“They’re not. I’m just bad at games.”
He took my left hand and pulled the glove off it. My instinct was to fight because it was cold. He laughed and kept hold of my wrist as he slipped a silver band over my ring finger. I gaped down, and he tried to awkwardly shove my glove back on fast, but there was no way that was happening. I snatched my hand from him to look at my finger. The ring he’d put on me was something familiar, or at least I’d seen it somewhere before. It had a heart held by two hands. I stared hard at the small band of metal and strange things boiled around in me. I’d been there the night Reaper had asked Grant to marry him, and for a lot of reasons, I’d never thought I’d have someone putting a ring on me.
“What’s this?” I asked, not sure I meant to speak out loud but unable to stop myself.
“Means you’re taken, ’s all.” He stared up at the sky and pursed his lips. “I don’t want any lads or lasses in the pubs I plan to take ya to visit thinking they should be trying to pull ya.”
He made another attempt to chase my hand with the glove, but I smacked it away and turned to smile at him, my heart hammering.
“I’m a biker.”
“Aye.”
“I’m a man, too.”
He leered at me. “I’m well aware.”
“No one’s ever given me… jewelry.” I frowned at the ring and my stomach went warm.
“And no one else ever will.” He popped a kiss onto my nose, and I wiped at the spit he left behind while he laughed. “Not if they know what’s good for them, they won’t.”
I snagged my glove from him and slipped it on. The metal was cool on my finger and I couldn’t ignore it. He took my hand and began telling me about some battle that had been fought nearby that he’d had to write a report on when he was younger, and I wasn’t listening at all. The ring felt like it was glowing on my hand under a neon-red spotlight. Everyone around here should notice. People should be stopping to stare. His eyes were bright and his cheeks were pink from the wind.Fuck, he’s handsome.
“Jamie?”
“Aye?”
“Thank you for bringing me here. Where you’re from. You know, telling me all about it.”
He laughed and wrapped his arms around me, and we protected each other from the wind. “Love, ya got it all wrong. Ya think I’m showing off Ireland to ya?”
“Well, aren’t you?” I glanced out at the staggering view.
“No.” He turned me to face the sea. “We’re here so I can brag about the sexy American I bagged while I was away!” I winced as he yelled and covered my face with the hand that felt so strange now that the ring was on it. “I’m showing ya off to Ireland.” He pulled my hand down and kissed me. I couldn’t get over how good I felt when I was with him. I’d never been so happy.
“You’re an ass,” I muttered against his lips.
“Love ya, too. Oh!” He jumped and looked at his watch. “Let’s hurry. We have quite a drive, and there’s this pub I want to show ya because it has some nice rooms we can stay in overtop. Come on.”
He tugged my hand and we walked down out of the tower and back through the freezing cold and spitting rain toward the parking lot. He talked the whole way to where Corbin stood, leaning against his car trying to read his newspaper as the wind pelted it. He barely glanced at us as Jamie opened the back door for me and I climbed in ahead of him.
“Did ya give it to him?” Corbin asked as soon as we were all in the car again and situated.
Jamie smacked him on the arm. “Shut it. What if I hadn’t?”
Corbin turned to stare at me until I tugged my glove off and showed him the ring. He nodded and turned back around.
“You knew?”
Corbin glanced in the rearview mirror. “He’s only been planning to give that to ya since—”
“Corbin, I swear—”
“—your first trip to New York.”
Surprised, I turned to Jamie, but he only pressed another quick kiss to my cheek.
“What does this mean to you?”
