Avery didn’t say no to my marriage proposal.
I just had to hold onto that glimmer of hope, even as my head spun with the news that I’d soon be a father. It suddenly felt like all my priorities had been turned on their head. And she was right—we needed to make sure that we’d be providing a safe and happy home.
I had to do better. I had to make sure that my past didn’t come back to haunt us in any way. “What can I do to make sure Stubbs and his entire crew are locked up for good?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot else besides giving your statement. We just need to hope that the Feds are able to dig up enough evidence to send every one of them off to prison for a very long time. Other than Stubbs’s children, who are in college and seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the business, everyone else has been rounded up and charged.” Yet she still looked worried, and I couldn’t blame her.
Stubbs and his associates were dangerous people and didn’t take it well if they felt like they’d somehow been wronged. Putting them behind bars for a very long time was most certainly going to piss them off.
“Maybe we should go away for a bit. Just until this all blows over.” It’s not as if it would be a hardship to go to some remote tropical island with her, though I guess that might not work now that she was pregnant and would need regular prenatal visits.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t just up and leave with you, Dane.” She pouted, making it damn hard for me not to kiss her. “I know you want to get married, but I’m nowhere near ready to go down that road—and I’m not sure we can simply pick up where we left off. Not when I don’t trust you to not find new ways to walk away from me.”
“Avery...it wasn’t my intention to walk away from you from this last time. I just needed some time to process everything that had happened. This wasn’t a small thing to deal with—and you know it. I’d done all I could to keep my family safe—and this flew in the face of that, potentially putting them in more danger.” When she started to protest, I stopped her. “I know you thought you were helping, love. I get that now that I’ve had the time to cool off. But there was a reason I turned down your offer to tag the plans in the first place.”
“I really am sorry I wasn’t more honest with you about what I was doing. I should have told you that I was at GTC because I was working with the Feds, and I should have warned you that the plans were going to be tagged. But I swear, I only thought that this would keep Stubbs from constantly threatening you and your family, and forcing you to take on jobs that would only end up with you one day getting arrested. Or worse.” She grabbed my hand, her brown eyes pleading with me for understanding. “I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you, Dane. And so I did what I thought I had to do.”
“I know that now. And I know that you meant well. It’s why I’m here. I’m just sorry I let you walk away. I shouldn’t have let my anger with the situation get the better of me, when obviously, you’d never want my family to come to harm.” It’s not that I didn’t have the right to be angry with her. But I let it go too far. And I should have found a way for us to work through the issue together, rather than simply shutting her out.
“I swear, I didn’t, Dane. I thought it would help. And I really am sorry if I’ve somehow made things even more dangerous for you. It’s the last thing I wanted to happen.” The raw emotion in her voice spoke to the truth of the matter. “I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you or your family.”
“It’ll be okay, Avery.” I pulled her into my arms, relieved when she held onto me, nestling her body against mine. I kissed the top of her head, the tightness in my chest easing now that I had her in my arms once more. “We’ll just have to make sure we send Stubbs and his men away for a very long time.”
Still holding her in my arms, I pulled away just enough to nuzzle her, my lips brushing against hers in question, wondering if she’d pull away. But she didn’t. She kissed me back, one kiss leading to the next and filling my heart with hope. Even as we eventually broke from our kiss, I couldn’t let her go, my forehead pressed to hers, our breath mingling. “I love you so fucking much, Avery. I swear, I won’t ever hurt you again.”
“I’m going to hold you to that—and I promise to also do better.”
It had been two months since I proposed to Avery, though we were starting over once again, beginning with our friendship and working our way up from there. In a lot of ways, it was a fresh start for us. We were back to dating and taking things slow, finding our way back to what was once so good between us. And though we’d done little more than kiss, there was no denying the chemistry that still existed between us, making it damn hard—for both of us—to take things slow.
“I know it’s different than anything we’ve worked on in the past, but I honestly feel like this could be a huge help to law enforcement.” Avery set aside her laptop as we sat side-by-side on the sofa, looking thrilled about our new project.
Once completed, our program would crunch data and information on the dark web and the Internet to look for patterns that might point to larger scale illegal activity. On their own, each little incident might get overlooked. But link them together, and it could point to something more sinister going on—and most importantly, our program would offer accurate prediction variables, so that law enforcement would know where to focus their limited resources. Though there were similar programs out there, none of them covered as wide a scope.
“It’s damn good to see you so excited about this.” And working on this together had only served to remind both of us that we had once been great friends and partners. We’d been happy once—before I ruined everything. I just hoped she’d realize that we could be happy once more—and the last few weeks had certainly proved it to me, at any rate. “Are you sure I can’t talk you into spending the night? We could get a bit more done—and we have that doctor’s appointment with the OB/GYN first thing in the morning. Might be easiest if you just stay here.”
I pulled her to me, catching her mouth in a kiss as she groaned into my mouth, her tongue clashing with mine as our kiss deepened, her words spoken against my lips as she shifted over to straddle my lap. “Yeah... I’m sure your mind is just thinking of the convenience of it all.”
“You can’t blame me for trying, baby girl... It’s been two long months...two months of desperately wanting you...” Being patient had never been my strong suit, so I was doing damn good as far as I was concerned. Especially when she was so fucking sexy and irresistible.
“Tell me again that you love me, and that we won’t somehow find a way to screw this up again.” She looked so worried, but I wouldn’t be making that mistake again.
“We won’t. By now we’ve both learned our lessons, and I swear, I’m going to do right by you, Avery.” I cupped her face in my hands, my fingers tangling in her black hair, as I held her gaze. “I love you and this baby.”
“I love you too, Dane.” She nuzzled me, biting my lip before kissing me with just a tease before stealing another, even as her hips rocked against my hard length, leaving me to groan into her mouth.
I was trying my best to let her set the pace, but she was making it damn hard for me not to carry her off to my bed and ravage her. And every moment of every day, I had to fight the urge to ask her again to marry me.
Yet when she pulled her top up over her head and quickly undid her bra, freeing her gorgeous breasts, there was no way I could hold back any longer.