Her delicate phrasing pulls a dark chuckle from me. “Yeah, I think that’s also why I’m feeling like shit. I thought I was always clear, but she had this idea, I guess…”
“Uh, I can’t speak for Inga, but I don’t think most women can separate sex and emotion, even if they tell themselves they can.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
She shrugs. “Too bad.”
Yeah, I’ve definitely beat this conversation into the ground. But it felt good to get it off my chest. It’s not really something I would discuss with any of the guys. I lean over and kiss her forehead. “Thanks for listening to that, baby. I’m sure it’s the last thing you felt like hearing.”
She pats my chest in response. I can’t believe how kindhearted my girl is. Every other woman I’ve ever known would have used that conversation as an excuse to tear Inga down or bitch me out. Not Hope. I’m a lucky fuck.
Incessant buzzing reaches me from the floor. “My phone, babe.”
“Go ahead.”
Crawling out of the bed, I dig around ‘til I find my jeans and dump my cell phone into my hand. “It’s Wrath. He was worried about you,” I explain.
“What?” I snap into the phone as I settle back into the bed. I hold the phone away from my ear so Hope can hear him.
“Where are you, dick?”
“At Hope’s.”
He blows out a relieved breath. “She okay?”
“Yes.”
“Are you guys okay?”
Next to me, Hope sighs, “Awww.”
I run my hand over her hair. “Yeah, we’re good.”
“Are you coming back up tonight?”
I glance at Hope and quirk my eyebrow. I’m leaving it up to her.
“Yeah, we’ll be up in a little while,” she answers.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, are you going to turn into one of those annoying couples who answers every phone call together?” Wrath bitches.
“Bye, Wrath.”
Hope grabs my phone and ends the call for me.
Eventually, she rolls over and clicks on a light. Blinking from the glare, I don’t see the room right away. But when things finally come into focus, I’m shocked.
“You’ve been packing?”
A nervous smile flickers over her lips. “Well, we talked about moving in together… and I just thought it was time to get rid of some things. It’s harder than I thought, though.”
Her hands flutter in the air as she’s talking. Even flustered and rumpled, she’s effortlessly beautiful. My eyes zero in on her slender fingers and notice how naked her ring finger looks.
Exquisite Baubles isn’t used to having bikers in their delicate, prissy store. The unease rolling off the sales guy doesn’t concern me, though.
I’m here to get my girl an engagement ring. This place is supposed to have the best jewelry designer in the area. My girl’s getting nothing less than the best.
So I put up with the attitude.
For now.
Unfolding the drawing Bricks sketched out for me, I lay it out on the crystal-clear glass counter. “Can you do it or not?”
The sales guy’s eyes bug out. “Let me get Arthur.”
Arthur reminds me a bit of Sparky. Not that he’s high, but he clearly doesn’t like being taken away from his precious stones and metals.
He picks up the drawing and studies it. “The top here, this is the engagement ring?”
Ah, he gets it. “Yes.”
“Clever. Very fitting for a queen.”
Right. Essentially, Hope’s my queen, and I want something that reflects that without being gaudy or obnoxious.
Arthur doesn’t care about the patches on my cut, my inked skin, my grease-stained jeans, or anything else. He swings the counter door open and beckons me inside. “Come.”
I follow him into a small room where he starts tapping information into a computer. He scans in the drawing, does some more tapping, and then hands me a printout.
He’s made a few changes, but since they only enhance the design, I nod.
“It’s intricate work, so it will take me some time.”
That’s not what I want to hear. “I need it as soon as possible.”
Arthur studies me for a moment. “How long have you known her?”
“Almost three years.”
“When did you know she was the one?”
“The day I met her. It’s been a long, hard, twisted road to get here.”
Arthur nods. He scribbles down a number on the top of the page. “Leave a fifty percent deposit with Kenny up front. I’ll start working on it today, but it could be a couple weeks. I must order a few things to complete it, and I have no control over my suppliers.”
I certainly understand that.
“Leave a number where I can reach you.”
The amount isn’t as high as I expected, so I’m prepared to pay in full today. I count out the bills for Kenny, whose eyes are big and much more pleasant than earlier. Arthur wanders back out to see how we’re doing. He nods at the pile of cash.
“I need it soon. But it needs to be perfect. You feel me, Arthur?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” We quickly shake on the deal, and I head out.
As soon as I get back to the clubhouse, I tuck the drawing and receipt into my locked cabinet in the war room. Not that I think Hope has ever snooped through my stuff upstairs. But it would be the worst possible timing if she decided to get curious now and ruin my surprise.
Since I gave her the property patch, I don’t think she expects anything else. Everyone has explained that in our world, it’s as good as a ring. Even though I swore I would never get married again, that was before I knew Hope. Although it’s a big fucking deal to me, the property patch isn’t enough. I need to own her in every single way available. It doesn’t escape my notice how I never offered my first wife a property patch. She got the ring, nothing more.
Hope will have everything.
It’s going to be torture waitin’ for that ring to be done. While I’m waiting, there’s other things I need to get in place. I think I know the exact way I want to propose to her.
