Chapter 60 - Lexi
SIXTY
LEXI
It’s almost a week before Colten leaves the apartment and therefore leaves me by myself, because the man has not let me leave a room without him on my heels.
Yesterday he was on a conference call in the bathroom while I took a bath.
I mean, that worked out very well for me when he slid into the bath behind me and sat me on his cock until the water started to go cold.
So, it hasn’t been all bad.
I was, however, surprised when Colten brought me a coffee in bed and gave me a sweet kiss before telling me he was going out for a few hours.
Where? I have no idea.
When will he be back? No clue.
Am I enjoying the peace and quiet? Nope.
Although I’ve spent much of my life with only my own company, I’m not so good with it anymore.
I’d clean the apartment if Colten weren’t the neatest human I’ve ever met.
I’d cook, but not only do I not know how, but Colten is such a good cook I wouldn’t want to even if I could.
And I’m not ready to start filming content again. I don’t know if I ever will be.
The time off has been nice, but I’m getting bored, and now Colten isn’t here, knowing what mood I’m in before I know myself, I’m climbing the walls.
Maybe I should go back to school. Working in economics would bore me to tears, but maybe there’s something else I could do. Or I could start my own business helping other content creators grow their accounts and following?
I sigh, dropping my head into my hands.
A soft paw taps at my calf, and I open my eyes to find Pancake sitting in front of me, her sweet face staring up at me.
“How do you always know when I need you?” I scratch between her ears.
The elevator dings, and Colten steps off with another man I vaguely recognize as one of our lawyers, which sets me on edge immediately.
My man is not someone who likes people in his space, and that was painfully obvious when I woke up at three in the morning to him cleaning every inch of the apartment that anyone else had touched after Laken and Nico left.
Which begs the question, why has he brought yet another person into our space?
He moves to me immediately, kissing the top of my head and lingering for a few seconds. Considering how pinned to me he’s been since I was kidnapped, I can’t imagine it was easy for him to be away from me today.
“Welcome home,” I say softly.
“It’s only been a home since you moved in.”
“See, you keep saying sweet things like that, and I’m never going to be able to leave the apartment again.”
“Good.” He smirks. “I need you to sign some paperwork.”
Colten takes my hand and tugs me to my feet before guiding me to the dining table where the lawyer is waiting.
“What paperwork?” I ask with a frown. There’s nothing I can think of that would require my signature, and he, nor Cruz, has ever asked me to sign anything before.
“Just some property I want to move into both our names rather than just mine.”
“You want to sign your assets over to me?”
“Only fifty-one percent.”
“Why?”
“Because what’s mine is yours.”
“We’re not married.”
“Yet.”
I sigh exasperatedly. “Okay, where do I sign?”
It’s easier for me to just do as he says than to keep arguing, because he’s right. Our relationship is moving toward marriage, and disputing that would only make me a liar.
The lawyer lays out several piles of documents, and after reading over the first few, I sign each one, assuming it’s more of the same.
I have nothing but time, and yet the idea of reading through these documents makes me want to curl into a ball and cry.
Please see exhibit five hundred and fifty-seven for why I can’t go into anything related to economics.
I drop the pen on top of the last document before looking up at Colten, who looks like the cat that got the cream.
Far too gleeful for someone who just signed over half their assets.
“Colten…”
He holds a hand up and turns to the lawyer, who looks unimpressed by whatever is happening here.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.” He gathers the documents and moves toward the elevator as if he didn’t just drop a bomb into the middle of my life.
Before I can think through what the hell just happened and how it happened, Colten has me pinned to the edge of the table, his lips crashing down on mine.
“Should I bend you over and fuck you here, Mrs. Pierce? Or would you rather consummate our marriage in our bed?”
The word “marriage” is what snaps me out of my shock, and I catch him off guard, shoving him back just far enough for me to duck out from between him and the table.
“What the fuck did you just do?”
“We just got married,” he replies simply, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
Newsflash, buddy, it’s not.
“No, we didn’t! Is that even legally binding?”
“Sure is.” He grins.
“But we didn’t say vows or really anything at all.”
“Perks of having lawyers and judges in your back pocket, I suppose.”
I huff out a sigh and storm into the bedroom. Colten has done some very questionable things in our relationship, but this is taking it about a million steps too far.
I make it to the bathroom, where I slam and lock the door.
Which keeps him out for exactly three seconds.
This fucking man.
“I thought you knew better than to run from me, Mrs. Pierce.”
“Stop calling me that,” I growl.
“Why? That’s who you are now.”
“No, I’m not.” I back away from him, but there’s nowhere to go. Just like those girls who run upstairs in a horror movie, I’ve trapped myself.
“Yes, you are. You also signed your own change of name paperwork.”
I press my eyes shut and breathe through the annoyance seeping into every pore. Yep, annoyance. Because somehow, I’m not angry, I’m not sad. I’m just irritated that he went to these lengths when there was a much simpler alternative.
“You could have just asked me to marry you, Colten. I would have said yes.”
“I know.”
“Then why the fuck would you trick me into marrying you on a random Tuesday while I’m wearing a lounge set and none of our friends or family were present?” I snap.
“Because I didn’t want to wait for you to plan the wedding. This way, you and I both know we’re married, and you can spend as long as you want planning your dream wedding day.”
I stare at him for long seconds, making sense of my reaction to those words. The explanation makes a weird amount of sense, and I’m starting to wonder if I got a concussion overnight to not be furious that my boyfriend forwent a proposal and decided to marry me without my knowledge or consent.
Well, I guess he technically had my consent because I willingly signed the paperwork.
I’m so distracted by my inner turmoil that I miss him stepping closer and dropping to one knee.
A man like Colten shouldn’t kneel for anyone, but when he pulls out the diamond ring of my dreams, I drop to mine in front of him.
“You’re meant to stand for this part,” he rumbles.
“Just ask me,” I whisper as my eyes dart between his face and the ring. The main diamond is set among a halo of smaller ones that weave around the band.
I’m almost certain this exact oval ring has been on my Pinterest board since high school.
Perks of your brother’s best friend stalking you for half your life, I suppose.
“Lexi, my sweet Wildcat. I spent years thinking I’d never be good enough for you.
Your perfection deserves someone equally so, but the older I got, the more I realized there’s no one out there as perfect as you, so why couldn’t I work every day for the rest of my life to be worthy of you and your love? ”
Tears gather in my eyes, my heart beating so hard in my chest it borders on pain. I’ve dreamed of this moment my entire life. Not just the proposal, but Colten as well.
“Marry me.”
A sob-laugh tumbles out of me, an especially sexy sound for the best moment of my life up until this point. “You know you’re meant to pose it as a question, right?”
He smirks. “Why would I ever give you the chance to say no?”
“You already tricked me into marrying you,” I remind him.
“Yeah, but I’ll never take chances when it comes to you.”
Colten carefully takes my left hand and slides the ring into place, and the tears I’ve tried to hold back fall.
For a long time, I thought I’d never see a ring on my finger. Years of loneliness, of not putting myself out there, of refusing to date. It seemed inevitable that I was going to spend the rest of my life alone.
Life really does love to throw you a plot twist.
“Do you think Pancake would like to be a flower girl?” he asks.
I laugh, my head dropping to his shoulder at the ridiculous question that he means every word of.
If it took years of feeling alone to lead me to this moment, it was worth every single second, because there’s nothing I wouldn’t endure to be here in the arms of the man I love.
The man I’ve always loved.