Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
She curves her leg around mine, tangling us together as she presses closer. “Always.”
I cup her neck, my thumb stroking along the line of her chin as I gaze into her eyes. “Marry me, Em,” I whisper, unable to look anywhere but into her eyes. If she is surprised by my request, it doesn’t show. “I don’t want to be very engaged to you. I want you to be my wife.”
Her eyes are bright, her grin unstoppable. “I’ve been waiting a lifetime to have you ask me that.”
“In every lifetime, I’ll only ask you.”
She purses her lips as she leans in, her eyes demanding my attention as she holds my face in her hands. “Listen, I may run in all these lifetimes, but I’ll come back.”
I grin. “Or I’ll chase you.”
A tear escapes her eye, and it guts me. My chest seizes up, my soul burning for her as I whisper, “Lovebug, why the tears?”
“Because I love you more than anything.”
I kiss the tear away, and then I lean toward the drawer of my nightstand. I pull out the old Tiffany ring box, and I grin over my shoulder at her. She looks suspicious before I turn back to hold it between us, and her eyes widen when she sees the box.
“You already bought me a ring?”
I shake my head. “No. There is no other ring in the world for you but my mom’s.” Her eyes fill with tears as she scrambles to rise up on her knees before me, and I move my hand to hold her thigh. I rub the marks along it, and the thought of her getting thicker from carrying my kids one day has heat racing through me. With a shaky breath, I meet her gaze as I hold the box up between us. “Wearing this ring doesn’t mean you have to be like my mom, Em. Wearing this ring means I will love you fiercer than my dad ever loved my mom when she wore it. It means that I will try every day to make you smile, to make you laugh. And I know I’ll get on your nerves and we’ll argue, but before your head hits these pillows every night, I’ll remind you how much I love you and that I can’t wait to see you in the morning.”
Another tear rolls down her cheek, and my grin grows as I fight back my own tears. “Everyone always talks about how great my mom and dad’s love story is, but nothing can touch ours.”
She chokes on a sob as she leans her head to mine. “I will forever drive you crazy, and I refuse to apologize because you are mine, Quinn. You know what you’re getting, and no one will cherish you the way I can. Call me crazy because I am. Totally and completely crazy in love with you.”
I swallow thickly as I open the box for her, the teardrop-shaped black diamond shining up at us. Her breath catches, and then she fist-pumps at her side. “I love this ring, and I hoped you’d choose it.”
“I did,” I whisper as our eyes meet once more. Love sparkles in her gray depths, her chest rising and falling as a flush spreads over her gorgeous naked body. I get to love this girl for the rest of my life.
I’m one lucky bastard, for sure.
Or a complete idiot for marrying someone who can murder me without anyone knowing it.
But that’s the thrill.
Emery’s love is absolutely dangerous.
And all mine.
“I chose it because I think I knew even then that you’d be my wife one day.”
Her lips tremble as she wiggles her hand out to me. “Put it on.”
I do, and it’s a perfect fit. I rub her knuckle before wiping her tears free. “Now, you’re mine.”
“And you’re mine.”
I scoff; I always have been.
As our lips meet, I know that mine is only one little word. But when I say Emery Brooks is mine, it means more.
It means I own her heart, her soul, her laughs, her sneaky grin, her rebelliousness—fuck, her everything.
Just as she owns every single part of me.
Because there is no Quinn without Emery.
Epilogue One
Quinn
I’m unsure if the dream I had before Emery came barreling back into my life was actually a dream or a glimpse into the future.
Or maybe both.
I stand in the middle of my aunt Grace’s wedding barn under an arch of black and white roses five days later, surrounded by all our family and the friends who made sure to come. Since we threw this together so quickly, no one is standing beside me, but my brothers and Benson all sit in the front row with their better halves and our parents. Mom is crying happy tears as she leans into my dad, who has tears of his own in his eyes. He gives me a small smile, and I grin back, my heart slamming around in my chest as love overwhelms me. I don’t think I’d be the man I am today without him.