“Are you asking me to marry you, honey?”
“No, I’m tellin’ you by the end of this year you’ll be wearing my rings, bearing my name and, probably, pregnant with my baby.”
“You gonna order me to kiss you so I can get all tingly or are you just gonna stare at me?"
He knew his smile hit his eyes when he muttered, "Kiss me, honey.”
“I see a badge on four belts. I’d like it explained why he’s here,” Debbie demanded, eyeing up Cal.
“Mostly ‘cause there’s nothin’ on TV,” Cal replied, Debbie’s eyes narrowed and Merry chuckled.”
“Jesus, holy fuck,” Rivera murmured, coming to a quick halt and looking up at the tall, hulking, tattoo-sleeved Ryker. “Boy, what’d your Mama feed you growin’ up?” he asked.
“Newborn babies,” Ryker answered, scowling down at Rivera.”
“This is the deal, Angel. You… ran… away from me. And I tasted regret for the first time in my life. And that didn’t sting, it fuckin’ killed.”
“I’m falling in love with you, Mike Haines.” As I spoke, with every word his arms got tighter and tighter and his face, already close, became a breath away.
“Angel, you’re already gone.”
I blinked and asked, “Sorry?”
“I read your diaries. I caught your pass in that hotel room. I listened to your offer to stay. I saw you wave good-bye at the airport and got your call before I’d pulled out of the parking lot. You fell with a kiss. I know, honey, because I was right there with you.”
“The One.” Mike declared and Merry’s brows shot up.
“The One?” Merry asked.
“The One.” Mike confirmed.
“In a weekend?” Merry asked.
“In a weekend,” Mike confirmed.
“No shit?” Merry whispered.
“Absolutely no fuckin’ shit,” Mike answered.
Merry whistled. Then he smiled. Then he repeated, “Good for you, man.”
“Oh yeah,” Mike muttered.”
“I haven’t bought Jerra flowers since I pissed her off when we were datin’ and fell asleep durin’ some crappy-ass movie she forced me to take her to sayin’ that movie was Hollywood’s version f us. How could I fall asleep watching the story of us, she asks. And, bro, if that was us, we are borin’ as shit.”
“Any good woman knows two things. She knows how to take care of herself and she knows how to take care of the ones she loves. Today, you demonstrated you’re a good woman Rees. And it was an honor to be there because it was a sight to behold.”
“Have at it. She seems to obey you.”
“I don’t obey! He’s an alpha! It’s just that I don’t have any choice!” Dusty shouted to her back.”
“Holy fuck,” Sully muttered, his eyes on Mike. “Funeral hook up. Didn’t know you had that in you. Impressed.”
“I took in a deep breath and let it out.
He had my back. He had my front. He had my family.
He had my heart.”
“But between these two men she loved, both in one way or another holding her close always, Clarisse Haines knew she would never fall.”
“I’m sayin’ that I care about you, I do it deeply and I have for a really fuckin’ long time. We’re gonna explore this and I hope to God the feelin’ I got is not wrong because I tried time and again to make it feel wrong but all it ever felt was right.”
“As I’m concerned, Fin, you did not fuck up. Those boys didn’t touch my daughter. So the way I see it, as her man, you did your job.”
“I stood there. Still. Frozen. Looking at the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life. The man I fell in love with when he was still mostly a boy. The man who raised two great kids against the odds. The man who kept the streets of my hometown safe. The only man outside my brother and father who even tried to take care of me, he did it in a way that was beautiful, precious, so I let him. The man who made me happy. The man who was happy being with me.”
“Gotta admit, I wasn’t committed to the task,” Ryker confessed. “But for a bitch in a tight tee with a great rack who makes twelve layer cakes and likes drunk sex, I’ll step it up,” he offered.”
“We already established I’m whipped. Got no problem with that considering how that’s come about puts me in a good mood.”
“I grabbed my shot of tequila. Then I tossed it back. When I put my empty down to the bar and after I took in a deep breath, I informed her, “I like you. I need a new best friend. I’ve added you to the top of a list that has one name. Yours.”
