Page 16 of Say it Ain’t So

The last wheel stopped, and the machine chimed as lights flashed, a row of sevens lit up on the screen. Joss turned her wide eyes to me, then squealed as she threw her arms around my neck.

“I won! Oh, my God! We won! Rylan, we won!”

“We sure did, baby,” I whispered near her ear. “Told you, you’re my lucky charm.”

6

JOSS

To some, forty thousand dollars isn’t a lot of money. For me, it was a life changing amount. Which is exactly why I couldn’t take it. I tried to stand firm, tried to insist it was his money, not mine.

Rylan talked me in circles before he backed me into a corner.

If I told him I lost, he’d tell me I won, therefore he won, and he got whatever he wanted—which was me having the money. If I said I won, so I should get what I wanted, he’d tell me my winning meant he won, so he was going to make me feel like a queen. The only way I could get him to give in at all was to accept half of my jackpot.

He grinned like a madman before he made me sign the papers for my half, then told the cashier to take the taxes due on the winnings out of his portion.

My mind raced with dollar signs as Rylan offered me his arm and walked me out of the casino like I was some sort of royalty. But when he pulled to a stop down the street and turned me to face him, I felt like the earth had slid right out from under my feet.

“Promised I was going to make you feel like a queen,” he told me before dipping down and planting his lips on mine.

I wanted to struggle. I wanted to grip him by the back of the neck and kiss him until I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to yell at him that he already had, there was nothing more to do.

My brain short circuited the minute his tongue met mine. The only response I could give was to clench my fists in his hair and hold on for dear life.

He pulled back before I was ready, and I would have thanked him for holding onto me and keeping me from falling if his smile hadn’t stolen my breath.

“Now.” He looped his arm around my waist and pulled me close before he swept a loose tendril of hair from my face. “The way I see it, I still have to give you anything you want or take you anywhere you want to go.”

“Rylan—”

He stopped me with a finger to my lips. “Fight me and I’ll make you take the rest of your fortune.”

“You wouldn’t.” His response was to raise a single brow, and I knew without him saying anything that he would.

He absolutely would.

“Fine.” It was so hard not to mirror the grin my response brought to his face. I schooled my features, then smoothed my hands over his chest as I tried to think of something to give him. But there was nothing. Nothing that he hadn’t already given me. Nothing that could be better than this—being wrapped up in his arms while he made me feel like the queen he thought I was.

I lifted my gaze back to his and tried on a smile that didn’t fit. My eyes burned as I watched a softness fill his features that I never thought I’d see directed my way.

“I don’t know,” I finally whispered, my fingers tightening around the fabric of his shirt. “I just want to be here with you.”

“Here?” Rylan leaned in closer, his mouth just inches from mine.

“Anywhere with you.”

He closed his eyes as he dropped his forehead to mine. His arms tightened around me, making me feel safe and loved and wanted. When he opened his eyes and trained his full attention on me again, I swore he stole my breath right from my chest.

“Let me choose?” It wasn’t more than a raspy whisper, but even over the noise of the crowd, the words he spoke went right to my heart. I nodded, smiling as he did.

Only to have that smile disappear as he stepped back and let me go.

Rylan descended to the sidewalk, going down on one knee. It was just like the position I found him in back at the boutique, except this time, instead of a shoe in his hand, he held a tiny blue box.

“Joss Monroe,” he said, the rasp in his voice sending chills throughout my body. “You’re the adventure I’ve been looking for my entire life. Will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife?”

He took the ring from the box and slid it onto my finger, and my breath hitched before tears fell from both my eyes.