Page 128 of Ruthless Game
He hesitated. “I treated you horribly. I was beyond an asshole, I was evil to you. You could’ve walked away, but you stayed. You let me make it up to you.”
“You aren’t done making it up to me,” I reminded him.
“I know. That’s what I really have to thank you for. You let me keep making it up to you, keep proving that I can make you happy and keep you safe, keep pushing me to be a better man. Emma, I love you for so many things, but I love you for not only seeing the best in me—and loving me at my worst—but not being willing to take anything less from me than what you deserve.”
I sighed, happily, snuggling against his chest. “As long as you recognize it.”
“Every damn day. I don’t deserve you, and I’m grateful every damn day that I get to keep you.”
“And fuck me.”
He laughed. “And fuck you. You’re it for me, Starburst. Forever. Hang on one second.”
Leaving the bed, he went over to his dresser drawer, withdrawing a familiar box.
I sat up immediately, heart in my throat.
“Is that …”
He nodded, coming to kneel beside the bed. “I had it resized. If you want something fancier, we can do that, but—”
“No,” I said immediately, pulse racing, breath shallow. “I want this one.”
The one that encompassed all our past, and all our future.
“Good.” He opened the box, removing the ring he’d bought me so long ago, and had never given me. Grabbing my hand, he began to slide it on my ring finger, but I stopped him.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I teased.
“Right. Emma, marry me.”
I laughed. “Is that a question?”
“No.” He grinned at me. “It’s an order. Say, ‘Yes, Max, I’ll marry you.’”
“Bossy,” I said, still teasing, my heart full.
“Always. Emma …”
“Yes, Max, I’ll marry you,” I said, and his eyes turned a brilliant blue. “You’re it for me, too.”
“Good, because you were going to, anyway,” he murmured, sliding the ring on the rest of the way and climbing back on the bed before pulling me into his arms. He sighed. “I love when you say my name.”
“I can say it more.”
He kissed me then, the kind of kiss that held a promise in it—a promise to protect me, to cherish me, and to love me forever.
And he did.
EPILOGUE TWO
Asher
Iwatched her.
I always watched her.
Maya Silver was a puzzle, one I was determined to solve. Oh, she came off as “what you see is what you get”—loud, chatty, always blushing and saying the wrong thing and apologizing for it after. But I knew better. Her father was a mean, cold, calculating asshole who had destroyed my family when I was a child. There was no way in the world a man like that could produce a sweet, innocent girl like her.
