Rough hands push my hair away from my face, and when I look up, I see him watching me.
“Where’s your ring?” he asks. I shrug. I don’t care, I don’t want it. “Where is your ring, Everly?”
“Why do you care?”
“I care. Now where is it?”
I point to the bathroom where I took it off earlier.
Gunner walks away from me and emerges a few seconds later with the ring in his hand.
“This was my mother’s. It’s all I have of her,” he says.
Boom! And now I feel even worse.
He looks up at me. “Don’t lose it. Do you understand? This. Is. All. I. Have. Left.” I can tell he’s angry with me, and I guess in some ways he has a right to be.
I nod, and somehow I let him stand next to me and slide it back on my finger.
“I don’t want to marry you,” I mutter in my drunken haze.
Gunner strips off, kicks his shoes to one side, before he pushes me over and slides in behind me.
“Yes, you do. You just don’t like the fact it was arranged without you knowing.”
“I still don’t want to marry you.”
“Stop wiggling or my cock is going in your ass,” he says with a firm hand on my hip. I wiggle again and laugh when I do. “I will marry you, Everly Thorne, and soon you will be Mrs. Everly Reid.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head.
“Yes,” is all he replies but the intonation tells me he means business.
I can tell he always gets what he wants.
15
I wake with strong arms around me and a shiny ring in my face. Shit. I pull away, but he holds me tight and, oh my God, my head hurts something fierce. “Gunner,” I say quietly even though I know he’s awake because he won’t let me go.
“Yes.”
“Let me go.”
“No. I’m not quite ready to.”
I lie back down knowing he won’t let me move until he’s good and ready. I huff out a breath, and he removes his hand. “You need to brush your teeth,” he says turning over, his ass barely covered.
I open the bedroom door to see May’s left.
“She left over an hour ago,” he says, one eye open as he watches me. “Brush, water, and back to bed.”
I go to the bathroom and do just that, brush, water, and walk over to the bed. When he looks up at me, I throw the glass of water over him. He doesn’t make a noise, but he does sit up with his wet hair and he watches me.
“Get out,” I yell at him.
He stands, naked, and steps closer to me.
Bad idea.
My girl parts start singing at his close proximity. When he reaches me, he takes the glass from my hand and places it next to him.
“Ask me whatever you want, I’ll answer. But make it quick.” He glances at his erect cock and I shake my head.
“I’m not having sex with you,” I say even though I know it’s a lie.
“Oh, you are. And believe me, angry sex is my favorite. So, hurry up.”
“Do you love me? Or was that just a few words to get me to do what you wanted?”
“I love you. I don’t say words I don’t mean. You should know that by now, Everly.”
My heart floods with happiness but is also mixed with confusion and anger.
“Do you want to marry me?” I ask him unsure if I really want to know the answer to this question.
“No, not yet. But eventually. Maybe.”
I shrink back.
He touches me. “It’s not because I don’t love you, Everly. It’s because I’ve never seen a healthy marriage. Why should I think mine would be any better?”
My heart hurts at his words.
How can he not know a healthy marriage? How can he not know that loving someone and being with that person makes you a better person? You aren’t angry at the world because you have someone to love. Someone who cares for you.
“It will never work, why should we do this if it will never work?” I ask him, hoping he will give me an honest answer. “It can’t just be the contract. Can it?”
He brushes a hand through his hair, and I have to remember to fight for myself. That even though I know I love this man, he just admitted he doesn’t want to marry me.
Time could change that, I’m sure.
“It will work. You, I can guarantee, will work with me.”
I shake my head at his words and the assurance he puts on them.
“You don’t know that, this could end in disaster. You could break me. Do you want to break me?”
His lip twitches at my words. “Stop fighting the inevitable, Everly. You and I will last a lifetime. Of that, I’m sure. I’ve never known anyone who I want to be around more than you.”
“I’ll marry you, Gunner,” I say, but the words feel more like defeat. But it’s a win also because I wouldn’t have chosen anyone else to marry. He has my heart.