Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
NOW
Stacey
I fucking love The Wicklow, but I don’t wanna do this in here with the smell of the deep fryers baking in the background. I grab his wrist. “C’mon.”
The clouds are dark overhead. We’re gonna get some good summer rain in a minute. If we’re still out here, we’ll be drenched, but it’s worth it for the charge in the atmosphere. The salty air wraps a humid blanket around us as my lungs heave the scent of oncoming petrichor.
I yank on his wrist, snapping him to my body. We’re trapped in another stare-off.
I want to kiss him so damn bad, but all I can do is helplessly look into his eyes, brushing my thumb over his soft lips.
“I’m sorry I made you feel like I didn’t want you for you. I love who you are, Dash. I got so caught up in protecting you—sorry, not sorry for that part—but I didn’t stop to consider that what happened to you shaped you, just like it does for all of us. I loved who you were, and I love who you’ve become.”
“I have scars,” he warns.
“Or a kick-ass road map from who you were to who you’ve become. I’m not the same either, y’know? I’m Stacey A. D. After Dash.”
He places a hand on my chest. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Be with me. You belong with me, baby,” I say, officially.
“I belong with you,” he says, resting his forehead against mine. “I’ve only ever belonged with you. I told Syd?—”
I put a finger over his lips. “Let’s never speak his name again.” Or I might decide I don’t care that we’re not on the ice and Syd isn’t a hockey player. But there’s something in his expression that makes me rethink that.
“What are you thinking about?”
“It’s nothing, it’s?—”
“Dash.”
“When I broke things off with Syd, he was in shock. His hand got a little tight around my neck, but he backed off when I asked him to.”
I let my dark eyes sear his flesh in a way they never have, in a way I’ve never allowed them to. It’s what anyone on the ice who fucked with him saw before I extracted revenge.
He shivers. “Stace?”
I show my teeth. “Were you scared?”
“A-A bit.” His voice is a tremble, remembering. “My brain just … ugh. My brain went to a dark place.”
That’s all I need to know. I don’t give a fuck how nice or apologetic Syd might have been afterward.
“If I see him again, he’s getting my fist to his face.”
The clouds open up. There’s no mild flurry of warning drops, it’s as if someone unzippered the sky and a waterfall spills over us. Dash’s hair’s quickly plastered to his face. I push it back because I need to see those pretty eyes of his.
I’m not fucking waiting. Not leaving any room for doubt. Not letting him think he’s ever letting someone else touch him ever again.
With my hand against his cheek, I back him into one of the large oak trees lining the sidewalk and pull one of his legs around me. Lightning crashes around us. Warm rain drenches our clothes, running in rivulets down our faces.
“Marry me,” I demand.
“Marry you? But we haven’t even?—”
“Haven’t what, Dash? What haven’t we done except fucking consummate?” Though I plan to remedy that as soon as fucking possible.
A thousand memories come to mind. I see them on his face, in his eyes. He grips the wrist of the hand I’ve got plastered against his cheek, his forehead falls against my chin. We breathe in sync, together, always together. Water runs into my mouth. Thunder beats the air, and we flinch, but nothing can break the infinite bond between us, the one growing stronger by the second.
“All I’ve ever wanted is to marry you.” His fingers on my hand tighten, curling, digging in, a silent promise never to let go. Those pretty brown eyes of his glisten with unshed tears. “I’d marry you a hundred times, Alderchuck.”
My soul relaxes. My lungs release the breath they’ve been holding.
He’s mine now, and it’s time to own him. Show him what I’ve been wanting to do to him all this time. I bend without warning, lifting him, dripping with rainwater, easily into a fireman’s carry.
“Stacey! Since when are you an ape?”
“Since I met you.”
I carry my bounty to my oversized Hummer.