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“Wow,” Max finally breaks his silence. “That was… I can’t believe you’re the one that diffused the situation.” He sounds like he’s in awe. “I’m normally the one talking out of my ass.”
“I wasn’t talking out of my ass,” Thea is quick to say. “It really is stupid. The whole thing. All of it.” She groans. “We could’ve died because of a dumb card game—” I finally free her wrists, and she immediately rubs them where she must have some rope burn forming.
Before I can move around the chair, Thea spins on it, pointing her glare my direction. “And you, you crazy son of a bitch. Cormac said you went out and bought a ring today. Tell me that’s not true.”
Beside her, Max’s eyes are so wide they look liable to pop right out of the sockets.
I’m basically kneeling beside her, and it’s not a bad place to be. I would rather not be on my knees in an old, shitty bar like this, but I suppose when you live my life, you can’t count on much. Ideally, we’d be somewhere nice, with good food and great lighting so it’d be easier for me to memorize Thea’s reaction when I pop the question.
“I can’t say it’s not true,” I tell her as I reach inside my suit jacket, at the inner pocket. My fingers curl around the box the moment Thea stops me.
“No.”
“No?” I echo, giving her a frown. Is she saying no to the question I haven’t asked yet? She should know that I’ve become addicted to her this past month, so her refusal is out of the question.
“You heard me,” Thea says. “We don’t even know each other that well. You’re fucking crazy if you think you can propose to me after knowing me for a month.”
“Technically, I could propose to you anytime I want.”
Thea’s lips pucker into an adorable pout. “Technically, men don’t propose to women they’ve kidnapped and held against their will, either.”
I smirk. “I guess we’re breaking all expectations, then. Thea, I’m going to pull this ring out of my pocket and slide it onto your finger whether you want me to or not. It’s coming, so you might as well accept it.”
A second passes, and then she groans and rolls her eyes. “Fine, but we’re not getting married anytime soon. I’d like to actually go out on dates and stuff, do things normal people do before they—”
Anything else she might’ve said dies in her throat the moment she sees me pull out the ring box, and when I open it and reveal the hefty chunk of sparkle inside, her mouth falls open. “Wow,” she whispers, her gaze torn between my face and the ring in the box. “You really are one crazy bastard, aren’t you?”
“The fucking craziest,” I’m quick to agree as I pluck the ring out of the box and snap it shut.
Thea can’t take her eyes off the ring as I tuck the box away, and behind her, Max peers around her shoulder as best he can, given the fact he’s still tied up. “Oh, come on,” Max says, “just accept the damn ring. We all know you match each other’s freak. Plus, the sooner you say yes the sooner I can be untied. I don’t know about you, but this chair is very uncomfortable.”
Her brother’s words make her smile, and I get the full-force of that beautiful, wicked grin. “Saying yes, in hindsight, isn’t as crazy as trying to kidnap a mafia boss, so why not?” Thea offers me her left hand.
It wouldn’t be Thea if she didn’t give me some grief over it. I’m smirking as I push the ring onto her finger, and I grin even harder when I grab her by the neck and pull her into me, kissing her so hard I steal the air from her lungs. The way her mouth responds to mine instantly heats me up, makes me forget just where we are and that we aren’t alone.
Max coughs and says, “Uh, some help here would be nice, you know, when you two are done making out or whatever.” He then makes a gagging sound, and that’s enough to make Thea pull away from me.
“I guess I should help him,” she whispers.
The last thing I want to do is let her go, but I know I must, so I settle for murmuring the truth. “I love you, Thea Hill. You might not be my prisoner anymore, but you’re still mine—and you always will be. My wife.”
“Fiancé, actually,” she corrects me.
“I like my wife better.”
Her blue eyes sparkle as she chuckles to herself. “Fuck me. I… I love you too. I guess I am as crazy as you, because in spite of every reason I shouldn’t, I can’t help it. Now…”
Thea grins, gives me a gentle tap on the cheek, and then turns away from me to help her brother. I watch her for a few seconds, every part of me wistful and trapped in longing—I really do wish we were at home, where I could throw her over my shoulder, carry her to my bedroom, and ravish her well into the night.
Alas, the ravishing part will have to wait.
I stand and turn toward the bar, where I find both Roark and Cormac watching me. Or, rather, watching the engagement. “Well, well, well,” Roark says when I join them at the bar. Though there are three small glasses full of an amber liquid, he grabs the bottle that liquid came from and lifts it in the air. “To my little brother and his future wife.”
I take issue with the little part; there’s nothing little about me anymore and hasn’t been for years. But still, I take one of the glasses and clink it against Roark’s bottle before downing the contents in a gulp.
Cormac lifts his glass to me before throwing his head back and taking the shot, while my brother gulps it straight from the source. “So, I suppose the three of us should have a chat,” Cormac says. “How many of my guys did you shoot outside?”
“Three,” Roark answers him. “But they’ll live.”
