We finally found Marcus in the shopping area of the Scarlet Grand. The hotel had its own boutique stores, and he came out of one carrying a small square bag.
Oh, he went fuckingshopping, taking a page out of my own handbook.When things get hard, just blow some fucking cash, it'll make you feel better!I really wanted to deck him.
“Hey guys,” he said. “You ready to?—”
“Screw you, Marcus!” I spat. “I’m not tall enough anymore to punch you in the face, so the dick will have to do!”
I pulled back my fist to do just that, and Marcus floundered away, but Charlie snagged my arm before I could swing. Oberi hung onto his shoulder for dear life. “Pidge, hold on a minute.”
“This asshole hurt my best friend!” I shouted. “Nobody bangs my girl then takes off the next day without paying for it!”
Marcus’ face fell. “You guys know about that?”
“Yeah, we know,” Charlie said harshly. “Marcus, what were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t, not really,” he admitted. “I don’t think either of us were.”
“You should’ve used at least one cell in that pea-brain of yours to think before you left her in the shower all alone!” I shouted. “I found her in the cafécryingbecause of you!”
Marcus appeared crushed. “I didn’t mean anything by all that. I wasn’t trying to hurt her feelings.”
“Well, you did,” I said. “And now you’ve ditched her,again. Can’t you get your shit together?”
“I didn’t ditch her,” Marcus insisted. “I just needed a minute to catch my bearings, all right?”
“Because you were going to come up with another excuse as to why you can’t date?” I accused.
“Because I wasterrified,” Marcus said, and he truly sounded it. “I was going topropose.”
My jaw dropped. “What… really?”
“Yes! Don’t look so shocked,” Marcus said sourly. “I wanted to ask, truly, but I felt like I was going to pass out, to be honest. Then she asked me what we were, and I realized I was totally unprepared.”
His response floored me. Before he’d left the shower, Marcus had said;Sorry, this isn’t right. Kallie had taken it as him turning her down, but now I realized Marcus had just chosen a really stupid way of telling her he wanted to do thisproperly.
“I didn’t have a ring to give her, and I can’t ask her without that, so I rushed down here to get one,” Marcus explained. “I know it’s last minute, but I can’t go any longer without asking her. It’s driving me crazy we’re not engaged. We should be. I should’ve asked her to marry me a long time ago.”
“Why this sudden change of heart?” Charlie asked. “You’ve never been ready to take this step before.”
“Because ever since I did my ceremony and faced my demons in that alleyway, I’ve realized what I want out of life, and what I want is her,” Marcus said firmly. “I don’t care what’s standing in our way or what we’ve been through, because that doesn’t matter. Kallie and I should be together, and I’m done getting in our way.”
“Well, hallelujah to you for finally seeing the light,” I said grumpily. “Think she might want to know all of that?”
“Look, I planned to tell her everything last night,” Marcus started. “I invited her back to my room so we could talk, but not about the heist. I wanted to spill everything to her, and lay it all on the table. I was going to tell her I love her, that I don’t care that the bond is broken and that I want us to be together.”
“So why didn’t you?” Charlie demanded.
“I couldn’t get the words out,” Marcus confessed. “I tried, I really did, but I just felt scared, so my hands started doing the talking for me.”
“Yes, because sharing a bed isn’t going to lead to disaster.” I waved my hands around. “Oh no, I’ve fallen, and my dickjust happenedto slip in!”
“It wasn’t like that,” Marcus shot at me. “We were just kissing at first, but then we kept going. I went to tell her to stop so we could talk about this, but what came out of my mouth next wasn’t exactly words, and by that point neither of us wanted to quit.”
I could only imagine.Kallie hold on, probably turned into a couple of moans, loud gasps andFuck, baby, right there.I swear, I wanted to murder these two. This was a constant problem with them. If they’d just communicate every once in a while instead of denying their feelings then jumping into bed when they couldn’t take it anymore, their relationship wouldn’t be so messy.
“Marcus, you guys needed to talk about thisbeforebeing intimate,” Charlie growled. “You should’ve established the relationship and what you both wanted before going that far.”
“I know that, but neither one of us controlled ourselves, or went to stop. We just lost it.” Marcus pinched the bridge of his nose. “I think we wanted to be together so badly nothing else mattered in the moment.”
