Rule You (Vegas Knights Book 3)
Page 16
I wanted to be alone to wallow in my grief so when I heard the footsteps on the gravel-lined path behind me, I bit back a sigh. “Mom…”
“I’ve been called a lot of things, but that’s a first.”
The low, hard voice sent a shiver up, then down my spine. Slowly, I turned and saw Sly standing on the path that led to where I stood on the dock. The fading sunlight turned his hair to flame and gilded his skin, turning him to gold. It was such a joke that someone who looked like all heat and warmth was more likely to freeze a girl out than burn her.
I would rather to have been burned by a hot poker than have him just shut me out the way he had.
But two could play at that game.
“What are you doing here?” I asked calmly, turning back to stare at the waters of the lake as the sun continued on its downward path toward the horizon. Before much longer, it would disappear behind the mountains and darkness would spread across the small lake behind Mom’s cabin. But until the dark and the chill chased me inside, I was going to enjoy the peace and quiet I had out here.
Preferably without the bastard who’d broken my heart.
“I came for you. You belong back in Vegas.”
I threw my hair back over my shoulder. “I’ll be back in Vegas when I’m ready to be. I wanted a few days off. Apparently, it’s going around.”
Sly grunted, then I heard a thud on the ground. “Okay. Guess I’m hanging out in Canada for a while.”
I turned back, gaping at him. The thud had been a big duffel bag.
“What’s that?” I demanded.
“My shit.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “I need clothes, don’t I?”
“No, because you’re not staying,” I told him.
“That’s not what your mom says.” He cocked a brow at me. “I was hoping I could get you to come back to Vegas so we could work things out—it’s closer to Texas, but if I need to be here to fix things with you, then here is where I’ll be.”
“You…” I almost had to pick my jaw up off the ground. “You talked to my mother?” Then what he said hit me. Texas… “You’ve talked to Addison.”
He cocked a brow at me. “She contacted Mac after you gave her his information. She came out the day after you left, apparently.” The final words came out like he was chewing them out of midair, terse and jagged. “She’s sorry she wasn’t able to meet you to say thank you.”
“But you met her,” I said slowly.
His face softened a little. “Yeah. I did.”
“Are you here because of her?” I demanded.
“No. I’m here because I’m an asshole.” He took a step toward me, his face intent.
“You were an asshole from the first time I met you. What’s changed?” I tossed out at him.
“Nothing.” Sly jerked up a shoulder in a shrug. “I’ve been an asshole since I was a kid—had to be one to survive. I ran away from home that night I found out Addy…Addison…well, shit. When he told me she was dead, he was packing to leave. I think he knew they’d come after him. He was just going to leave me there.” He looked away. “I don’t want to talk about this. But I’ve been in foster homes, homeless…I did everything short of killing someone to survive and that was all before I was eighteen, Emmy. Being an asshole, being hard is how I survived. It’s all I know.”
Inclining my chin at him, I asked, “So what are you telling me?”
“I’m trying to say I’m sorry.” He took another step toward me. Slowly, almost reluctantly. “I don’t know how to be with a woman, Emmy. Not like this.”
My breath squeezed out of my chest at his next words.
“But you make me want to find out.”
He took one more step in my direction as I blinked back tears. Holding up my hand, I said, “I don’t do things half-assed, Sly O’Malley. If you tell me this shit, you better be telling me you’re in this for real. Maybe I might have settled for whatever you wanted to give me before, but that’s not enough now. I want all or nothing.”
His next step brought him almost toe to toe with me and he dipped his head to murmur in my ear. “You’ve already got all of me. Turn me away if you want, baby. I’ve been nothing before. It’s all I am without you anyway.”
Bracing my hands on his chest, I shoved him back a little.
He went. His mouth tightened but then as I took a step in his direction, it started to curve up in a faint smile.
“You’re still an ass,” I advised him. “You know that.”
“Always going to be. But I’m one who loves you.”
In the next moment, I had my arms around his neck and his hands were in my hair. His mouth came down on mine. Opening for him, I let him kiss me, and I kissed him back with every pent-up bit of longing, love, and need that I’d held trapped inside me over the past week.
It was a lot.
24
Emmy
One Month Later
I was in the audience the night Colleen made her stage debut.
Mac, Sly, and LeVan did their normal breath-stealing show, but that night, it looked like Colleen was going to be the show-stealer.
At least I thought so.
When the light settled over me, the dress Sly had asked me to wear erupted into a thousand shards of sparkling light. He’d told me that it was one of Thea’s designs and I’d fallen in love with it. Nobody ever had to ask me twice to wear a pretty dress, but now, sitting under the bright circle of light, with the light fracturing off my dress and everybody turning to look at me, I had to wonder just what was behind Sly’s request for my wardrobe.
