“So, you’ll be my date for the event?” I ask.
“You know I will.”
Satisfied, I hold her hands tighter. “Just so we’re clear, you’re mine, Bri. And I love you for the amazing, wonderful woman that you are.”
Her answering smile hits me in the heart.
“I know,” she says, a saucy glint in her eyes. “You love me enough to take a punch from my brothers and not tell me which one hit you.” She shakes her head and laughs. “I’d call that true love.”
“You’re damned right,” I say and seal my lips over hers.
Epilogue
Hudson
The night of the fundraiser, I find myself in my tuxedo, watching while Bri works the room like the pro she is. I don’t know whether to be more proud or grateful that she’s put her talents to use to make my dream come true. I don’t deserve her, but I’m not letting her go.
Sliding my hand into my front pants pocket, I touch the ring I’d gotten from my grandmother when I turned twenty-one. My parents may be assholes, but my grandparents had been the best, and my grandmother had wanted me to give her ring to the woman I love. It had sat in a safe deposit box for years. Until Bri.
She’d talked Nick Dare, the entrepreneur Dare and her cousin on her biological father Paul’s side, into donating his Miami hotel ballroom for the event. The space is filled with the Who’s Who of Miami and other parts of the country, athletes Bri represents, actors and rock stars who are somehow related to the Dare family, and friends and colleagues of theirs. The list went on of people all willing to shell out big money for large-ticket items and who had already paid a hefty per-plate fee.
She glides around the room in her cobalt-blue dress—I know this after making the mistake of calling it navy blue—making effortless conversation with everyone invited, thanking them for their generosity. Every once in a while, I catch up with her and pull her into the hallway for a few moments alone.
Like now.
I need a minute with her before I make a spectacle of myself in front of the famous people in this crowd. Since the men who have her attention are her siblings, I hook an arm around her waist.
“Gentlemen, I’m stealing your sister for a few minutes.” I have already asked their permission to marry her—more like I told them I intend to do so—seeing as how they are the males in her life, and I don’t want another black eye by springing the news on them in front of a crowd.
Without waiting for a reply, I pull her away from her family and lead her out the ballroom doors, finding a corner in the front of the event hall and backing her against a wall.
“Have I thanked you yet?” I ask, my hands on her hips.
She treats me to a radiant smile. “Only a half dozen times. You don’t need to thank me. We do things for people we love.”
She links her arms around my neck and rubs her body against me, making me wish I can kiss that red lipstick off her lips, hike up her dress, and bury myself inside her, but I’ll have to put that off until we are alone tonight.
“I love you, too. You have no idea how much.” My voice sounds gruff to my ears.
At my pronouncement, her eyes glitter with happiness.
A state of being I’ve become familiar with since she managed to put my fuckup behind her and everything has been picture-perfect between us since.
“The good news is we are going to net enough money from this event, added with Braden’s, for you both to begin renovations on the clinic and purchase new equipment.”
“This is everything. I didn’t know I had a need to give back until Doctors Without Borders and then working at that run-down clinic. But it fills a need deep inside me. And so do you.”
The ring feels heavy in my pocket, which is ridiculous, but the knowledge of what I am about to do has me worked up, and Iglance at my watch. “We need to get back to the ballroom. I have an announcement to make.”
She narrows her gaze. “What kind of an announcement?”
“A surprise one. Now let’s go.” Hand in hand, we stride back into the ballroom.
***
Brianne
I walk with Hudson as he leads us to the front near the deejay and emcee hired for the night. Within a few seconds, the music comes to a stop, which causes confused murmurs around the room.
