Surrendering to Us (41 page)

“Good work, Mr. Blythe.”

“Same to you, Miss Clarke.” He fixed my hair and then he walked out of the room. We’d decided to stagger our arrival and departure to avert suspicion.

I counted to a hundred before I left the room and walked up the stairs to my office, my legs a little wobbly, but with a smile on my face.

“Mission accomplished?” Lilia whispered to me as I walked by. I just gave her a thumbs up and she shook her head as I sat back down at my desk.

“I have never needed a drink more than I do right now,” Sloane said as we sat down at our table at the bar.

“You think you need one?” I said. I sort of filled her in on the chaos, but I’d signed a pesky confidentially agreement that said I couldn’t discuss work outside of the office so I had to be brief. She got the gist.

“True, we both need one.”

“Count me in,” Lucah said, raising his hand.

“If you’re all drinking, I want in,” Ryder said.

“Drinks for everyone!” Chloe said, putting both hands up. Marisol also agreed that she needed one, so Ryder and Lucah went to get them.

“So how’s the charity event coming?” I asked Marisol. After the release of dealing with the Board and then the release of having sex with Lucah, I wanted to talk about something else.

“Oh, it’s stressful, but these things always are. The caterer is having issues and the band backed out last minute, but that’s why you always have a backup plan.” Marisol and her backup plans. She was one of the most prepared people I’d ever met.

“And is the mysterious man from Japan coming?” Her face fell and I kicked myself for asking.

“I haven’t heard from him that much. Have you . . . “ she didn’t finish.

I’d had a few texts, and a phone call here and there, and I had gotten some emails with pictures and so forth, but it was hard with the time difference.

“Just what I’ve told you about. Nothing recently.” She sighed and grabbed her drink as soon as the guys came back with two trays.

“He’s so confusing,” she said, sipping her martini.

“Who’s confusing?” Ryder asked. I’d filled him in on Fin, so he knew who he was and he knew about his and Marisol’s relationship.

“Men. All men,” I said.

“Amen,” Sloane and Marisol agreed.

“Oh, I definitely agree. That’s why I stick with women,” Chloe said. We all clinked our drinks together as Ryder and Lucah shook their heads.

“We could say that women are confusing, but we’re outnumbered so I think we should change the subject,” Lucah said.

“Are you going to sing?” I asked. I knew the answer, because he’d brought his guitar.

“Does a bear shit in the woods?” he responded, which made Ryder choke on his beer. Sloane banged him on the back and asked him if he was okay.

“Fine,” he gasped.

The announcer called Lucah’s name and he headed for the stage.

“This is a little something for my favorite.” He winked at me before settling the guitar and closing his eyes.

It was the song he’d been humming the other day. I finally recognized it because I’d heard it on the radio. “Come to Me” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Lucah did what he always did when he sang a song and changed it up, making it slower and sweeter and sexier. He made everything sexier.

When he got to the lyrics about taking vows I almost fell out of my chair. I hadn’t heard that part of the song. Sloane grabbed my shoulder and I looked at the other girls. Every single pair of eyes was wide with shock. So I wasn’t the only one who’d heard that part and had jumped to conclusions.

My heart started its own song, a rougher, harder melody than the soft strums of Lucah’s guitar. I couldn’t feel my hands or my feet and the room started to swirl in my vision, but one thing was stable. Lucah and his guitar, singing about being together forever.

He finished the song and left the stage. It took him hours (or it felt that way) to get back to the table after people had finished applauding him and yelling for an encore. The announcer asked him to come back, but he waved him off.

He sat back down at the table and gave me a kiss.

“Did you like it?” For a moment, I couldn’t get my tongue to work. I was also still waiting. Waiting for what I thought was coming, based on the song and the things he was always saying and the way I felt about him.

My mouth gaped open but no words came out.

“I think she’s speechless,” Sloane said for me, pinching my knee, which made me yelp. “Fixed her.”

“I . . . I loved it,” I said as he put his arm around me. He smiled and then picked up his beer and sipped it. Sloane coughed and I could feel all eyes on Lucah and me.

“Anything else you might have felt about it? Anything?”

Oh there were a hell of a lot of things I was thinking, but I didn’t think I could say them in front of everyone. Lucah seemed to sense my inability to articulate.

“I think we’re going to head out,” he said, getting our coats and holding his arm out for me to take. “Ryder, you can get back all right, yes?”

Ryder nodded.

“I’ll keep my eye on him,” Sloane said, giving me a wink. I be she would. I still couldn’t really feel my hands as I stumbled getting out of my chair and Lucah led me out onto the street.

“Sunshine?” Of course, being the perceptive guy that he was, he didn’t believe me.

“I’m fine,” I said, giving him a smile that I hoped would reassure him that I was fine.

“Okay,” he said, but his tone made it clear that he wasn’t going to let it go. We were definitely going to have to talk about this, and I was either going to endure what could be a very uncomfortable conversation for me, or lie to him. Or I could lie to him, and then he’d call me out on it and then I’d have to have an uncomfortable conversation anyway. He let me keep my silence all the way home, but as soon as I unlocked the door, I knew I was going to have to talk.

“You ready to talk now?” Ready or not.

“So,” I said, leaning my back against the door. “I’m just going to have to say this all at once because if I think about it, I’m going to realize how stupid it is and then I’m going to ask you to fuck me and hope that you’ll forget in the heat of the moment.” I paused and took a deep breath and Lucah leaned against the counter, as if to say,
proceed
.

“It was the song. I heard it on the radio the other day and I heard the lyrics about . . . about taking vows and a bride and groom and I guess I just read into it and my friends read into it and I thought . . . I thought you were proposing.” It didn’t matter that I said it all in a rush. It sounded stupid anyway.

