Page 144 of Mr. Monroe

I stepped back, looking into her eyes because I knew exactly what she was talking about. “I know that feeling,” I said. “The more I thought to distract myself, the more my mind went directly back to you. It was pure torture.”

“Unless you had frightening panic attacks from out of nowhere, leaving you stranded near a homeless encampment, don’t talk to me about torture.”

“What?” I said, horrified by what I heard.

“It was nothing,” she said with a laugh.

I grinned and pulled her into my arms, “I vow to care for you and our child for the rest of our lives. I know this is coming from left field, but I don’t care. I want you to be my wife, Natalia Hoover. I want to spend every second of every day knowing I’m your husband and the father of your children. I understand if you say no; I truly do. I just want you to know that I want you as my wife, and I hope one day you’ll want me as your husband?”

“I wouldn’t be here, going to these lengths, if I didn’t think we were worth a chance. I’ll be honest, though; I didn’t come out here to get engaged.”

“We don’t have to get engaged,” I said with a small laugh.

“But maybe I might want to be engaged,” she said with the most adorable questioning look, which I found so irresistible now.

“Then, let’s get engaged.”

“God, what are we doing?” she said.

“We’re doing the right thing this time. Nat, I don’t know what happened between this place, London, and California, but something did happen, and I learned that I can’t live in this world without you in my life. I’ve never needed anything as much as I need you.”

“We’re going slow on this,” she said. “I’m talking our kid might be a five-year-old, walking wedding rings down the aisle kind of slow. I think we need to move in the direction of allowing the relationship to simmer and grow still.”

“I agree with whatever you want,” I said. “Whatever makes you happy. If you want to wait five years to make it official, I’ll wait. It just gives me something to look forward to.”

“I think this might work out for us,” she said, her daring expression returning, and I knew we were skipping dinner and heading straight for my room.

“I know it will. The hardest lesson I’ve ever learned was losing you because I put my selfish and impatient ass first. Trust me, I’d rather learn a lesson in patience than a lesson in losing the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“I’m not down for admitting I would like to learn a lesson in patience, but I don’t want to lose you either. I love you, Spencer. And yes, I’ll marry you, but give me at least three to five years.”

“Anything you ask, I’ll gladly do. Now, let’s celebrate alone. Preferably in Verona, where we can relive some of the good times we had without distractions.”

“Won’t the family be irritated we left?”

“I just saved them from losing my grandmother and this estate to Satan’s sister. I think they’ll all survive. Besides, Steve and I are back on the mend, so that’s settled. And in his deepest apologies to you, he’ll be kissing your ass for quite some time.”

“Seems like things got a little intense out here?”

“Just bizarre. You’d think I was making it up if I told you everything.”

“It’s sad that our child will never have any grandparents.”

“Do you really want them to know your father and my mother?”

“God, no,” she answered. “It just sucks. I don’t want my kid to be sad when all the other little asshole kids have their grannies and grandpops show up on Grandparents’ Day or whatever, and all our kid can do is look at mugshots.”

“Our child will not be the only one who has no representation on Grandparents’ Day, if that’s even a thing,” I answered. “Hey, Bree and Alex’s twins are in the same position with their misfortunes. Instead of thinking about the sadder things, why don’t we focus on the fact that I still have no idea how I managed to get you back into my arms so easily?”

“You think this is going to be easy?” she laughed. “Spencer, you’re signing on to wait at least five years to marry me, dealing with the wild life of being with a pregnant woman. Trust me, friend. I’ll be miserable and probably unbearable. It’s half the reason I’m waiting five years for marriage.”

“How’s that?”

“I don’t want to be pregnant in a wedding dress, and I may want another child to get it out of the way. So, you never know how long these things can take. You can’t just throw together a couture gown, either. These things take time, you know?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at how she was planning this out in her head. “Don’t you think that’s a little backward, though? I mean, most people like to get married and start a family when they determine they want to spend the rest of their lives together.”

“I’m not most people. I must have this all planned out, or it just won’t work.”

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