“You’ve kept my heart and soul safe, even if sometimes you were protecting me from myself.” She was shaking with nerves, unsure if he’d hate her doing this. “You’re what I think of when I think of home. I want to be with you as your lover, friend, and submissive, for the rest of my life.” She tightened her hold on his hand, and his big warm fingers curled around hers. He was smiling, and it was his touch and that smile that gave her the courage to get the next words out. “Will you marry me?”
Leon grinned down at her for a long moment, then hauled her up into his arms. “Yes,” he whispered against her temple. “Yes, baby. Yes.”
She let out a happy laugh that was tinged with equally happy tears.
Until Leon swung her up to sit on the fence rail. She yelped as her well-spanked ass made contact with the wood.
He wrapped one arm around her, leaning into her legs. “You just proposed.”
“You just said yes.”
“Too bad I’m going to have to punish you for it.”
Cessie blinked. “What?”
“Punish you.” His gaze slid down her body in a speculative way. “I’ve heard peppermint oil puts ginger to shame.”
“If you think you’re going to punish me because my proposing to you violates some stupid patriarchal?—”
“No.” He reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a small box.
A ring box.
Cessie’s eyes widened and she clamped one hand over her mouth.
“I’m going to punish you for beating me to the punch.” He released her long enough to open the box, then hooked an arm around her again.
“Since you asked me, now it’s my turn to ask you.”
“You had that? You brought it?”
“Yes, and yes.”
“But you said you thought we were going to break up.” Her heart was pounding against her ribs with happiness.
“My plan was to leave here either single or engaged. I was always hoping for engaged.”
Cessie looked at the ring, which sparkled in the sunlight—a brilliant pale blue stone on a simple silver-colored band that was probably platinum knowing him.
“Cessie?”
“Yes, Leon?” She raised her brows as if she had no idea what he was going to ask.
His flashing gaze promised delicious, wonderful retribution.
“I’ve loved you from the moment I first saw you, and the only versions of my future I care about are ones with you in them. I want your face to be the last thing I see at night, and the first thing I see in the morning.”
She breathed slow and deep, her desperate love for this man like champagne bubbles inside her.
“Will you marry me?”
EPILOGUE
“She goes down on one knee and proposes to him!” Sadie leaned on the front desk, grinning as she told the story about their latest guests who had just checked out and were driving away. They hadn’t seen much of them except for the first night in the Dungeon, but Sadie had been on the way to check on Snickers and had seen Leon and Cessie by one of the pasture’s fences.
Erika looked up briefly from her paper sorting, looking worried. “What did he do?”
“He said yes, of course.”
