Page 98 of Sweet Temptation
I take her hand in mine and press a kiss to her palm, then to her ring finger as I pull the black velvet box out of my pocket, so thankful that I was too paranoid to leave it home because I didn’t trust her not to find it when I thought she was going to be there without me.
Lexie gasps as she covers her mouth with her trembling hands.
“Alexis Sinclair... I’m not a man who’s good with words. Actions are more my thing. But this is even harder because there are no words strong enough to describe how I feel about you. Nothing I haven’t already said. But know this. I promise to love you wildly every day for the rest of my life, Lex. My life. My whole life. It’s yours. You are my heart. You are my world. You are the air I breathe. You talk about what-ifs, but I live in the right now. And I’d marry you tonight if you’d let me. Marry me, Lexie.”
The breath I hold as she cries feels like a thousand pounds sitting on my chest until she moves her trembling hands away from her face and nods that beautiful head. “You make me feel safe and loved in a way I never knew I could, Lucky. I can’t promise you a long lifetime, but I can promise you my lifetime.”
Her trembling voice turns to tears as I slide the ring on her finger.
And her tears turn to coughing.
Coughing that won’t stop.
Coughing that doesn’t stop.
“Lex—baby, what do you need.” Fuck. “What do I do?”
She looks at me, scared for a single beat that feels like a lifetime before her eyes roll back into her head, and she’s dead weight in my arms.
LUCKY
The sound of Cooper Sinclair arguing with a nurse has become white noise, he’s been doing it for so fucking long. He wants to see Lexie, but they won’t let us back until they’ve finished running her tests. She’s not in a room right now, and the hospital is apparently so slammed tonight, there’s no extra rooms for her. They’ve told him in every way imaginable they’ll get her into a room as soon as one is available, but in the meantime, we have to wait out here.
Hospital policy.
So here I sit in the waiting room of Kroydon Hills Hospital with my elbows on my knees and my head hung low. Listening to him fight with the nurse for the hundredth time over the past hour, wondering how the fuck did we go from her saying yes, she’d marry me, to this.
Carys sits between Linc and me, quietly crying as Cooper argues and I pray.
My parents are Catholic. And not just the Christmas and Easter kind.
The kind who woke us up every single Sunday to go to mass.
Wear slacks, nice shoes, and sit in the front row, Catholic.
I spent years only half-listening to sermons and readings and prayers. But right now, I might as well be channeling a priest for the way I’m praying to a God who hasn’t heard from me in a long damn time. A bolt of lightning might just come crashing through the ceiling, aimed for my head for how long it’s been since I’ve prayed.
But I’m willing to take that risk because right now, I’ve got everything to lose.
Everything.
The swoosh of the locked door opening has me looking up to find Dr. Bunton walking into the waiting room and looking right at us.
Carys squeezes my hand as we both stand on shaky legs.
Cooper comes over and wraps an arm around his wife, and the look in his eyes fucking guts me.
Especially when it’s mirrored in her doctor’s voice. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this?—”
My body has been the thing that’s set me apart my whole life.
It’s my instrument. My tool.
I can run harder, faster, and more accurately than 99 percent of the world.
But right now, my knees threaten to give out.
In the tenth of a second it takes him to finish his sentence, all the things we were supposed to do together flash before my eyes. A beautiful kaleidoscope of color and happy memories that we haven’t had a chance to make.
