Page 87 of Miss Behaved
“Bejeezus,” she whispers, and I can’t help but laugh.
“You’re an odd duck, you know that?” I tell her.
She nods her head, and the corners of her smile peek out from behind her hands.
“Mon, I know this might seem really fast, but somehow, at the same time, it feels like a really long time coming.” She laughs through tears. “I’ve done a lot of things in my life halfway, but you were never one of them. I’ve been all in since the first time I sat on this porch beside you and you handed me half of your cinnamon gum. I loved you even when you thought I didn’t, even when I left. I gave my heart to you a decade ago and that was it. I’ve been yours ever since. And even if it’s taken us forever to get here, there’s no one I want to be here with but you. I’m done wasting time pretending I’m not one hundred percent in this.”
I flip open the lid to the box, and tears start rolling down her cheeks. She reaches out and grabs my wrist to brace herself, and she’s not looking at what’s in my hand—she’s looking into my eyes.
“There’s no one for me but you,” I tell her, and it almost clogs in my throat. “Monica Maria Garcia Lopez, sometimes Meadows, but I’m sure as fuck hoping that’ll change to Calloway”—I pull the ring out and reach for her left hand—“I have six words for you:will you marry my lovesick ass?”
She tips her head back, laughing. “You seriously just said ‘ass’in a marriage proposal?”
“You know it.” I shrug a shoulder. “So, what do you say?”
“I say yes.” She smiles as quickly as her arms slip around me and she’s pulling me in for a kiss.
Those warm, pillowy lips drag me back home again.
“Now let me see this ring,” she says, pulling away and spinning it off her finger. “Wait, what is that?” Her eyes move to the inside of the band as she spots a carving.
“Six more words,” I tell her. “What can I say, I was inspired.”
“And they lived happily ever after.” Her big brown eyes roll a little. “Now who’s the romantic? I’m going to drag you to more of those conferences if this is what I get.”
I wrap my arms around her waist and stand, pulling her body against me where it belongs.
“Well, I was going to have them carveAll she needed was a spanking, but the jeweler looked at me funny, so I went with this instead.”
“You are ridiculous.” She grins.
I dip my face to her ear. “You love it,” I whisper. Then I ever so gently sink my teeth into the side of her neck. Her whole body melts against mine, just like I always want it to.
Monica pulls back slightly to hold her hand between us, her eyes gleaming at the diamond. “I did not see this coming. I think I’m still in shock.”
“Right there with ya.” I kiss her on her forehead. “Hopefully it’s not too much too soon, or too lame. I underestimated the pressure of proposing to the queen of romance. Basically, my goal was: don’t fuck it up and pray she says yes.”
“It’s good to have goals.” She smiles, and I can’t help but laugh. Her arms wrap around me, and she snakes her body flush against mine. Our lips are inches apart, and if I could be nowhere else ever again, I’d be content just staying right here in this moment. In her arms.
“And the proposal was perfect.” Monica inches in, the barest breath between us. Smiling against my mouth, she whispers, “I couldn’t have written it any better.”
35
Monica
One Year Later
“Yowza!Ifyoucan’tstand this heat, then get out of the kitchen.” I barrel into the bedroom with a stack of books in my arms. “These two are hot, hot, hot.”
Carson comes out the bathroom with his dress shirt still unbuttoned, looking like a snack of endless abs. I swear, one of these days, I’ll get used to looking at him without being knocked off my feet.
Who am I kidding, no I won’t.
“You were saying?” He smirks when he catches me staring.
“This.” I drop the stack of proofs for book one of my next series onto the bed.
“Damn.” Carson picks one up and lifts an eyebrow at the carved Adonis on the cover with nearly naked woman wrapped around him. “That’s spicy, all right.”
