Olivia
“And the princess lived happily ever after,” I say, kissing Bettina’s forehead and sliding my body out from underneath her, careful not to wake her. I set the book on the nightstand and turn out the light. When I glance up, August is standing in the doorway, his hair damp from the shower and his sandalwood soap filling the room. I smile up at him, and call the dogs to my side. Betty decides she wants to stay nestled up in the warmth beside Bettina, so I leave her be, and I climb up on my tiptoes when my Marine leans down for a kiss in the doorway. I peck him on the cheek.
He pulls back with a questioning look. “Does she?”
“What?”
“Does the princess live happily ever after?”
Hell, yes, she does. August and I aren’t exactly a conventional couple. There are always going to be days when it feels as if the two of us are fighting a losing battle with his demons. There are days when I think even my own demons will swallow me whole, but that is the price you pay when you fall in love with a Marine. Some nights I wake to his sweat soaking the sheets, Zora between us, licking his face and bringing him back from the brink of the war he fights inside his mind. Other nights, I wake to his hands and mouth on my body, his gravelly voice whispering my name as if it were a prayer stolen from his lips. Those nights are my favorite.
“Of course.” I roll my eyes. “How could she not when the big sullen prince looks like this?” I make a gesture that indicates all of him.
“Prince?” He smiles wryly. “Oh, darlin’ how wrong you are. I’m the ogre who comes to steal the princess away.” He bends to pick me up. I repress a shriek, because it wouldn’t be the first time we’d woken Bett right after I spent twenty minutes putting her to sleep.
“Hero is a far more apt term,” I say, wrapping my arms around his neck and squealing when he stalks toward the staircase.
“No, not a hero.” He kisses my forehead. “Just a man who’d do anything to protect what’s his.”
“And I’m just a woman who’d do anything to show her man how much she appreciates him saving her life.”
He raises a brow. “Anything?”
“Any-thing.” I sound out the word slowly and bite my lip.
“Well, I can’t wait to see this anything later, but I gotta set you on your feet, darlin’. I can’t carry you down the stairs.”
“August Cotton, are you calling me fat?”
He laughs. “Come on now, you know you’re perfect.”
“I don’t, but say it again and I’ll take your word for it.”
He sets me down and kisses the tip of my nose. “You’re perfect.”
I hurry down the stairs, but I don’t wait for August when I reach the bottom. It takes about zero-point-five of a second for him to catch up to me, and he takes my hand as we walk into the lounge. Josiah and Beau are sprawled on the couch and floor respectively, watching reruns of The Walking Dead. The remains of Josiah’s eighteenth birthday cake sit on the coffee table, and there’s a half-empty bowl of popcorn resting on the sofa cushion beside the birthday boy.
“What episode are we up to?” I grab the popcorn, and I’m just about to sit, but August slides his fingers through the belt loop of my jeans and pulls me back against him. The bowl goes flying out of my hands. Popcorn spills out over the floor and Xena hoovers up the buttery treats. I huff and turn to August, who’s grinning down at me. “Now I gotta go pop more.”
“No, you don’t,” he says kissing my neck. “I have a surprise for you.”
“You do?” I ask skeptically. August isn’t big on surprises. “What is it?”
“It’s not here,” he says cryptically.
“We’re going somewhere? What about Bettina?”
“We’re not going far. Besides, I think the boys have got it covered. Right?”
“Right,” Josiah murmurs without taking his eyes from the screen.
Beau chuckles from his position on the floor. “Yeah, and August is gonna have you covered.”
Josiah kicks him in the head. “Shut up, fuck face.”
“Ow, dude. Fuck.”
“Both of you assholes need to shut up,” I snap, glaring at the two of them, and then August covers my eyes from behind and slowly eases us forward. “And you better save me some of that birthday cake.”
“Come on,” he whispers in his low, gravelly voice. “As entertaining as it is watching your dirty mouth fling insults at teens, I’ve got far better uses for it.”
My mouth opens in shock, and I chuckle and let him lead me where he will. He opens the front door, and the cool breeze rushes over me. I shiver a little at the fall evening and inhale deeply of rich earth and the scent of a fire.
“I think maybe I should have put a jacket on.”
“Nah, I’ll keep you warm, princess.”
A nervous laugh bubbles up in my throat. “How much farther are we going?”
“You know I never realized how much you complained before.”
I gasp, and flail my arms in an attempt to strike him, but I only end up hurting myself because the man is hard. “You take that back, Cotton, or I’ll give you something to complain about.”
He leans forward and whispers in my ear, “Your threats are absolutely terrifying.”
I laugh. “Screw you.”
