Page 73 of Sparrow

My eyes widen. “You are not asking me that in front of everyone.”

“On the contrary. I absolutely am. I can have whatever I want and the loser has to agree, right?”

I sigh. “Right.”

“That’s what I thought.”

The next few moments happen in slow motion. Gray glances over at Cadence, who gives him a thumbs-up, and then he sinks to one knee in front of me.

“Holy shit!” I exclaim; then I cover my mouth because I just cursed in front of Cadence.

“You agreed I could have whatever I wanted if I won so—” He pulls a small black box from his pocket. “I want you to be my wife.”

He pops the box open to reveal my sparrow. The one from the necklace I never got back because he said he was having it fixed. I see what he means by that now. The pendent has been fashioned into a ring with the wings forming the band.

“Oh my God.” It’s all I can manage.

“Amelia, I know it’s soon, and I know all the craziness from the last few weeks isn’t even settled yet. I’m not asking you to marry me tomorrow or even next year. I’m just asking, someday in the future, will you marry me?”

Tears form in my eyes and I sink to my knees in front of him, wrapping him in my arms. “Yes. Yes. Yes. I will.”

“You will?” he asks, cupping my face in one of his hands.

“I will. I love you so much. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.” I smile so widely it hurts my cheeks as he slides my new ring onto my finger.

***

(Grayson)

I cradle my wife-to-be in my arms as her orgasm shudders throughout her body. We are sitting up in the middle of the bed, her in my lap, nose to nose, and I’m buried inside of her, pumping my own release into her.

She said yes. I still can’t believe it.

I place kisses across her jawline and down her sweaty throat. By the time we got Cadence down for the night, Nora settled into the guest room, and Case out the door, we were ravenous for one another.

I couldn’t get inside of her fast enough, and now that I’m here, I’m not giving it up anytime soon.

She kisses the center of my forehead and wraps her arms around my neck. “Wow,” she sighs.

“You can say that again.” I kiss the tip of her nose.

“Wow.”

I push her hair from her damp forehead and glide my hands up and down her back.

“Thank you for saying yes.”

“It was the only option, Gray. This is where I know I belong. I couldn’t say no. My heart, mind, and body wouldn’t have let me even if I wanted to.”

I bring her hand down so I can see it, and I slide my thumb across the ring.

“I hope you didn’t mind what I did with the necklace.”

“It’s beautiful, but this had to have taken awhile for them to do. How long have you known you were going to ask me?”

“Since the minute I saw you on your porch the day I came to install your alarm system,” I admit.

“Charmer,” she says before kissing my lips.

“Get used to it, darlin’. I’ll be charming the pants off of you for many years to come.”

“Promise?” she asks, scratching her nails across the area where my hairline meets my neck.

“Absofuckinglutely.”

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