I’d ducked my head when I started talking and I hadn’t had the courage to look up yet. When Lucah didn’t say anything for more than a minute, I had to look up to see what his expression was.

I took one peek and found his face . . . I couldn’t read that expression.

“What are you thinking?”

He shrugged one shoulder, as if this was no big deal.

“I figured it was the easiest way to tell you how I feel about you. That someday I want to marry you.”

“You do.” It was a statement more than a question.

“Of course I want to marry you, Sunshine. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I want to take any measures I can to make sure that you’re stuck with me for life, and that includes getting married. I assumed from our earlier conversation that you weren’t ready, but I thought, maybe, if I declared my intentions, that might help clear things up for you.” Clear. I definitely wasn’t feeling clear at the moment.

“Clear things up?” I put my hands behind me to brace myself on the door.

“Yes. If you knew that my intentions were heading toward getting married, that you might decide that was what you wanted. Or maybe that was just my wishful thinking.” He looked down, and he seemed so crushed that I wanted to kick myself. This wasn’t going the way I thought it would.

“I don’t want to get married. I mean, I thought I didn’t. But then I imagined it. Imagined the wedding and walking down the aisle, and I realized that the reason I wasn’t crazy about marriage was that I’ve never wanted to marry anyone. Until you. If you told me that we should go to Vegas right now, I’d go. I would. As crazy as that is. And I know it’s crazy. We haven’t even known each other for six months. It’s crazy. Wanting to marry you is crazy. But I do. Want to marry you.”

He pushed himself off the counter and took a step forward.

“You want to marry me. Right now.”

“If you asked me, I would.” I moved away from the door and toward him.

“That’s crazy,” he said, taking another step.

“I know.” We finally stopped with only a whisper of space between our bodies.

“You want to know what’s even more crazy?” His hands gripped my waist. I nodded. “I’d marry you. If you wanted to. Right now.”

“Right now?” I moved my hands up his shoulders and around his neck, twisting his hair in my fingers.

“Right now.” He tipped his face down and gave me the lightest of kisses.

“We’re crazy,” I said with another kiss.

“Yes, we are. Certifiable.” Lucah’s lips became more insistent and I knew if I didn’t put a stop to it, we’d get started and then we’d head to the bedroom. I still had things to say about this turn in events. So I pulled my mouth from his.

“So what does this mean, exactly?” I said. We had to be absolutely crystal clear. He was going to have to write it out on a sticky note. Again.

“It means that both of us want to get married. Which is a good thing, don’t you think?” He started swaying his hips, so we were dancing.

“It is. So does it mean that I can expect a ring anytime soon?” It was kind of unromantic to ask. Most women wanted to be surprised.

“Now why would I tell you that?” He took my hands from around his neck and spun me out and then back into his arms.

“Because I asked you.” Lucah just shook his head and dipped me so far that I was afraid he’d drop me. But he would never drop me.

“Nice try, Sunshine. I only get to do this once, so I’m going to do it right. Now that I know that’s what you want.”

“It is.” I had to keep saying it to myself to feel how right it felt. I wanted to be his wife. For him to be my husband. Lucah Blythe would be my husband. “I want to someday be your wife.”

“And I want that. There should be a name for this. The state of being pre-engaged. I think there should at least be a ring involved, don’t you think?”

“A ring?” My voice squeaked as Lucah pulled something out of his pocket. He’d planned this. Well, probably not exactly as it had turned out, but he’d had the ring, just in case.

“This is a little something I’ve kept around for you, and I’ve been waiting for the right time. This is that time. I’m not going to get down on one knee, but I’ll crouch a little so we’re at the same eye level.” I would have smacked him for the jab on my height, but I was too busy looking at the ring in the box he held out to me. It was a ruby, set in a silver setting. It was chunky, and had designs on it that reminded me of something.

“It’s my mother’s class ring. Ryder and Tate and I . . . well, we split what was left after the fire three ways, and this was one thing I got. And it’s a ruby. So, with that said, Aurora Abigail Clarke, will you do me the honor of becoming my pre-fiancé?” I looked up at his beaming face. His freckles, his glorious blue eyes, that chin dimple.

“Yes, Lucah Jacob Blythe. I will become your pre-fiancé.” He slid the ring on my right ring finger, and then kissed my hand.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too.” He rose to his full height and pulled me up with him, so I was on my tiptoes as we sealed our pre-engagement with a kiss. There was only one little snag that made me break the kiss.

“But we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with the work situation,” I said.

“About the work situation,” he said, and the flirty tone shifted and his face became serious. “I . . . I don’t think I should work at CE anymore. It puts you in a delicate position, and as much as I adore knowing that you’re in the same building, I just don’t think it’s the best arrangement. Unless you want me to stay, then I’ll stay. The choice is yours.”

I couldn’t tell him what to do, where to work. If he didn’t want to work at Clarke Enterprises anymore, then he didn’t have to. It would be . . . an adjustment not having him in the building, but if that was what he wanted, and if that was what it would take for us to take the next step, then I’d let him do it.

“No, the choice is yours. It’s your life.” He shook his head and pulled me closer, resting his forehead against mine.

“No, it’s our life. Yours and mine. Whatever I do affects you. Even though we’re not married yet. I don’t want to make any decisions without you.” I could feel a headache growing behind my eyes, and I didn’t know if I could make any more decisions tonight.

“Can we talk about it tomorrow? It’s been . . . a long day.”

“You’re right. We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” he agreed, and started backing up toward the bedroom, taking me with him. “But right now, I think we started something in the supply closet that I would really like to get back to.”

“I would also like to get back to that, almost future husband.” He raised his eyebrows at my use of the word ‘husband.’