Marc (Bowen Boys, #4)(30)
“I was going to say that I’d take care of that for you, but I realize that you’d be pissed at me again. And since I have plans for that luscious body of yours later, I have decided to be man enough to ask for your help in helping them.” He grinned. “How would you like to make it so that your parents aren’t worried so much?”
“What do you mean?” She followed him to the chair and sat in his lap when he patted it. She watched him as he seemed to be working something out in his mind. When he smiled at her, she felt like the sun had warmed her.
“I have money and you have money as well. A great deal of it. Not endless, mind you, but close. I’ve invested well, and when Walker married Caitlynne, she gave each of us a substantial amount of money as well. She paid off all our debts, and if our houses were paid for, she gave us enough to purchase another. Her money is pretty much endless.” She started to ask him what this had to do with her parents when he kissed her quiet. “Now, as I said, we have a few houses that we rent out. They are in good neighborhoods and within a few miles of us. I think, as a couple, you and I should discuss having your parents, if they want to, move into one of them as a gift to us for our wedding.”
“I didn’t know we were getting married.” He laughed and asked her to stand up for a second. “No, I like it right here for now. You will explain what you mean by the wedding comment.”
“I can’t if you’re sitting on my lap.” She stood up and he turned her and sat her in the chair. “I meant to do this yesterday, but we were sort of busy with other things.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny little box. She stood up quickly, only to be pressed back down into the chair. When Marc knelt down on one knee, she tried to stand again.
“This will work much better if you don’t keep acting like a jack-in-the-box and let me propose to you.” He slipped the ring on her finger to the first knuckle and held his hand across her lap at the same time. “Damn but you’re stubborn, aren’t you? Jonny Thomas, I would very much like for you to become my wife. As soon as possible. Tomorrow, if I can arrange it.”
“Marry you?” He nodded and pushed the ring all the way onto her finger. “You can’t possibly think that…I thought we were going to discuss our staying together after this thing with Roy was over?”
“Well, I don’t really think that’s going to be necessary, do you? I love you, and I’m reasonably sure you love me as well.” She just stared at the ring. “You’re supposed to say ‘why, yes, Marc, I love you very much,’ not stare at the ring like you’ve never seen one before.”
“I haven’t. Not on my hand anyway. This is what you want?” Marc shook his head. “You’ve already changed your mind?”
“No, this is what we want. You do, don’t you, Jonny? You want to be my wife?” He kissed her hand and held it to his cheek. “You wouldn’t want to break my poor little heart would you?”
“What if we—?” He cut her off with a kiss. She melted into him as he stood and pulled her to her feet as well. When he lifted his head, she blinked several times, trying to bring things back into focus.
“We could ‘what if’ this to death and we’d never be married. We could think of all sorts of reasons why we shouldn’t do this and not be together. Or we could just skip all that in favor of saying yes and worry about everything else as it comes.” He kissed her again. “I love you. I want to be with you. I want to have babies with you. I especially want to work on having those babies with you.”
She laughed. “Why yes, Marc, I love you very much and would love to spend the rest of my life giving you a hard time and making you want to pull your hair out.”
He hugged her tightly. “Close enough. But I think I’ll have to teach you to be romantic. You’re a little on the weird side.”
~~~
Roy watched the video again. He didn’t see what had Harris all in a tizzy, but he was willing, for now, to give him the benefit of the doubt. He peered closer to the computer when he indicated that it was coming up. Then he saw her.
“Christ.” Harris nodded as Roy backed the DVD up to watch it again. She was at a cash register in the same f*cking town as they were right now. They had given up looking there after she’d run, thinking that she would have been long gone, and as far from them as she could get. And here she was hiding under their f*cking noses.
“I told you I’d find her. According to the manager of the store, she wasn’t a regular but he remembered her. She said that she owed him some extra money on account of her getting home and realizing that she’d not paid for something, a coat or some shit. He said he remembered her ‘cause of that. And she was a beauty.”
Roy nodded, trying to think what to do now. The shifter that they’d bought from Kidd had turned out to be a dud. Who knew that in order to shift to a panther you needed permission from the local family? He’d had to look up what the f*ck he’d been talking about and found that a pack of panthers was called that. A family. What a lame-assed name for a bunch of big f*cking predators like cats. He personally would have called them a pack, sounded so much better than a family.
“Have we got someone watching this store front?” Harris nodded. “It’s doubtful that she’ll return, but it’s good to know that she’s close. Stupid bitch will be mine before too much longer.”