It had always been hard for me to leave Ryan. After the magic of the last two days, the thought of saying goodbye to him when he returned to New York was more painful than normal. We weren’t even halfway into the flight, and I was already fighting tears.
I tried to hide it, but Ryan could read me better than anyone in the world. Taking my hand, he kissed my palm then placed it over the center of his heart. “Soon, we will be together every day. A few more months and you will be back in New York full time.”
His tone was soft, but he couldn’t mask the tension in his face. He was just as destroyed about leaving me as I was.
“Why do the months feel like years?” I whispered. “June feels like forever away.”
“I’ll be back before June.” Taking my hand, he tugged me to my feet and then down onto his lap. “As often as I can get away, I’ll be in Creswell Springs with you. Even if we only get a few hours at a time together, it will be worth it just to hold you.”
Clenching my eyes closed to keep the tears from spilling over, I buried my face in his neck. “What if you get tired of doing the long-distance thing? What if…you fall out of love with me?”
His arms crushed me against him. “Nova, I’ve loved you since I was eight years old. What I feel for you will never change.”
“But what if it does?” I choked out, voicing my biggest fear.
He grasped my chin and tilted my head until he was looking into my face. Blinking my eyes open, I looked at him through wet lashes. “Is that why you want to wait to get married? You’re afraid I’ll stop loving you?” He clenched his jaw, causing a muscle to tick in his neck for a moment before he spoke again. “Are you giving me an out?”
I couldn’t lie to him, so I remained silent, but that was all he needed for confirmation.
“Damn it, Nova,” he growled. “That’s bullshit.”
“Why?” I asked quietly. “I want to spend my life with you, but I also want you to have the option in case your feelings change.”
“You think you’re an option?” he demanded angrily. “This was never an option. It was written in stone the day I met you. You and I are destined to be together. There is no other ending but the two of us together until death takes one of us. And even then, I will continue to love you. In this life and the next, you are mine.”
“But what if—”
With a vicious curse, he attacked my mouth, effortlessly shutting me up. I kissed him back because kissing him was all I ever wanted to do. The way his fingers bit into my skin, the way his lips seemed to fuse to mine, he owned me with nothing more than an angry kiss.
When he lifted his head minutes later, we were both gasping for air. “There is no ‘what if,’ just as there will be no waiting. We’re getting married in November.”
Licking my lips, I tried to find an argument, but the whole “I refuse to be a teen bride” thing had seemed lame to my own ears the last time I’d said it and was even more so now that the truth was out. My cousins would all gang up on me if they even knew I’d said that to begin with, especially River.
“Okay, fine,” I gave in. As soon as the words left me, a weight felt as if it were lifted off my chest. “But if you think this gets you out of proposing, you’re dead wrong, mister.”
“When have I ever not given you what you wanted, my heart?” he murmured against my lips.
“You make me sound spoiled,” I complained halfheartedly.
“Baby, spoiling you is my greatest pleasure.” Something darkened in his eyes, and instantly, my body reacted to the spark in them. “I love you so fucking much.”
“Ryan.”
“November can’t come fast enough,” he groaned, leaning his head back against the chair. “I’m going to be a wreck until that ring is on your finger.”
A soft laugh escaped me. “Oh, please. A ring isn’t going to calm you down. Not even a little. Nothing ever will.”
“I’m calm when you’re beside me,” he argued. “Every time you touch me, this tightness that chokes the life from me eases. I have no worries, no bad memories, no enemies. In those moments, there is only you and peace.”
A sob bubbled up in my throat. “R-Ryan.”
“Shh,” he soothed, kissing along my jaw. “Your tears are my kryptonite. Even when they are happy tears, they are the worst kind of torture, my heart.”
“Y-you definitely know how to kiss it b-better.” I turned in his arms so I was straddling his lap, my tears already drying on my lashes as he kissed down my neck to the top of my shirt. “You know, you demanding I marry you is pretty special.”
He flexed his fingers on my ass. Lifting his head, he locked his heated gaze with mine. “Nova, our first time is not going to be on a jet.”
I rocked my hips, grinding down into his hardness. “It would be fun, though.”
“Come here,” he grumped with a half smile. “Kiss me again, baby.”
“Fine,” I sighed but brushed my lips over his. “I guess we shouldn’t give poor Oliver a show.”
He thrust his fingers into my hair, pulling my head back slightly. “No, we will not give him one. Because if he or anyone else so much as hears the way you moan for me, I will have to end their lives then and there. Those are for my ears only, Nova.”
The way he pulled my hair mixed with the aggression in his voice only turned me on more. “Wh-what if I’m very, very quiet?”
He sank his teeth into my neck, nipping just hard enough to sting before licking the tender spot. “You have already proven to me that you can’t be quiet when I touch you, my heart. Now be a good girl and kiss me.”
* * *
I barely took two steps up onto the porch of my house when the front door opened and Mom walked out. Her gaze went straight to the way Ryan was holding my hand, making her beautiful blue eyes brighten even more before they traveled to my left hand.
“Damn it!” she grumbled under her breath, her shoulders drooping comically in disappointment.
“What?” I asked with a laugh.
She sighed. “We had a little bet going. Raven and I both thought you would come home with a ring on your finger.”
I lifted my hand and turned it left and right to emphasize the lack of a ring. “Sorry, Mom, but—”
“No ring!” Dad whooped as he came out onto the porch. “I’ll be taking that payment tonight, thank you very much.”
“Gross,” I muttered to Ryan under my breath. I could only imagine what the prize for winning the bet was, and I didn’t want those images in my head. Especially when pink filled my mom’s cheeks, and she slapped at Dad’s chest, telling him to shush.
Ryan laughed quietly as he pulled me against him, tucking me under his arm and letting his hand slide down to my hip. It was a bold move to make in front of my father, but Dad had always been laid-back when it came to anything to do with my best friend and me. When I glanced his way to garner his reaction to Ryan holding me so possessively, it was to see something close to approval in his green eyes—and maybe a little relief too.
“Mom.” I pulled her attention back to me. “I don’t have a ring—”