The girl possessing every inch of me. I poured into her, holding her tight, groaning through the kind of ecstasy that only Izzy had ever been able to bring to me.
Pure and right.
Everything. Everything.
“I love you,” I whispered into her hair.
She clutched me tighter. “Endless,” she returned.
I set my elbow on the bed next to her head so I could stroke my fingers across her face, not even shocked when the question rolled out. Like it was always meant to be. Or maybe I just should have uttered them a long damn time ago.
“Marry me.”
A soft sigh left her, and the green rim on those hazel eyes glowed. “Maxon,” she murmured.
“I’ll do it right later. A ring and all the words. But right now, tonight, I need to know you’re forever going to be mine.”
A smile trembled all over her mouth, emotion filling my room to overflowing.
I’d happily die getting crushed by that feeling.
“Yes. A million times over, I would say yes. Nothing could ever make me happier than bein’ your wife. Don’t you know that’s what I always wanted?”
A memory weaved between us.
The two of us had been out in our meadow, the girl wearing some ridiculous white dress she’d taken out of her mama’s closet that was fifteen sizes too big, a bough of wild jasmine flowers in her hands.
Our fake wedding out in the meadow.
Should have known then it was real.
She chewed at her lip, fighting the emotion. “You rememberin’ that day?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I meant it then, and I mean it now.”
I gathered her hand and pressed it to my mouth. “I’m going to take care of you, Izzy. Be the best husband I can be. The best dad I can be.”
Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes, and I kissed them away, and she wrapped her arms around me tight.
We sat there in the glow of it for the longest time.
Finally, she pulled back. “I need to get going.”
Reluctantly, I nodded, edged off of her, taking her sweet body with me as I stood. She yelped as I carried her into the bathroom, the girl giggling, the vibration of it moving through my being.
I tucked it down.
Held it tight.
I took out a hand towel and cleaned her up a whole lot like the way as she’d done for me that first night.
Carefully.
Adoringly.
Except tonight, all the pain and questions had been erased.
Just the future stretched out in front of us.
We dressed, and hand-in-hand, we went out the front door, my attention scanning the area, making sure everything was in the clear.
“I hate that you worry,” she whispered, sensing my angst, and I pinned her against the door of her car, kissed her slow, and edged back to brush the hair back from her face. “It’s my job to worry about you.”
Tenderness filled her expression, and then reluctantly, she opened her car door. I helped her inside, and I dipped in to steal one more kiss.
“I’ll see you soon.”
“That is if you don’t come sneakin’ through my window in the middle of the night.” It was nothing but affection.
I laughed.
She knew me well.
I would definitely be coming through that window.
“Are you telling me you have a problem with that?” A smirk lifted at the corner of my mouth.
“Never,” she said.
I nudged her chin with my knuckle. “Drive safe.”
With a nod, she put her car in reverse, and I stepped back and shut her door.
I watched as she backed out. Meeting her gaze through the windshield, I held both of my hands over my heart.
Her head tipped to the side, and she blew me a kiss.
Then I chuckled as I went directly to hop into my rental truck so I could follow her home.
Did she actually think I was going to let her drive home alone at night with all the shit that had been going down?
Not on my watch.
The girl was my duty.
And my family was my life.
Twenty-Nine
Izzy
Night pressed down from above, hugging the car like a warm, summer embrace, and a peaceful silence hummed in the air.
Trees rose up on every side, and I wound through the backroad that led to my parents’ house, the spray of my headlights lighting the road. An unendin’ grin had taken up residence on my face, refusing to let go.
Wings fluttered soft and slow in my belly, flappin’ and flickin’ to touch my heart that was overflowing with love when I glanced in the rear-view mirror.
Maxon.
Affection tightened my ribs. He loved me. I knew it. Knew it to my soul.
He was gonna marry me.
Love raced. So full. So big.
It was only amplified with the way I could feel his presence washing up from behind.
His protection covering.
His love surrounding.
I wanted to swim in it. Get lost in it. Dream in it.
I guessed that’s really what this felt like.
A dream.
Headlights glowed from a way back, Maxon giving me my space, and I was smiling slow as I took the sharp curve that followed the small river that ran this side of Broadshire Rim.