Second Chance: A Dark Bad Boy Romance

by Kathryn Thomas

  “Do you want to?” she asked, not answering my question.

  “I don’t think I would mind that much,” I said.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I mean, I know mom wants grandkids. I wouldn’t mind having a bunch of little kids running around who looked like you,” I said.

  “A bunch? How many is a bunch?”

  “I don’t know. How many are you willing to have?”

  “Dante… I don’t know, we’ve never talked about this before.”

  “But you have thought about it, right? Come on, tell me.”

  “One would be enough.”

  “What? No way. Only children are spoiled.”

  “I’m an only child, what are you trying to say?” she accused.

  “I’m just saying since you never had siblings, you don’t know what it’s like. They can look out for each other. That’s an instant best friend, right there.”

  “Okay, how about two, like you and Gabbie?”

  “More,” I said.

  “How could you want more than two?” she asked.

  I didn’t know, but I did. This house was so big, I wanted to fill it up. If the number of kids you had was somehow equal to how much you loved the person you were with, then I wanted as many kids as possible.

  “How about four?” I asked.

  “I hope you're saying that because you're ready to actually raise four children.”

  “Why does that sound like a threat?” I asked her. Her hair wasn't done yet, but I asked the stylist and makeup artist if they could just leave for a second so we could talk privately together.

  “Are you upset?” I asked her. There was about half of her hair that still needed to be curled but her makeup looked like it was done already. I thought she looked beautiful but the makeup artist was probably going to come back in and touch her face some more.

  “I’m not upset. I’m just surprised. Why do you want to discuss this now?” she asked.

  “I’ve been thinking about the future.”

  “We just moved in together. It has only been a few months.”

  “You haven’t been thinking about us being together?”

  “I have, but kids? Already? I just… I just think it's sort of soon.”

  “How long do you want to wait?”

  “I’m just twenty-four. I want to work some more and become more established. I want us to spend more time together getting to know one another. I want to spend time with you alone before we have a kid who needs constant attention and tears me away from you.”

  I walked up to her and leaned down to kiss her gently on the lips so I didn’t get any of her makeup on me.

  “I haven’t ever wanted a future with anyone before you, Quinn. I haven’t ever wanted a woman to move in with me before.”

  “This is big for you. I know. That’s why you should slow down and enjoy it. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I kissed her again. She had a point.

  She and I… well, I was new at this. She had probably had men in her life before. She had probably even lived with some of them. Maybe even gotten engaged and talked about having kids. It didn’t matter what she had done in the past because we were together now. I wanted her and I wanted all of her. I would respect her wishes if she wanted to wait, but she would have to compromise and do something for me.

  I didn’t want to think about not having her again.

  I didn’t want to think about other women I’d had in the past or the ones I could have had if she and I weren’t together.

  I hadn’t been looking in the first place, but I was done looking now. I had found her. I didn’t want anyone else. I had kept the ring that mom and I had picked out for her in the bedside table of one of the guest bedrooms. I didn’t want her finding it by accident.

  My mind was made up—and she was it.

  It was just a matter of finding out when a good time to propose would be. I took the ring everywhere with me when we left the house together. It was always on me besides when we were asleep.

  I had been really scared about the media attention when we got back from Jamaica and settled into my house, our house together back in Los Angeles would be like. The thing I had forgotten was that Quinn was a reporter herself. She wasn’t a public figure, but she wrote about them all the time. She knew how the media was. She knew they didn’t give a fuck and could be reckless. She also knew how to handle herself.

  What did it feel like to have nothing to hide?

  Literally, the only thing she had ever done wrong was love me.

  Not every publication took fact-checking seriously. The headlines and stories that we came home to after Jamaica were scandalous. They ranged from a little bit true and plausible to outright lies.

  There were already rumors that the reason she and I was together was because I had made her pregnant. There were some calling her my secret wife. There were others saying who she was, Quinn Blaze, journalist, but then everything else was ugly rumors. Some said she was blackmailing me. Some said she was a social-climbing gold digger.

  If only they knew how embarrassed Quinn was by my money.

  There had even been these huge offers from various outlets to give an expose on our relationship. The same hungry publications that were after me before were after me again, and now they had more ways to get to me than before. Quinn wouldn’t break though.

  It wasn’t like there was anything particularly scandalous for them to find out about anyway. What did they want to know? About how when Daniella wasn’t in the house, Quinn would cook breakfast? About how she had converted one of the guest rooms into an office for her?

