Page 121 of Liars and Liaisons

I dip her slowly, pressing a heady kiss to her red lips while she’s tipped backward. Her hands raise, fingers tangling in my hair, and when I pull back she’s grinning wide.

“Is that a ring in your pocket, or are you just happy to be done with the ceremony?”

I blow out a long breath, then nod. “Marry me.”

She blinks. “Is that a question?”

“It’s—well, no. I mean, you can say no, but I’m hoping—praying, really—that you’ll say yes. To the non-question. To being my muse permanently, the way I used to ask the universe for. Just agree to be mine forever, Violet. Legally. Figuratively. In any way possible.”

“You prayed for me?”

“Not in so many words,” I say, straightening so we’re both standing again, moving rhythmically in the breeze. “But my soul did. It knew it needed yours long before my brain caught up to the message.”

She purses her lips. “Well, if our souls are connected, it wouldn’t be fair of me to deny you.”

I pause, gripping her tight. Pulling her flush against me, hot flesh to hot flesh. “It isn’t nice to tease, dirty girl.”

Leaning up on her tip toes, she presses a searing kiss to my lips. I’m tossed back in time to our first one, how my entire earth shifted on its axis with the mere meeting of our mouths. How nothing has ever been the same since.

“Fine, Grayson James. I’ll marry you.” She grins, big and wide and full of fucking sunshine.

And not for the first time since meeting her, I feel a little bit of that light inside of me too.

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