Page 55 of Indecent Demands

Seth looked at me. I saw it again—that dangerous glint that I’d seen in him before, when he’d told me that he knew I was the thief. That look that had told me for all his friendliness, this was a deadly man if he was crossed.

“I don’t care. Then we’ll fight the courts. We’ll do whatever it takes.”

I stared at him, unable to voice the question in my mind. Seth seemed to know what I meant, though, because he took my hands in his.

“Look. Ask my buddies—I’m the idiot romantic of the group. I knew that I would know when I found the woman I wanted to spend my life with, and I wasn’t going to bother trying it with anyone else. And that person isyou. Now that I’ve found you, do you really think I’m going to let you go? Over a good deed you were doing? Because this jackass was able to cover up what a heartless piece of shit he is? Absolutely not. You’re mine, Ariana. I told you that you were, and I meant it. And I always protect what’s mine.”

To my shock, tears sprang into my eyes. It had been so long since I’d had anyone I could rely on—anyone I could call a friend or family. Seth pulled me into his arms as I sobbed with relief I hadn’t even known I needed, as he held me and reassured me, as I finally didn’t have to do it all alone.

I didn’t know exactly what the future would hold. I wanted to keep helping people, although clearly my thievery days were done. But I knew that I had Seth, and that was all that mattered to start over.

Epilogue

Seth

“Do you have the rings?” Bryce asked me for the millionth time.

“Yes, I have the rings,” I replied, also for the millionth time.

“And you’re not going to do anything crazy?”

“I will not do anything crazy,” I parroted.

Bryce was a bit of a showman but he had kept his wedding to Leigh small. Both he and Vaughn had been teasing me that they were getting married before I was when I was the only one of us who’d originally even really wanted to get married, but I was going to get even in my own way. They knew it, too, which was why Bryce was being a paranoid son of a bitch, like he thought I was going to ruin his wedding.

I’d never do such a stupid thing. Not because of Bryce, though. No, see, if I made the mistake of ruining her wedding after she spent months planning it, Leigh would murder me. Gruesomely. In public.

I was going to get even, just in a more… subtle way.

This wedding was going to kill two birds with one stone.

The first stone was obvious. I was going to do something that would be discovered much, much later, but wouldn’t upstage the wedding,butwould still give my friends a bit of a middle finger. I wasalsogoing to do something that I’d been meaning to do for a while but hadn’t been able to, because Ariana was too damn smart.

I should’ve known that the woman who was possibly the only person in the world who could hack better than I could was also the woman who would be on constant fucking alert for me to propose.

She knew it was going to happen. She’d met my parents (who fucking adored her, as I knew they would) and all of my friends. She was working with Claire at the office, now on the straight and narrow.

I was honestly just happy that she was happy.

But she’d met all the milestones. She knew I wanted kids and to get married. She knew it was coming. And she was fucking prepared any time I did the slightest romantic thing.

She’d even started to get a suspicious light in her eye every time we had sex.

There were a few times I’d been tempted to propose after a long scene, when I was giving her aftercare, but I wanted her fully present in her mind and not in the middle of subspace. So I was going to do it now, because what kind of jackass proposed during his friend’s wedding?

Me. That’s who.

We got through the ceremony and I didn’t derail it the way Bryce kept thinking I would, but when we got to the reception, I waited for the right moment to grab Ariana and pull her away.

The DJ was playing a slower song, so I just whispered in her ear that I wanted to dance, just the two of us, and I led her out of the building and into the side garden. I really did dance with her, holding her close. She was completely relaxed in my arms, unsuspecting.

Then the song ended, and I got down on one knee.

Ariana’s hand flew to her mouth. I grinned, pulling out the ring. “I think you know what I’m going to say.”

She nodded, tears in her eyes.

“You’re the person who’s turned my house into a home. The one person who can challenge me with computers. I think a part of me knew since day one thatyouwere the one. I love you, Ariana. Will you marry me?”

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