Page 55 of Mine This Time
Nash still took my breath away. He had tossed off the suit jacket he’d been wearing earlier and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. This showed off his muscled forearms, which I totally had a thing for.
Stopping in front of him, I commented, “I heard a rumor you were looking for me.”
His hazel eyes locked with mine, and for the thousandth or more time, I felt as if I were all alone in the world with him. It didn’t matter that we were in a crowd. My breath hitched in my throat when he leaned over to brush his lips across mine.
“I’m always looking for you,” he murmured.
Nash
Music played softly in the background as the night wore on, and I searched out Mari once again. We kept getting pulled apart by the various demands of our guests. I didn’t mind being social and had the manners to get through it, but damn, I was ready for this night to end so I could have her all to myself.
My eyes landed on her back. Her shoulders were exposed in this gorgeous cream silk confection she was wearing. Her bronze skin glinted under the lanterns circling the garden.
“Here you are,” I murmured from behind as I slid my hand around her waist.
She smiled at me, her blue eyes almost navy in the dim light. “And there you are.”
I couldn’t wait any longer.
Looking into her eyes, I kept my hold on her with one arm as I slipped my hand into my pocket. Conveniently, Mari didn’t notice because she threw her head back in a laugh when the band said they were dedicating the next song to her.
The band was a regular at Johnny’s Bar. While we didn’t frequent any bars, Johnny was an old friend and we did occasionally go there for drinks and business. The band had come to know Mari loved old blues music and usually dedicated random songs to her.
She met my eyes again, her gaze laughing. “They’re ridiculous.”
I shrugged, leaning over to drop a kiss on the side of her neck because she was too tempting. “So tell me something,” I began as I lifted my head.
“Anything,” she said swiftly, her tone light and teasing.
“Now, don’t you go promising me the world until you know what I want.”
While I was teasing too, my heart felt like it was going to split at the seams. Mari did that, made me feel so full of love it almost hurt. Loving her was always like walking along that knife’s edge of pleasure and pain. Because it felt so good, and yet she had so much power to cause me so much pain.
“What is it, Nash?”
“Well, I was wondering if you’d marry me.”
I’d never wrestled this much with my feelings. I rarely worried about rejection. But then, when there wasn’t anything that mattered on the line, there wasn’t much to worry about.
Yet, right here, right now, my heart pounded harder than I’d ever experienced and holding myself steady as I waited for her answer was another form of agony. I knew Mari loved me, but I didn’t know just yet if she was ready to cross the line into promising forever.
Her eyes widened, and her breath hitched in her throat as she took a sharp inhalation. “Oh! I wasn’t ready,” she gasped, her voice raspy.
I held steady inside, although my stomach clenched in response to that. “Ready for what?”
“Oh, don’t you worry, Nash,” she said as she slid her hand up to cup my cheek. “I’m ready for forever with you. I just wasn’t expecting the question tonight. I had it all planned out how I was going to say yes. I was even thinking I might have to ask you because you’re taking your sweet time, as usual.”
My heart did split wide open then, and a sense of unbearable joy filled my chest. Somehow, she always managed to say the perfect thing. “I do like to take my time.”
My tendency to take it slow was a joke between us. She was prone to getting impatient when we were making love or fucking like crazy wherever we happened to be.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes.” Each word came out stronger, and her eyes glittered with tears as I opened my palm. The ring that had been practically burning a hole in my pocket was now held there.
“Oh, oh,” she breathed. “It’s gorgeous.”
My mother had given me my grandmother’s wedding ring a few months back, and I’d been waiting for the exact right time to ask. It was a white gold band set with a sapphire that matched Mari’s eyes. According to my mother, she was supposed to give it to me when I found the right woman.
Then, I was sliding the ring on Mari’s finger and lifting her against me as we spun in a circle. At some point, someone figured out what was happening, and we were surrounded by well-wishers.
