Priceless (Forbidden Men #8)(109)

She took a drink and everyone followed, cheering us on. Sarah sipped from her own glass, and I looked around at our family and friends who’d come to celebrate with us. My brothers and sister and their spouses and children sat at one table. Mason and Reese along with their two and Pick and Eva’s four took up another. Then Knox and Felicity, Quinn and Zoey, and Asher and Remy’s families filled in the third table. All of them looked pleased and proud of us.

Taking Sarah’s hand, I said, “Look at all this support. We’re pretty lucky, aren’t we?”

She gazed around her, smiling softly. “Yeah. We are.”

Figuring this was as good a time as any to give her my graduation gift, I slid my hand into my pocket and pulled out a key that dangled from a piece of ribbon with a bow on it.

“Sarah Arnosta,” I murmured, kneeling next to her. “I have loved you for nine years and have adored every minute we’ve been together. But it’s not enough anymore. I want more. I want everything.” Pressing the key into her hand, I said, “Will you do me the great honor of moving in with me?”

Her lips parted as she looked down at the key. “Wha...” Her gaze flashed up, surprise wide in her eyes. “What is this?”

“It’s a key to a new apartment Pick helped me find.” Taking a deep breath, I went for the gold. “I could live there alone and still be perfectly content, sneaking into your room when Mason isn’t looking, or...we could have it all, and just...live together. That’s what I’m voting for, by the way.”

Sarah laughed, but then her eyes filled with tears. “Oh my God, Brandt. I can’t...this is...yes, ohmigod, yes! I’ll move in with you. Are you sure?”

Chuckling, I pulled her in for another hug. “I’ve never been more certain of anything than I am of this. I’m ready to start the rest of my life with you, right now.”

Sarah’s tears rolled down her cheeks as her smile grew. Then she waved her key frantically. “This is the best graduation gift ever.”

I shrugged ruefully. “It’s not a very typical one, that’s for sure.”

“No, it’s better. Better than anything money could buy. It’s priceless.”

Well, I guess that made sense, since she was my priceless.





I shouldn’t be here.

I had been telling myself variations of that very sentiment all day, starting with, I shouldn’t go as I’d dressed for the wedding all the way to What the hell am I doing? as I’d entered the church. And here I was now, still filled with a torturous regret as I sat alone at a round table during the reception and watched a bunch of white people trying to dance to the “Cha Cha Slide.”

That was just plain painful all by itself.

Except for the groom. He looked adorable attempting to perfect the Charlie Brown. I could tell he was only on the dance floor to entertain his bride, who sat in her wheelchair a few feet in front of him and covered her mouth with her hands as tears streamed down her cheeks from laughing so hard.

A reluctant smile tugged at my own lips. Yeah, he was pretty damn cute with the way he so enthusiastically got into the song, shaking his ass at her. And that tux fit him like sin on an ice cream cone. Made a girl just want to lick—

Not that I’d ever licked that, though I was probably the only woman in attendance—aside from the bride herself—who’d gone on a date with him. Well, half a date. It’d been kind of interrupted by, what do you know, the bride herself, and we’d never gotten a redo before he realized where his heart truly lay.

I didn’t blame the new Mrs. Gamble for ruining my date and crushing what might’ve been a grand passionate romance. Not really.

But the thing was, I had liked Brandt Gamble. I’d liked him a lot, like enough to maybe even break my five-date rule of going all the way if that first one had ever made it to completion. Yet I’d never even gotten a kiss from him. I bet he was a good kisser too. His lips looked like the soft kind that made your toes curl as soon as they were within a foot of you.

He was damn-near perfect all the way around. Gorgeous, good humored, kind, compassionate, hard-working, easy to talk to, and just rough enough around the edges to be wholly and appealingly male.

Glancing away as the song ended and he swept forward to press his soft-looking lips against his wife’s, I cleared my throat, feeling vile for even thinking what I was thinking.

Who in their right mind attended a wedding to watch their crush marry someone else?

Me, apparently.

I was such an idiot. I should just grab my purse, get up and leave already. I was better than this. If I put my heart into it, I could probably get any man I wanted. I didn’t need to mope over some unavailable—

Across the table from me, a guy in a tux slumped into a seat in a sloppy, drunken manner, saying, “Hey, sexy.”

I jerked my gaze up to the man’s face only to groan in misery.

Not a man. Just a boy. Just a cocky, way-too attractive for his mere eighteen years, boy.

The best man, aka Brandt’s annoying little brother, wiggled his eyebrows amorously. “You look good enough to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And that slit in your skirt, running halfway up your thigh... mmm, baby doll, that’s been driving me crazy all night.”

God, strike me dead now. If there was anything worse than watching the guy you were pining after marry another woman, it had to be spending any time in the company of Colton Gamble.