Chapter 71

CHAPTER 71

LOGAN

I t took ages before either of us moved or spoke. I didn't know about Mira, but I was only just getting my full hearing and sight back now.

As I finally regained control of my limbs, I pulled out of her but brought her with me as I settled on the mattress, still not willing to let go completely. Lazier and more relaxed than I'd ever been, my eyes started drifting closed and I really didn't see it coming when she smacked me.

"Ouch!" My eyes snapped open and I had to blink a few times before I could focus on her face. "What was that for?"

She laughed. "I'm probably pregnant now."

There was no worry in her eyes, but immediately, I felt the emotion taking root in my chest. Shit, does she regret what we just did?

I had asked, but it might've just been the heat of the moment. Moving cautiously so I didn't break her nose with my forehead, I propped myself up on my elbows and cocked my head at her. She'd laughed, so obviously, she wasn't pissed at me, but I just had to be sure.

"I'm no expert at this, but doesn't it take more than one try?"

She rolled her eyes, her nose wrinkling, and she dropped a kiss on the tip of my nose. "I should've known I'd have no willpower once you started talking about making babies. Is that really what got you so hot?"

I shrugged, smiling, and I wrapped a hand around the nape of her neck and held her to me. "Yeah, I think it was. That, and the prospect of a future with you actually being a real possibility. I love you, Mira, and I want a life with you. I can't believe that I might just get to have it."

Sitting up a little more, she smiled and winked as she lifted her left hand and waved her fingers at me. "I'm not compromising on having a ring on my finger before we really start planning, Logan. I love you too, but I'm a traditional girl. I want the engagement and the big, white wedding. I want a marriage like my parents had and I know I said in the lake that I wouldn't wait forever, but there's still no rush. I just don't want to start planning this elaborate, fairy tale life with you when there's no real commitment, you know?"

My heartrate picked up as I looked into her eyes, my palms suddenly feeling sweaty. All that lazy sleepiness from before had vanished as I stared at her and wondered if she had any clue what was coming.

"Do you want that real commitment from me?" I asked, remembering what Slate had said about her needing to be ready too.

As far as I was concerned, all the signs had been there today, but I'd been waiting for them. Searching for them every damn day. It was possible that I was seeing them when they weren't really there.

Still naked as the day she'd been born, Mira leaned forward a little and took my face in her hands. Her breasts were only inches away from my body, and it had to say something about how serious I was about this that I didn't even look at them.

Not once.

My gaze was too intent on hers, the answer to that question too important to be distracted even by my favorite nipples in the world. She smiled as she nodded slowly, her eyes contemplative until she blinked and refocused on me .

"I don't say this lightly, but yes. I do want that from you. Again, though, there's no rush. I know how you feel about?—"

Fuck, yes!

Without waiting for her to tell me how I used to feel about commitment, I rolled onto my side and slid open the nightstand drawer. Reaching in, I felt around until I found the velvet-covered box I'd been carrying with me almost constantly these last couple months.

"Logan, what are you doing?"

Hoping you can't see what I'm about to take out of here just yet. "Just give me one second."

I felt around the edge of the box until I found the groove. Then I stuck my thumb into it and flipped it open. I'd played with this thing so often that it felt like an extension of myself by this point and it didn't take any effort opening it and sliding out the ring without even looking.

Once I had it in the palm of my hand, a sense of peace washed over me. This was right. She was ready. I was ready. I might still be springing it on her, but it wasn't the same thing it would've been months ago.

Chuckling as I sat up, I closed the ring in my palm and turned to face her again, wondering if part of our engagement story was going to be telling people that we'd been naked when it happened. She frowned at me, suspicion in her eyes as she glanced at my closed fist.

"What are you up to now?" A sly smile ghosted across her lips. "What have you got there?"

Aware of her gaze following my every movement, I shifted on the bed to sit on one knee as I slowly opened my hand to show her the glittering ring sitting in my palm. My cheeks grew hot, but my heartbeat was even.

This was right. I was nervous about how she was going to react, but I wasn't nervous about whether I was doing the right thing. Mira gasped, blinking hard as she scooted back a few inches like she needed to see it from further away to make sure it didn't just disappear.

I would have preferred if she had moved closer, but I couldn't really stop right now .

"You said you wanted a ring on your finger before we started planning an elaborate, fairy tale life together, but as it happens, I've already started planning that life. I bought this ring a while ago and the truth is that I haven't been able to stop thinking about a life with you ever since. I was just waiting for the right time, but like you said, there is no rush. If you need to think about it or if it's too soon, we can just pretend like this never happened, but I'm going to ask anyway. Will you marry me, Mira?"

Her gaze darted between my own and the ring. "If anything I've said has made you feel like you have to do this, then I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push you. I?—"

I snaked an arm around her waist and tugged her closer, not stopping until she was sitting on my lap. Looking deep into her eyes, I smiled and shook my head. "I want you to be my wife. I want you to be the mother of my children. You didn't push me into anything, love. What you have done is to make me a better man in the months I've loved you than I ever thought I could be. I don't deserve you. I realize that, but I'm going to do my best every day to try to earn your love. So I'll ask again, will you marry me?"

