Chapter 34 #2
“We can’t go in there,” I said in a panic when I realized where he was taking me.
“They don’t know about you.” It wasn’t completely true since my parents and siblings knew, but the dozens of other Marians and Wildes didn’t.
And if they found out about my connection to Locke Maris, they’d never stop asking me about it.
“Who’s the dirty secret, then, Jethro?”
“My name isn’t really Jethro,” I admitted.
He spun to face me. “I know, Jett. But you’re my Jethro.” He ran a hand over my hair, cupped my jaw, and stared into my eyes. “I’m tired of living my life making all the most important moves in secret. So tell me right now if you want to be with me. For real.”
“Of course I do,” I snapped. “That’s not the problem.”
“Good.” He turned and entered the ballroom, yanking me over to the small stage that would have a band for dancing after the dinner. He strode up to the microphone and tapped it. “This thing on?”
Everyone’s face swung toward us, a hush overtaking the room.
“Guess that means yes,” Locke said. “Hi. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have a small announcement to make tonight.”
My entire body was taut as a bowstring, torn between shocked pleasure that Locke was here, that he’d come for me, that I might be his Jethro…
and anxiety because I’d tried to give my heart away twice before in my life, and both times it had been shoved right back at me with a “thanks but no thanks.”
“No, wait!” I grabbed Locke’s arm and tugged him away from the microphone. “If you do this,” I whispered. “If you make this real… if I give you my heart, Locke Maris… you’ll own it. For good. Understand?”
The divot between Locke’s eyebrows smoothed, his jaw loosened, and his lips parted on a grin. Locke leaned in to press a small kiss below my ear and whispered, “I told you before, Jett. It’s called Maris Holdings. Not Maris Take and Give Back.”
He flashed me a wink before straightening up and speaking into the microphone again.
“I heard this is a bachelor party of sorts. Well, I’m claiming my bachelor.” His hand tightened around mine and lifted it as he continued. “Jett Marian is mine. Forever. He’s not available. He will never be available again. Is that clear?”
Wide eyes followed his every word. I heard someone whisper, “Is that Locke Maris?”
My sister’s grin was ridiculous, and my brother Gabe shot me a thumbs-up and mouthed, So hot.
I turned to Locke, just in time to have his mouth crash into mine, kissing me like a man just home from months at sea. My legs wobbled, but Locke’s arms banded around me to keep me from melting to the floor.
“Oh fuck,” someone said. Someone else wolf whistled, and I was pretty sure my cousin JJ yelled, “Get it.”
As soon as Locke pulled back, I glanced out at the sea of beautiful men and noticed the sheer number of heated gazes pointed straight at him. I shoved in front of the microphone. “Same goes for him. Obviously.”
I didn’t get to enjoy the smattering of laughter since Locke was tugging me back offstage and out of the room. As quick as we’d come, we were gone again.
“Where are you taking me?”
Heated eyes found mine. “Your hotel room.”
When we were alone in the elevator again, I looked down at my shoes instead of at Locke. “Why aren’t you mad?”
“Who says I’m not?”
“I really am sorry I couldn’t be honest with you,” I blurted, glancing back up at him. But instead of anger, I saw tender affection. The expression on Locke’s face took my breath away.
“I know, baby,” he said. “And so am I.”
I moved closer to him and tucked my nose into his neck. “I missed you so much,” I whispered.
Locke cupped the back of my head and placed kisses on top of it until the elevator dinged and the doors slid open again.
Thankfully, the key card worked on the first attempt, and I was able to push inside my room. As soon as I felt him behind me, I turned to find out what was supposed to happen next. Was this where we talked it out? Confessed all of our lies and started over again?
“Take off your clothes.”
Apparently not.
“I think we should talk,” I said, trying to be an adult and accept the consequences of my actions.
“Is that what you want right now?”
I stared at him. “No.”
He stepped forward and cupped my face. “What do you want, Jethro?”
His expression was sweeter than I deserved. Kinder. Affectionate. Every move of his hands was gentle and tender. Almost too much.
I didn’t deserve it.
And despite his announcement downstairs, it was too good to be true.
Part of me felt like this was all part of an elaborate ploy. A revenge plot expertly targeted to enact the most amount of damage.
