Page 144 of The Marine

“Oh, are you back to threaten me again, Aidan Black?” Mrs. Sutton asked, crossing her arms.

I closed the front door behind me.

“Nope, just wanting to show you the engagement ring on Briar’s hand.”

“Aidan!” My beautiful fiancé slapped my chest. “We had a plan.”

And no, I will never stop referring to her as that. Until she’s my wife, that is.

I shrugged. It was a change of plans...and her mother pissed me right off just by breathing.

“You are not marrying him!” She’d cried as I smirked directly at her unapologetically.

“Yeah, Mom, I am,” Briar replied, not leaving my side.

My gaze shifted when I lifted my head, and I shot her mother a threatening glance and meant every single part of it.

She clamped her mouth shut.

“I love him. And Aidan loves me. I am going to marry him and”—she glanced up at me with eyes filled with adoration and I nearly fucking melted— “we’re going to have beautiful little babies.”

I leaned down and kissed her.

Because how could I not?

Plus, it aggravated her mother.

“You are barely sorting out the legalities with Kael. Or this Johnny Trevis.”

Oh, they were being sorted. I was pulling strings.

The hard part was accepting that Briar was grieving for him when all I wanted to do was put a bullet in his skull.

“We’re going to wait a year, but I’m moving in with Aidan and you have to accept it.” Briar had pressed her body into mine.

I’m here, sweetheart.

Always.

“Dear god. Your father will be turning in his grave.” She cried, shooting me a dark look.

“Mom, please.” Briar cried, getting upset.

I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but it still grated at my nerves seeing her manipulate her daughter.

The right thing would have been to let Briar fight her mother, learning to stand up for herself, but I’m a protector and she’d done pretty damn well already.

It would take her time.

She’d committed to me, and I was going to help her grow into the new person she was.

Strong and with clear boundaries. Even from me.

“Accept it or we will leave,” I said, looping my arm around Briar’s waist. “We are getting married, and you know damn well I’m not the man responsible for your husband’s death or any of the pain both of you have suffered. None of it.”

Silence.

“He’s not, Mom,” Briar said softly.

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