Page 103 of When the Time Is Right
“Holy shit!” she yelled when I swung my front door open, the crack of it hitting the wall so loud that I was positive I would be replacing some drywall in the morning.
I did not give the first fuck.
She was still naked.
On my couch.
Covered by a blanket.
The most gorgeous woman I’d ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes on.
And she was mine.
No more ghosts or distance or even fifteen fucking years of denial standing between us.
Alexis Lawson was finally mine.
Now…to get her on the same page.
“I want the whole three-ring circus,” I announced.
“What are you talking about?” she said, sitting up and putting her feet on the floor, the blanket barely clinging to her chest. “You scared the hell out of me.”
I planted my hands on my hips. “Sorry about that, but it’s about to get worse.”
“What?” She narrowed her eyes. “Oh, God, what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything, Little Miss Hand Lauren Her Ass.”
She bit her bottom lip and cut her gaze off to the side. “I had to say something, and I waited until Jack was out of earshot. You can’t be pissed about that.”
“Oh, I’m fucking furious.” I prowled toward her.
She shot me a scowl. “Well, I’m not apologizing. She had it coming, and you know it.”
“She did, but I spent a whole fucking week away from you for no damn reason. I’d have let you go feral hellcat on her a week ago if I’d known that was all it would take.” In one fluid movement, I dipped, hooked her around the waist, and dragged her up the couch before coming down on top of her. I caught my weight on an elbow and she opened her legs to allow my hips to fall in between.
She gasped when my lips found her neck, but she shoved at my shoulders. “Wait, stop. What do you mean if you’d known that was all it would take?”
I flashed her a lopsided grin. “She’s not moving, babe. Which means Jack’s not moving. Which means I’m never fucking leaving you again—ever. Which means I want a whole three-ring circus that will make Cal and Vanessa’s wedding look like a yard sale.”
Tears immediately hit her eyes. “You’re not moving?”
I pressed a deep, reverent kiss to her lips. “No, babe. And the time I spent in Portland this week trying to convince myself that I could actually breathe without you is the last bit of time I’m planning to ever waste again when it comes to us. We belong together. I love you, Alexis Lawson, and I’m done waiting. This is our time. All you have to do is say yes.”
A gorgeous smile curled her lips even as a single tear fell from her eye. “Are you asking me to marry you?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have a ring?”
Shit!
I tucked her hair behind her ear and peered down at her. “Um, no. Not yet. But I’ll buy you whatever diamond you want. I swear.”
She wrinkled her nose. “How am I supposed to take you seriously when you aren’t even down on one knee?”
Shit!
“Right. Well…” I started to climb to my feet—or, more accurately, my knee—but she circled her legs around my hips and held me tight.
She licked her lips. “You aren’t even naked, Hud. And you’re expecting me to say yes?”
Now that I could fix.
After grabbing the back of my shirt with one hand, I tore it over my head. She didn’t release me to get my pants, but I was able to slip them down over my ass while she lay beneath me, giggling at my struggle.
“That better?”
Her smile was huge, white, and life changing. “One out of three isn’t bad, I guess.”
“Say yes.” I kissed her slow and filled with promises I’d spend an entire lifetime fulfilling, and she wrapped her arms around my neck as though she could absorb each and every one.
“What if I don’t want a three-ring circus?”
I nipped at her bottom lip. “As long as you’re at the end of that aisle, I’ll find a way to deal. Besides, it’s not like Judy is going to let us have a say anyway.”
She laughed and it filled my soul in unimaginable ways. Never once in my life had I dared to dream that I’d find a woman I loved as deeply or completely as I did that crazy redhead. We’d traveled through hell together more than once, and I wasn’t naïve enough to think that the future would be any different. But as long as we held on to each other, everything else would fall into place.
“Marry me, Lex.”
“Yes,” she breathed before throwing her head back against the couch as I slid inside her.A Little More Than Ten Years, Three Daughters, Two New Cats, and a Goldfish Later…
TL;DR: Jack’s Eighteenth Birthday“Caroline, leave that poor old dog alone and go have Riri help you put your swimming suit on. Everyone will be here any minute.”
