Page 100 of Wretched Soul
“It is,” Mace says.
He’s taking decisions on my behalf again, but on this matter, I’m in full agreement. If Mace is safer at their family estate, that’s where we should be.
Mace takes my coffee cup from my trembling hand and sets it down on the counter. “Let’s go back to our room. It’s been ages since we’ve had any alone time.”
“Connie’s sent food,” Reid says when we stand. “Don’t you want to build the poor girl’s strength up first?”
“We’ll see you later,” Mace says, guiding me away.
“Were we that mushy once?” I hear Hunter asking his wife.
“Once?” Maddie repeats. “What the hell do you meanonce? Are you getting bored already, Hunter?”
“With you, little bird? Never.”
I don’t hear if his recovery works because Mace has closed his bedroom door. He kicks it shut and spins me around so I’m pressed up against it.
“Sorry if that scared you,” he says.
“After my trial by fire with you, it’s going to take more than that to frighten me off,” I tell him, my tension slowly leaving me. “I’m where I want to be.”
Mace splays his hands across my back as he presses me to him. “You’re sure?”
My fingers thread through his hair, holding his head so he can’t look away. “There was never any doubt.”
Our noses brush as his mouth dips to mine. “Is it too soon to start planning our wedding, Slayer?”
I tighten my grip on his hair. “Yes, it’s too soon, Shade,” I say, nipping at his lower lip. I wait a beat before I add, “You have to ask me first.”
Epilogue
Six Weeks Later
Lily
Istand slightly behind Mace, my gloved hand in his, and my cheek brushing his upper arm. I grit my teeth to stop them from chattering, not wanting to disturb him while he’s deep in thought.
It took us two hours to get here, and the sun is only now rising. I hadn’t asked questions when he woke me up at an ungodly hour to go for a drive. There are times when Mace just sets his mind to something, and I’m learning to roll with it. It’s more fun that way. Although standing in a cemetery at sunrise isn’t exactly how I expected to start my day.
I shift from foot to foot, and frozen blades of grass crunch beneath my boots.
“Are you cold?” he asks.
A vapor cloud lingers between us. “Just nervous,” I say with a gentle smile. “It’s not every day I get to meet my boyfriend’s parents.”
“Yeah, about that,” Mace says, tugging me so that I come to stand next to him instead of hiding at his back. Together, we face the gleaming white marble headstone with two names etched ingold. James and Lisa Griffin. “Mom, Dad. I’d like you to meet the woman I’m going to marry.”
I know how hard it is for him to call Lisa his mom without getting choked with guilt. Alice Emerson has a lot to answer for. I squeeze Mace’s hand, but he doesn’t get a free pass entirely.
“He still has to ask me,” I tell them, another warning shot to the man who hasn’t yet built up the courage to propose.
I had hoped Mace would make some grand gesture over the holidays, but that would have been far too conventional for the man I love. In truth, there was too much else going on, especially with us moving into the Griffins’ family home– which is so vast we have our own wing. I’ve been getting to know his family, and Maddie is a godsend. It helps that she went through the same assimilation into the world of the Griffins quite recently too.
I’m slowly getting to grips with my new job. I’ve had clients before who operate in the grey areas of business, but the Griffins do it on a whole new level. I trust the brothers when they assure me that they don’t fund criminal activity, and it doesn’t fund them. But they do get paid from time to time for helping one particular crime family with their legitimate interests.
Thankfully, that’s not an area I’ll be involved with. Maddie and I are focusing on identifying small businesses and industries that could do with our investment, in the same way the Griffins’ helped save her family’s paper mill. And we’ve also been talking about setting up a charity in the Griffin name.
I have a desk in their main office, but it’s getting a little overcrowded in there, so Maddie and I are talking of having our own office. In truth, it’s not only about space. I’d feel better not hearing about the current challenges the brothers are facing. If I hear one more person say a war is coming, I’m going to crack. And I don’t want Mace to think I’m not cut out for this. I am. I have to be.
