Broken Wings (A Romantic Suspense)(39)

I jam a slice of plain cheese pizza into her mouth. She mumbles something through it then tears off a bite with a motion of her neck and glares at me.

“Um,” she says after swallowing. “I can’t do, ah…”

“What?”

Her cheek turns a vivid pink. “I can’t really, um, give you a blow job. It’s too hard to open my mouth that wide.”

I laugh. “That’s okay, honey. Really.”

Her head droops, and she leans against me. “I can’t do everything other girls can do. I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. Best sex I’ve ever had.”

I grin, and she looks up at me and sticks out her tongue. Quickly I dart in and kiss her. She tastes like tomato sauce and herself. I wish she wasn’t wearing my musky shirt, but I’m not going to take it off her. Well, maybe I will. I reach down and pop the top button and she bats my hand away.

She doesn’t do it back up, though.

“I’m tired. Where are we, anyway?”

“Phone says we’re near the Oklahoma border. One or two days and we should make it.”

“I don’t see why we should hurry. We don’t even know they’re looking for us. We have another three days before our parents even get back from their honeymoon.”

I sigh. “Ellie, they’re going to notice I’m gone. My father probably already knows. They’re probably back in the country already. For all we know, the FBI is looking for us.”

“For what? I’m an adult, damn it. I can go where I want. I wanted to go with you. Skipping work and leaving the house isn’t a crime.”

“You know,” I say, “Las Vegas isn’t far from Arizona. We could go to one of those wedding chapels.”

She sits up, facing me. “What?”

“Well,” I say.

“Did you just propose to me?”

I sit up and take both her hands in mine. She flinches when I touch her left hand, for all her protests that she can’t feel anything with it. Her fingers, or the first two, anyway, move a little and tighten just a bit around mine.

“Ellie, will you marry me?”

She doesn’t say anything. The tension thickens in the air. Every second that goes by that her lips don’t move, my heart clenches tighter. She blinks, faster and faster, and a tear wells in her eye before sliding down her cheek.

“Come on. I haven’t steered you wrong yet.”

“Jack, I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if I can have a family. What if I…” she trails off.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s stupid. Jack, this is so sudden—”

“Sudden? I’ve loved you for twelve years of my life. We’ve already been apart so long. I never want to let you go. Stay with me. Take my name, have my children if you want. If my father doesn’t like it, we’ll go someplace far away, just you and me. We’ll stay out here and never go home. I want you, Ellie. Forever. You and no one else.”

“You shouldn’t. You should want somebody smarter and better and beautiful—”

“There isn’t anybody. You are beautiful.”

I let go of her hand and press my palm to her burned cheek. “I’m not going to lie to you, Ellie. The scars can be hard to look at, but they don’t make you ugly. When you laugh or smile you’re as beautiful as you ever were. That’s what I want in my life. I want you to be happy.”

“Okay. Let’s do it. Yes.”

A sudden burst of energy tears through my body and without thinking I’m on my feet, lifting her by the waist. I spin her around and she wraps her legs around me and kisses me, hard.

“I love you,” I tell her. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Jack. For as long as this lasts.”

I lower her to the floor, and she leans on me until she gets her balance, grinning as she brushes her hair out of her face. She dumps the leftover pizza in the trash and I pull the covers back.

Ellie sits on the edge of the bed and pulls her hair into a ponytail. As I lie down she scoots up to me and turns around, rubbing her butt against my hip. I turn over and take her in my arms.

“If you keep doing that I’m going to have to do something about it.”

Ellie shudders.

“Jack, if I asked you to, would you do, um, stuff? To me?”

My eyes flick open. “Like what?”

“Like…spank me.”

My head lifts up from the pillow. “What? Like smack you on the ass?”

“Yeah, but…hard. Like it hurts.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I want it.”

“What, like, now?”

“No, when we…you know. You can be a little rougher if you want. I’ll let you know if you’re hurting me.”

“Ellie, um.”

“I don’t want you to hurt me. I just want you to…show me who’s boss. In bed, I mean.”

She sounds so embarrassed, it would be adorable if it wasn’t such an odd request.

“I don’t want you to treat me like I’m broken, or I’m fragile.”

“I won’t.”

“Good.” She yawns in her cute little way. “I’m so tired.”