“What are you… Why are you here?” I gasp when I can breathe again.
“Because,” he says, “you’re mine.” His hand is on my ass, possessive, as he strokes me.
“I wasn’t with any guy tonight.”
I hear him sit back on the couch. I turn to drape myself in his lap. He cradles my head.
“I know. But I wanted to remind you who you belong to. I told you, Dani. I can’t lose you.” He cups my face, kneeling down on the floor to rest his forehead against mine. “I won’t lose you.”
“Promise me. Please, I need to hear you say you want to be with me forever.”
I look into his green eyes. “Okay… I promise.”
His face lights up with relief. “Good. Thank God. That’s good.” He smiles against my mouth when he kisses me. “I’ll ask your dad for your hand in marriage when I get back to New York.”
“Wait—you what?” I croak out. “You want to get married?”
He nods solemnly. “I want to wake up every day for the rest of my life next to you.”
“Oh. Um. Wow. Wow” is all I can say as he kisses my face, my hands.
It’s everything I’ve always wanted—everything I’ve always dreamed of since I was selected by Colette to be the flower dog at her fake wedding to Weatherby Blackwell in kindergarten.
But are those alarm bells or wedding bells?
44
GRAHAM
Before I leave, I lay Dani down on the bed. I fuck her hard into the mattress, pumping my cock into her tight pussy while she has her legs spread and plays with her clit. Then I come on her tits before I let her go.
As the plane takes me back to Manhattan, I can’t stop thinking about her.
“Rumination” is the word.
I flew to Italy originally because I needed to sleep, and I can’t sleep without her. Yeah, I wanted to fuck her, too, but I can feel the tyrant’s grasp I keep on myself slipping.
The back-to-back long-haul flights don’t help. All I can think about is her. And how Frank will keep me away from her if he finds proof that I’m the kidnapper. I shouldn’t have come back. I should have just taken Dani with me—we could have gone somewhere far away.
But she’d miss her friends and her family, the ever-shrinking rational part of myself reminds me.
I’d take her dog. She’d have Lulu. And she’d have me. I’m the most important person in her life. There’s nothing wrong about thinking about the woman who’s going to be your wife.
A ring. I need a ring. And her father’s blessing. Then she’ll be mine forever.
“Holy fucking shit.”
Finn races to me when Connor lets me into Grayson’s penthouse.
I don’t trust myself to be home alone right now. I’ve basically been living on the airplane, only having it land for fuel and a fresh crew as they flew me around the world after the three and a half hours I spent in Switzerland.
Dani’s supposed to be home today. That’s why I’m back in Manhattan. I cannot be here without her. But she hasn’t called me or texted me.
This is why you can’t let her out of the house.
Or maybe she was busy wrangling bachelorettes. The rational part of me sounds like it’s drowning. And it’s easy to ignore.
“Where the hell were you?” Finn shakes me.
