CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I just couldn’t believe it. I sat cross-legged on the floor and rifled through the rest of the bag but it was all the same. So much loss in one place.
Suddenly the door to the body chute swung open, snapping me back to the danger, to the fear, and I screamed as I tried to get to my feet, nearly falling into the hole.
“Perry!” Dex cried out as he appeared in the doorway, looking down at me in amazement, flashlight in hand. “Are you hurt? Oh, thank fuck you’re here,” he said as he took a step toward me.
“Get back!” I screeched, trying to get to my feet. I put my hands out in front of me. “Stay away from me!”
He looked absolutely bewildered, sticking the flashlight into his jacket pocket, but I wasn’t buying it.
“Baby, it’s me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, my heart getting another workout. “Yeah, well I thought it was you earlier too.”
“I ran into Rebecca,” he said. “She’s gathering up our stuff and meeting us down here. She told me what you guys saw. You saw my doppelg?nger.”
“How do I know you’re not the doppelg?nger?”
He cocked his head and frowned. “Because, baby, I’m me. And I’m yours. Ask me anything if you have to. Or fuck, let me tell you a few things.”
“Stay away, I’m warning you.”
“You know, you’re awfully cute when you get all threatening and stuff.”
“I mean it.” And I did. I think.
“That doesn’t mean I won’t start flapping my mouth. I know you, Perry Palomino.”
He took two steps forward, eyes never leaving my face, and I staggered backward only to hit my back against a counter. He raised his palms at me. “I can tell you that you hum Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to yourself as you brush your teeth and I think it’s completely adorable. I can tell you that when you eat, you like to get equal amounts of each different food on your fork with every single bite. Drives me fucking crazy. I can tell you—or show you—exactly how you like to be kissed, how you like to be touched, what I do to make you come in five seconds flat.”
With his palms still up, he came forward another step. “I can tell you that I’m head over heels in love with you. That this…” He paused and breathed in deeply, his eyes glittering. “What we have, it consumes me. It devours me. And it scares me more than anything we have ever encountered, because if I ever lost you, if I ever had to live without you, I wouldn’t be whole. You, Perry, have my heart. You are my heart.”
My breath hitched as I was lost in his words, lost in his eyes as they looked deeper into me than ever before.
“Do you still need convincing?” he asked in a low, husky voice, taking another step forward.
I didn’t. I knew this was Dex. My man, right in front of me. Still, I could never pass up the opportunity to hear him say these wonderful words, to hear him speak from his soul.
So I nodded. I needed more convincing.
His mouth ticked up into a smile. “Well then…”
He briefly closed his eyes, exhaled through his nose, and shook out his limbs. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was nervous as hell.
Then he got down on one knee.
For a moment I was completely puzzled, like what the fuck is he doing, why is getting on his knees? My first thought was that it was something sexual and kinky. My second thought was that something was scary and wrong. After all, we were in an abandoned post office; the door to the body chute was still open, and a storm was raging outside.
My third thought was…holy shit. Holy shit! Is he proposing to me?
“I was waiting for the right time,” he said, staring intently at me, his voice shaking slightly, “but you’re right—I do have shitty fucking timing. So I might as well embrace that. And so, here it goes.”
He reached out for my left hand, never taking his eyes off me.
I felt like I was about to black out.
This couldn’t be happening.
This had to a dream. A beautiful, crazy, amazing dream.
I needed him to pinch me.
Instead he said, “When I first met you, I knew, somehow, that you were going to change my life. I just didn’t know in what way. I didn’t know that you’d make me love you. And most importantly, I didn’t know that you’d make me love me. Baby, you make me see the good in myself and the good in everything on this damn earth. You chase my ghosts away, and…” He cleared his throat, and to my surprise, I saw his eyes were watering.
Oh fuck. Please don’t cry, Dex, cuz I will fucking lose it.
He swallowed hard, blinking tears back. “And you bring me peace. I can’t thank you enough for being in my life. And I want you there for the whole journey. Through everything—the good and the bad, the batshit crazy and the sane, the scary and the sexy. Especially the sexy. Just you and me, baby, until death do us part.”
Somehow I found my voice. “Even though we’ve only known each other for eight months?” I asked quietly, afraid of his answer.
But he just smiled up at me. “Time has no bearing on the truth. And what we have, that’s true as fucking anything.” He gave my hand a squeeze and reached into his pocket.
I sucked in my breath, feeling all my emotions flood me at once, and watched as he took out a beautiful, sparkling ring, and held it poised at my finger. He gazed at me, and it was like I saw every moment we had with each other captured in his eyes.
“Perry Palomino, kiddo, baby—will you be my wife?”
I didn’t even have to think about it.
“Yes!” I blurted out in a sob as the tears started coming. I put my hand to my mouth, trying to control myself, but it was useless. I was a goner. “Yes, I will be your wife.”
A single tear rolled down his cheek, which he didn’t wipe away. His face broke out into the most breathtaking smile I had ever seen, a smile of absolute pure joy, the same joy that I felt bursting out of me like hot butterflies. He slid the ring onto my finger and it sat there perfectly, like it was custom made for me, vintage-style with shimmering stones that sparkled like heaven.
“It was meant for you,” he said, voice still choked up. “Just like you were meant for me. My future wife.” He got to his feet and cupped my face in his hands. “My god, I’m going to do whatever I can to make you happy.”
I smiled, sniffling back the tears. “You can start by pinching me. This doesn’t feel real.”
He grinned cheekily. “Oh, I’ll show you how real this is.” He kissed me passionately, just the way I loved to be kissed, and reached around to grope my ass. He snuck in a pinch, a wonderfully sharp pain. Yup. That hurt. And this was real.
I buried my head into his neck as he held me close to him, our bodies melding into each other, giving each other support and strength.
Holy fuck. Oh my god. Dex just asked me to marry him.
I was going to be Mrs. Declan Foray.
Me.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
“How you feeling?” he murmured, pulling away and gazing down at me. He wiped the tears away from under my eyes.