“I love you, Spencer.”
His chest rumbled with soft laughter. “It’s just the orgasm talking.”
Mildly offended, she wanted to turn and punch him, but his weight prevented her from moving. “Relax, I was joking. I love you too.”
Josie grunted, but the corner of her mouth crept up. “You better, mister.”
He kissed her head and she felt him move lightly, trailing kisses over her shoulders. “I love you so much, you make me lose my mind. I miss you a second after you leave and I feel your touch and your taste all day long. If that isn’t love, then I must be going crazy.”
“I like your kind of crazy.”
“You’re the only one who keeps me sane. I think we should make sure it stays that way.”
With a satisfied smile, she couldn’t help but tease him. “What? You want me to buy a straitjacket for you?”
“Marry me, Josie.”
Everything in her stilled, her ears rang and she was unable to process the words until she realized that Spencer was as immobile as she was.
When she moved, this time he allowed her to and slid out of her before stepping back.
Both of them were half-naked in the dark, facing each other. Josie would have laughed if it hadn’t been so serious. “I don’t think it’s a good idea, Spencer.” For a split second, she saw the hurt on his face despite being half-hidden in the shadows, which almost made her knees buckle.
“Why?”
She swallowed hard, searching for the words. “I want to be with you, but I don’t want to be the promise you won’t be able to keep. You said yourself you had betrayed your word and it crushed you. We’re together for as long as you want us to be.”
Now, darkness descended upon him as he approached. “You think I can’t pledge myself to you? That what I feel for you will go away?”
Josie found it impossible not to touch his arm, needing the contact like crazy. “What happens when you’ve had enough of this small-town life? When you look at me and see a trap? When you yearn for city life again, with all the power, money, and women you can imagine?”
He was so close, his body radiated heat, warming her when she felt so cold. “I had that. All of it, for years and years, and all it brought me was a void so deep, I had to get out. You don’t deplete me, Josie. You fill me up. My years in the underground world are over. You made me realize that by breaking my word, I made the best decision. I’ve been in Landston a year now, and to be honest, it’s not the town that makes me stay. It’s you. Wherever you want to be, I’ll follow you.”
It was impossible not to respond to those words, not to see the raw sincerity on his face. He was a complicated man, but he wasn’t a deceiver. He never had been with her.
“You know, I’ll never be able to tell anyone how you proposed to me while you were still deep inside me and I was plastered against the hood of a car.”
He blinked and suddenly his blue eyes widened. “I need the words, baby.”
Josie playfully ignored his demand. “I don’t see a ring.”
“I must have a washer or bolt somewhere that will do the trick. Say the words, Josie.”
With that tone in his voice and rare softness in his eyes, she couldn’t deny him anything. And he already had her heart in his hands. “Yes, I will marry you, Spencer Knox.”
All the tension in his body fled as he exhaled and took her in his arms for a kiss. The man wasn’t traditional, but he was a romantic at heart. And when she felt his hand tug at her skirt again, Josie knew that from now on, even in this small town, she could have the life she’d never dared dream of.
THE END
