Page 143 of The Marine

EPILOGUE

AIDAN

Three Months Later

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Waiting wasn’t thehardest part.

Briar’s mother was.

The last three months have been difficult. Between all the legal bullshit annulling Briar’s marriage to Kael, aka Johnny Trevis, and me wanting her to move in immediately, we’ve had a few disagreements.

“I need space,” Briar said after we returned to our lives.

“Then sit out in the yard. It’s massive,” I replied, pointing outside while we were debating it one night.

“You don’t get it.” She nudged me.

“What I get, my beautiful fiancé, is that you are mine and I want you here every day and every night.” I scooped her up, and she wrapped her legs around my waist.

“I’m not ready,” she said, playing with my hair. “Give me some time.”

“I’ve waited ten fucking years, Briar. Don’t ask me to wait any longer.”

There was a part of me that hadn’t released all my fury about our past and how we’d been kept apart.

I was mad.

I didn’t want to wait any longer.

“You need time, too,” Briar said, looking me right in the eye. “If this is going to work, we need to make sure we are both in the right place. I love you. I know you love me.”

“If you don’t, I’ll tell you ten times a day,” I’d said.

“You do, baby.”

I’d huffed because...yeah, I did.

“Fine, but you’re having private security until you move in with me,” I’d stated.

This was my compromise.

“Ugh. I might love you, but you are a pain in my ass, Aidan Black.” She’d flung her head back.

I grinned. Then sucked on her neck, leaving a beautiful mark for all the world to see.

Marking Briar was my favorite thing.

Just ask her inner thighs.

Three weeks later, she moved in and I’m not sorry for wearing her down.

Ten years and three weeks.

Or something approximate to that.

But that was after we’d had dinner with her mother at her house.

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