I reach down to my discarded jeans, fishing for what I've carried for months. The metal is still warm from being in my pocket.
"I’ve been meaning to show you something," I say, opening my hand to reveal the wedding ring that matches the one she wears around her neck.
She goes still. "You kept it."
"I did." I meet her gaze. "Same as you. It’s always on me."
Her hand goes to her neck where the chain rests. "I was hoping you were too distracted by my boobs to notice it," she says, attempting her usual snark but not quite hiding the vulnerability in her eyes.
"I notice everything about you." I take her hand, running my thumb across her knuckles. "Why'd you keep it?" The better question is probably why she never takes it off, but first things first.
She's quiet for so long, I think she might not answer. Then she takes a breath like she's diving into deep water.
"Because even when I was telling myself I hated you, I didn't." She looks down at our joined hands. "Because part of me knew Vegas wasn't just some drunk mistake. That there was something real between us, even when I couldn't admit it to myself."
Her honesty knocks the air straight out of my lungs, like someone's dropped a full keg on my chest. I run my thumb over the wedding band in my hand, then hold it up between us. "I'm putting mine on tomorrow. Just so you know."
Her eyes roam all over my face. "Are you asking me to stay married to you, Kasen James?"
"I'm asking you to consider it." I bring her hand to my mouth, pressing my lips against her knuckles. "We're good together, Pink. Better than I think either of us expected." I tighten my grip on her fingers. "It won't be easy—we're both stubborn as hell, and our businesses still put us in each other's way sometimes. But I think this thing between us is worth fighting for."
She's quiet for so long my heart starts going crazy. Then she looks down at the ring in her palm.
"I'll think about it," she says finally, meeting my eyes. "That's not a no."
“I’ll take it.”
Neither of us is ready to sleep after that conversation. There are too many emotions still crackling between us, too many possibilities spinning through my head.
"Want to watch a movie?" I ask, running a hand down her bare back. "I'm too wired to sleep."
She nods against my chest. "Plus, I should probably eat the rest of the snack you went out for. Wouldn't want your heroic middle of the night quest to be wasted."
I laugh, pressing a kiss to her temple. "Our kid's part vampire, I swear. Always wanting weird shit in the middle of the night. He’s trying to turn us nocturnal."
"I think he probably gets that from you," she says, poking my ribs. "You're always up at strange hours working on something."
“Says the woman who’d sleep until noon every day if she could.”
She flips me off and I laugh and kiss the hell out of her. Then we pull on enough clothes to be decent—boxers for me, another one of my shirts for her—and head to the living room. While she settles on the couch, I put together more of her bizarre concoction from the kitchen and grab a beer for myself.
"What are we watching?" I ask, handing her the bowl of chocolate-covered pickles that still makes my stomach turn justlooking at it. I've grabbed a bottle of Timber's Winter Porter for myself - the small batch experimental one with hints of coffee and vanilla that I've been tweaking for months and finally got right.
She scrolls through options on the screen. "Something mindless. I can't handle anything that requires brain cells right now."
We settle on some action movie with explosions and a plot thin enough that it doesn't matter that we're starting it at three in the morning. I pull her against me, her back to my chest, my hand resting on her belly.
Twenty minutes in, the female lead appears on screen in some skin-tight outfit that leaves nothing to the imagination, taking down three guys twice her size.
"Damn," Wren murmurs, pausing with a pickle halfway to her mouth. "She is ridiculously hot."
I laugh, surprised. "Got a thing for badass women in leather, Pink?"
She tilts her head back to look at me, a challenge in her eyes. "I mean, I'm bisexual, so yeah. Women in leather are definitely on my list of turn-ons."
The casual admission catches me off guard, but in the best possible way. "You never mentioned that."
She shrugs. "Never came up. Does it bother you?"
