I caught my reflection in the mirror as I walked into the house. Leaning closer, I scowled and tilted my head. I had dirt in my ears—in my ears! After all these years, I still couldn’t figure out how that happened. It wasn’t like I was standing out there in the field digging for earwax. That was definitely one advantage to the violin; you didn’t end up covered in grime at the end of every day. Still, it felt good. With Moses returning to school the month before, Adrian and I were shorthanded again. We truly were going to have to hire more people. A good problem to have.

“Connor?” I leaned through the doorway of the kitchen, expecting to see him there, though I didn’t smell dinner cooking like I’d anticipated. He’d taken the afternoon off to help Dad and Debbra with something for the town council. He said he would get dinner ready for us after so we could have the evening to ourselves since Moses was babysitting Shawn and Tiffany Carlisle’s kids.

Must be running late.

No, his car had been in the driveway.

Maybe upstairs taking a shower.

I needed one anyway, desperately. Might as well join him. Dinner could wait.

I walked upstairs, casting a glance around as I passed through our bedroom. It had come together nicely. The color combination Connor had chosen was something I never would’ve dreamed up. Leave it to a tattoo artist to come up with a color palette a little left of center. Made me excited for the rest of the house.

Connor wasn’t in our bathroom either. Though a glance into the shower revealed he’d been there recently; it was damp. Then I noticed the note by the sink.

M,

Hope you had a good day at the farm. Take your time cleaning up, then put on your suit and meet me at the place.

C

A suit?

I turned the paper over, expecting to see just kidding, or a note saying Connor had been kidnapped and they were holding him for ransom. It was blank. A suit? Since when had Connor ever willingly put on a suit?

No sooner had the thought entered my mind than it was steamrolled by another one.

A suit!

No way! No fucking way. This was Connor Clark after all.

But a suit….

I practically ripped off my clothes, telling myself not to get excited, not to jump to conclusions. Whatever special thing was going on, it would be ruined if I showed up with expectations and got disappointed and Connor noticed. But I couldn’t be wrong. Surely. Why else would I need a suit?

I doubt I’d ever showered more thoroughly in my life. There wasn’t one solitary grain of dirt left anywhere. Ears, fingernails, hell, I even scrubbed the bottom of my feet with the pumice stone. If what I thought was going to happen truly was going to happen, I was going to fucking glow, goddammit.

After getting out of the shower and drying off, I walked back into our bedroom and headed toward the closet. Then paused. My suit had been laid out on the bed, my dress shoes placed neatly on the floor. With it, was a new shirt and matching pair of socks. Both the red color of our bedroom. Of the sweater I’d worn so many years ago, though I didn’t remember that part.

That settled it. Aliens had landed and invaded Connor’s body. I wasn’t exactly sure why they would fly all the way to earth to tell me to shower and put on a suit, but it was the only explanation.

Then I noticed what was missing. No tie.

Maybe the aliens hadn’t invaded after all. There were few things in life Connor hated more than ties.

After putting on the suit, I went back in the bathroom and made certain every hair was in place before leaning back and doing a final inspection. Yep. Glow about covered it.

When I was about twenty yards away, I heard music drifting up from the cavern. It was a recording of the fall season from a few years back when I played with the Symphony. The one where Connor had braved his discomfort with cities and joined the rest of the family in New York.

One more clue, whispering that my suspicions were right. They had to be. But if I was wrong, I didn’t think I’d be able to hide my reaction.

I was more careful than I had ever been climbing down the rope ladder. Heaven forbid I spend all that time getting perfect and then tumbled down thanks to the slick soles of the dress shoes. Although even if I did, even if I ended up breaking both my legs, I’d tell Connor to go ahead with the plan. I wasn’t going to let this slip through my fingers.

The tiny room didn’t look any different than normal, other than a solitary candle flickering against the wall, just enough to make it easy for me to see.

Normal evaporated as soon as I turned the corner into the main vestibule of our hideaway. There were enough candles, that if we’d been in a house filled with carpets, curtains, and sheets, the place would’ve combusted into a ball of flame. As it was, every crevice of the cavern was illuminated, revealing crags and fissures I’d never noticed before. Off to the side, close to the shallow pool of ocean spreading across the entrance, was a mattress. An actual mattress, complete with golden yellow sheets, and surrounded by even more candles. On the other side of the pool, Connor had spread the blankets we’d used for years, but instead of a makeshift bed, they now were laden down with a picnic.

And between them, standing right on the edge of the pool, almost where the purple starfish had been just a few months before, highlighted by a yolkish sunset shimmering behind the stone arches, stood Connor. Like I’d never seen him before, not even when he’d come to New York. He wore a dark gray suit, black shirt, and the missing red tie.

