Chapter Six #3
He moved to kiss me again, so I gripped his jaw firmly to stop him. “The proposal?”
“Five years,” he blurted with his gaze stuck on my lips. “Give me five years.”
My smile fell as my brows pinched curiously. “Of what?”
I already knew he wanted to marry me, but it felt like he was asking for more.
“Us,” he said, confirming my suspicions.
“Marriage. You.” He slid his hands up my thighs until they circled my waist. I liked his hands on me more than I should.
“Be my wife for five years and never want for anything ever again. I’ll even pay whatever the fuck you want for every year we’re together.
When the five years are up, you can divorce my ass.
” Another one of those infuriating smirks appeared. “If you want to.”
Never before had I ever thought I’d agree to a relationship with a guaranteed expiration date. I was an incurable romantic, always dreaming of forever. Then again, I’d never met a man like Ocean Kilpatrick and knew that I never would again.
It was that gut feeling and the sharp pang of regret already settling there that made me say, “If I marry you, I have conditions of my own.”
“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.” He held me tighter and kissed my shoulder. “What are your conditions?”
“Hunter.” Ocean merely raised a brow as if he wasn’t shocked that she was a condition, just surprised that she was my first. “I want to see her. I can only imagine what she’s thinking and how scared she is. I won’t do that to her. I need her to know that I’m okay.”
Ocean considered me for a very long time before he finally said, “You may see her.” My heart leapt at the thought of being with my best friend again. “After the wedding.” It plunged again.
I didn’t even try to hide my panic. I let it pour from me in crushing waves.
“I can’t get married without her, Ocean.
If you say I have to, then my answer is no.
And I don’t just want her at the wedding.
I want her to be my maid of honor. You’re asking for a lot.
I can’t do it without her.” Squaring my shoulders, I stared down the heir of the Fola while attempting to bend him to my will. “Hunter is non-negotiable.”
Ocean stared at me for a long, long while, and just when I thought he’d refuse or threaten me, something like pride entered his eyes, and he shrugged. “If you want Hunter at the wedding, you’ll have her. I’ll make sure she has a front-row seat. Anything else?”
“My brother lives.”
Ocean’s answer came even quicker than my agreement to marry him. “Absolutely the fuck not.”
“Then my answer is no.”
“Coby—”
“No!”
“Who the fuck you shouting at?” he barked back.
Goosebumps rippled over my skin, but I refused to back down.
I owed Roshaun that much. “I can’t be with the man who took my brother from this world.
I don’t know what made you decide marrying me was worth three million dollars, but I do know it doesn’t matter.
Nothing good that lives inside of me will survive if you kill him.
It’s him or me, Ocean. It’s that simple. ”
“Then I choose you,” he decided so easily and quickly that it made me blink.
“Just like that?” I peered up at him in disbelief. “You really won’t kill him?”
“As long as he does nothing to threaten your safety again, he can keep breathing, and that is non-negotiable.”
“Oh,” I said while feeling a flush spread over my chest. “I don’t know. I thought—” Lowering my head, I shook it, unable to finish the thought.
Ocean tipped my chin up a moment later. “Never underestimate how much I want you, Coby. I’d agree to almost anything to have you. Name your price. I’ll gladly pay it.”
My nipples hardened as I gulped—two warring reactions to the understanding that Ocean was leaving me no room or reason to deny him. I felt trapped, and I craved the feeling as much as I loathed it. Hunter would say I was crazy, but she wasn’t here to talk me out of it. “Okay.”
“Perfect,” he purred. This man was too damn smooth.
“Now that we’re on the same page, what would you like to do, my sexy and darling bride?
” Lowering his head, he gently kissed each of my knuckles, and I shivered in response.
I was beginning to love the little ways he doted on me almost as much as I craved his overbearing dominance.
“I could give you that tour I promised, or we could fall back in bed and fuck all day. I’ve got my preference, but the choice is yours. We have some time.”
Ignoring the way my pussy throbbed at that second suggestion, I asked, “Time until what?”
He stared at me for an uncomfortable amount of time before he answered reluctantly, “Until I introduce you to the family.”
“Already?” I snatched my hand away before he could feel the nervous tremble, while my gaze flew to the bedroom door as if his family would come bursting through it at any moment.
I hadn’t thought about the fact that I’d have to meet his family.
What were they like? What if they didn’t like me?
What if I didn’t like them? “Can’t it wait? ”
“We’re getting married, baby,” he reminded me while reclaiming my hand. I was in his lap, but he still couldn’t seem to stop touching me.
I almost asked if I could just meet his people at the wedding, but he was already shaking his head, answering my unspoken question. “Fine.”
This time, he nipped my fingers, making me yelp. “Don’t be a brat.” Ocean sat back in his seat and seemed content just to stare at me. I nervously retied my robe just to give my hands something to do, and his gaze dipped down briefly before returning to mine again.
“Don’t you have mafia business to do?” I grumbled before I became completely undone.
Ocean chuckled as he rested his cheek on his propped fist and swung his knee back and forth. I could feel the muscles in his thigh flexing with each movement. “Mafia business, Coby?”
“Yeah, like ordering hits on people, having meetings in smoky restaurants with dark lighting, and shoot-outs in a black town car.” Ocean merely raised a brow.