I want it to be perfect.
Didn’t give it a lot of thought the first time, but I am now.
I’m not sure why I’m dwelling on my failed marriage. It was a lifetime ago. I was a kid who had no fucking clue. What if I’d met Hope back then? She would have been eighteen, right before she met Clay. Would stupid twenty-three-year-old me have recognized what a treasure she was? Would she have had the strength back then to stand by me when I went to prison? Would we have survived all the bullshit the club went through when Wrath, Z, and I took over?
I don’t know the answers to any of these pointless questions. All I do know is we’re right where we should be.
The rest is irrelevant.
“Hey, feel like going for a hike in the woods?” Rock asks out of the blue one afternoon.
We’ve been spending more time up at the clubhouse lately. Well, actually for a week or so, we were snowed in. Since the courts never seem to close—even for piles of snow—I had to ask Adam to cover the few cases I had. That certainly set me back a bit, but it doesn’t bother me like it might have a couple months ago. Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I’m very content right where I am. I can’t say it wasn’t amusing to watch Z and Hoot try to keep up with all the snow we got pummeled with either.
Since the big nor’easter, it’s been cold but sunny, melting away a lot of the snow.
Glancing up, I crane my neck to see out the window and shiver. “No. It’s freakin’ cold out,” I finally answer Rock’s question.
“Babe, it’s supposed to be in the forties today.”
“Yeah. Cold.” Taking a closer look at Rock, I can tell he’s frustrated. “Okay. I didn’t bring any hiking boots up with me, though.”
His mouth pops into a grin as he strides over to his closet. When he comes out, he’s carrying a large bo
x, which he sets at the end of my lounge chair.
My eyes skip from the box to his face. “You bought me hiking boots?”
“Yup.”
Odd, but sweet. Even stranger, he presents me with a thick pair of woolly socks.
Sensing he’s up to something, I keep an eye on him while I get ready.
Once we’re properly bundled up, we trudge through the light layer of snow that’s more crunchy than powdery this late in the winter.
Rock stops near a scattering of pine trees that looks very familiar.
“It’s a little cold for sex in the woods, Rock.”
He snorts, and we tread a bit farther before he stops again. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be seeing, but a large area has been marked off with pink surveyor tape.
A very large area.
“What do you think?”
“What am I looking at?”
“Building site. Our building site. I want to build us a house here.”
I suck in a deep breath and immediately start choking on the cold air.
Rock chuckles and pats my back. “Careful, baby doll.”
“I love it,” I finally manage.
Some of the tension he’d been carrying on the way up here drains out of him. “Good. We’ve got a few months before we can begin, so there’s plenty of time to figure out what we want.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll have to spend more time at the clubhouse until it’s finished.”
I cock my head to the side, inviting him to explain.
“I’m thinking of renting my house to Bricks and Winter. Give them a chance to save up and buy it in a couple years. Got the fenced-in yard and enough bedrooms for their kids. Plus, it’s in the same school district Bricks’s kids are in, so it should make things easier on him.”
Inside, I melt at how much thought Rock’s put into this. “Where are you going to work on your bikes?”
“The club owns that vacant piece of property next to Crystal Ball. I’m thinkin’ of opening a shop there eventually. But for now, I’ll keep doing it out of my garage. Gonna have Bricks help with the more elaborate paint jobs.”
“That sounds great.”
“So do you like this spot? We can pick out another one if you want. Got more than enough land.”
Taking in the view, I picture what it would be like to live out here. It’s peaceful, and if I ever get bored, the clubhouse is a short—
Next to me, Rock is suddenly on one knee.
And my hand is in his hand.
“Rock?”
“Hope, I waited a long time for you. I fall more in love with your beauty, kindness, loyalty, and courage every day. When we spend our first night in the house we’re going to build here, I want you to be my wife.”
Holy shit. When he explained the property patch meant wife status in his world, I figured that was his way of telling me he didn’t want to get married again. Yet here he is—holy shit!
“Rock—”
“Babe, the only word I want to hear is yes.”
“Yes! Of course, yes!”
He drops his gaze to the ground and lets out a barely audible sigh. I can’t stop the tears rolling down my cheeks as he places the most beautiful ring on my finger. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The intricate setting looks like a small crown, showcased by a diamond-encrusted interwoven band. The stones sparkle and dance in the sunlight streaming through the trees as I hold out my hand and wiggle my fingers.
Lifting himself from the ground, he sweeps me into his arms and seals his mouth over mine for a burning kiss. When we part, I’m dizzy, and one thought dominates. “Rock, please let me say something.”
His eyes narrow, but he nods.
“You remember the doctor told me I might not be able to have children. If I can’t give you a family, are you going to end up hating me?”
Confusion that morphs into anger settles over his face. “Hope, listen carefully to me. If my sole goal in life was to reproduce, I could have done it a hundred times over by now.”
“That’s not as romantic as you think.”
He shakes off my attempt at a joke. “I love you. All I need is you. We are perfect together. We’ll figure this out like we’ve figured out everything else. Together. You want kids, we’ll figure it out. I hear science is pretty amazing these days. You don’t want kids, I’m perfectly content with it just being the two of us for the rest of our lives. You are more important to me than any potential future children.” He gestures back the way we came, toward the clubhouse. “Besides, we already have a houseful of kids to look after.”