“Later,” he says, and a shiver runs the length of my spine. August carefully leads me down the front steps, and I’m guessing across the yard toward the back of the property. Dry leaves crunch under my shoes. I’m freezing in my tank top and jeans, but after a little more walking the warmth of a fire washes over me and August removes his hands from my eyes. Before us is a fire in a rusted out metal drum. He places his big hands on my shoulders and turns me. Behind us sits his truck, the tailgate down with a mountain of pillows and blankets in the back.
My mouth drops open. “When did you do this?”
“When you were getting Bett ready for bed.”
“August . . .” I don’t know what to say. I never took him for a hopeless romantic.
“I never actually got to take you on a real date, so I figured I’d do something special, for all you’ve done for us. All of us.”
“Oh my God, you are so getting laid tonight.”
He laughs and leans down to kiss me, walking me backward to the truck bed, where he lifts me up on the tailgate.
“Come on now,” he says in that velvet, gravel tone. “I gotta at least try and be a gentleman.”
“No, you don’t.” I shake my head and bring my lips back to his.
His mouth covers mine, and his tongue pushes inside, tangling with my own. I groan, and he slides his big hand up underneath the fabric of my tank. He squeezes my breast, his blunt nails raking my nipples and causing explosions of color behind my lids. My whole body is electric—a current, a fire, blazing as bright as the one behind him. I slip my hand into the waistband of his jeans and grasp his hard length. I stroke him fast, and he groans. I want him inside me, need to feel him buried as deep as he can possibly go until we’re one.
I grab the lapels of his plaid shirt and rip. Buttons fly off and ping all around the truck bed, and August grins. “If I knew you’d be this handsy on the first date I woulda asked you out the second you came to Magnolia Springs.”
“Liar.” I kiss his chest, trailing my lips over hard puckered flesh. He grunts and threads his fingers into my hair. “You hated me the second you met me.”
“Not true. I think I loved you from the first sight. Listen,” August says, his voice turning serious. He grabs my hand and pulls me away from him. I pout and stare up at him with an annoyed look. “I been meaning to ask you something.”
He reaches under the blanket, his hand comes away cupping something black, but it’s hidden from view by his huge palm. “Normally I’d get down on one knee, but I hope you’ll forgive me because I may not get up again without help, and I have no desire to be emasculated right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can’t live without you, Olivia Anders. The day you walked into my life, I thought the devil himself must have been in hiding. But I saw hell, I’ve had more glimpses of it than I care to again, and the last was when I held you in my arms and thought you were leaving this world. You’ve never made me feel like half a man. In fact, you make me feel like I got the strength of ten, and God knows, most days there are at least two different people inside my head, but you make all the bad stuff go away. And I don’t intend to ever let you go, so, will you be my wife?”
I shake my head in shock. August’s shoulders slump. “Well shit, this is awkward. Call me cocky, but I didn’t plan on you saying no.”
“Yes! Yes! I’ll be your wife, August,” I shriek. “Yes!”
He leans in to kiss me, and I grin as he places a modest princess-cut diamond on my finger.
“Now I know why you did this out here and not in the house.”
“Well that wasn’t the only reason,” he says, grabbing my body and leaning me back into the soft nest of pillows as he kisses me.
Afterward, I lie beside him, my head tucked into the crook of his arm, my own outstretched towards the sky as I stare at the twinkling diamond glittering there against a backdrop of stars. August pulls the blanket tighter around me and kisses the top of my head. “You like it, right? Cause if you don’t I can buy you another; it’s just . . . it was my mother’s.”
“It’s perfect.”
“It is,” he murmurs, but he’s not looking at the ring. His eyes are fixed on me. “You’re perfect. All this time, I didn’t know what I was waiting for. I didn’t know why I was still here, but somehow you found me. I didn’t know I was lost until you came walking through my front gate like you owned the place. Walked right into my heart the same way, too—sunk your damn teeth in and wouldn’t let go.”
“I do have the uncanny ability to just irritate a man so much he falls in love with me. It’s my special gift.” I turn and lift up on my elbow so I can kiss his face. “I’m working on fixing it.”
“Don’t you dare,” he says, wrapping his arms around me and tugging me on top of him. I squeal. My whole body turns to goosebumps as he shakes out the duvet around my shoulders and pulls me back into the warmth of his embrace. “You realize that if you ever leave me again, I’m coming with you.”
“And leave all this? Not in a million years.”
He chuckles against my throat and slides his deft hands up my spine to cup the nape of my neck. I sigh. I can’t imagine life without him either, because I tried that once and August was right, it was hell, and now we’re here. We’re home. I finally found my way back home when I didn’t even know I was looking for it.