I’d been here before. But neither of the men I’d trusted to love me in the past were even remotely able to hurt me like this man was.
If this was all a joke, it would end me.
Which was why it finally happened. The dam burst, and the first tear came.
I’d learned from my dads a long time ago that crying was nothing to be ashamed of. But just as long ago, I’d learned from my school friends that it was. The result was my brain being completely on board with a good cry and my heart being mortified by it.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, moving as far away from him as possible and dropping down to sit on the far side of the bed. “Ignore me.”
He didn’t let me hide. Instead, he followed me around the bed and pressed me down onto it, lying on top of me and covering me in his warm strength. He pressed soft kisses to my cheeks, forehead, eyelids.
Lips.
“I will never ignore you, Jett Talmadge Marian,” he said reverently.
I blinked up at him, remembering he’d known my name when making his big public declaration. “How do you know my name?”
“I know people,” he said with a soft smile.
“And now you know me,” I said, stupidly, trying to make a joke on the off chance it would stop my meltdown. “The real me, I mean.”
The look on his face was making it hard to breathe. He still looked fondly affectionate. Adoring.
In love.
“I always knew the real you, Jethro,” he said.
He moved a hand to my forehead and smoothed back my hair, the movement comforting and sweet. The smile was still there. And the kind eyes.
It was too much to take in.
“I came here to tell you that I need you,” he said. “But I think I had it wrong. Well, partially wrong, anyway.”
He leaned down and kissed away the line of tears across my temple. “I think you need me,” he whispered. “Just as much as I need you.”
My breath hitched, and more tears spilled. “Please don’t mess with me,” I begged. “I want you so much. I want to keep you and have you be mine.”
He pulled back to meet my eyes, both hands now cupping my face. “I’m already yours, baby. I think I was that night at the Candy Bar. When you told me to ‘sit my sexy fucking ass down’ and proceeded to sass me, Magic Mike–style.”
A helium laugh bubbled up. “You tried so hard to act unaffected.”
“I was affected, Jethro. Very, very affected.”
His smile was more relaxed than I’d ever seen it. And there was a light in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. “Your Jethro?”
“Mmhm. If I have anything to say about it—which I do because you will do what I say—you’ll be my Jethro forever.”
“So fucking bossy.” More tears. “Forever?”
He pursed his lips and shrugged. “Unless you send me away. And even then… I gotta be honest. I don’t take well to being denied by you.”
I barked out a wet laugh. “When have I ever denied you?”
His thumb brushed more tears away. “Because you’re my good boy,” he teased softly.
My stomach tightened with need. “I want to be,” I admitted.
The moment sat heavily between us. Monumental. Toes off the edge of a diving board and all the weight shifting forward.
“I love you,” I said, words featherlight and hopeful.
His smile widened. “I know.”
“How could you know anything? I’ve been keeping so many secrets from you.”
Locke leaned down and kissed me slowly before pulling back up to peer down at me. “Not as many as you think. Not the stuff that counts.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
He pressed a kiss to my temple, taking in the last of my tears. “Wait here.”
He got up and found his pants on the floor. And then he pulled out a tiny box. For a split second, I recoiled in uncomfortable shock. This was way too soon for tiny boxes. We had days and weeks of conversations that needed to happen first—
“Relax, baby,” he said with a chuckle, shaking the box gently. Then he moved next to me on the bed. We both sat up and leaned against the headboard. “Open it.”
I pulled the lid off and peered inside. There on a tiny little handful of sand was a perfect triton, the brown and white spines forming a familiar spiral design.
My heart leapt in excitement. “I love tritons! Where did you find this?”
He reached in and pulled the tiny shell out of the sand. “Rabbit Island. I went walking with Hunter and Pepper.”
I blinked at him in astonishment. “You what? How? Why?”
“I was looking for you. Wasn’t sure if maybe I would throttle you or fuck you. I was in the process of figuring it out. And then I found this.”
I lifted an eyebrow at him, remembering his command when we’d first entered the room. Take off your clothes. “And you decided to fuck me.”
“I decided to do both.” He placed the shell in my palm and curved my fingers around it.
Locke’s gaze warmed. “I decided to keep you.”