Page 86 of Muzzled

“Some,” he lied, leading her toward her quarters.

“Orion, dear? I’m very close to slapping you silly, honey.”

Shaking Persephone’s exasperated expression from his mind, he opened her door and walked her to her bedroom, stepping back only when she was seated at her vanity.

“So, is there some rule that if I marry a deity, I have to stay in this realm?” she asked, rifling through her growing jewelry collection.

The desire to destroy something flared in his veins, and he gripped the back of the chair. “Should you choose that route, there will be nothing physically stopping you from returning topside for periods of time. But be warned there are several potential suitors who have rather archaic views on their wives gallivanting among humans.”

Her shoulders shook as her head dropped forward for a moment, waving him off when he stepped closer to check on her. “I’m good, I’m good.” She laughed, rising from her seat and running her thumb along the bottom of her lashes as she faced him. She put her hands on his shoulders and backed him up. “Stand there.”

He obeyed for all of five seconds until she knelt down. Bending to grasp her elbow, he attempted to help her up. “You’re pushing it too much,” he growled as she shook out of his hold and grabbed his wrists, shoving them behind his back.

“Keep. Those. There,” she huffed. “My goodness, you’re difficult.” Using the chair for support, she got back down to the floor. “While I may be blessed with virtual immortality, I’m not going to spend it waiting for you to get your head out of your ass. I don’t care if it’s fate, destiny, luck, or coincidence that crossed our paths, I don’t want either of us to keep our heads above water anymore. I died because we fell in love, Ryan. But I got better. And you need to accept both of those truths.”

She shifted her knee slightly and he moved to assist her, freezing when she narrowed her eyes. “I’m not done.” Plucking a large gold ring off of her thumb, she reached forward and held his hand. “I don’t know who this belongs to, so we may need to give this back and get another, but it’ll do for now. Orion Echidna, whose name I practiced saying all afternoon, will you do the honor of marrying me?”

He took an involuntary step back as she slid the ring onto his finger, wrinkling her nose when it wouldn’t go past the knuckle.

“Marry,” he stated, the familiar word not fully processing as his mind fired through what was happening. “Me.”

“Well, me and you,” she corrected, looking up at him.

“You’re proposing.”

She nodded. “I figured if I didn’t, we’d spend another century or two dancing around it, so yeah. Marry me.”

“Tonight?”

With a laugh, she clasped onto his wrist and pulled herself to her feet. “My knees are killing me. Is that a ‘yes’?”

I died because we fell in love.

We. Not him.

From the moment she awoke, he’d been fighting the urge to fall to his knees and cling to her. He wanted to touch and kiss every inch of her body, to reassure himself she was alive and healthy. The need to hold her and feel each breath she took pulsed in his veins and ensured he stayed awake long into the night while she slept soundly across the room.

But he’d held his heart and his mind in check, maintaining his distance and locking down everything he felt for her because he couldn’t shake her last moment on earth. And it terrified him to think she might not be able to either. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her watching him as he went in for the kill, saw trust, sorrow, and the same look she had now as she stood before him, his hand in hers.

And he wondered what she saw in that final strike. Did she see his heart as it was ripped from his chest? Did she know her death killed him, as surely as if she’d run him through?

Did she know he loved her?

“I never told you I love you,” he murmured as he ran his thumb over the smooth gold of the ring. “I thought if I didn’t say it, Fate wouldn’t know. That I would have more time. That if I didn’t speak the words, you’d be safe.”

“You could maybe say it now,” she replied, her lips quirking up when he met her gaze. “Or maybe answer the question I asked, so I won’t have to keep pretending I’m not completely freaking out right now.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Micah knew herproposal would be met with a reaction. She’d been mentally prepared for everything from an outright no to a logistical argument to a reserved agreement.

What she hadn’t expected was to be whisked off her feet and spread across her bed before she could blink, Ryan’s lips on hers and his tongue sweeping through her mouth. One hand was already maneuvering through the fabric of her tangled skirt, grasping at her thigh with desperation when he finally made contact with her skin.

“I love you,” he rasped against her lips. “I should have told you that day at the Flats. I should’ve been strong enough to say it. Should’ve let you know. I should—”

“You should give me a yes or a no,” she interrupted, her fingers digging into his biceps.

He laughed, his breath hot across her skin. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes, and yes.”

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