A very unladylike sound erupts from me, somewhere between a snort and a sob. In my wildest fantasies, I never could have come up with a man like Rock. The thought and care he put into proposing astounds me. His words. The beautiful ring that he undoubtedly had specially designed. Every detail. I can’t even—
His fingers settle under my chin, tipping up my head, interrupting my thoughts. “Are we clear on this?”
Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I nod my head. How did I get so lucky?
“Don’t make that face at me, Hope. Even though it’s so cold my balls have crawled back up inside my body, I could pin you to that tree and fuck you senseless right about now.”
“That is some lovely imagery, Rochlan,” I manage before falling into a fit of giggles.
We’re engaged.
The hike back to the clubhouse is really more of a sprint. Hope wasn’t kidding when she said it was too cold for sex in the woods. The thought of it shrivels my dick. But the thought of getting her alone in our room and stripping her down ‘til she’s wearing nothing but my ring keeps my feet moving over the rough ground.
Her excited yes plays over and over in my head.
Breathless, we tumble into the parking area around the clubhouse. Hope’s giggles twist my own mouth up. Snagging her around the waist, I tug her against me for a kiss.
Breaking away, she runs her hands through my hair, staring up at me. The smile’s gone, but there’s a gleam of mischief in her eyes that’s hard to miss.
“When do you want to get married?” she asks.
Right this second.
“Whenever you want,” I answer.
“Where?”
That one’s easier, because as long as Hope’s at the end of the aisle, I don’t give two fucks where we do it.
“Anywhere you want.”
Her fingers lace behind my neck, but her gaze drifts around the woods behind us. “How about here? I like the idea of getting married outside, close to nature,” she says with a dreamy tilt to her lips.
That’s fine with me. I even know the perfect spot on the property. But as seamlessly as my girl has accepted everything about me and my world, I wonder if she knows what she’s asking.
“Babe, you sure you want your family and friends at a white-trash biker-hillbilly wedding in the woods?”
Pain slashes across her face, and too late, I realize what an awful thing that was to say to her. Her arms tighten around my neck, forcing me down to her level. “You are my family.” She jerks her head toward the clubhouse. “You and your club of delinquent, loyal biker brothers are my family. Anyone who doesn’t like it isn’t invited.”
My heart is racing so hard. I want to drop down on my knees and ask her to marry me all over again. “I love you.”
Her fierce face softens. “I love you, too.”
“Aww, hey, lovebirds, where ya been?” Trinity calls out from somewhere behind us.
Hope spins out of my embrace, dropping me like a hot muffler, and races over the gravel. “We’re engaged,” she shouts, flashing her hand in the air.
Trinity bounces on her toes and claps her hands. When Hope reaches her, the two of them hug, and my chest tightens seeing how close they’ve gotten.
“Lemme see!” Trinity gasps.
I watch them ooh and ah over the ring. Even from here, I can see Trinity going into party-planning mode. I give them a f
ew minutes of giggling together before I head their way.
Trinity glances up as I approach. Taking in her glossy eyes, I hesitate. She gives Hope’s hand a quick squeeze, then throws her arms around me. “I’m so happy for you, Rock-n-Roll.”
Chuckling into her hair, I return the hug. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
“What’s going on out here?” Wrath questions from the doorway. My gaze flicks to his placid expression, and for a number of reasons, I wonder how he’ll take it.
I can see Trinity’s dying to spill our news, but she waits.
Hope flashes her hand at my brother. “We’re getting married.”
“Holy fuck.” He glances at the snow-covered ground separating us from him then down at his cast. “Get the fuck over here,” he says with an irritated wave of his hand.
She runs up the stairs while Trinity and I hang back for a second. Wrath surprises the fuck out of me by taking her hand and checking out the ring while Hope excitedly chatters away. Then he outright floors me by kissing her forehead and whispering something in her ear that makes her grin.
“And that’s enough of that,” I grumble.
Beside me, Trinity breaks into laughter.
The first thing I do when we get inside is send a text to Sophie, Lilly, and Mara, sharing my good news.
My phone vibrates in my hand instantly.
Lilly.
It’s hard to understand her through all the screaming. “You did not just tell me you’re engaged via a group text!” she shouts.
“I did.”
My phone beeps.
Mara.
“I’m so happy for you, sweetheart,” she says softly. “We need to get together Friday so you can celebrate with your girls. And I need to see Rock’s rock.” She giggles into the phone. “Hamilton’s?”
The place where Sophie orchestrated Rock and me getting together? Yeah, that seems appropriate to celebrate our engagement.
I don’t hear back from Sophie until later in the evening. “Hope! I’m sorry. I’ve been crazy all day. Congratulations! I’m really happy for you guys.”
I recount to her in detail how Rock proposed.
“That’s so sweet, Hope. Who knew such a scary guy could be so romantic?” she teases. At least I think she’s teasing. It’s hard to tell over the phone.