feel, and warmed me to my core.
“So.” He removed the ring from the box, and in spite of the fact I’d already said yes once, my pulse quivered in nervous anticipation. “Secret Merriweather McQueen. What do you say? Will you marry me?”
I couldn’t stop from crying this time, the individual tears sliding down my cheeks and dripping off my chin. “Yes.”
“Good, because I would have been really upset if you changed your mind in less than twenty-four hours.” He slid the ring on and admired it openly. “You know that was the easy part, right?”
Sadly, I did.
Now the fun would really begin.
“Where’s Holden?” I asked. “I should tell him first.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
I had done a lot of difficult things in my life. Tasks people might have claimed were impossible to complete, I had managed to accomplish.
I’d killed a demon who tried to level New York City. I’d bested a fairy in a contest of logic. I’d survived dozens of times when my death should have been certain.
None of those things had felt half as impossible as telling Holden about Desmond.
When Lucas had proposed, Holden had been present. He’d watched the whole thing, and he’d been none too impressed. But it also hadn’t put a damper on his attempts to woo me, and I’d never tried to stop him either. During that period of my life, love had been a free-for-all.
Since then I’d learned there was no such thing as easily splitting your heart in multiple directions.
And now I was splitting my heart permanently because I’d made the choice to love Desmond, but my vampire half would always love Holden. If there was a way for me to have both of them, I would do it forever, but a three-way love story never works out in real life.
At least not when two-thirds of the people involved hate each other.
Callum had been as understanding as possible about me including Holden in my party, but before I’d gone on my run, my uncle made it perfectly clear the vampire couldn’t stay on the estate.
Tensions between Holden and the wolves would inevitably come to a boil, and someone was going to get hurt. Since Holden hadn’t come along to stir up trouble, he’d agreed to stay away from the cabins and the estate proper. He still needed a place to sleep during the day, though, and Callum had offered him the use of an old converted stable.
