Jet (Marked Men, #2)(89)

“Are we really gonna get married?”

I laughed a little. “Sure. Why not?”

“What if I want to do it sooner rather than later?”

I tapped the ball on his nipple ring through the fabric of his shirt with the tip of my fingernail.

“Whenever you want, Jet. I told you I’m not going anywhere.”

“I feel like I need to put a big-ass rock on your finger before I get back on that plane.”

I sighed and wrapped my hands around his waist.

“You can do whatever you want as long as I get a nap first.”

He snorted and said something I didn’t hear, because I couldn’t fight the pull of sleep anymore. With him here, I finally had a sense that everything had a chance of working out fine.

I slept like a log for two hours. The alarm on my phone went off after only one hour, but apparently I had been so out of it that Jet had turned it off and let me sleep for another full hour. When I woke up, I was rushing around, trying to take a quick shower and change into clean clothes, while he texted everyone back in Denver to update them on what was going on. He didn’t look any more rested than I felt, but he never complained, and when I told him I was probably going to have to stay overnight at the hospital again, he just shrugged and told me he would hang out until they made him leave.

When we walked into the intensive care unit, I noticed the way the nurses looked at us—well, looked at Jet, and not just because we were in the South and his style stood out. There was something about his wild hair and general swagger that just drew attention, primarily female attention, but I was okay with it. He was hot, he wore pants that were tight enough to leave little to the imagination, and he had eyes that were enough to break your heart between each blink. He was just something special and he was mine, so I was going to enjoy it. He put his arm around my shoulders and tucked me into his side when we walked into the room.

Asa didn’t look any better. He was still all bandaged up and he was still unconscious, but his chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm so he wasn’t dead and at this point I was considering that a win. Jet sat in the chair that had been my home for the last few days and I reached over the side of the bed to pat the cast that encased Asa’s hand.

“Hey, big brother, I brought someone to meet you. You should wake up and say hi.”

I was a little choked up. It was hard to see him like this, and it was awful to think he might not wake up and that if he did, he wouldn’t be the same ornery son of a bitch he had always been.

Jet pulled me down on his lap and we sat like that for a long time. We talked about the tour and how he was tired of being on the road, but that seeing Europe was amazing. He told me about how he was considering starting a record label, which sounded like the perfect career for him, and how that meant he was going to have to do more traveling between Colorado, L.A., New York, and Austin. He sounded excited, and that meant I was excited for him. I told him about growing up in Woodward and how Asa was the best liar, the slickest con artist that had ever lived. I told him that he was nearly impossible to not love, but somehow when it mattered, he came through and acted like a big brother should. I told him about Silas and how he was the one who tried to break into the house. At that point, I thought he was going to stage a full-blown lynching party, and I offered to go scrounge up some coffee and snacks to calm him down.

When I walked past the nurses’ station, the two young nurses had their heads bent together and were talking about Jet’s very memorable backside. They both gave me a startled look and all I could do was shrug and agree. “I know. Believe me, I know.”

The line at the little café took a lot longer than I thought, and I wasn’t really hungry for anything, but I didn’t know when Jet had eaten last, so I grabbed a whole bunch of different stuff hoping something would tide him over. When I got back to the room, the door was open a crack so I could slip in, but I stopped because Jet was on his feet next to the bed talking to Asa’s prone form. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he sounded intense and I didn’t want to interrupt.

“I’m going to marry your sister.”

The idea that I was going to be with Jet forever still gave me the shivers.

“That means I’m going to protect her. That means I’m going to keep her safe and make sure nothing ever hurts her again. I’m going to give her everything she ever wanted and anything she ever needs. When you wake up”—he paused and I could almost feel how hard he was trying to impress upon Asa what he was saying even though he was unconscious—“if you try to be anything to her but an awesome brother, a supportive, loving part of our family, I swear on everything you believe in, that what those bikers did to you will look like a picnic when I’m done with you. I love her and I will not let anyone use her, or manipulate her again. I hope nearly dying gives you the wake-up call you so clearly needed, because you have an amazing sister who loves you and is willing to put up with a lot of shit. We can have this chat again when you can respond, but I thought it was best to just get it out of the way now.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to laugh or cry at that, so instead I just cleared my throat so he knew I was coming, and made my way the rest of the way into the room. I handed him the coffee and the snacks and put my hand on his lower back and kissed him on the cheek.

“The nurses outside think you have a nice butt, even if it is encased in some girly-ass purple pants.”