Page 29 of Ice

I held out my hand, and she rounded my desk, allowing me to pull her into my lap. “You are all I’ll ever need to make me happy, angel,” I told her softly. “But I did get some other good news.”

“I love good news!” she chirped happily, making me laugh.

“The man targeting me is gone, and he won’t be back. It’s all over.”

12

MARNIE

Istared into his icy-blue eyes, stunned by this sudden turn of events. “It’s done? You don’t have to worry about him anymore?”

“He’s not gonna be a problem for either of us,” he reassured me. “You can count on that, angel.”

“I’m so glad you don’t have to worry about someone sabotaging your bike like that again,” I whispered, clutching his shoulders as I thought about how different my life would have been if that jerk had gotten what he’d wanted out of the accident—Hayes dead. “He deserves all of the bad karma he has coming his way.”

“He can burn in hell for all I care, but he’s not gonna get another minute of our attention.” His hand stroked down my spine to cup my butt. “We’ve got better things to focus on.”

Now that the dust had settled with the man who had it out for Hayes, I had to face the fear plaguing me since we first got together. Did he really see a future with me? Or had things moved so quickly between us because of the adrenaline of how we met?

“What happens next?”

His brows drew together at my question. “What do you mean?”

“Um, well…I have a lot of stuff at your house.” I cleared the sudden lump in my throat. “But there’s no longer danger of that guy coming after me for witnessing your accident. So…”

I was unable to get the words past my stiff lips. But Hayes got the point I was trying to make. And it pissed him off, judging by the angry gleam in his eyes.

“What the hell, angel?” he growled, his fingers digging into my hips as he yanked me closer. “Are you sitting on my lap, tryin’ to tell me that you wanna move out of our home now that we don’t have to worry about that asshole hurting you?”

I shook my head. “No, absolutely not.”

“Then what the fuck were you trying to say?”

“You kinda already answered my question, which makes it easier to ask. If that makes any sense.” I cupped his bearded cheeks. “Do you want me to stay even though I don’t need to be here for my protection?”

“Fuck yeah, I do.” His eyes narrowed. “Did you really doubt that’d be my answer?”

I shrugged. “You have to admit that things moved fast with us.”

“Is that your only reason for thinking I didn’t mean it each and every time I called you mine?” he demanded, grinding his hard-on against my core. “And not just when I was buried balls deep inside you. ’Cause I know damn well I’ve said it plenty of other times, too.”

“You have,” I confirmed, twining my arms around his neck as I relaxed in his hold. “But I’ve never been in a relationship before. So I didn’t know how seriously I should take stuff like that when we’ve never labeled what’s happened beyond me being yours and you being mine.”

“You want me to be crystal clear about what we are to each other?” he asked.

“Uh-huh,” I breathed with a nod.

He lifted me off his lap and set me in his chair. “Stay put. I’ll be right back.”

I practically held my breath as he stormed out of his office. My curiosity over what he was doing was quickly answered when he returned a moment later, carrying a smaller version of his vest in his fist. After rounding his desk, he crouched next to me, turning the leather so I could see the patch on the back that said “Property of Ice.”

I beamed a big smile at him, sniffling as my eyes filled with tears. “You want me to be your old lady?”

“That and more,” he confirmed, tugging me forward to slide my arms through the holes and settling the leather on my back. Then he captured my mouth in a deep kiss, clenching the front of my new vest to hold me in place.

When he finally lifted his head again, I blinked up at him. “What’s more than your old lady? I thought that was the highest honor you could give a woman in the biker world.”

“You’re everything to me, Marnie.” He yanked open the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a black jewelry box. Flipping open the lid with his thumb, he showed me the diamond solitaire nestled inside. Plucking it out of the black velvet between his thumb and index finger, he slid it onto my finger. “You’re gonna spend the rest of your life being my old lady, my wife, and the mother of my children. I wanna build a family with you, me, and three babies that’ll hopefully have your black hair and green eyes. That work for you?”

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