Of it all, that’s what got me. I didn’t even make it a whole sentence before my voice cracked. “You’re wearing a tie.”

He gave a smile that was part grimace, and he slid his fingers behind it, giving a little pull. “I’m aware. You were taking long enough there was a fairly good chance I was going to be strangled and dead on the floor by the time you got here.”

I laughed softly and crossed the space to stand in front of him. “I can’t believe you actually got a shirt to close around your neck.”

Another grimace. “I didn’t. I just pulled the knot tight enough so it holds the collar closed.”

I admired him for a few seconds, making sure to cement this version of Connor to memory, as I doubted I would ever see it again. “You are the sexiest man I’ve ever seen in my life.” And talk about the understatement of the century. But as handsome as he was, all cleaned up and fancy, I actually preferred how he always was—T-shirts and jeans, tattoos and scruff. I reached over and loosened his tie, sliding it down an inch or so and then pulling apart the collar behind it slightly. “Better?”

He grinned. “Good to know you want me to keep breathing.”

“I do. I most definitely do.” I glanced around the cavern again, marveling at how much time this must’ve taken, how many trips up and down that little ladder. The thought made me look at the bed again. “How the hell did you get a mattress down here?”

“It’s an air mattress. The air pump broke right at the end. There’ve been several times today that I’ve been on the verge of asphyxiating.”

I narrowed my eyes, this time certain I was hallucinating. “Are those rose petals scattered across the sheets?”

Connor didn’t answer, and when I looked back at him, his cheeks were nearly scarlet.

“Okay, babe, I’ve got to ask. Have you been abducted by aliens and they’re controlling your body or something?”

He laughed. “You know, I think…. Maybe…. Yeah.”

Again I looked around, knowing I should focus on Connor, but I was just too overwhelmed by both the beauty of the cavern and the evidence of how much effort he’d put into it. “I never would’ve guessed. You, Connor Clark. Candles, rose petals, new sheets, classical music.”

“Is it not okay?”

At the sound of worry in his voice, I let the rest of the room fade away and gave him every ounce of my attention. “Are you kidding? It’s perfect.”

“Good.” Obvious relief flooded through him, and then he gave a little wince. “I do have a confession. A lot of this was Andrew’s idea. I probably would’ve stopped at five or six candles. And I definitely would’ve never thought of rose petals.” He shrugged.

A loud laugh burst from me, echoing around the stone walls. Of course he’d ask Andrew for romantic advice. The man was a walking romantic-comedy movie. “I’m actually a little relieved to hear it. I was starting to wonder who you were.” I rested my hands on his chest, the cold slickness of the suit a strange sensation, a new one after all my years of touching him. “It really is perfect, Connor. And even more than it being so beautiful is that it’s clear how much work this took you. How much you did to make this special for me.”

He shrugged off the compliment, lifted his hand to my cheek, and leaned back, his gaze roaming down my body. “That red looks good on you. Always has. You’re so damn beautiful.” Then he kissed me, his hand slipping from my cheek to behind my head as he pulled me to him in a claiming embrace.

And in that moment, it was all enough. More than enough. Even if the only thing planned for the evening was a beautiful night in our hideaway. It was enough.

After several heartbeats, he broke the kiss and pulled back to speak comfortably, but didn’t pull his hand away. “You know why we’re here?”

Despite my previous thoughts, my pulse began to race, the anticipation of what he was about to ask. “Why don’t you tell me?”

Connor shook his head, his smile growing mischievous. “Guess.”

The request was strange enough that it made me rethink. I couldn’t suggest what I thought he was about to do and then be wrong. Couldn’t imagine how horribly that might end. But for the life of me, I couldn’t think of any other option. “Well, you’ve got candles and rose petals. I’d say you are about to propose.”

His smile grew, and he shook his head again. “Nope.”

I blinked, replayed his nearly caveman-like grunt, and it still didn’t make sense. Especially combined with the pleased expression on his face. “Nope?”

And still his smile grew. “Nope.”

I tried to think of some other option. All of them ridiculous, but I threw out the only other thing I could think of. “Are we adopting a baby or something? Raising a family with you sounds great, but I don’t quite know if I’m ready for actual children, even with rose petals.”

“God no!” He shuddered and then laughed again. “Crossing that bridge is a ways away.”

I was relieved at that.

Connor’s smile faded, and he suddenly looked nervous. “Maybe I should’ve just proposed.”

“Just proposed?” I glanced around, searching for some clue I’d missed. “Is there something more than a proposal?”

Connor let out a breath, dug in his pocket, and when he held out his hand, there were two gold rings in his palm. “I want you to marry me.”

