Then, I waited.
The door popped open and I saw her peer through the gap. Even saw her surprise when darkness faced her.
“Eoghan?!” she demanded, pushing the door wider. “Where the hell are you? What does Finn need to cover for you?” She flicked the switch then jumped when she noticed me. “What are you doing?!”
I shot her a winsome smile. “What do you think?”
She blinked a few times. “You’re surrounded by rose petals and are on one knee. But I’m offended you don’t remember the whole ‘us at the church’ thing.” Still, her smile lit up her eyes as she slipped deeper into the bedroom, clearly curious, after closing the door behind her.
“Oh, I remember. And I remember how I was a jerk before?—”
“You’re always a jerk,” she dismissed cheerily. “It’s kinda nice you being down there. I don’t have to strain my neck. Well? What’s going on?”
I proffered the small box to her. “You’re my wife, Inessa. You put up with too much of my bullshit?—”
“You’re not supposed to swear when you’re proposing!” she reprimanded, but she laughed as she accepted the box without opening it. “Carry on!”
“You put up with my moods and my stalking and my incessant need to protect you, and I never really expected this Russian brat my da tied me to to be any of those things. I thought you’d be the millstone around my neck?—”
“Charming!”
“Instead, I’m that for you.”
Her lips rounded and any amusement wiped from her expression. “You take that back!”
I jolted in surprise at her hissed demand. “What?”
“Take it back. Eoghan, you are not a millstone around my neck. You accept me. Don’t you see that? My god, you give me freedom when it pains you to do so, but you still do it. I have so much more freedom than I ever expected to have.
“I go to college and you let my sister meddle in our lives and her home is our second house because we spend so much time together—I never expected to have that. You gave me a safe enough space to bring her around. Never mind Victoria.
“If you were anyone else, I don’t know what would have happened to her because fuck, I couldn’t trust anyone in my father’s world with her.” She straightened her shoulders. “But fuck safety. You make me happy!
“You brought me this crazy family that drives me insane and has all these traditions. You never do what I think you will and are apparently going to buddy up with me in my reading nook. You consider me. All the time. Always.
“I’d have borne a battalion ofheirsand daughters to marry off to allies by now if you were anyone else. With barely any time in between if you were anything like my father and kepton popping out girls. No freedom, no education, no bodily autonomy, no partnership, nojoy.
“You are such a wonderful husband, Eoghan. Don’t you dare say otherwise in my presence.”
A shocked laugh escaped me. But my lips curved in surprised pleasure. “I know I have issues.”
“And I don’t? We get through them together and we’ll carry on doing that.” She shoved the box back at me. “I don’t want this, whatever it is, if you’re questioning the years we’ve spent together and are thinking I want to rewrite any of it.”
My Adam’s apple bobbed when she took a step backward. I surged upward, snagged her in my arms, and held her as close as I could, tucking her face into my chest with my hand cupping the back of her head. All while I rested my chin on her shoulder, encompassing her in me.
“That isn’t what this is about,” I rasped.
“Then what is?”
“You never got this.”
“Got what?”
“The ‘me on my knee’ thing.”
She paused, then released the softest, happiest of laughs. “You’re mad and I’m here for it, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t need this, Eoghan.”
“All your damn books have these moments!”