“And girls tell me he’s hot.” He grinned and finished, “I wouldn’t know, seein’ as I’m a guy but I look like him and I’m smokin’ hot so he’s gotta be hot.”
“You were my high school girlfriend. You put out at fifteen. I put up with a lotta shit back then I would not put up with now. You had eyes on your sister at least the last fifteen minutes. I think you can see why I’m pretty fuckin’ pleased I got the chance to make the switch twenty-five years later.”
“Harsh,” he heard Sully mutter from behind him. “True, but harsh,” he added.”
“I’m here to right wrongs and I’m gonna do it, Angel. You told me I’d had my last chance but I don’t accept that and I won’t. If you tell me now that my explanation is not enough and you want me gone, I’m not goin’. I’m not giving up. I got one part of my life’s dream still open to me, very sign she gives me is screaming that she’s standing in my arms right now and I’m not gonna be ninety years old, looking back on my life and regretting that I gave up that dream.”
“Fuck me, shut the fuck up,” Cal entered the conversation, glaring at both Ryker and Devin. “Caked. Jesus. Seriously? Are we talkin’ about cakes?”
“I've been involved in lots of GAMES OF THE HEART, gorgeous. Rolled the dice time and again, took a lot of risks, took a lot of falls. Finally seems I'm winning. I'm not about to play it safe now.”
“Then he walked home thinking he'd given Clarisse Haines her first kiss and thinking it would far from suck if he was also the guy who gave her her last with no one in between.”
“Reesee answered my cell?”
Dusty was silent.
“Dusty,” he called. “My daughter answered your cell?”
“If I say yes, are you gonna get pissed at your girl?”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Then I decline to answer.”
Fuck.”
“I’m not saying we drop to the floor right now and start tryin’ for a baby and I’m not askin’ you to marry me. I am sayin’ that I care about you, I do it deeply and I have for a really fuckin’ long time. We’re gonna explore this and I hope to God the feelin’ I got is not wrong because I tried time and again to make it feel wrong but all it ever felt was right.” I”
“Women don’t buy with me,” he said quietly. “I get it, women’s lib and all, got no problem with that. But you’re with me, I pay. No discussion, definitely no stupid-ass fight. That’s just the way it is with me.”
“If this is about working through your pain with me, I gave what I’m gonna give to that. If this is about something else, then I’ll be spending the night.”
“I pretty much thought everything about Mike was awesome but this new side to Mike was beyond awesome. I didn’t even know what that was and I was too turned on to try to figure it out.”
“Time is, indeed, a strange and wondrous thing. It has no beginning or end, it seems. Time goes on, forward and backward, this way and that. But perspective is an illusion, for we know all things begin somewhere.”
“I squeeze my eyes shut and whisper in her damp hair. "You're all I see, Sloan. Beyond the job, beyond right and wrong. You're all I see.”
“Leadership is what you need to learn next”
“شعور رمادية وقلوب رمادية واحلام رمادية!”
“Dad takes a step back, one hand still on my shoulder, and reaches into his pocket. He draws out a little blue capsule, and I feel every molecule in my body screaming to run. Dad must catch the panic in my eyes - he squeezes my shoulder and holds out the capsule. "Cas, it's fine. It's going to be fine. This is just in case."
Just in case. Just in case the worst happens. The ship falls. Durga fails, I fail, and the knowledge I carry as a Reckoner trainer must be disposed of. That information can't fall into the wrong hands, into the hands of people who will do anything to take down our beasts.
So this little capsule holds the pill that will kill me if it comes to that.
"It's waterproof," Dad continues, pressing it into my hand. "The pocket on the collar of your wetsuit, keep it there. It has to stay with you at all times."
It won't happen on this voyage. It's such a basic mission, gift-wrapped to be easy enough for me to handle on my own. But even holding the pill fills me with revulsion. On all my training voyages, I've never had to carry one of these capsules. That burden only goes to full-time trainers.
"Cas." Dad tilts my chin up, ripping my gaze from the pull. "You were born to do this. I promise you, you'll forget you even have it." I suppose he ought to know - he's been carrying one for two decades.
It's just a right of passage, I tell myself, and throw my arms around his neck once more.”
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