Page 37 of Between Dusk and Dawn

"How did you know?" I asked, staying a few paces behind her.

"I never sleep nude."

"That’ll change soon," I mumbled, and she whipped around and stared at me.

"Why? Why now? What do you want from me? All of a sudden when it’s convenient for you, you’ve decided you are ready for me to…perform like the puppet you think I am?"

She had no idea that being here in Isles was only making it worse for me. I had spent all night conjuring up ways in which we could be together. We were an oxymoron. As much as I wanted to hurt her for what she'd done, I was the only person in her life protecting her from the life I would give her.

"Is this my punishment for hurting your sister?" she muttered, crossing her arms over her body again.

"What do you think?"

"I think you’re a mindfuck. You showed up here acting like I belonged to you last night, stalking me to my guesthouse"—little did she know the extent of my stalking—"then you show up after my yoga class because you knew this is where I was going to be, demanding what exactly out of me? Is your presence after all this time my goddamned punishment?"

I ate up the distance between us in a few strides, grabbed onto her cheeks, and forced her to look into my eyes. "If I was punishing you, Muse, you would know."

Upon letting her go, she stumbled backward a few steps out of the protection of my umbrella. "You aren’t answering me. Why are you here?"

I halted the incessant thinking, the ceaseless calculations, and the fruitless attempts to craft a plan because nothing appeared to be yielding results. My gaze was fixed on her enchanting green eyes, where her eyelashes gently fluttered, moistened by the rain. I saw a little girl who needed someone to come to her rescue. I saw her inner child, and I think, in this moment, she saw mine.

And because I lost control around her, I blurted, "I need you to marry me."

Chapter Thirteen

Unable to believe what he said, I actually thought I imagined it, that my brain conjured up his existence in Isles and his being here was a figment of my fucked-up imagination.

I reached over to where he was standing. For once, I had the upper hand. When it rolled off his tongue, I knew he was desperate for me.

As my hands slinked around his fingers, he stared at me. I grasped onto the umbrella and ripped it from him.

"My, my how the tables have turned." I cackled before walking toward the guest house.

He was in my house this morning; I knew it when I woke up undressed from the waist down and tucked into bed. I was exhausted physically and emotionally, but conscious enough to remember passing out on the ground by my door with my pants on. Sleeping nude was something I hated because of a weird fear that a bug would crawl up my hooha while I was passed out.

After I’d gotten up and saw the cum stain on my floor next to the bed, I knew exactly who it was. My worst fucking dream and most anticipated nightmare.

I opened the door and shut the umbrella. He’d sulked the rest of the way back to the house.

"Tea? Coffee?" I was being facetious, but I liked how it felt having the upper hand for once. Plus, his confession had me somewhat curious. I knew there was no way he came back three years later because he was merely curious, there had to have been an ulterior motive, and I found my answer.

"A glass of red would be preferred," he grumbled as he splayed out on the couch.

"Perfect," I stated as I headed toward the small kitchen, reaching up to the cabinet where I stored the quality wines professors had gifted me over the years. Pulling out a couple of glasses, I gathered my remaining courage.

"While you're at it, why don't you clean up the present you left me on the floor?" I rolled my eyes, poured the wine, and turned around, intending to approach where I thought Walsh was seated. Instead, I collided with a solid wall of abs, and the wine threatened to spill over.

"You think you're funny?" he asked.

I cracked a small smile. "Hilarious," I quipped.

"I'll keep your sarcastic mouth busy with something else if you keep it going," he said, reaching out to take his glass from my hand.

"But then who will you marry?" I questioned.

The corners of his lips twisted into a sadistic smile. "I have other options, Madison."

That gave me pause. There had to be more to this. There was no way he came back to Isles demanding I marry him to then say he had other options.

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