“Your house now,” he replied.
~~o0o~~
They sat up and talked all night, snuggled up close, side by side on Diego’s bed. They had so much to say to each other. Mostly she talked and Diego listened, Celina conceded wryly as she took a shower the following morning. It was like starting over. They were starting over, but with a deeper understanding of where they’d been and where they were going next. Their relationship might be back to front and upside down, but it was strong green shoot, and that shoot was absolutely determined to thrive.
“Do you mind if I join you in the shower?”
“Do I mind? Is that a serious question?” she asked Diego as he stepped naked beneath the pounding spray.
“I’ve got something for you.”
“I can see that,” she agreed.
He laughed, a blinding flash of strong white teeth in his beautiful, beloved face. “I meanthis,” he said.
She gazed in wonder at the exquisite diamond band Diego was holding in the palm of his hand as if it were a mint for one of his horses. “For me?” she said in bemusement.
“Unless you don’t want it?” The laughter in his eyes turned into a steady appraisal. “Unless you don’t want me?”
“I want you,” she confirmed, still hesitating to accept the fabulous ring. “But I don’t need this.”
“I want you to have it. It was my grandmother’s, and it’s very special to me, a family heirloom. I can’t think of anyone else who deserves it more. My grandmother would have loved you. She was, um, quite spirited too.”
“What are you trying to say, Diego?” she demanded in a mock-warning tone as her heart went crazy mad in her chest.
“That I love you, and that I want the whole world to know I love you. That I want to live with you, have children with you, work with you, and know you’ve got my back.”
“Do you have to continue the dangerous work with the vigilantes?”
He put a finger across her lips when she would have said more. “You know I have to. It’s what I do. It’s who I am. But if you’re with me every step of the way…” He shrugged.
“And when we have children, will you still risk your life as a vigilante?”
Ignoring the most important part of that question, he exclaimed with triumph as he brought her into his arms. “You’re saying yes!”
“I’m saying slow down. I haven’t given you my answer yet.”
Pulling his head back with pretended affront, Diego asked, “Are you blackmailing me?”
“Whatever it takes,” she confirmed, straight-faced.
“Can I persuade you to give me a definitive answer to the question of whether or not you will be my bride?”
She shivered with arousal. “I’m sure you can.”
He lifted her. “Celina Petrovka,” Diego murmured against her mouth as she wrapped her legs around his body. “Will you marry me?”
“Now that’s plain unfair,” she groaned as he began to tease her with just the tip of his erection.
“And your answer is?” he demanded, keeping up the torment as she whimpered in his arms
“Yes,” she exclaimed on a rush of breath as he took her deep.
“What was that? I didn’t quite hear you.”
“I said yes!” she yelled for all the world to hear. “I will marry you,” she confirmed in desperation when he paused. “But I have to tell you that if you continue to tease me like this, we may never get out of the shower.”
“Not until you wear my ring,” he agreed, angling his stubble-shaded chin to give her a wicked grin. “Oh, and this ring too.”
