Page 170 of Renewal After Dark

“Uh-huh. My future wife is young and has lots of time left to have babies.”

The minute he said the wordsfuture wife, her whole body went rigid, and not in a good way.

“Did I go too far?”

“One step too far. I meant it when I said I don’t want to get married.”

“Even to me?”

“You’re the only one who could make me consider it.”

“But?”

“I want us to be together every day because we want to be. Not because we’re legally bound to each other.”

“Can’t we do both?”

“It’s just so freaking awful for everyone involved if it doesn’t work out.”

“This is gonna work out, sweetheart.”

“Everyone thinks that when they’re newly in love and planning a future. But then life happens, and things go sideways. The tearing apart is brutal.”

“When life happens, and things go sideways, I’ll be right there with you through it all. I’ll go sideways, hell, I’ll go upside down if I have to, if that’s what it takes. But one thing I’ll never do is leave you to figure it out on your own. We’d be in this together every step of the way, because we want to be, not because the law says we gotta.”

He tipped up her chin to receive his kiss. “I’ve waited my whole life for you and Jax. Every minute of every day and every month and every year was leading me to you and him and this family. I want us to stand up in front of our people and take vows and make a life together with Jax and that bunch of other kids we’re going to have. And I want us to be ridiculously happy for the rest of our lives.”

“Are you, like… um… proposing to me?”

“What if I am?”

“I, uh… Well… Wow.” She huffed out a laugh. “I’ve never been proposed to before.”

With her in his arms, he stood and returned her to the sofa. Then he knelt on one knee and reached for her hand, kissing the back of it. “McKenzie Martin, love of my life, owner of my heart and soul, would you please do me the massive—and probably undeserved honor—of being my wife, my soul mate, my life partner, my everything? If you say yes, in exchange I’ll give you and Jax everything I have, everything I’ll ever have and do everything in my power to make you happier than you ever thought you could be. I’ll do that every day for the rest of my life, which will no doubt end long before yours does because I’m so much older than you, and then you can live in sin with some other rando, but youcannotbe as happy with him as you were with me. That’s where I draw the line.”

She was laughing and crying all at once. “You’re out of your mind planning my widowhood while you’re asking me to marry you.”

“I like to see to all the contingencies, especially since you’d be taking on a senior citizen compared to you.” He bent his head over her hand, peppering the inside of her wrist with soft kisses. “I heard you when you said you don’t want to get married, and I completely understand why after everything you’ve seen and been through with your parents and that jackass Eric and others. But here’s the thing…” He looked up at her now with tears in his own eyes. “I want us to be a family. I want you and Jax to be the first real family that’s truly mine. I want us all to be Sullivans, if that’s okay with you. I have the best friends in the whole world, and I love them. But they all have their own families to go home to. I want that, too. I know we could achieve that without the legal shit, but call me old-fashioned… I want the big white wedding day and the vows and the party and the happily ever after. And just for the record, I never pictured that for myself until I pictured it with you.”

She stared at him for a long time, long enough that a million thoughts passed through his mind—not all of them good ones. What would he ever do if she said no to him? Would he be satisfied to live with her and their kids without the vows? If that’s what she really wanted, he’d do it for her. He’d do anything for her.

“First of all, it is not an undeserved honor.”

He had to think about that for a second before he tied those words back to what he’d said earlier. “I’m batting way out of my league here, babe. Just want you to know I get that.”

“Stop talking, Duke.”

He swallowed a laugh and forced his expression to be serious. “Yes, ma’am.” God, he loved when she was bossy with him.

“You deserve my love and Jax’s more than anyone ever has. From the minute you showed up at Tiffany’s with as many of our things as you could find in our destroyed home, you’ve been showing me who you are and what you’re about. So I don’t ever want to hear again that you don’t deserve me or that I’m way out of your league. Is that understood?”

“I’ll keep the thought to myself going forward.”

“You do that.”

“What’s the second of all?”

“I meant it when I said I never wanted to get married.”

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