Chapter 16 A Different Kind of Proposal #2
I didn’t know why that felt more honest than the actual truth, but it did.
By the time I was finished, she had completely backed up against the bureau, and I was looming over her like a shirtless gargoyle.
Both of us in bare feet, our height difference was even more pronounced.
I was struggling not to pick her up and toss her back on the bed just so we could be eye to eye.
Then again, I kind of liked letting her know who was in charge. And by the way her nipples were perking through her robe, I had a feeling she liked it too.
“We barely know each other, Ronan,” she whispered, even as her gaze drifted down across my naked torso.
I masked a smirk. Yeah, I definitely wasn’t the only one who could multitask. “So, we’ll get to know each other.”
Then something else occurred to me. Something I was shocked I hadn’t considered.
Carefully, traced a finger down her neck, enjoying the way she arched at the contact, then flattened my palm over her sternum.
“You could fix your heart, Laney. For good.”
For a moment, she didn’t breathe. I could feel her heart pounding under my hand, and while we stared at each other, I tried to feel the irregularity she said happened from time to time.
But there was nothing but a steady thump.
Even so, she looked understandably overwhelmed. Slowly, she peeled my hand off her chest, but didn’t let it go. Like she wanted the connection as much as I did.
“Be that as it may,” she said slowly, “you’re still avoiding the question. What do you get out of this?”
“Other than getting to be with the most beautiful woman I’ve ever fucking seen?”
Laney tipped her head. “You are so full of shit.”
I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help myself. “Maybe, but I stand by the superlative.”
She shoved my shoulder, though I didn’t move. “Just be honest. What is it you want?”
Tell. Her.
Every bone in my body vibrated with the need to be honest. Laney Fisher was a straight shooter. She would understand why I needed to get married. What was at stake.
But I was a coward.
So, I gave what truth I could. “I get to be with the first person I’ve ever met who makes me feel like I’m more.”
“More how?” Her brow arched again. She looked at me like that when I confused her, I decided. Or maybe when she knew I was hiding something.
Perceptive little thing.
“More like I’m not just a fucking joke.” I finally stepped back, then sat back on the bed, balancing my elbows on my knees as I spoke.
“If you looked me up, you know I’m the third of four kids, and the youngest of three brothers.
We all have our roles to play. Brendan, the oldest, is the serious one.
He was also the default heir until just recently. ”
“When he left the company, right?”
She had moved to sit next to me on the bed. I glanced at her. She had done her research. I didn’t know why I was surprised. The woman was a trained academic.
“Yeah. Anyway, Owen, the next in line, is just as serious, even if he is hotheaded. Me, I’m smarter than them both, but everyone underestimates me because I’m the loose cannon. They think I can’t take anything seriously. And maybe they’re right in some ways. But not always.”
I shook my head, like I was trying to sort something out for myself and for her at the same time.
“Did you know that last year, I ran the entire tech division at Blackguard, and we had the highest profit margins of the entire fucking company. The year before that, I made some changes in the pharmaceutical sector, and we nearly tripled its productivity.”
Laney shook her head. No, she hadn’t researched that. And why would she have?
“I’m finally starting to convince them I can do more.
And then Brendan nominated me for his job when he left,” I went on.
“But if I go home and tell them what happened in Vegas, it will just confirm everything they think of me. And I’ll forever be the family joke.
I just… I don’t want that, Laney. Divorce is one thing.
But a joke marriage that ends a week after it happens? That I can’t have.”
“So, what, you want to be married to prove you, what, can?”
“Marriages have started with less that we have now.” I smirked. “We’ll pretend we’re Greek nobility. Arrangements were common. We just betrothed ourselves.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“No, it’s pragmatic. We both have needs that can be served by a significant other. We’ll meet those needs until they aren’t needs anymore, and then we’ll part ways. You’re attracted to me, right?”
“I—well, yes.” She looked between our mutually semi-undressed states and the disheveled bedclothes. “Obviously.”
“I thought so. And if it’s not clear, I think you’re a fucking smoke show. Why not see if there’s something more here? And in the meantime, we can do everything else. Be married. Show up for each other. I like you. I think you like me too.”
“Well, that’s beside the point.”
“It’s never beside the point, Ari.”
“Ronan…”
“Just listen. I’m not saying this would be forever. I’m saying it would be… for as long as we want to try.”
I took her hand and clasped it between mine, running my thumb over her knuckles. She had put her ring back on before the wedding last night and hadn’t taken it off. I still had mine, too. I liked the way they looked together. Like they were supposed to be there.
“I know you think I’m a joker, Ari. And maybe I am. But I won’t mess around. Not with you. Not with your heart. I promise.”
We stared at each other for what had to be minutes. I forced myself to summon the patience that typically escaped me, to wait out the answer that had to be coming.
Because the truth, the real truth, was that I wasn’t leaving Seattle without her.
I didn’t know when Laney Fisher had become indispensable, but in the space of a few days, the idea of returning to Boston alone had become untenable. Even more than the idea of not becoming Blackguard’s next CEO.
She was coming with me.
She was going to be my wife.
That was all there was to it.
And yet… it wasn’t just up to me, was it?
That was the real kicker.
I was just considering the idea of getting on my knees and begging when she took a deep breath and whispered, “Okay.”
I leaned closer, unsure if I’d heard her correctly or just imagined it. “Okay?”
With eyes as big as the Aegean Sea, she nodded. “Yes. Let’s do it. Let’s go to Boston. You can be my husband. And I’ll… I’ll be your wife.”