“We’re going to deviate a little bit from the normal show tonight, folks,” Sly said, his rough, sexy drawl managing to give me the shivers even though he was talking to a full house, not to me.
Then he was talking to me, looking straight at me, and awareness sparked inside as he jumped lightly off the stage to come stand in front of me where I sat in the front row. Angel sat on one side, little Colleen back in her arms, dressed adorably in pink and white. Thea and her brother Nick sat on my other side and we all watched as Sly drew closer.
It seemed the entire theatre was holding its collective breath.
I know I was.
Sly held out a hand to me. Nervously, I accepted, letting him draw me to my feet.
He brought my hand to his lips and someone out in the audience shouted, “That’s not a kiss.”
Sly didn’t respond as he started to talk. “Any of y’all ever meet someone who made you want to be…more than what you are? Made you want to be better?”
He wasn’t really wanting an answer and he kept on with his monologue as he watched me. With one hand cupped in front of me, he said, “You see yourself as one thing.” He waved his spread palm in front of my face. Then he snapped his fingers and when he reopened his hand, there was a handkerchief in it. Only it wasn’t pristine and white. It was dirty, torn and grey, a few holes in it. He held it up and shoved it into his free fist, bit by bit. “But they look at you and see…”
He clapped both his hands and the handkerchief was gone.
The audience didn’t break out into their normal applause.
We were all listening to Sly’s words.
He snapped his fingers once more, and just like he was pulling the handkerchief from thin air, it was in his hands once more. The holes were gone. The handkerchief itself was white as snow. “They see something else. And it makes you want to be that something else.”
Tears blurred my eyes and I wanted to tell him I didn’t want him being anything but who he was.
But this wasn’t my show.
He placed the white square of cloth over his hand, concealing it.
“This person consumes you, takes up all your thoughts, takes up your soul, and your mind…” He whipped the handkerchief up, threw it in the air—and a dove flew out from under it.
But nobody laughed or clapped.
And now Sly stood in front of me with a box waiting on his outstretched hand.
A moment later, he went down on bended knee and that was when the audience broke out into cheers and applause and laughter.
But I was blinking back tears.
With a shaking hand pressed to my mouth, I watched as he flipped open the box. “Emerald Sky Montrose, will you marry me?” he asked as the light overhead hit the rock and sent dazzling fractals reflecting all around us.
I went to my knees in front of him, not thinking about the tight fit of the dress until it was too late. It held and I wrapped my arms around his neck, my mouth covering his just as he went to say something.
I had no idea what it might’ve been.
But my answer?
It was yes.
Six Months Later
I turn my back to the waiting cluster of women in bridesmaids’ gowns and formal cocktail dresses. I was Mrs. Emerald Sky O’Malley now. About to start a new and intriguing chapter of my life—as someone’s wife. And someone else’s mother. Two of them.
Smiling, I ran my free hand down to my immense, still growing belly and looked down. I had no idea about what kind of mama I’d be for my twins, but I couldn’t wait to meet them.
Sly came through the crowd from one side of the room and placed his hand on top of mine at my belly. “Are they kicking?” He asked, then pressed a kiss below my ear.
“They were, earlier. Right now, they’re pretty calm.”
“Give them time. If they’re anything like me, they’re sure to be rambunctious and wily, nonstop.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
“How about you throw that bouquet now so we can kick off our honeymoon?”
I smiled. “Sounds perfect to me.” I turned a little and gave the ladies a nod. “Are you all ready?” Before the last word was out of my mouth, I shot the flowers high over my shoulders, then turned to see who’d caught it.
Thea’s best friend had caught it, but immediately thrust it into Thea’s hands. “Tag, you’re it,” she said loud enough for everyone to hear. “You’d better take it too. I ain’t the marrying kind, and you’ve had LeVan waiting over a decade to seal the deal.”
“We’re engaged,” Thea told her friend, and let out a happy laugh.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Sly whispered to me. “These ladies can go from zero to scratch your eyes out bitchy in four seconds flat.”
I grinned. “Too late for that.”
“I don’t mind. The day’s gone off without a hitch. About time someone caused a scene. It’s my wedding after all.”
“True, but I’m glad the wedding planner didn’t add chaos and mayhem to her checkl—”
I didn’t get to finish my sentence. Sly covered my mouth with his, and like all those times before, nothing else mattered.
“I love you, Mrs. O’Malley,” he whispered against my lips as he pulled from the searing kiss that curled my toes and sent need to my core. “And our babies. I don’t want to wait another second to make you the happiest woman on God’s green earth.”
I smiled and thought about how lucky I was, and that we’d given each other a chance all those long months ago.
“Yes, let’s go.”
THE END
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