Page 107 of Caged Bird

He pulled me tight into his arms and slammed his mouth down on mine, kissing me hard, stealing my breath, spinning my head until my knees went weak, and he was holding me tight. Our tongues stroked together, our bodies melding into one, no start or end.

My entire body burned for him, every cell igniting with need until I was whimpering, clutching him close, begging him to stay with my actions if not my words.

But he spoke them for me. “Forgive me. Be with me.Chooseme. Because I want you so fucking badly, and it’s killing me to stay out of your life.”

I smiled against his lips, kissing him again before I whispered, “Are you asking to be my boyfriend, Zane Sinclair?”

He moved back, just enough to brush my hair out of my face. “No, Fawn Hanover. I’m not.”

His face was deadly serious.

And my heart sank.

I pulled back, hurt creeping in. “You’re confusing me. You want to be with me but you don’t want to be with me?”

He let me go.

And then dropped down onto one knee.

I gasped at the ring he took from his pocket, a stunning diamond in the center on a band of delicate rose gold. He clutched it between two fingers, and when he held it up to me, I couldn’t quite work out exactly what was going on.

I looked around, like another person might suddenly appear to explain all of this to me. But there was no one but him. “Did I fall on the trail somewhere and hit my head, or are you asking me to marry you?”

He laughed, that warm grin I loved so much spreading across his face. “You didn’t hit your head. And I am asking you to marry me.” His fingers shook just a little. “I don’t just want to be your boyfriend. That was what I wanted when we were sixteen. But I want so much more now. I want you all the days of my life. I want to wake up next to you, and go to sleep with you in my arms, and I want to make meals with you, and dance with you in the kitchen, and kiss you beneath the mistletoe. I don’t want to be Otis’s uncle. I want to be his father. And I want to be yourhusband.” His voice choked up with emotion. “So no, I’m not asking to be your boyfriend. I’m asking you to be my wife.”

My gut knew before my head did. And the word came from deep inside me, and with a blinding certainty I felt with every part of my body. “Yes.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “Wait. What? Yes?”

I laughed, dropping down onto my knees in the dirt. “Yes! Of course, yes! Did you really think I’d say no?”

His genuine surprise was the most heartwarming thing I think I’d ever seen. The shock on his face so pure it was adorable.

“I kind of didn’t let myself think about it.” His shock turned into a grin, and he hauled me in tight. “Yes? Really yes?”

I nodded.

“Fuck, I love you.”

I kissed his mouth, and somewhere in that, without breaking apart, we got the ring on my finger. And then I was in his arms, kissing him until I couldn’t breathe and wondering how this was real.

How, in the space of a year, I could go from perpetual darkness to a future so bright it was a blinding as the rock on my finger.

EPILOGUE

Irefused to take heed of the whole, ‘the groom shouldn’t see the bride before the wedding’ rubbish. So the morning of our wedding, I woke up in Zane’s arms with a smile because there was no place else I’d rather be.

His eyes fluttered open a moment later, and he blinked at me, before pulling me in to kiss my forehead. He let his lips linger there, breathing in the scent of my hair, and I relaxed into his embrace, so full of happiness I was sure I would be awarded some sort of trophy for the happiest bride to ever exist.

“I can’t wait to marry you today,” he murmured.

“I can’t either.” I peered over his shoulder at his phone on the bedside table. “I really need to get out of this bed and start getting ready though.”

He rolled on top of me, pinning me beneath him. “Not a chance. You stay here, and I’ll go make you breakfast. One last breakfast in bed as my fiancée.”

“I can’t! I have hair and makeup and bridesmaids—”

“Who are all downstairs, and I will make breakfast for all of them too.”

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