Jet (Marked Men, #2)(88)

I sighed against his mouth and moved to climb off him. It did my heart happy when his hand clenched just a little to hold me close, before he finally let me go.

“You might have to get in line for that. Asa is Asa. He’s always going to be the way he is, but he’s also always going to be my big brother and he did the right thing by me when he ultimately had to. Come on, you know it’s nearly impossible to turn your back on family.”

He leaned back on his elbows on the bed and watched me with hooded eyes as I moved around the room.

“I finally let my mom go.”

I looked at him over my shoulder and sucked in a breath. If I wasn’t exhausted beyond measure, if my mind wasn’t still on Asa and his precarious condition, I would have jumped on him and not let him up for hours. I wondered if it was always going to be like that between us, or if the allure of all that tattooed skin and those dark eyes and devil spikes in his ears was going to wear thin.

“You didn’t let her go, you just finally gave her some room to find her own way. There is only so much you can do there.”

“I’m not letting you go, Ayden, and I’m not going to give you any kind of room, so you better be prepared to deal with all of that for a long time. You promised forever and I plan on holding you to it.”

The hesitancy in his voice tore at my heart. I hated that I had put it there, hated that I had added to his insecurity. I knew all about wanting a steady and secure foundation for the future. I just never knew it was going to come in the form of a good-looking boy in too-tight pants holding a guitar and singing to me in a beautiful voice.

“Old me, new me and everything that’s in between or yet to come, all of it is yours, Jet.”

He pushed off the bed and stalked toward me, until we were toe-to-toe and I had to tilt my head back to look him in the eye.

“We can wait until your brother is all better to talk about this stuff. I have a couple days before I have to head back, and you look dead on your feet. I’m here to take care of you, not the other way around.”

I grabbed one of his hands that was hanging loosely at his side. It took a little bit of work to pry the fat silver ring off his finger, but when I had it free, I held it up between the two of us and looked him dead in the eye. He was watching me cautiously but didn’t ask me what I was doing.

“Do you love me, Jet? Despite it all, do you love me?”

“Ayden, I’m here. Of course I love you. I loved you before, I love you after, and I’ll love you for everything in-between.”

Had we not been in a grungy hotel room in Kentucky, there was a good chance that I would have gotten down on one knee to make the moment more dramatic, to prove to him just how serious I was about not running away anymore. But a girl had to have standards. I grabbed his left hand and put a kiss in the center of his palm.

“Jet Keller, I love you, and there is no future for me without you in it. I’m never going to bed with a man who isn’t you again. I don’t care if you’re a rock star or a car salesman, I just want there to be a ‘you and me’ forever. Will you marry me?”

I held his ring out in front of him and waited for him to answer me. His mouth opened and closed like a fish, and his eyes looked like they were going to bug out of his head. The entire thing would have been comical, if I hadn’t felt like I was going to swallow my tongue or pass out at any second.

“Are you serious right now?” I was surprised that his voice cracked a little. I had seen Jet in a lot of ways, but speechless and choked up wasn’t one of them.

“It doesn’t have to be today. It doesn’t have to be tomorrow. Hell, it doesn’t have to be this year or five years from now. I want you to understand I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, and I’m never going to pick anyone over you, Jet, never again not even myself. This is it. You are it.”

“Shouldn’t I be giving one of those to you and singing you ballads?”

If he didn’t just answer me, I was going to kick him in the nuts.

“Jet, you already picked me. This is me doing the same thing now. Can you stop being difficult and just answer the damn question?”

He took the ring from me and put it back on his finger where it normally lived.

“Yes, Ayden Cross, I will gladly marry you. Supersmart chemistry major or barefoot country girl, it doesn’t matter to me, either. I just want me and you.”

I jumped into his arms and let him swing me around. This time when he kissed me it was full of promises and all kinds of good things to come.

“Now, as much as I want to put you in bed right now for a different reason, you really do look like you’re about to keel over, and I don’t even want to tell you how long I was on an airplane over the last few days. Let’s grab a few winks and get you back to your brother. You can share the good news with him.”

I nodded against his chest and let him lead me to the bed. I threw the ugly comforter on the floor and was glad to see the sheets were clean and at least visibly free of stains. I toed off my cowboy boots and flopped down, face first, and groaned as my head hit the flat pillow. As happy as I was to see him, as glad as I was that things between us were straight and there were no more secrets to hide, there was no way I could keep my eyes open any longer. I had to take a nap and get back to Asa. Jet climbed in beside me and pulled me on top of him so that I was using him as a pillow. I put my cheek on his heart, resting it on top of the death angel tattooed there, and closed my eyes. He stroked a hand from the top of my head to the base of my spine.