Still holding my hand, Jonas drops to one knee. “That day when I thought you were trying to steal my truck, my life shifted. I thought you were beautiful. I thought you were interesting and funny. You mesmerized me and I spent years trying not to fall for you.”
He pauses for a breath. “Then I realized I already did that on day one. You were trying to steal my truck but ended up with my heart. Will you keep it? Will you marry me and build a family and a future on this land?”
“I will. I so will,” I fling my arms around his neck, and he stands to swing me around. “And I don’t want to wait too long to get married, either. Enough years have already passed.”
“I know. I regret that,” Jonas says.
“Me, too.”
“Call me husband,” he says, kissing the side of my neck.
“Husband,” I say softly and he kisses my lips tenderly.
“Let’s ride back and tell the family, then move your stuff to our ranch,” he says.
“Hold on a second. We can tell the family, but we can’t move in together.”
He frowns. “Why not?”
“We can’t for-NI-cate before the wedding.”
He laughs his ass off at the reminder of the lecture he got from his former schoolteacher the day we met.
“I still have your handcuffs in the dash of my truck.” He’s still chuckling over the memory.
I pretend to be firm. “I’m serious, Jonas. If we don’t have sex until after the ceremony, that will make it special.”
“It’s already special.”
“I’ll be more special.”
“You’re fucking with me.”
“No, that’s precisely what I’m saying. I’m not fucking with you until after.”
He looks crestfallen and I can’t hold back my amusement any longer. “I’m kidding.”
“Well, that’s a relief. I thought I was going to blue ball it until the wedding.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you.” I glance at the front of his jeans. “I find your cock rather appealing.”
“Want him to come out and say hello?”
“We’ve already met and he talks a lot.” I laugh as I grip the saddle’s pommel and swing into the saddle. Then I nudge my horse around to head home.
Jonas easily catches up to me and smirks. “You liked everything he had to say, I remember that.”
I laugh again and we race back to the barn. The same ranch hand leads the horses away.
“I’ll call Marshall and tell him we’re on the way.” Jonas stops walking abruptly.
Marshall and Raven along with Jonas’s brother Kurt are waiting for us on the porch.
“Why didn’t you go on in?” Jonas asks.
“I wasn’t sure if Melody wanted her stuff left here or at her apartment in town.” Raven gives me a warm hug as she speaks.
“You can drop them here. But how did you know where I was?”