I stared at the rings, my heart rate skyrocketing again. Then looked up at his hazel eyes, which were bright with sincerity. “Of course I’ll marry you.” I glanced back at the rings and then returned to his gaze. “But that’s a proposal, just so you know.”

He shook his head. “No. I’m not proposing. That would be silly. After all this time, it’s not like we don’t know how we’re going to spend the rest of our lives. There’s no question that you would say yes if I asked you to marry me. And there’s no question I would say yes if you asked me to marry you. So why bother? I want you to marry me, Micah, right here. Right now.”

Stupidly, I looked around the cavern again, as if our family and friends and a preacher had been hiding behind one of the crevices and were about to jump out. There was no one, of course. “It’s just you and me here.”

“Exactly.” Connor’s hand slid down my shoulder and arm and he entwined his fingers with mine. “It’s always been just you and me. We figured out what we were to each other without anyone watching. And at the end of it all, it didn’t matter if there wasn’t one person in the world who approved of us, it didn’t matter if we lost everything. In the end, as long as you chose me and I chose you, we were willing to pay whatever the price was. So that’s how I thought we should do this, how we should get married. Just you, just me—” He made a gentle sweeping motion across the space, careful not to drop the rings. “—here. Right here where it’s always only been us.”

My eyes stung and I started to nod. “But is that even legal? Does it count?”

“We can go and sign the paperwork at the courthouse. It’s just a formality. But this would be our ceremony. This would be what counts.” Doubt crossed his face. “Unless you want the big wedding, of course. If you do, we can plan it, invite everyone—”

I cut him off with a kiss. I wouldn’t have known it, but this was exactly what I wanted. Like he said, it’d always been just us at the end of the day. There’d been no other voices intruding on our love story, besides our own. It was only right this next step belonged only to us.

As the kiss continued, my body started to respond, the feel of his endless muscles pressing against me, familiar behind the suit. I reached behind him and pulled him closer, letting him feel my arousal.

Connor grunted, rocked his hips against me, then broke the kiss with a shake of his head, and grinned. “Not yet.” He stepped back and opened his fist, the golden rings shining in the candlelight once more.

At the sight, my arousal faded, replaced by tingling nerves, happiness, and an odd mix of calm.

Connor handed me one of the rings, the one that was slightly larger. Then he took my left hand, lined up the other ring with my finger, and looked into my eyes as he slid it into place. “I love you with everything that I am, Micah Bryant. You have been many things to me throughout my life. Part of the family that rescued me, a little brother, a friend. But more than anything, you are my soulmate. You are the one who never gave up on me. You were patient and persistent. You were brave enough to never turn away from me. You’re stronger than I am, braver than I am.” Tears glistened at the corner of his eyes, but they didn’t fall. “But loving you makes me better. Makes me stronger, makes me braver. You are the man I will spend my life with. You are the only one I want. The only one my heart, my body, and my soul desire. I am yours. I have always been yours.” He lifted my hand and pressed his lips to the ring, closed his eyes, and breathed me in.

I felt a tear roll down my cheek when his gaze met mine once more. How the hell was I supposed to speak after that?

He grinned, the slightly cocky, playful grin that was my favorite. “Your turn.”

I took a steadying breath, searched his gaze, and once more remembered the first moment I’d seen him walk through our door. Though I hadn’t had words or understanding of what coursed through me at the sight of him, this was the fulfillment of all of that. No, it wasn’t. What came next was the fulfillment. This was just the promise. A promise my soul had whispered the second he’d entered my world.

Readjusting, I took his left hand, lined up the golden ring, and slid it into place, having to wiggle it slightly over his larger knuckle. “I’d say that it’s you who makes me a braver man, Connor Clark. And when I think of strength, I think of you. How you have seen so much darkness, experienced so much more than I can imagine, and yet you are full of kindness and gentleness. Where others would’ve gotten lost, you stood tall, and you glowed in that darkness. You’ve always been that for me, this glowing beacon. The one who has captured my heart. You are the man I choose to walk through this life with.” My tears flowed, and I lifted my free hand to cup his cheek as he had mine before. “I belong to you. We belong to each other. And I, too, love you with everything I am.”

I pulled him to me again, capturing his lips to kiss, sealing our promise. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, as I truly had belonged to him for as long as I could remember, but in that kiss, after those words, some unnamable force traveled between us. I didn’t have to ask—I knew Connor felt it as well.

After a time, we parted, lips tingling, the heat in our bodies beginning to catch fire once more. Connor held my gaze. “I love you, husband.”

There had never been more beautiful words. No pull of the bow on a violin had ever made more beautiful music. Husband. I had to swallow before I could find my voice. “And I love you, husband.”

With a tender smile, Connor took my hand, walked with me around the pool, and led me to the bed.