Chapter Thirty-Three Lena
Chapter Thirty-Three
Lena
“You’re home!” Willow comes running from the kitchen, her arms outstretched, but Ryker got to me first and has me in a hard hug that makes it hard to breathe. “Oh, thank God you’re home.”
She doesn’t pull me away from her husband—she just wraps her arms around both of us and squeezes.
“Gid, get in here,” Willow says, and then I’m in the middle of a James family group hug.
It’s so fucking nice.
“I’m so glad you’re finally home,” Willow says. “We have so much to talk about and so many things to do. Now that you’re not in jail here at the ranch—”
“She was never in jail,” Gideon says with a scowl.
“—we can go shopping in Missoula, and we can go to Seattle to watch Aiden play. We’re going next week.”
I grin up at Gideon, whose eyes are soft and pinned to me. I spent the whole flight in his lap. We had to take the private jet for security purposes, and he held me all day.
He hasn’t stopped touching me since he found me at the show last night.
“I’m so excited to see Aiden play,” I tell them, and then go to follow Willow into the kitchen, but Gideon takes my hand, tugging me in the other direction. “Where are we going? We just got here.”
“We’ll come back,” he assures me, sharing a smile with Ryker. “But I need a little bit of your time before I share you with them for the rest of the day.”
I roll my eyes but follow Gideon out of the house and down to his SUV, and he drives me to the house. We haven’t been here yet. We stopped by to see Wills and Ryker as soon as we pulled onto the property.
“You want to unpack first?” I ask him. “I mean, that’s pretty strict, but okay.”
“Keep running your mouth, Rebel.” He kisses the top of my head and opens the door for me, and my heart stutters.
Because there in the living room is the biggest bouquet of red roses I’ve ever seen. It smells amazing.
“One for every day you were gone,” he says, hugging me from behind.
We walk through the house to the back deck, and he leads me outside. It’s cold as hell out here, but I love the crisp air as it fills my nose, and I take in all the snow blanketing the trees, the mountains. The frozen lake is so beautiful, it brings tears to my eyes.
I missed this so much.
“I knew it would be gorgeous. God, how do you not just stand here and stare all day?”
I turn, and then gasp when I find him down on one knee, holding a diamond ring that has the tears falling down my cheeks.
“You are the reason my heart beats, Lena. You’re literally my favorite person on this earth and the greatest treasure in my life.”
I sniff and brush a tear aside, listening to every beautiful word coming out of his mouth.
“You borrowed my name for your art, but I’d like to give it to you, permanently. I’ll give you anything you want, baby. Marry me.”
Cupping his face, I lean in and rest my lips on his, brushing them back and forth.
“Of course I’ll marry you, Gideon.”
He gently pushes the ring onto my finger, and then I’m in his arms and he’s carrying me inside, his mouth on my neck, nibbling that spot just under my ear that makes me lose control.
“I thought we were going to back to the farmhouse.”
“Later. I have to fuck my fiancée first.”
With a snort, I weave my fingers into his hair.
“It feels so good to be home,” I tell him as he lays me on our bed. “And not just for safe keeping this time.”
“No, baby, you’re here forever.”