Rex #2
“No. Exactly. It takes a good man to admit that he was wrong. To work hard to become someone worthy of the woman he loves. But the real question here isn’t why did your mom forgive your dad; it’s why didn’t he try to earn your forgiveness too?”
“He didn’t betray me—”
“He betrayed your family. Let’s face it, faithfulness isn’t a common expectation in the clubhouse between an Old Man and his Old Lady, but your dad was different.
And truthfully? He had such an impact on you, Link, Nyx, Mav, Steel, and hell, Sin, that it’s no wonder you’re all possessive jackasses with your women. You were raised in his image.
“That’s something I have to thank him for because when I was at that party the other day, I suddenly understood why Giulia gets crazy jealous—”
“You do?” I asked dubiously, trying to imagine my icy Rachel being overcome with jealousy.
Nah, I couldn’t see it.
“Trust me, it came as a shock to me too,” she drawled.
“But, my point is, he set your ideals in place, and now he’s come along and taken a bulldozer to them.
It’ll take a while for you to forgive him, but don’t let this one act take center stage.
Don’t let it take the full spotlight when he did so many other things that were good and kind and honorable. ”
“You do know why he was Prez, don’t you?” I scorned.
Her lips curved. “I never imagined he was a Boy Scout. There was a reason he earned the road name Bear.”
Frustration whirled around inside me. I wanted her to understand why I was riled up, but her cool logic eased me in a way nothing else could.
I wanted to hate on him. Much like—
Shit.
She was right.
It wasn’t the man reacting here. It was the kid.
The one who’d looked up to his father, who’d been taught to adore his woman, who’d been raised to be the pillar of strength in his household.
Who’d seen the importance of faithfulness, had learned how vital loyalty was, and had registered how love couldn’t really exist without either of those two facets.
He’d betrayed that kid—the one who’d listened as if God himself were talking when Dad gave one of his lectures.
I sucked in a breath, fighting the urge to cry like that little kid, and instead, I closed my eyes, counted to ten, sucked in a few deep breaths, and tried to get myself under control. “After, when you’re ready—”
“After, what?”
“After you give birth—”
“Oh!”
“After you give birth,” I repeated, “we’ll head to Indy’s place. It’s time you got some ink.”
She stilled. Hell, she was so fucking quiet for so fucking long that I thought my ears had stopped working.
“Rex, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Yes. It’s time we got branded.”
A soft breath escaped her. It was high pressure. More hiss than a sigh. “You’re not asking?”
“No. Not that. Not telling, neither. Just discussing the inevitable.”
Her mouth rounded. Then it shut. “I can’t be angry with you about that.”
I smirked in response then grabbed her other hand. With one set of fingers entwined with hers, the other on her belly, I rasped, “But… I will ask you this next question.”
“Oh?”
“We’ve always been inevitable, but that doesn’t mean we can take the link between us for granted. I want you to know, Rach, that I never will—”
She tutted me. “King—”
“I don’t need another lecture,” I teased, my voice still gruff but lighter than before.
“I’m just saying that I’ll always honor you and cherish you, Rachel.
The day that I don’t is the day you can toss me out on my ass, and I’ll deserve it.
Then I’ll spend the next however long trying to figure out how to get you back because this is inevitable, sweetheart.
“So… will you marry me?”
She swallowed, and her silence might have stirred anxiety in another man, but not me.
This was right.
A blessing—she was mine.
I intended to be hers.
“You know I will,” she whispered, her mouth catching mine in a kiss that tasted salty from her tears. “I didn’t expect this,” she mumbled as I tasted her, savored her. “I thought you wanted me to prove myself—”
“Maybe, the night of the gala, I did. But then I realized what a jackass I was. You’ve spent the majority of your career proving that you have what it takes to be my First Lady, Rachel.
But that’s not enough…” I sucked in a breath.
“I want you to be my wife. I want you to own me as much as I own you. I want the fucking laws of the land to tie me to you so that there’s nothing and nobody who can come between us. ”
She let loose a soggy laugh as she burrowed her face in my throat.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you. I want—that. All of it. Every bit of it. I want my ring on your finger and my name on your skin.”
I sucked in a breath. “Then that’s what you’ll have.”
She clenched her arms around me, holding me tight, but that was nothing to how I held her.
As if she kept my world together.
As if she kept me tethered to this plane.
“Rex?” she whispered against my throat.
“Yeah?”
“Tomorrow, on the honor ride, I will be behind you.”
My lips twitched. “A ride around the town is a helluva lot different than a ride into Manhattan.”
“Just so you know,” she said, a warning to her tone.
A warning that settled in my bones with just how right she was for me.
Before a funeral was probably the worst time to ask someone to marry them, but to me, it made perfect sense.
I didn’t forgive him, but in this, in my actions, with my choices, I honored him—the father who’d taught me what it was to be a man, to be unafraid of looking weak because to love was not to be weak.
But I also honored her—the mother who showed me what strength was, who proved that power and position were nothing without the right mate at your side.
Here mine was.
My girl.
Perfection.