Page 97 of Sweet Temptation
Maybe I’ll make her an omelet.
I guess I was so worried about the ring, I didn’t give enough thought to the actual proposal. Fuck. I stop next to the bed and brush the hair away from my gorgeous girl’s face.
“Lucky,” she croaks like a fucking frog. She sounds awful.
“Yeah, baby.” I lean down and brush my lips over her forehead. She doesn’t have a fever. And now I’m acting like my ancient Italian grandmother. Who needs thermometers when we have lips? “Sleep, Lex. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
She smiles in her sleep. “Love you, Lucky.”
“Wildly, Lex.”
“So you wanna tell me what was so important we needed to get drinks tonight without Lexie? You ready to talk about whatever the hell is going on with Brea?” I ask Linc as we walk up to the front doors of West End. “I don’t know what your deal is with her, but seriously, you guys gotta either do something about it or move the fuck on.”
“You think you’re the expert, now that you’re asking my sister to marry you?” the fucker pushes back, and I wonder for the millionth time today why the hell I’m getting drinks with Linc instead of spending the night in bed with Lexie.
“Nah, man. I’ve never done a fucking thing right with anyone besides your sister,” I admit as we push through the door?—
Just as the woman in question steps in front of me and yells, “Surprise!”
Everyone is yelling and moving in a blur, but I only see her.
Her gorgeous hair.
Her vibrant eyes.
Her pale skin.
It only takes me a minute to realize she doesn’t feel good, but it also sinks in all at once that she threw me a surprise party. Fuck, I love this woman.
I wrap my arms around her and lift her off her feet, pressing my lips against her ear. “You threw me a surprise party, Lex?”
“Even villains get to celebrate their birthdays, Lucky.”
“I fucking love you.” I set her back down and wrap an arm around her waist, anchoring her to me and taking some of her weight.
Her eyes fly to mine when she realizes what I’m doing, but she lets me, which tells me she really doesn’t feel good. And as people approach us and she starts coughing, I realize it might be worse than I thought. That cough sounds painful, but she does a good job of hiding it.
And after thirty minutes of greeting what I think might just be every person I’ve ever met and every teammate I’ve ever had, and holy fucking shit, listening to Six Day War sing me “Happy Birthday,” I pick my amazing girlfriend up and carry her into my brother’s office in the back of the bar, kicking the door shut behind us.
“Lucky... We can’t. Everyone is here for you,” she protests as I sit down on the couch with her on my lap. Her engagement ring burning a fiery hole in my pocket with how badly I want to put it on her finger. “You have to be out there.”
“It’s my birthday,dolcezza. I can cry or hide or fuck my gorgeous girlfriend if I want to,” I tease her. Not that I don’t want to fuck her senseless, but she looks like a stiff wind could knock her over, and I’m not that big of an asshole. “How bad do you feel?”
She likes things clinical and not sugarcoated. I usually hate it, but tonight, it works.
“Lucky . . .”
“Don’t, Lexie. You don’t sugarcoat, remember? How bad do you feel?” I take her face in my hands, just so I can hold her. Like a magnetic fucking force is drawing me to her. Like I need her to breathe.
“I feel like shit. But it’s nothing a little sleep won’t fix.” She presses her forehead to mine. “I promise to stay in bed all day tomorrow. And when you get home from practice, I’ll stay in bed with you. Naked.”
“Whatever you say, baby. I love you, Alexis Sinclair. I have a birthday wish, but I don’t want to make it in front of everyone,” I whisper against her skin.
“But you haven’t even seen the cake yet,” she protests. “There’s so much chocolate, Lucky.”
I run my thumbs over her cheeks. “Don’t you want to know what my wish is?”
“Will it come true if you tell me?” Her soft smile smooths out all my rough edges, and I can’t believe this is actually my life.
