Page 59 of The Bourbon Bride

My eyes widen as I inhale sharply. “Are you…?”

“Marry me and I’ll make it all go away.”

I blink slowly, wondering if I’m dreaming or suffering orgasm-induced delusions. “You’ve known me for a week. We barely know each other. Things could change so fast and you’d be legally stuck with me.” I bite my lip as my mind races.

“I’m willing to take that risk.”

He rolls me to my side so we’re facing each other.

“I love everything about you. You are sweetness and steel, a stronger, more resilient woman than anyone could imagine. You’re smart, funny, poised, and we just work.”

I tuck my head under his chin so I can think without meeting his eyes. He loves everything about me, but does he even loveme?

I’ve always dreamed of a relationship built on love and support. My mama and daddy may have had an arranged marriage, but they really are a good team and I know they love each other, despite the beginning of their relationship. I think part of why I hated the idea of being married off for business is that love would be removed from the equation entirely, leaving only calculation and heartlessness. Not to mention, a man who tried to prey on me as my partner. Gross.

Marry me.

Could Hayes and I have developed the support and love a marriage needs to be long-lasting and happy? I told him once that I am a true-blue kind of woman. I want to marry for life and be unwavering in my commitment. I don’t take the idea of marriage lightly. Probably why I was willing to give up everything to avoid the arrangement my parents made for me.

I’ll make it all go away.

Could this really be the answer I need? Hayes is certainly right about one thing. Mama and Daddy can’t marry me off if I’m already married. Marrying him would completely erase the problem at home, so I would be doing more than just running from it. I would be taking it into my own hands and solving it by any means necessary. As for love, well, I know he has already made his way into my heart and claimed me. I just hope the same is true for him.

Granted, Hayes isn’t the worst option when I imagine what I would want in a husband. He’s a freaking billionaire, a talented businessman, a kind and generous person, and he wantsmewithout the strings of a business deal attached. I could do far worse.

I laugh to myself and Hayes pulls away so he can see me.

“What’s so funny?”

“You’re kind of like top-shelf marriage material. No, you’re the reserve stuff that has to be held onto for years before you break it out.”

He gives me a grumpy look.

“Are you calling me old, Miss Fairchild?”

“Not old,perfectly aged,“ I clarify. I lean in and kiss the tight line of his mouth. “So, how do we do this?”

“Is that you saying yes?”

“You didn’t exactly get down on one knee and ask me, so it’s a fitting answer.” I raise an eyebrow at him.

Maybe the romantic in me is a little disappointed at the pragmatic proposal of his. It’s not what I had in mind when I imagined the love of my life asking me to be his wife, but it will have to do. We can get to the love of our lives part later, right?

Hayes runs a hand through his hair and looks up for a moment. His eyes brighten and he kisses my nose.

“Stay put. I’ll be right back.” He jumps out of bed, pulls his pants on, and walks out of the bedroom.

“Well, that was weird,” I say out loud to the empty room.

If he’s going to leave me here, he’s going to get a prize when he comes back. I roll out of bed and walk naked to the closet.

A few minutes later I hear the click of Cerberus’s nails on the bedroom floor. I walk out of the closet in the red lace baby-doll nightgown I bought the first day I was with Hayes.

“Hey, buddy, where’s your daddy?” I ask as he walks around the bed and sits.

He’s wearing a sheet of paper hanging around his neck by a red ribbon. I walk over and squat in front of the big, proud dog, lifting the paper to read it.

Bring me up from the depths of hell, my angel, make me pure and light.

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