“To marry you!” Her chest rose and fell with uneven breaths right before she stormed up to me and shoved the box between my crossed arms and chest. “I found this, so I think you need to tell me right now who that was for and where she lives.”
I spread my legs wider, leaving the box where it was. “Hmmm, let’s see. She used to live in a shithole, but then I asked her to live with me.”
“She livedhere, too?” Her eyes scanned the room, probably picturing burning down whatever that girl had sat on. She’d be burning the whole house.
“Somethin’ like that.”
“You better start talking.”
“Who called you?”
She blinked several times. “That doesn’t matter.”
I picked up the box and smoothed my thumb over the worn surface. “Itdoesmatter.”
“What was her name, and where can I find her?”
“Such a violent little thing you are over this.” I flipped the box open.
Her eyes bore into the stones along the thin metal band. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Car. I said—”
I pushed up from my seat and grabbed her by the throat. “Theheris you.” I pried the ring from the box using my teeth and let the wooden case fall. It clattered to the ground as the color dimmed from her cheeks, settling on a light pink shade. The same shade they’d been when she saw my pierced cock for the first time. Just like that, I was hard as a rock. “You can findherin this house, with her husband, where she belongs.” I released her throat and took her left hand in mine, then pushed the ring on with ease.
“This isn’t making sense,” she whispered. “He said—”
“Jamie, wasn’t it?”
She nodded, her gaze fixed on the ring. “He said you were going to marry someone else. That I shouldn’t trust you, because you’ve had this”—her throat worked as she glanced down the hallway—“for a while. Before I came into the picture.”
“Which he thinks was not even two weeks ago,” I added, and her shoulders dropped.
“I figured since he lived with you, and you two were close, that he was telling the truth.”
“He was tellin’ it as he saw it.” I rubbed my thumb over the stones—a teardrop-shaped blue sapphire with two diamonds, one on each side. “We were never close. The only reason he knows about that ring is because he got me hammered as fuckone night and asked about the box I fell asleep holding every night.”
“You…you fell asleep holdin’ it?”
“I couldn’t hold you, now could I?”
“Guess not.” Her eyes darted to the door, then she sighed. “I don’t even know how he got my number. He wouldn’t tell me, just bulldozed the conversation before I could get more than two words in.”
“He took it that first night you stayed here.” Her brows crinkled together. “He was also tracking your location, but I disabled that when I put my number in earlier. Should’ve also blocked his damn number.” Her eyes searched mine, so I finished with, “That’s also how I found you when you left.”
She nodded, chewing the inside of her cheek as she stared down at the ring. “If you don’t want me to have it, then—”
“You remove that ring from your finger and I’ll have Grant tattoo one there instead.”
Lyra reached up, cupping my cheek. “I’ll keep it on,” she whispered as I leaned into her hand, right before she lifted that same hand and smacked me.
My hand latched around her throat while the other pinned her wrist in place. “Care to tell me why you slapped me?”
“You were going to propose to a teenager.”
“You would’ve been eighteen,” I gritted out through my teeth. “And looking back now, I shouldn’t have waited until then, either.” Maybe then she would have stayed. Maybe then she would have seen how devoted to her I was, and that would have been enough.
“You would have done it when I was seventeen?”
“You were mine from the moment I saw you in the field.” I stepped into her, forcing her to walk backward until her ass bumped into the backside of the couch. “You’ve always been mine, Lyra. Now, do something for me.” I brushed my lips overhers, then released her and took a step back. “Get on your knees.”
