Page 209 of The Wild Charge

Tenny snorted. “Shy now?”

“No, I just…what if we got matching ones? Whatever it was.”

He took another drag, considering. “I think I’d like that.”

“Yeah?” Reese tipped his head back, pointy chin resting on Tenny’s chest so he could look at him. Again with that soft, heart-melting smile, but this time, Tenny couldn’t look away from it.

He could, it turned out, open his mouth and say something stupid, though. “How are you so okay?”

“Hm?”

Shit. He was in it now, though. “In a matter of hours, you found out it was your father who trained you, sold you, and kidnapped you. Now he and your brother are dead. How are you so…?” He set the cigarette aside in favor of tracing the curve of Reese’s lips with his thumb.

Reese kissed the pad of his thumb and then caught his hand in his own, and held it, stroking over the knife calluses at the base of each finger. “When I first prospected, Mercy told me the club was a family. He said it didn’t matter where you’d come from, or what you’d done, so long as you were loyal to the club and you looked after your brothers. I was related to Hunter, and to Jaxon…but they weren’t my family. They didn’t love me and I didn’t love them.” He shook his head, hair sliding over his face. “How can I grieve someone like that?”

“Christ.” Tenny felt a smile tug at his own lips, and reached to tuck Reese’s hair behind his ear.

“What?”

“Just…the wisdom of Mercy, I suppose. He said something rather poignant to me too, tonight.”

Reese’s gaze brightened. “So that’s where you were? With Mercy?”

“Exercising the healing qualities of revenge. Luis is dead, by the way.”

“That’s good. You?” Reese asked.

“It was terribly satisfying.”

Reese’s smile sharpened, briefly, and he leaned up to kiss him, sweet and unhurried; a kiss that was just a kiss, and not leading anywhere. He settled back down, after, face in Tenny’s throat again.

Their breathing synced, and the crickets called beyond the window, and Tenny was sliding toward sleep, too hazy to even bother switching off the lamps, when Reese’s foot moved against his shin and he said, “There’s one thing.”

His voice was small, uncertain now, but the sound of it snapped Tenny back to full wakefulness in an instant. “Hm?” he hummed, petting his hair.

“I don’t…want to be a Hunter anymore.”

Oh. That. “I wouldn’t either.” Tenny rubbed his back, long, soothing sweeps. “You can change your name. I’ll help you. Ratchet can get you a new ID. You can change it to anything you want.”

A pause. Reese flattened his hand over Tenny’s chest, his slow-thumping heart. “What if I wanted it to be Fox?”

“Oh. Well, if you…” Belatedly, the implication struck him. “Wait. Do you mean change it to that? Or–”

“What if we got married?”

“Oh. Well. Yes. Well…”

“Tenny.” Reese pushed up on his elbows, very serious. “Do you want to marry me?”

It was so not the way people proposed. Nowill you, no bent knee, no ring. Reese’s gaze had gone wary, but unrelenting. It was nearly a challenge.

It was one-hundred percent Reese, weird and wonderful, and Tenny grinned.

“What sort of question is that, you idiot? Try and stop me.”

Fifty-One

Four Weeks Later

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