Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
He sets me down and stares firmly into my eyes, his quicksilver dancing.
“No,” he snarls, his voice so loud people start taking a wider track around us until it’s like we’re on our own little planet on the sidewalk.
“No?” I whimper.
He reaches down and strokes my cheek with his thumb, a bright smile spreading across his face.
A smile that appears like sunshine through clouds, so hot it begins to melt me, but in a different way than in the bedroom.
“I was going to take us on a ride out to our house in the suburbs,” he tells me. “But that can wait. I can read you, Kimberly. I’ll always be able to read you. And right now my woman needs security. You need to know that I love you.”
I gasp, lost in the whirling madness of this moment.
But instead of wanting to run and hideaway, I want to run toward the chaos. Maybe this is how Jackie feels when she’s painting something profound. Maybe mine and Kris’s love will be the art of my life.
“I … I love you too,” I croak, tears rising in my eyes and streaming down my cheeks.
“Oh, Kimberly,” my silver-haired wolf says. “I love you more than you could ever believe. I love you more than I thought I could love. I thought I was broken. I thought Dad dying, and Mom—you know what happened to my mother. I thought it broke something in me. Maybe it did. But you, Kimberly, you put me back together.”
Tears choke me now, streaming freely down my cheeks.
The rest of the world doesn’t exist, just my man with his wide shoulders and his fluid movements as he reaches into his inside jacket pocket. Behind him, the carriage awaits, the horse shifting slightly.
Kris kneels down and presents the ring box, staring up at me with glistening intense eyes.
“Kimberly Grayson,” he says, his voice a deep rumble.
He opens the ring box and for a second I’m blinded.
Sunlight glitters against the diamond.
My eyes focus a moment later. It’s a subtle, elegant stone, large but somehow still retaining the grace of a smaller piece. It’s set within a white gold band, looking almost bone-colored. It just adds to the fairytale feeling.
I’m floating.
“Will you marry me?”
“Yes!,” I scream, not caring if a thousand passersby want to look our way.
“Yes, yes, yes,” I sing.
He slides the ring onto my finger, rising fluidly to his feet and pulling me toward him. I wrap my arms around his huge, firm shoulders and our lips collide, tingling.
He spins me around, both of us laughing as we kiss, and then he cradles me as he carries me toward the carriage.
I feel like I’m floating even more now, higher and higher, and I’m almost convinced the carriage is going to take off when the horses start trotting.
I rest my head against his shoulder, the city seeming far down from up here.
“You’re so damn beautiful,” he says passionately, wrapping his arm around me. “Inside and out. I love you.”
I turn toward the sun shafting through the clouds, making the road we’re driving down glitter on all sides with the windows of the skyscrapers. The sky above seems very far away, but the horizon seems strangely close. It’s our future.
Tears burn hot paths down my cheeks, making me whimper and turn my face into his shoulder.
“I love you,” I croak through my tears.
“They’re happy tears,” he says.
“Yes,” I moan.
“No,” he chuckles. “I’m not asking you. I’m telling you they’re happy tears.”
“Oh, is that so?” I giggle, sitting up and staring at him.
He grins at me. “No, my sweet fiancé. I just wanted to make you laugh.”
Epilogue
Three Weeks Later
Kristian
Sleeping with Kimberly has been a revelation.
I don’t mean the sex, even if that has been life-altering. I hunger for her, even more, every day. Just last night, she was bent over the kitchen counter, wearing an apron as I tugged on the straps and watched her big juicy ass bounce against my abs.
Sex with her will always turn me fierce, feral.
But sleep is a different world, too.
I’m not plagued by nightmares and wild dreams. I find myself drifting off, envisioning our future together instead. I sleep in as late as seven AM some days, and that’s damn late for a man like me.
This morning, I yawn awake and reach out for Kimberly. She’s stayed at my place more nights than she’s stayed at hers. Half her belongings are here already.
Last night, I asked her to move in.
She wept beautifully, melting into my arms, and I cradled her and laughed.
“Of course we’re going to live together,” I told her. “What did you think?”
She giggled as I kissed away her tears.
“I know,” she’d said. “The thing is, I’ve already spoken to Jackie. She said she’s on board. She can turn my room into a studio. She said I should follow my heart.”