We’d tried being apart, knowing this could very well end in tragedy rather than a happy ending, but we were done fighting it now.
I wanted to be in his life.I wanted him to be in mine.
Now the only question that remained was: did he want that too?
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he whispered over the top of my lips, sliding his hands up to touch my face.
I shut my eyes, reveling in his touch. “I wasn’t sure you’d want?—”
“I do,” he cut me off, moving his fingers to trace my scar. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”
I took his hand and pressed a kiss to his palm. “I can’t promise it’ll be easy. My life is?—”
“Yours.” Benoit smiled. “I know who you are, Dimitri. I’ve always known. But I’d rather a life with you than without you. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m used to a little risk for my rewards.”
I pushed off the door and cradled Benoit’s face between my hands.
God he was beautiful. I wanted to spend the rest of my life looking at his face. Waking up to it, falling asleep with it on the pillow beside mine. Benoit arguing with me, making love to me, growing old with me…
“Can you do me a favor?” I said, and swept my thumb along his cheek.
“Only if you lock the door.” He winked at me, and I grinned.
“Good to know you have some boundaries with your brothers, but it’s not that kind of favor.” I stepped back and let my eyes wander down his stunning outfit. “Check your pocket for me.”
Benoit’s brow furrowed. “My pocket?”
He slipped his fingers into the small pocket at the front of his pants and pulled out a small, rectangular piece of paper, and his mouth fell open.
“What— When did— You’ve been practicing.” His grin made me feel like the smartest motherfucker on the planet.
“I have.”
“It was when you first walked in, wasn’t it?”
“When I was threatening your fake date.”
“Fake? You didn’t know that.”
“Yes I did.” I laughed at his incredulous expression. “I just needed to distract you.”
“By threatening to kill someone?”
“Seemed the most believable option.”
Benoit held up the small piece of paper. “And what, pray tell, is this,mon monstre?”
“A new proposal.”
He looked at the paper, his eyes narrowing, then back to me. “A proposal?”
“Yes. To replace my original one.”
My heart thundered as he fingered the edge of the paper, then he unfolded the note and read over the words I’d written.
Be mine. Now and forever.
And remember, I don’t take no for an answer.