“My name is Antonio Montana,” I imitated Al Pacino’s accent from Scarface.
“And you? What you call yourself?” The brown in Ocean’s eyes lightened as if I were a wonder to him, so I blurted, “Skrrt skrrt.”
Ocean lost his composure, tossing his head back and exposing his Adam’s apple to me as he laughed even harder this time. I quickly clapped a hand over my mouth to muffle my giggles.
I made the underboss of the Fola laugh.
I could only admit to myself that I liked this newfound power of mine. He looked so normal and younger when he smiled. And I realized with an aching heart that he probably didn’t get to do it often.
The second most powerful man in the city had no one to make him smile.
It made my heart hurt.
“Yeah, you watch too much TV,” he said after his laughter subsided.
“Actually, I prefer to read.”
Ocean nodded like this wasn’t news to him, and then seemed to catch himself when I narrowed my gaze. “What do you like to read?” he asked while looking guilty as hell.
“You mean you don’t already know, stalker?”
“I do,” he said while looking bashful and ashamed for the first time, “but I want you to tell me anyway.”
“I like poetry,” I answered, since it was my favorite. “I used to write them in middle school, but I stopped.”
“Why?”
“My parents died.”
Ocean didn’t outwardly react other than to pull me closer. “I’m sorry.”
My nose began to tingle, so I shook my head before I could yield to sorrow I’d convinced myself I was past. “It’s okay.”
“What else do you like to read?”
“Romance. The smuttier, the better,” I said proudly.
Ocean grinned. “What else?”
“Sci-fi, lit fic, women’s fiction, mystery…”
“So everything.”
“No.” I frowned. “I can’t read horror or thriller.”
“Why not?”
I blinked. “It’s scary.”
“Makes sense,” Ocean said while biting back a grin.
“Now will you tell me what you do?”
Ocean winced as if he were hoping to avoid talking about himself.
It probably had something to do with my saying he wasn’t what I expected.
I hadn’t meant to make him think I was disappointed, but I won’t pretend my brother hadn’t become a wedge between us.
It was up to him how permanent it would be.
If he kept his promise and left my brother alone, I could maybe start to forgive him.
“It’s safer if you don’t know the specifics,” Ocean answered, “but for your information, I haven’t needed to get my hands dirty in a long time. It’s risky for me to show my face too often. Having men I trust to handle the streets for me is imperative.”
“Like that guy who’s always with you? The one with the eye problem?”
Ocean gripped my chin suddenly, and my lips parted on a silent gasp, but then he seemed to wrangle his darkest impulses, sweeping his thumb gently across my bottom lip instead. “Who was eyeing you, sweetheart?”
I gulped. Ocean tried to keep his tone casual and curious, but I knew better. Or at least, I was beginning to. There was jealousy, possession, and murder brewing behind his eyes, which meant someone was about to die.
“Not like that,” I clarified quickly. “I just mean he looks like he’s in desperate need of a vacation.”
Ocean snorted and relaxed again. “Abel.”
“He’s your friend?”
Ocean flashed a condescending smile, as if to say he found me adorable. “He’s my head of security. Abel watches my back, trains my men, and advises me when I need it, but our relationship is purely business.”
“Sounds like a friend,” I mumbled.
“It’s better if I don’t blur those lines. If I let our relationship get personal, I won’t be able to wield him effectively.”
“Will our marriage be that cold?” I blurted before I could rethink pissing off someone whose moniker was the Bloodthirsty Prince.
“It doesn’t have to be.” Ocean’s gaze searched mine for some sign that I might want that. As courting goes, this was far from romantic and yet…I still felt like I had landed in a dream.
“What makes me different?”
“To start? I’m not fucking Abel.”
Right… Moving on.
“So um…” I looked down at my lap as I twisted my fingers.
“So?” Ocean prompted when too long passed without another word from me.
“You said I’m yours.”
“That’s right,” he said without hesitation or doubt.
“Okay.” Another long silence passed, but this time Ocean was content to let me squirm. Just say it. Don’t be a pussy. “Does that mean you’re mine?” I blurted in a rush. “Do I get to call you my man?”
It took me getting played a couple of times to learn that men staking their claim didn’t always go both ways. In fact, it was often one-sided when it came to loyalty and ownership. I’d find myself locked down—heart and body—to a man who had community dick.
I didn’t realize how wildly my heart was pounding while waiting for Ocean to crush it until he surged forward and kissed me again, forcing my mouth open for his tongue.
I was reaching for the buttons on his vest when I broke the connection to warn against my lips, “Unless you want a lot of people to die, you fucking better call me your man.”
I was still panting for breath and still fighting not to tear off his clothes when I forced myself to ask instead, “Why would people die?”
Ocean nuzzled my nose with the tip of his own before pecking my lips so softly it only made me crave him more.
“Because I’m cranky and bloodthirsty when heartbroken, so what’s it going to be?
You gon’ break my heart, baby?” Feeling a range of emotions that were competing to undo me, I could only shake my head while holding onto his shoulders for something to ground me.
Ocean flashed a beautiful smile, but it was sharp and dangerous.
“Then we have nothing to worry about, do we?”
“N-no?”
“I didn’t think so. Now let’s go see your library.”
I froze. “My what?”