by Julie Hall
One of his hands was wrapped around the back of my head, holding me to him while also cushioning it against the rough wood. The other was fastened to my hip, his thumb torturing the sliver of exposed skin at my side.
The kiss went on and on, and I never wanted it to stop.
In fact, the first few times Logan did try to cool things down, I pressed into him further and enticed his compliance.
He may have started this, but who said that meant he got to say when it was over?
Logan pulled back another time, and I went up on my toes and kissed the underside of his jaw.
Groaning, he captured my hands and entwined our fingers, forcing space between us.
“You’re not making this easy on me, Audrey.”
I giggled and nipped at him again. “Since when have I ever made anything easy for you?”
With a quick peck on my mouth, he set me back. One dark blond eyebrow arched. “You have a point.”
I licked the corner of my lips and considered diving back in for another taste.
“Don’t look at me like that, Audrey,” Logan warned.
“Like what?” I asked, full of fake innocence.
Shaking his head, he muttered, “You are going to make this difficult.”
What was he going on about?
From the moment he pulled me into this space, my vision had been filled with him, but my eye caught on something sparkly.
Tilting my head, I caught my breath.
In the time we’d been “preoccupied,” full night had fallen. Suspended above our heads, on what must have been dozens of strings, were hundreds of mini-twinkle lights. They lit the space above us and cast a warm glow down to the ground.
Speaking of the ground, under our feet, delicate purple petals covered the packed earth. A sweet aroma wafted up, heightening the romance factor.
It was magical.
And I didn’t understand what was going on.
“Logan?” I questioned.
“Do you really not recognize where we are?”
Taking a closer look at our surroundings, I saw past the lights and flowers.
How could I for one moment have not realized where we were?
The whole day had been a hat-tip to that fate-filled day, so of course Logan would take me to the place we shared our first kiss. The one that shoved our relationship in a direction neither of us thought we wanted.
The kiss had been the spark that ignited us, and from that point on, as hard as we tried, we couldn’t deny what we felt for each other.
“Is this,” I pointed at the ground, “the exact place it happened?”
Bringing my hands to his face, he kissed my knuckles.
“Yes. I wanted a do-over. A chance to show you how that night should have gone.”
“Babe, that’s very romantic, but you do realize if you had been the one to kiss me, I would have given you a black eye.”
“I would have let you. And it would have been worth it.”
Swoon. That was smooth.
I couldn’t control the silly grin on my face. I only half-wanted to.
“This day has been amazing. Thank you.”
I meant it. I cherished every day I spent with Logan, but today was special.
“This isn’t the only thing I wanted a do-over for, Love. There’s something else I don’t think I did properly the first time.”
It was then I watched Logan go down on one knee.
My stomach jumped into my chest, and my heart—I think—beat right out of it. I didn’t want to take my eyes off him to check, though. One of my organs could be laying on the ground right now for all I cared. There wasn’t a force in any realm that was going to cause me to miss this moment.
Keeping my hands in his, Logan looked up at me. My arms shook with nerves, and I was pretty sure my palms were sweaty.
“Audrey,” Logan began, “you are more than the love of my life. You are the one I want to spend this lifetime, and our existence afterward, with. You mean—”
“YES!”
Oops, the word just popped out of my mouth. Stupid mouth. He wasn’t done.
“Whoops, sorry! Keep going. I didn’t mean it.”
Logan’s brow pinched, and he cocked his head.
“You didn’t mean it?”
“No! I mean, yes! I mean—” Oh, wow, I was royally botching this one up. “Keep going. I want to hear the whole thing before making up my mind.”
Welp, that was a big fat lie.
Logan’s brow relaxed, and the corner of his mouth quirked up. “Do you really? Because this ground is rather hard, so this isn’t the most comfortable position. If I already know your answer . . .”
He started to rise from the ground and I pulled my hands free and shoved his shoulders. “Logan London, don’t you dare try to get off that knee until you’ve done this properly. Just like you said.”
Logan couldn’t hold back the laugh that burst from his chest. He tried to rub it away with his hand, but it wasn’t helping. I started tapping my foot.
“Anytime now.”
Clearing his throat, he finally composed himself. Holding out his hand, he silently asked for mine. I offered him my left hand, knowing that was the important one.
Logan pressed his lips together tightly. I was going to deck him if he started to laugh again.
“Audrey,” he continued, “you brought me back to life when I thought part of my soul was gone forever.”
Okay, it was getting good again.
