Page 88 of Entangled

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Read some more to me?”

“Always.”

***

I open my eyes with the instinctual sense telling me that it’s late at night. The darkness filling the house confirms my suspicions as I search for what woke me. I flick my eyes to the end of the bed and look out the folding glass doors, finding nothing amiss there. Coop’s arms are wrapped around me, just like always, but when I turn my head to check on him, I find his eyes alert and already on me.

“What is it?” I ask, nerves thrumming through my veins as I roll over to face him.

He’s quiet for a minute, eyes raking over my face with alarming intensity.

My worry grows the longer he remains silent. “Coop, what is it?”

“Marry me.”

My mouth drops open and I stare at him, sure I misheard.

He arches a brow at my silence and I snap my mouth shut, finally regaining the ability to speak.

“Wh-what?” I stutter out.

He reaches a hand up, the picture of calm, and runs his thumb along my cheek, his eyes following the gesture before returning to mine.

“Marry me.” He echoes confidently. “I want thousands of days with you. Days like today, where you make me watch trash TV or listen to Taylor Swift until my brain bleeds.” His lips twitch up. “But it’s worth it, because I get to be with you, to see that softer side of you where you’re all curled up under the covers eating ice cream. The side so few do.” He reaches down and grabs my hand, twining our fingers together. “I want to spend the rest of my life peeling back your layers, getting to know every facet until I know what you’re thinking before you do. I may not have the answers for everything yet… But I know that I will never stop loving you.” He exhales a deep breath, bringing our intertwined hands up and pressing a soft kiss to mine. “You had me, that very first night, with that cocked brow and smirk of your lips, I was yours. And I meant what I wrote in that poem, my soul will still be seeking yours even after the end of everything. Marry me.”

I let his words wash over me as I take a few steadying breaths, their heartfelt caress enrapturing me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. Mind, heart, soul, and all the indefinable things that are the makeup of me in between. And I already know my answer, because I realized something out there in the mud and rain with him yesterday. He will forever own a part of me no one else has ever reached.

“Yes,” I answer without fear or hesitation, lifting my lips to his. “Always, yes.”

Chapter 24

Present Day

Jace and I hadn’t seen or heard a peep out of the Morrison’s in two weeks and I think we were both starting to relax. He was no longer dragging me out to the bar with him every day and we had even spent the night apart the other day when Zane had put his foot down and said enough was enough. He needed a boys’ night. I had laughed my ass off at the sight of his sullen expression but happily sent Jace on his way and enjoyed a bottle of wine with Andrea on the porch before calling it a night. But I couldn’t lie to myself, it was a bit weird sleeping without him after all those nights spent together and I’d say the feeling was mutual considering his enthusiastic sunrise wake-up call for me the next morning.

That damn lock picking was going to be the death of me.

Maybe in a good way though.

This week at family dinner, though, Tiff had let me know that Sam had been slyly poking around at the bar since I wasn’t there as much. Trying to make some passes at Jace, to which she assured me he had turned down. Rather rudely apparently, clever boy that he was. And while I trusted him and enjoyed my nights away from the bar… It also didn’t hurt to make my presence in his life known either.

Which was why I was now driving over to Adam’s Place a good hour before it was supposed to open for the night with very little underwear on to ensure we both wore a well-fucked expression when Sam showed her face tonight. Nothing quite said back off, bitch, like that wonderful post-orgasm glow. Although I still wasn’t actually sure what Jace and I were to each other. We hadn’t talked about it and God himself knew it wasn’t in my nature to bring that kind of stuff up.

We were more than we were before but not quite what Coop and I had been either… which left us, left me, as a girlfriend, maybe? My lips twitch at the idea as I take a turn onto the main road. I’d never been a girlfriend before. Me as a girlfriend should be an interesting experience for us both, to say the least. Regardless, I knew we were both on the same page about this being something we were both all in for these days.

Just had to figure out that small little issue of us living in different places.

My phone rings through to the Bluetooth in Franny and I see Stef’s name flash across the screen, bringing a smile to my lips as I answer.

“Are you calling me from the airport about to launch a rescue mission?”

“Almost.” He scoffs. “We miss you, cara. Your absence is harder on us all after spending pretty much every day of the past year together. We worry about you when you’re not with us.”

“I know. I miss you guys too,” I tell him softly, aching at the loss of my little family. “And how are my guys?”

“Ah, you know them.” He laughs in that deep baritone of his. “Kai has been locked up in his studio for the past three days in protest, only coming out for mealtimes. And Mac is… Mac is Mac. Unbearable.”

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