Page 114 of Marked By the Devil

“I know I kidnapped you. I know we started off as enemies. But I will never walk away from all the brightness and hope that we’ve dared to find together. I didn’t capture you as an agent in the wrong place that day. I found you, the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. The one I want to swear my heart, my whole heart to. Because you’ve had it since the first time you glared at me in that alley.”

She smiled.

“Wren, will you please marry me and make me complete with this love that no law or agency or threat will ever destroy?”

I swallowed hard and watched her, feeling like I’d never faced a more perilous moment of waiting before.

40

WREN

Viktor watched me intensely, like he was holding his breath.

This big, strong man was on his knees in front of me. Holding my hand like it was a treasure he never wanted to harm. Laying his heart on the line in front of his brothers and cousins despite the concept that none of them ever wanted to be emotional like this.

His public proposal was exactly what I’d been hoping for. This was literally the secret fantasy I couldn’t shrug off.

Viktor Volkov was expressing his love for me.

“Wren?” he asked.

I didn’t realize that I was being so slow to speak. Yet, with the pressure of everyone’s stares on me as they were all quiet in this important meeting about grave threats and real concerns, I couldn’t stay suspended in shock like this for long.

I didn’t want to.

“Yes.” I smiled as he exhaled in relief.

As if I wouldn’t have agreed to marry him!

He lunged up to snare me in a kiss, pressing his mouth to mine without a shred of modesty or caring about this being a private intimacy instead of a grand display of over-the-top affection.

I laughed lightly at the pressure of his warm lips against mine. Brushing back and forth. Opening them up and darting his tongue inside. Without breaking the seal, I smiled against him and brought my hand up to cup the back of his head to hold him close. His signature ponytail wasn’t in right now, and I relished how I could slip my fingers up into his silky hair and secure him right where I wanted him, right where I needed him.

At last, before I’d feel the urgency of missing air, he reared back and gazed at me like it was just the two of us in this room. When he locked his glittering brown stare on me like that, it seemed like the rest of the world never could matter much.

Only us.

This love.

“I love you,” I whispered, keeping my lips so close to his that our breath mingled.

He kissed me once more, like he just couldn’t help himself.

“The ring,” Nikolai prompted with a laugh. “Don’t forget the ring.”

I grinned, almost embarrassed that they were all watching, but I was too over the moon and happy to be ashamed. All of them were my family now too. My brothers-in-law, cousins-in-law, and sisters-in-law.

I wasn’t only going to marry Viktor. I was being welcomed into an entire family.

My heart raced as I admired the ring, marveling at the perfect fit of the emerald and diamond piece of jewelry that sparkled and caught the light.

Finding a man I’d want to marry and start a family with had always seemed like a backup idea to pursuing the career I’d always dreamed of having, but now I saw how backward that was.

I would have the best life now, with Viktor, and also have time for a career.

Congratulations went around, but as we collectively realized the business part of the meeting was over, we all trailed out of the room.

Viktor held my hand, leading me toward what seemed to be an unused study.