  About our sex life? What did they want to know because there were a lot of women would, could answer that question, not just Quinn.

  I wasn’t proud of that fact, but it didn’t bother me that much. It was the past.

  She didn’t bother refuting or confirming anything. It was nobody’s business but ours.

  Unlike being out with my sister or with my mother, I was one-hundred-percent shameless when it came to being out with Quinn. I took her out as often as she would let me. Didn’t matter if it was out to eat, to the bank, or to go shopping. It didn’t matter. Seeing the pictures of us together was very satisfying to me.

  I wanted to claim her loud and in public. I wanted everyone to know. They could have as many pictures as they wanted.

  We got to the venue. I got out of the car on my side so I could come round the car and open her side for her. She looked gorgeous. Her hair had eventually been gathered at the back of her head in a fancy bun. She looked beautiful, but I always preferred her hair down. The dress she had worn had no straps and was red. It went all the way down to the floor.

  We began the walk down the carpet together.

  She hadn’t done many of these, but the red carpet was literally just the time when the photographers got to take candid shots of you. They would always make requests, like having two people together in shots as a couple, different poses and also solo shots.

  The photographers were yelling for me to get out of the shot so that they could have some of her alone. Watching the flashbulbs, it occurred to me that this was a perfect time. If not now, then when?

  I could always pull it out when we were together alone at the house or having a private moment, but then again, what about our life was ever going to be truly private? The pictures being taken at the event today were going to end up everywhere. People all over the world would see them. They would see me proposing to the woman that I loved, and her hopefully saying yes.

  I looked down at Quinn. She must have noticed because she looked at me, too.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked, leaning into me. She gently touched the lapel of my tux jacket. I held her hand and brought it to my mouth, kissing the back of it.

  “Everything’s great,” I said to her.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, smiling.

  It was now or never. It wasn’t that serious if I di
dn’t propose to her right then, but I wanted to do it then. I wanted to claim her as loudly as I could. I looked her right in the eye as I leaned into her so I could whisper into her ear.

  “I love you, Quinn,” I said to her.

  “I love you too, Dante.”

  “I’m so proud of you and I’m so happy I get to call you mine… how about, we make that official?”

  “What do you—?” She stopped when she saw me sink down onto the carpet on one knee. I pulled the ring out of my pocket and held her hand. The applause and shouts that broke out just then were deafening.

  “Marry me, Quinn,” I said to her. I didn’t know whether she had heard me over all the noise, but I knew she knew what I was asking her. I could see her face. Her free hand was over her mouth like she couldn’t believe it.

  Yeah, it was a surprise. The whole country was going to be surprised.

  All she had to say was yes. Say yes Quinn. Be mine. Forever.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Quinn

  The flash of the cameras made it hard to see.

  The yelling and shouting made it hard to hear, but there was no, absolutely no mistaking what was happening right there on that carpet.

  Dante was on one knee in front of me ,and it didn’t matter who you were, you knew what that action meant. He had a ring in his hand. The light from the flashbulbs made it shine aggressively. It was huge. It looked expensive. It was just the ring. There was no box.

  Dante squeezing my hand sort of brought me back to what was happening. I had to give him an answer; he had just asked me something. He hadn’t so much asked as just told me. Marry me, Quinn, he had said.

  Okay.

  Yes.

  Of course.

  The feelings sort of all crashed through me at once. I covered my mouth and felt my chest feel full like I was about to cry. I nodded.

  “Yeah?” he asked. I barely heard him over the noise. What the hell did he mean “Yeah?” Was he trying to give me a chance to take it back? To change my mind? I nodded again. He slid the ring onto my finger and stood up. He hugged me and kissed me in full view of the cameras. We weren’t done with the carpet, but he took my hand and led me at a fast walk down the rest of the carpet and into the building.

  “Dante—”

  I tugged the hand he was holding so he would stop. It was the hand that he had put the ring on.

  “Dante… how long have you wanted to propose?”

  “Shit… almost as soon as you moved in,” he said.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Did you just say yes out there because of all the cameras? Is the real answer no?” he asked light heartedly.

  “What? No. It’s yes. It’s still yes, but… I had no idea that this was what you wanted so soon.”

  “We don't have to get married tomorrow. Our engagement can be as long as you want it to be.”

