Page 11 of The Silent Note

“The one where you and I are nothing to each other.”

I swing around and look at him. His sea-blue irises are like hooks, digging into all the off-limits parts of me and holding me hostage.

“You and I will always be something to each other,” he says.

I reach deep for a sneer of disdain.

This is it.

I have to cut this off right now or I’ll always be looking for him, waiting for him, thinking of him.

“Don’t be delusional, Zane.” Narrowing my eyes, I exhale. “Aren’t you embarrassed? Even if you aren’t, I’m embarrassed for you. How many times do I have to say I’m not interested?—”

“Marry me.”

The rest of my brutal words end on a hiccup.

Zane smirks, totally unruffled. “Grace Elizabeth Jamieson, be my wife.”

Everything in me goes still…

Because, unlike the night of the accident, this proposal doesn’t sound like a request.

It’s an order.

Chapter Four

ZANE

Grey looks at me like I’ve lost my freaking mind. Her mouth opens and closes as if she’s not sure if her first move should be to tell me off or to go straight for smacking me in the face.

It’s all I can do not to kiss her as I watch her decide.

She closes her eyes and manages to wrangle her emotions into something prim and proper. It’s that fake ‘I know better than you’ politeness that I really want to screw right out of her.

Preferably on our honeymoon.

With her fat curls bouncing along with the mattress as I take her from behind.

“We’re not doing this again,” Grey says in that stern, teacher tone. “I told you my answer last time.”

I look her dead in the face and try to keep the cocky smile off my lips, the one that always makes her eyes narrow in suspicion.

But I fail.

Because her eyes are narrowing.

And I’m pretty sure the corner of my lips are curling upwards.

“You gave the wrong answer last time.”

Her eyes widen and her nostrils flare.

Grey tells me ‘no’ often and I honestly didn’t expect her to agree to my marriage proposal the day of the accident. Hell, I didn’t know I’d bemakinga marriage proposal until I saw her in this very hospital bed.

But I’ll do anything to protect her.

Which means the ring in my pocket needs to go on her finger.

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