Burying my face in my hands, I’m not sure what is worse, the hell ride I was expecting with my father or this flight to where-the-fuckever with Cormac. Who I can’t want. Who can never be mine. Who is sitting across from me grinning openly and I want to crack the champagne bottle Ian is offering him right over his head.
“Here, have some champagne,” he says, holding out a glass.
“Only if I can pour it in your lap.”
Cormac throws back his perfectly shaped head and laughs heartily, and I’m dizzy from the personality change. Where is the grim, focused man that until today, was sternly directing students and workmen back and forth on our decimated campus? The man who I’m pretty sure went out with a couple of his hit squads because he disappeared for forty-eight hours and returned with nothing but a cut on his forehead? Whoisthis relaxed, gorgeous bastard who is still chuckling?
So many questions. I am dizzy from questions and he doesn’t seem inclined to answer any of them.
Once a disappointed Ian has offered us a lovely dinner and been rejected, he freshens our drinks and retreats to the galley to mourn.
“Will there be the silent treatment all the way home, then?”
Glaring at him, “That depends, whose home are we speaking of?”
Cormac leans over and takes my hands in his. “Ours. Our home.”
My eyes well with tears almost instantly. “Don’t be mean. Please. Even joking about something like that is just…”
His thumb comes up to catch the first tear on my cheek. “I would not joke about such a thing. Not with you,sionnach beag,my little fox.”
Hitching his trousers, he gracefully kneels in front of me. “Mala Lauren Chandler, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
My jaw drops and I’m sure I look remarkably simple-minded right now. I heard a bunch of words but they must not have been in the right order because what I heard can’t be correct.
“Your look of shock is very flattering,” he remarks after a very long moment.
“You know I can’t,” I whisper. “My father made an alliance with the Accardi Mafia. There’s no going back on that.”
He leans closer, resting his forehead against mine. “If you could, love, would you? Would you run away with me and let it all burn to the ground, just to be together?”
Curling my fingers in his wonderfully silky hair, I promise, “From the bottom of my soul, you know I would. In any other world, I would run away with you and we could run a sheep ranch in New Zealand and I would be so happy.”
“Because you love me?” His voice is deeper now, his lips moving against my ear. The way I love you?”
Pulling back, I stare at him, shocked. “You what?”
“I love you,” he repeated patiently. “I love your stubbornness and your courage, your quick mind, and your kindness. And your knife skills turn me the fuck on.”
Laughter bubbles up but I slam it back down. “It was the stiletto in the left eye one, wasn’t it?”
“I was hard for days after that,” he confirms with a grin. “I love your loyalty and your belief in honor and duty, even though your fucking father does not deserve you. And your brother? Jesus Christ, he’s a mess.”
“Yeah, The Dick is awful,” I agree.
“Because I love your sense of honor and duty, I have created a new arrangement with your father and the Accardi Mafia.”
“How…” I’m gaping at him again, why does he want to marry a woman who can’t utter a full sentence?
“I’m going to get off my knee because this is the one I landed on after blowing up that Blackhawk,” he says politely, “but kindly assume that my proposal is still very much in progress.”
Smoothly sliding into the seat next to me, he takes my hands. “I gave your father something he’s very much needed, a new Atlantic shipping route for his weapons and the alliance between our families.”
“What about Accardi? The man is vile.”
This time his grin is positively evil. “I’ve had some information about the Accardi Mafia in my back pocket for some time, waiting for when it could be useful.” He paused, staring at my wide eyes. “It was quite helpful. Enzo was very gracious about releasing you from the proposed engagement. The blowback from some of these negotiations will not please my father, but since I’m set to take over the family business, he’ll get over it. Not because of you,” he says hastily.
“It’s because of my father,” I nod.