“I know with my whole being that our Creator knit you together to be mine, and formed me to be yours in return. It seems as if I have loved you since the first moment I laid eyes on you, and I will love you until the very end of time.”
Without me noticing, Logan had pulled a delicate piece of jewelry out of his pocket. In that moment, the only thing I registered was that it was sparkly. But it could have been a piece of knotted string, and my answer would have been the same.
“Audrey Lyons, will you be my wife?”
Kaitlin
I watched my friends embrace after Audrey’s heartfelt—and very vocal—“yes” to Logan’s marriage proposal.
Audrey might not have been crying, but a tear slipped down my face that I quickly wiped away. Ninety percent of that tear was joy-filled. The other ten percent was full of self-pity.
Logan and Audrey had fought for their happily-ever-after. Fought for it tooth and nail. Believed in it even when they both thought they’d have to wait a lifetime to be together. For all the heartache that went into their romance, I should have been able to squeeze out a tear that was a hundred percent for them . . . but I hadn’t.
“Well, that was disgustingly syrupy.” The heavily-accented British brogue drifted out of the shadows before the rest of Morgan’s dark form did. “I may have to take Logan’s man-card away for that sugary display of romantic rubbish.”
My heart swelled before I scrunched it back to a normal size. I hated my body’s reaction to the deceitful hunter-turned-traitor-turned-returned prodigal son. Half of me wished he wasn’t accepted back into the fold. The other half . . . well, that half couldn’t be trusted. That half was a bit of a hussy.
“Argh. What are you even doing here, Morgan?”
He leaned up against the wood planks of one of the carnival structures flanking us, the twinkle lights from above only doing so much to expose his face. There were always some shadows clinging to the dark hunter that light hadn’t yet been able to chase away.
Pulling out a dagger, Morgan did some fancy move where he flipped it in the air, caught it, and chucked it at the opposite wall where it embedded to the hilt. The whole movement was smooth, practiced, and executed in half a blink. Most likely something he picked up while serving The Dark Lord.
Was I supposed to be impressed?
Folding my arms in front of myself, I did my best to look uninterested.
“I’m back-up, Luv. Haven’t you heard? This area is crawling with evil beasts.”
“Right. I happen to be looking at one right now.” Turning my back on the insufferable annoyance, I scanned for Logan and Audrey. Spotting them, I rushed to keep up.
“Ouch, that hurts,” he complained when he appeared at my side a moment later. “So, should we take bets on how long those two last? I’d say three years, tops. And that’s me being generous.”
I squeezed my fists tight and told myself not to rise to his bait. I quickly lost the war with myself.
“Seriously, Morgan.” Cutting my gaze to him, I tossed him the stink-eye before gluing my sight back on my marks. “Those two are as close to soulmates as they come.”
“Perhaps, but you know what they say. The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long.” He shot me a meaning-filled side-eye as we trailed behind the newly-engaged couple. “You and I? We know that better than most.”
The not-so-veiled reminder of our history cut deep, but I hid my reaction behind a mask of impassivity. The only way to shake Morgan was going to be to convince him I didn’t have feelings for him—positive or negative. I hadn’t done a great job with that task since he returned. Morgan could get my blood boiling like no one ever had. The more I lashed out at him, the harder he tried to provoke a reaction from me. It was twisted, but I hadn’t been able to restrain myself.
One thing was for sure, I needed to try harder.
Morgan
I watched her blonde ponytail bounce as she stomped away, not breathing until she intermingled with the crowd. Only then did I let my guard down.
What are you doing, mate?
I scrubbed a hand down my face, feeling the scars that laced my forehead and cheeks—a parting gift from Satan himself.
Watching Kaitlin weave through the crowd, careful to skirt the people walking unknowingly in her path, I questioned myself again.
The ship with that particular bird attached to it had sailed the moment I turned dark. She’d done nothing but try to prove that to me since I returned to the heavenly realm.
Perhaps it was time to throw in the towel, to admit nothing was left of our candle that had once burned so passionately. After all, there was a large afterlife to explore. Why was I wasting my time mooning over one girl?
But then she turned, checking to see where I was, even though when she spotted me she played it off like she was scanning for danger.
Aye, there’s the rub.
Those baby-blue eyes sparked something in me I almost wished they didn’t . . . hope.
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About the Author
Julie Hall
My name is Julie Hall and I'm a USA TODAY bestselling, multiple award-winning author. I read and write YA paranormal / fantasy novels, love doodle dogs and drink Red Bull, but not necessarily in that order.
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