Page 106 of Savagely Yours
“Need to talk to you,” I said.
“Can it wait?”
I groaned.
I didn’t want to imagine what I would be waiting for to finish.
“No, not this.”
“Edward, will you wait for me in the bedroom?”
I squeezed my forehead and waited until I heard the man’s footsteps retreat before I turned around. Even then, I peeked first, as if they’d somehow manage to go from clothed to nude back to clothed in the time it took for me to turn.
Mae flipped on a light switch and headed toward me. “Look at you, redder than the inside of a beet.”
“I wasn’t expecting…” I motioned around. “All of this.”
“Are you embarrassed?”
“Um, yeah? Mae, you’re like a mother to me.”
She smoothed my shirt and adjusted my sleeve. “Dezzie, do me a favor. This might be the last time we see each other. Call me your mother. It won’t kill either one of us.”
“What do you mean by ‘the last time we see each other’? I came to tell you you’re coming with me.”
“And I’m telling you I’m not.”
Already anticipating resistance, I shook my head. “Mae?—”
“Mom.I’ll also accept Ma, Mama, and, because you’ve never had the chance to use it, Mommy.”
“You really think I’m going to call you ‘Mommy’ after hearing you call some man ‘Daddy’?”
“Big Daddy,” she corrected.
Groaning yet again, I dragged my hand down my face. “Look, Mae, you and I both know that Totten’s too unstable to trust its longevity. Me and Larke are leaving tonight. We’re headed for a settlement in South Carolina. You’re coming with us.”
She took my hand and examined my finger, caressing the ring with her thumb. I knew I was being a hypocrite with my minor heart attack over her romantic night when I fucked Larke against any surface I could find. Then, I also never planned to stop making sweat dampen those little curls at Larke’s temples.
But that was different.
“I proposed to Larke,” I said. “Well, actually, I didn’t propose. I asked her to be my wife, but not for an engagement. I asked her to be my wife, right now, because the way I feel about her is out of this fuck—freakin’world. Sorry, Mae. And she said yes…but, now that I’m thinking about it, what if she wanted something more formal? Even a little bit formal.”
“What if?” Mae asked.
“But she’s wearing the ring. That probably means she’s fine with it, right?”
“Right.”
“I mean, she’s been engaged before. Still, she didn’t get married, so our relationship is the only one that counts. Honestly, her ex is probably dead somewhere. Nobody can take care of Larke the way that I can.”
“Nobody.”
I narrowed my brows.
Chuckling, she tapped my fingers. “You should have brought my daughter-in-law with you.”
Despite the fact that Larke was an adult, Mae thought she was “the most adorable little thing ever.”
