Page 58 of Scorpion

“What are you doing here?” I ask as I move to the bag to change into the outfit I arrived in. If it weren’t for my years in the military, getting dressed in front of Mathijs might have sent me into cardiac arrest. Instead, I’m hedging the line of a fever with how weighted his gaze is.

The air between us is so thick, I doubt a bullet would be able to fly through it. I try to tell myself that it’s all in my head, but the fire burning inside me knows that I’m not fooling anyone.

“You forgot to grab your prize.” He smiles. Except there’s no mischief or hidden meaning behind it. Even his voice is soft with an eager edge, and his eyes are bright with elation.

I grin, ignoring the pain in my cheek as I slip on my underwear and shorts beneath the towel. “I don’t need your money. You can keep it, or I’ll donate it to Gaya and TJ, and some other charities.”

“I never said it was a cash prize.”

I pause just as I’m about to put on the beaded top. “Then what is it?”

“Why don’t you get dressed first?”

Narrowing my eyes, I nod. My back is to him up until the point I’m wearing everything I arrived in, there’s a Band-Aid on my forehead, and my hair is braided down my back. “What is it then?” I ask, eyeing the black box in his hand.

He throws it my way, and I catch it midair. Velvet covers encase the little box that’s smaller than the palm of my hand. It’s a… a jewelry box?

Slowly, I click open the lid and suck in a sharp breath at the big, emerald-cut diamond staring back at me. More diamonds wrap around the golden band; it’s so subtle I could have missed it. It’s stunning.

I’m pretty sure Justin wouldn’t have appreciated winning an engagement ring—

My eyes snap to Mathijs, and I almost gasp when I find him on one knee. “Marry me, Zalak. Make me complete.”

Every fiber of my being freezes at that moment. I want to say yes. I want to scream it because it was always meant to end this way.

The other part of me is questioning how ready I am for it. I took the plunge tonight by agreeing to come here, even with all the consequences of my attendance in mind. The romantic, more intimate double meaning of my acceptance wasn’t lost on me either.

Everyone here has seen my face and knows that I came here in the arms of one of their leaders. I knowingly risked my life to do it. There’s no mistaking the pledge I made to him and his organization when I killed a man in cold blood.

I’m ready to risk my life for him. I walked into this blind because I wanted to prove to Mathijs just how dedicated I am to him.

So why am I stopping at a label that comes with a ring? The lack of physical intimacy we’ve had in six months shouldn’t be a factor since it’s clearly not a concern to him.

“I’m not the type of person someone falls irrevocably in love with,” I say, more to give him a chance to change his mind.

“I could be six feet under, and I’d still walk the afterlife every day by your side. There’s nothing about you that I would change. You’re it for me, Lieverd.”

I blink back the tears gathering along my waterline. “There should be. No one’s perfect.”

Yet he is.

“You’re the closest thing to it. And still, I love the parts of you that aren’t.”

I let him take my hand and the little box. I’ll never find anyone like him for as long as I live. I’ve never met anyone so patient. He’s seen every broken piece, and still looks at me like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

“Marry me. There will never be anyone else for me but you.”

My first nod comes out uncertain. The second comes a little more confidently. There’s no mistaking the enthusiasm of the third. “Yes.” I choke on a sob and drop onto my knees in front of him. “Yes, yes, yes. I’ll marry you.”

The smile that explodes across his face makes my heart triple in size. My entire body trembles with uncontainable emotion as he slides the ring onto my finger. In the next blink, my lips are on his, and our hands are all over each other. All that’s here is him. The feel of his hands, the smell of him, the way he kisses me back like I’m the cure he’s been searching for.

My fingers claw at his shoulders like I need him to breathe. He bites my bottom lip and I moan, digging my nails into him. The arm he has around my waist is the only reason I haven’t toppled over. I reach for his pants at the same time he goes for my lehenga.

He’s ripped away from me before I manage to undo his belt. My arms fly out in front of me to catch my fall. Pain erupts across my face before I can steady myself, and I land on my side with an oomph.

Groaning, I pry my eyes open and cringe from the ringing in my ears. I sway as I try to raise myself up onto my elbows to make sense of what’s happening. As I blink, three blurry figures come into view—I can just make out the masks covering their faces.

“Goldchild sends his regards.”

---