  “That’s not what I meant… you never said anything. The only thing we've really discussed about the future is having kids, and we did that just today.”

  “I’ve been trying to be reasonable. I've been holding onto this rock for so long. I didn’t want to wait. I don’t want to wait because I want you to be mine. I want it to be official. I want to give you my last name. Living with you and seeing you every day is great. It’s perfect, but I can't rest knowing there could be more. I want everything, Quinn. I want every part of you, and I want to give you every part of me, too.”

  I leaned up and kissed him.

  He was ridiculous.

  He was mine.

  We sat and I was distracted the entire duration of the event. I couldn’t stop staring at the rock. It was a yellow-tinted diamond on a rose gold band. I had never told him anything about the kind of ring I wanted or what I liked. He probably chose the color because his team was the Yellow Jackets. That meant he remembered his team was my favorite. It fit perfectly, which I had no idea how he had managed. I couldn’t see him in a jewelry store trying to tell the people who worked there that he was looking for an engagement ring. It was large and it was ostentatious, but the band was slim and delicate. The rock was perfectly clear. I wondered whether it was all his choice or whether he had help. I didn’t care either way. I was just curious. I loved it regardless. I loved him regardless.

  Dante squeezing my hand reminded me that we were at a function and I had to be present. They were about to announce who was going to beat me for the award. I sat up straight in my seat and tried to pay attention. Some night Dante had chosen to completely knock me on my ass. Was it too late to just go the fuck home?

  “Quinn Blaze.” I heard my name, but I didn’t immediately remember why it was important that I had just heard it. Dante stood beside me, pulling me up and hugging me.

  Oh.

  I had won.

  I felt like an idiot for not paying attention and realizing what was going on. I had to get to the stage. The walk there felt like it was miles long. There was applause and I realized on the way up that I had no idea what I was going to say. I had not been expecting this. A lot of people would say that they hadn’t been expecting it but then they would launch into an entire articulate prepared speech. That was not going to be me. I had no clue what I was going to say.

  I tried to concentrate on walking without falling. I received my award and walked up to the mic to give my speech. I wanted it to be short, but I wanted it to be honest. There was only one reason I had put the doc together. This speech was for him.

  “This is an amazing honor,” I began. “I could never have expected that when I was putting the documentary together that it would be this well received. I went into creating it…not because of the story I wanted to tell…but because of the man the story was about. Dante Rock is a man who we are going to keep talking about because he has done exceptional things and will keep doing them.”

  I paused as the audience applauded.

  “When I met Dante, I never expected that our interactions and conversations would turn into the finished piece. I have to dedicate this award to him because without him there would be no documentary. I learned a lot from him. I know things about him that I am happy he told me. He is the kind of man that many, myself included, at the beginning were eager to classify and put into a tidy box. Dante Rock defies definition. He showed me what he really is… which was much, much more than we all thought or wanted to give him credit for. This is for you Dante. I love you. Thank you.”

  THE END

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  OTHER BOOKS BY KATHRYN THOMAS

  SHE TRIED TO RUIN MY CAREER. NOW, I’LL RUIN HER.

  I’m this league’s worst nightmare.

  Good looks, hard body, and a scandal sheet a mile long.

  She was here for her next big story.

  I’ve got something else big for her to get her hands on.

  The media says I’m everything wrong with professional basketball.

  Pure talent and athleticism can’t bury the scandals and ghosts from my past.

  The last thing I needed was another reporter looking for their next big story.

  But that was before I saw who they sent.

  She’s here to uncover my latest scandal.

  But one look and I know she’s going to be that scandal.

  She wants to use me for her next big story?

  I’ve got something else big I want her hands on.

  I’m going to show her just how bad I can be.

  Just how far I can push her.

  Use her.

  Until she can’t decide if she wants to beg me to stop.

  Or beg me for more.

  Until she’s begging me to stop.

  I STOLE HER, RUINED HER, AND FORGOT HER. BUT THAT WAS BEFORE I FOUND OUT ABOUT OUR BABY.

  I wrecked her, used her, and ruined her for other men.

  I thought that was the last time I’d see her.
r />   Until I heard the rumors that she’s pregnant…

  And that the child is mine.

  She was a small innocent thing who should’ve never been around a bunch of animals like us.

  I made her my trophy.

  I paraded her around for everyone to see and then I took everything I wanted from her.

  I wrecked her, used her, and ruined her for other men.

  I thought that was the last time I’d see her.