He cleared his throat and tilted his head back to swear at the ceiling. I was fascinated at the way the skin at the back of his head puckered with the movement. For anyone with hair, it would have been hidden. His newfound look still had me intrigued. And the way it felt when I ran my hands over his smooth scalp while he was between my thighs...
“Love you, yes.Inlove with you, no.”
“Well, thank god forthat.” I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, which made him look affronted. “Like, don’t get me wrong, damn, just get a load of yourself...” I paused to run my eyes over him and snickered when he squirmed “...and I love you too. Butinlove with you I am not.”
He chuckled. “I find that oddly offensive.”
“Truth hurts, doesn’t it? If you’re serious about wanting to marry me, convince me why I should.” I set my elbows on my folded legs and leaned forward. This was going to be good.
Did I feel bad for putting him on the spot?
Nope.
Now was the time for hard questions. If we couldn’t be honest with each other now, we were kidding ourselves if we thought for a second that we could make this ludicrous idea work.
“Straight up?” he asked.
I nodded in confirmation. Jace took a deep breath and huffed it out loudly before turning to me and sitting closer on the bed. I tried to ignore the heat he ignited within me when he took hold of my hand.
“I want to marry you because you are growing a part of me within you,” he started, which immediately got my defences up. I tried to tug my hand free, but he persisted.
“Shush, woman, let me finish. You’re beautiful and you’re full of life. You say what you think, and you stick up for what you believe in, and you never let anyone bulldoze you into anything. Despite our age difference, we make damn hot sparks together.” He raised a knowing brow, which made me smirk. “I think we have a good foundation for something great. So what if this probably wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t hook up. Maybe,maybe, we just need to take a chance and see where it takes us. I know there’s a lot at stake, but great risk equals great reward, right? It seems like I’m being hasty, but I’ve given this a whole lot of thought and if you are willing and wanting to take a chance, then so am I.”
My chest tightened, and I searched his gaze for more. “But, why now? Aside from the baby, I mean.”
His expression softened and his voice grew gentle. “Sometimes it takes an unexpected change in life’s plan to make us see what we were blind to before. We realise that everything we want and need has been in front of us the entire time.”
Jace opening up took my breath away. He blurred the lines between romantic poetry and our relationship. To sit close to this man and have him more than pour his heart out to me was the most indescribable feeling. Empowering. Shocking. Warming me to my inner being.
“Say something, J,” he whispered.
I forced the words past my lips. “I say no.”
It pained me.Physically ruined me to see how deep those three little words cut him. But I hadn’t finished.
“You didn’t get down on one knee.”
His sharp gaze snapped to mine. Time froze for one, two, three beats before his lips slowly curled into a grin. Jace stood and gripped the backs of my knees, tugging me to the edge of the bed. He sunk to one knee between my open legs, resurrecting a night-full of sexy memories.
“Jacquelyn Eve Carmichael, I know we’re not head over heels for each other, and I know this is far from a conventional proposal, but will you trust in us enough to honour our unconventional relationship and be my beautiful wife?”
My exhale came out breathy and shaken. Even though my feelings for Jace weren’t anything compared to that of a woman utterly and wholeheartedly in love, my heart swelled a hundred times over. And was that…was that a fucking tear on my cheek?
I hastily swiped it away and took a deep breath while ignoring the little voice inside my head that was screaming insanity.
I clutched Jace’s hands harder. “Jason Robert Malone, I can’t promise I’ll be the perfect wife, or even a good one at that. However, I will try my best for my sake, your sake, and for the sake of our baby.”
He didn’t move. “That’s a yes, by the way,” I clarified since he liked a clear-cut answer.
His reaction stunned me. He grasped my hips and started peppering kisses over my abdomen. He then gathered me in his arms as he rose to his feet and held me to his heaving chest.
“I hope we don’t regret this,” I murmured into his shirt.
His embrace tightened. “So do I, J. So. Do. I.”
My arms fastened around his torso, and I didn’t want to come back to reality. With our huge jump into the deep unknown, neither of us knew where to go from here.
As we stood locked in our forbidden embrace, I became increasingly aware of something between us. Something that increased in size and hardness with each passing second.