"You already have my love, Logan," she whispered as tears filled her eyes and she brought her forehead forward to rest it against mine. Her palms slid to my throat and she held it on either side as she nodded, those tears breaking free to slide down her cheeks. "I will love you forever, and yes. I will marry you. Of course, I'll marry you. I just don't ever want you to feel like I pressured you into doing something you didn't want."

She sealed her lips over mine and I kissed her eagerly, stuck in a state of something between elation and disbelief as I realized she was my fiancée. We were going to get married and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it from happening this time.

Intense happiness filled my chest, infusing my veins with it even as I struggled with the disbelief. I smiled against her lips, needing her to know that nothing she'd said had made me do this. I'd done it because it was the only thing I'd really wanted since the accident.

"Trust me when I tell you that I've wanted this for a long time." I eased back, taking that left hand she'd waved at me just a couple minutes ago and sliding the ring onto her finger. "Are those happy tears? Please tell me they're happy tears."

"They're happy tears," she said as she watched me move the ring up slowly until it was resting where it would be for the rest of our lives. Laughter suddenly started spilling out of her as she stared at it, moving her hand up and down without ever taking her eyes off the ring. "Wow. That's gorgeous. I mean, wow. I don't even know what to say right now."

"Say that you love me and that you're happy I came prepared."

"I love you and I'm happy you came prepared." She finally tore her eyes away from the ring to look at me again, a brilliant smile on her lips. She launched herself at me, throwing her arms around my shoulders and kissing every inch of skin she could reach. "God, I love you. I can't believe you've had an engagement ring in the nightstand since we got here and I didn't know. How did I not know?"

I kissed her back and held her on my lap, taking her hand and pressing a kiss to the ring for good measure. "Fuck, it feels good to finally see it where it belongs. As for you not knowing, that was kind of the point. I'm sneaky that way."

She flattened her body on top of mine, folding her arms on my chest and keeping her gaze on mine as she toyed with the ring with the fingers on her right hand. "I still feel like I should've known, but I didn't even realize you'd been near the nightstand."

I chuckled. "I put it in there with the condoms while you were unpacking your toiletries in the shower."

She groaned. "Of course, it was with the condoms. The condoms we didn't even use, by the way. Are you worried about that?"

"Nope. We're engaged now, unless you've changed your mind?"

She shook her head. "No such luck, bucko. You're stuck with me now."

Joy unlike anything I'd ever felt shot through me when I started processing that this was real. I'd just proposed and she'd said yes, and she wasn't trying to get out of it just yet. My head spun, but I held on to her, looking into her eyes to keep myself anchored .

As she glanced down at the ring again, a soft sigh came out of her. "I wonder what my brother is going to say. Accepting that we're dating might not mean accepting that we're engaged."

I grinned as I brought my lips to hers again. "No worries there, my love. Slate already gave me his blessing."

She reared back, her eyes wide as she stared down at me. "Are you serious? He gave you his blessing ?"

"Yep." I couldn't stop smiling. It was insane. "Actually, he more than gave me his blessing. He's known that I have had this ring for months."

Shock splayed across her gorgeous features, slackening them. Her mouth opened and closed a few times and she blinked way more than normal. "I think you're going to have to explain this to me."

I dipped my chin in a nod. So far, only Slate, Jude, and Mickey knew how much of an idiot I'd been, but I wanted Mira to know too. Even if she laughed at me for having thought we were ready then, she had to hear the truth from me.

I'd been prepared to tell her this story one day, and the day had finally come. "Do you remember when I got discharged from the hospital after the accident?"

"Yes? Jude picked you up, didn't he?"

"Him and Mickey, yeah." I chuckled as I thought back to their shock that day. "On our way back to my place, I asked them to stop at a jeweler's and I bought this ring for you."

Mira sat up on my lap, our nether regions now more lined up than I could just ignore. "That was…"

"Two and a half months ago," I finished for her. "See, the thing is that as that beam came down, I realized how much I love you. Then the whole almost-dying thing happened and the first thing I wanted to do once the danger was over was to propose."

Realization dawned like a light behind her eyes. "That was what that dinner was all about. You were going to ask me to marry you and instead?—"

"Instead," I cut her off as I watched her face starting to fall. "You were a sane and logical human being who realized there was a lot we needed to talk about before we could make that kind of commitment. I'm grateful for that, Mira. Not to mention that Slate started laughing at me when I showed him the ring that night."

She groaned, covering her face in her hands and spreading her fingers apart to peek at me through them. "So that's what happened that night. That's what made him believe that you really loved me and that you had changed?"

"Nah. He thought I was crazy." I laughed a little bit. It had been long enough that even I saw the humor in the whole thing now. "I nearly collapsed on his porch, though. He brought me inside and we talked. He pointed out a few things to me, and it was only after he saw my reactions to what he was saying that he realized I was different."

"Thank God, he did," she whispered as I pulled her hands away from her face and glanced at the ring on her finger again. "If he hadn't, he wouldn't have come to find me that next morning."

"I want to believe that we'd still have found our way back together, but yeah. I guess we have him to thank for everything happening exactly the way it did."

She laughed and finally relaxed again, tucking her hair behind her ears as she leaned over to press a kiss to my lips. "I love you, Logan Jones. I can't believe you've been carrying this ring around with you for so long, but I'm so grateful. I just love you."

I smiled against her lips, groaning as I felt her heat enveloping me. "I love you too, sexy fiancée, and I cannot wait until I get to call you my wife."