Page 54 of Never Wed an Outlaw

Clenching the ring box against my palm, I nodded to myself.Let's fuckin' do this.

One more stop waited before I brought it to my woman.

I rolled up to preacher man's door on the other side of town. Walked up the broken steps and pounded on his door 'til he opened up, greeting me with a cup of coffee in his hand and a flannel shirt around his skinny shoulders.

“Dusty? Something I can do for you, son?”

“Yeah,” I said, watching as the fear and respect flickered in his eyes. All these years later, he remembered how I'd saved his ass, and he owed me for the rest of his days. “Get dressed, climb in your truck, and follow me down the highway. I want a wedding, and I need it now.”

His eyes bugged out, but he didn't argue. This guy knew when the club called, he answered, and gave us whatever the hell we wanted, without asking too many questions.

I went back to my bike, waiting for him to lock up before I started the engine. We pulled out of his driveway and hit the road together, his truck behind me, heading for Hannah's place.

We were home in no time. The prospects were gathered outside the fixed up bushes, pacing around leisurely as they had their smoke breaks. They looked at preacher man tailing me through the gate with more than a few questions in their eyes. I stopped in front of Apache, fresh meat wearing our prospect patch, just home from Afghanistan with no job in sight. We'd given him plenty to do in our garages.

“Prez? There a reason we're seeing the preacher again?”

“Stand guard in the house and find out. Pass that along to the rest of the boys,” I said. “Gonna need a few extra witnesses for what's about to go down. Get everybody inside, quick as you can.”

He nodded one more time as I blew past, rolling through the huge iron gate. I climbed off my bike, grabbed the ring box from my saddlebag, and told preacher man to wait with the prospects 'til I returned.

That little black box in my fist burned like a hot stone. I waited on Hannah's doorstep for about a minute before I shoved the door open and stepped inside.

Today, I had a date with destiny to win over my wife. I wasn't going anywhere else before I had a yes out of her.

“Darlin',put that down, and come out back. We need to have a talk.”

She looked up at me over her laptop, tucking a loose lock of soft, brunette hair behind her ear. “Now? I mean, I was just getting deep into the database. I'm digging into everything I can find about Dom in the Sterner Corp files. Mister Sterner graciously got my old access restored this morning.”

“Now,” I said, giving her a shallow nod. “You'll be back talking to billionaires and playing detective as soon as we're done. Right now, we've got business.”

That wasn't totally true. If my proposal went off like I planned, I'd have her down the hall in the library within the hour, with preacher man hitching us then and there. And we'd be marking the occasion by going upstairs, hitting the bed, and taking our pleasure 'til she knew I hadn't lost my mind.

I'd show her this was real. Show her I meant for it to lastforever.

I loved this woman, dammit. No more denying that, no more running, and no more lies.

I'd kiss her, hold her, and fuck her 'til she realized the truth.

I stepped out onto her balcony and waited. Waited for her hands to land on my shoulders softly before I turned, looked at her, and invited her into those fires burning in my eyes.

“What's wrong?” she asked, her eyes going wide.

“Wrong question, darlin'. We both know what's wrong, what's eating at us, what we need to do to get the Sicilians off our asses. We're working on it.” I paused, grabbing her hand, pulling it close to my chest. “We're having a heart-to-heart because I want to put the mafia shit on hold for a second to remember what's right.”

She tilted her head, a curious smile tugging at her lips. “You're talking about us?”

I nodded. “You, me, and the next fifty years we're gonna have together on this Earth. I know it sounds crazy talking like that right now, and I damned well know it. Guess what?” I moved my arm around her, bringing her close, never breaking eye contact. “Doesn't fuckin' matter. Long as I've got you, and you're wearing a smile on your face, nothing else does. We'll settle with the Sicilians. Smooth things over with Firefly. Kill every asshole standing in the way of you, me, and the future we deserve. Leave the club biz to me. We got together in the first place because we both wanted to wind up in bed, darlin', but it's a whole lot more than that now. No denying it.”

“Yeah...” She looked down and opened her lips, softly whispering. “You're right.”

“I've walked through Heaven and Hell, Hannah. Watched brothers crash and burn, then pick themselves upto take another swing at life. I had to crawl out of the shadow left by my old man's sins, and hell, I'm still doing it.” I waited for her eyes to meet mine again before I cupped her cheek, tilting her face to mine. “All those awful things made me wonder about a fuck of a lot. It's hard for a man to have much certainty when the ground keeps shifting under him. You, on the other hand...fuck, babe, you're my rock. Go ahead, tell me I'm crazy, or it's fuckin' soon to say it. Then ask me if I care. I'm telling you the God's truth, what I knew the first night we got together at your brother's wedding. I'm telling you I've hadenough.”

“Enough? Of what?” She looked like she was in a trance, hanging on my every word.

I smiled. “Enough of pretending this ain't going nowhere. Like it's just a fling, one more fire in the night due to burn out when we've had our fill. Enough of acting like we can't have a future, or we're only in this together because we've got history, or I'm just playing hero just to keep you alive.”

“Dusty...this better not be a joke.” Her big blue eyes flashed hot, telling me she'd slap me across the face if I messed with her now.

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