Epilogue
Four months later
Ilooked downthe long table and smiled at the sight of my friends laughing and talking together.
At the head of the table, Yancy was smiling tenderly at her fiancé, Charles. Their heads were tilted toward each other as they spoke quietly. Well, he would only be her fiancé for one more night. Tomorrow was their wedding day.
Seeing the way her face glowed with happiness made my heart feel three times bigger than it did before.
I felt a hand trail up my thigh beneath the table and I pressed my palm over the backs of his fingers before he reached the danger zone.
Twisting my head, I glared playfully at Landen. “Behave,” I whispered.
He smirked at me, his eyes twinkling with devilish intent. “I am behaving,” he replied, his hand twisting so his fingers brushed my inner thigh, perilously close to my panties.
“More like misbehaving,” I retorted, pressing my thighs together and trapping his fingers exactly where they were.
He chuckled but removed his hand from beneath the loose skirt of my dress, resting it over my left hand where it lay in my lap. “All right,” he agreed. “But only because I have you exactly where I want you.” His thumb tweaked the ring at the base of my finger.
I glanced around to make sure that none of my friends or their spouses were paying attention. Though Grier wasn’t married yet, she did bring a date tonight. He seemed nice enough and the two of them were talking and smiling. No one was paying us any mind.
“I told you I wanted to wait to announce it until after Yancy’s wedding,” I reminded him. “This is a special time and I’m not going to take any attention away from her.”
Landen kissed me lightly. “I agreed with you, remember?”
I arched my brows at him. “Yes, but you were also the one who put this enormous rock on my finger and whined when I said I wanted to take it off until after tomorrow.”
“I did not whine,” he argued. “I merely pointed out that it would be wrong for you to accept the ring then refuse to wear it.”
Unable to resist teasing him, I replied, “Oh, there was whining involved. And if I recall correctly, some pouting as well.”
His eyes sparkled and I knew I would pay for that comment later, but with a currency I never minded spending.
“No one has noticed yet. As long as you don’t wave your hand around tomorrow, you should be fine.”
I rolled my eyes. “As soon as the sunlight hits this ring, it’ll blind everyone in a ten-foot radius.”
“You don’t like it?” he asked pointedly, but I saw the flash of uncertainty in his eyes and I hated it.
I glanced down and shook my head. “No, I love it. I’m sorry, I was only teasing.” Lifting my head, I kissed him. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, aside from you.”
Landen stared down at me, the corner of his mouth lifting in that almost-smile I loved. “Flattery won’t get you out of your punishment for teasing me, you know.”
I shivered at the heat in his gaze.
As I’d promised, I’d moved in with Landen on my birthday. And that very night, after we’d christened his office, he’d given me the ring. Actually, he waited until I was boneless and nearly incoherent after four orgasms and slipped it onto my finger while I was lost in an exhausted fog. When my senses returned later and I’d reminded him that I wanted to be asked, he’d brought me to tears with a simple, “Please marry me, Chelsea.”
I was such a sucker.
That was just a few days ago. I hadn’t seen my friends since then and I hadn’t told them either. I wanted to keep it a secret for just a bit longer until Yancy was married. She’d had such a long, hard road until she found Charles that I didn’t want to do anything that might disrupt the joy of her upcoming wedding.
Next week, when she and Charles returned from their honeymoon would be soon enough.
Unless Landen gave it all away tonight by repeatedly grabbing my left hand and running his thumb over the ring he’d placed there.
“Hey.”
Lucy’s excited voice caught my attention. I turned my head toward the sound. She hovered behind my chair and reached out to snatch my left hand out of Landen’s grip.
