Chapter 28 #3
“Told you we’d get you out.” I smiled brightly as I pulled back to look at him. I didn’t care that he looked like shit. Okay, maybe I cared a little bit. Our family had a reputation to uphold.
Tighe grinned. “Didn’t doubt it for a second.”
“Liar,” I replied with a shake of my head.
Ace let us have our reunion for several more moments before he came up beside me, a hand resting on my lower back. “We should get out of here.”
Something resembling a look of unspoken respect passed between him and my brother before Ace guided us back to the helicopter.
Halfway there, Iggy stepped forward to introduce himself.
“Ignatius Pechiortrov. Glamor demon extraordinaire. Personal fashion consultant to the Ace Reynard and the boundless beauty that is your sister. Now let’s see what I have to work with.” He dove headfirst into assessing Tighe’s current state, tutting at what he had to work with.
My brother raised his hands up in front of him. “No glamor necessary, just a shower and clean clothes.”
“Nonsense. We have enough prideful bastards around here. I won’t have another one added to the lot,” he murmured as he circled Tighe.
The two of them moved ahead, climbing into the chopper. Iggy’s magic was already modifying my brother’s appearance, restoring it to the roguishly charming state it had been before Blackscale had dug its claws into him.
Overhearing the excited conversation between them, mostly from Ignatius, I nearly tripped over my feet at what was said.
“I am a master of my craft!” Iggy exclaimed. “By the fates and powers, these pants look exquisite on you.”
Tighe chuckled, a rough sound that likely hadn’t been made since his stay in prison, but genuine, nonetheless. “Enough room for all of me. Impressive, given I pack double the fun and double the pleasure,” he said with a playful lilt in his voice.
Once an incubus, always an incubus.
I’d never heard Iggy stutter so spectacularly before.
Before I could experience any secondhand embarrassment from my brother openly flirting with Iggy, Ace intervened.
His hand wrapped around my throat, squeezing just firm enough to move me until my back was pressed against the hull of the helicopter. The sunglasses were gone, and the dark hunger lit up the evergreen of his eyes as he pressed the rest of his body against mine.
The insistent press of his hard cock against my lower belly was impossible to ignore despite the layers of clothes between us. Something else was there, something less comfortable digging into me.
“Ace, what is that?” I asked, my voice coming out breathy with desire.
He smirked. “You need to ask?”
I let out a small laugh. “Not talking about your dick.”
“Neither am I,” he murmured.
Digging a hand into his pants pocket, he removed the rigid object that had been uncomfortable against me. Lifting his hand, a bronze box appeared in his palm with a bow, forged from the same metal, tied on top.
Swinging from one of the loops, a small tag read "17".
Box seventeen.
My eyes bounced between his face and the box, looking for any sign of what was coming.
Ace released my throat, removing the lid to reveal the contents inside.
A massive diamond sat at the center of the ring, its flawless facets catching the Superbian sunlight and throwing brilliant shards of light across the barren wasteland around us.
It was surrounded by a lavish halo of deep purple sapphires, each one cut to perfection and set so closely together they formed a crown of violet fire around the diamond.
You would have thought that would have been enough. But I wasn’t just any girl, and Ace knew it.
Smaller purple sapphires continued down the band, nestled between rows of glittering diamonds that wrapped completely around it. Whatever impossibly expensive metal he'd chosen was nearly lost beneath the sheer number of stones.
It screamed extravagance.
It practically wore an obscene price tag.
It was the pinnacle of luxury.
And it was exactly what I deserved.
He let me soak in every impeccable detail, never wavering in his stance.
Eventually, he lifted the ring from the box, discarding the metal cube to the side as though he knew he’d never need it again.
Taking my left hand, he held the ring at the tip of my fourth finger. Ace met my eyes, the hunger in his gaze eclipsed by something deeper—the embodiment of the vow he’d made to me in the grotto.
“I’m not asking, and I’m not kneeling, Little Spade.”
I swallowed thickly past the emotions catching in my throat, my heart racing as my Knight held our future in his hands.
Ace held the ring steady as I moved my hand, sliding my finger through the band until it settled at the base.
“You’re all mine now,” I whispered, meeting his eyes.
A slow, knowing smile curved his mouth.
Because spades didn’t ask for what they wanted.
They took it.
He brought a hand to the side of my neck, resting there as he leaned forward. Murmuring against my mouth, the heat of his breath passed over my slightly parted lips.
“Good.” A faint brush of a kiss accompanied the word, then another before he hardened his tone into something more demanding.
“Now, get in the helicopter, Little Spade. We have an empire to rebuild.”