Page 89 of Wicked Surrender

I gasped, spinning around at the sound of Jason’s cocky voice cutting in.

Mom and Grandma did the same, letting out shocked exhales at the sight of this bad boy here.

He hadn’t been invited, and now as more people realized he’d snuck in, they were about to remind him of the fact that he was trespassing.

“What are you doing here?” my mother demanded.

He shrugged. “Crashing the party.”

I gawked at him, marveling at the fact that he’d shown up. No, he wasn’t supposed to be here, precisely, but I couldn’t get over the way he’d come back to me at all.

“Jason…” I said, unsure whether I was ready to warn him to get out now or beg him to help me escape with him.

“Get out,” my mother demanded. “Get out of here now. This is a private party?—”

“No. It’s as public as I need it to be,” Jason argued with her. With his serious gaze locked on me, he licked his lips then exhaled a nervous breath. Seeing this sexy man confident and smug had become the norm. This tense and hopeful expression was new. Different.

Honest.

He gazed at me, beseeching me to believe what he’d crashed this party to come tell me in front of my family that he claimed to target in revenge. “It’s far past time that I apologize to you, Laura. And I want everyone to know how sorry I am.”

Oh, my God.

My heart lurched at his statement. Every second of his looking at me and being vulnerable like this was a tug at my heartstrings until I wanted to reach out to him and wrap him up in a hug.

With a smirk, he glanced over at my father stalking toward us. Seeing his enemy, he frowned. “Well, I want everyone in your world to know how sorry I am.”

I found my voice, shaky and quieter than I wanted it to be. He didn’t have to make a show like this. He wasn’t supposed to share this with the rest of them. All I wanted as I tried to hang on to the intelligence and bravery that he said I had was for him to just come back to me and be the reason happiness made sense in my life again. “Jason, this isn’t?—”

He shook his head, crouching to kneel on one knee.

Down he went, keeping his determined gaze on me until he stared up at me.

I dropped my mouth again and stared at him with pure shock freezing me in place. As he took my hand, gazing up at me seriously, I huffed an incredulous laugh.

This can’t be happening.

Isthis really happening?

What is hedoing?

I knew what it looked like, but it was so out there, so incredulous of a far-fetched notion that my brain couldn’t process fast enough. I could barely breathe with the suggestion of his wanting to…

“He’s proposing to her at Mai’s engagement party?” someone asked.

“He wants to try to steal her thunder?” another person said.

I couldn’t compute how he wanted to marry me after the way we’d started. And ended.

He put his other knee down too, and I understood that he was just getting on his knees for me, like submitting to beg.

Not proposing.

My bully was on his knees, ready to plead and beg for me to grant him my forgiveness.

I blinked, bewildered to have even thought that he’d want to marry me. He’d told me that he wanted to have me and keep me, but until I fell for him, I misinterpreted that as something physical.

Not something like a tether of love.

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