Shackled: A Stepbrother Romance Novel
Page 15
“Angel, I’ve been saving a little bit from every check since last Christmas for this. I know I promised no secrets, but this is the one secret a man should keep from his girl. I wanted it to be a surprise.”
Her ability to speak seemed to return and she lowly mumbled, “It’s definitely a surprise.”
“So are we okay?”
She nodded her head slowly and I released her chin, smiling when her wide eyes immediately darted back down to the jewelry box.
“Can I see it?”
I smirked. “Baby, you can see it any time you want, but I don’t think it’d be appropriate right now.”
The smack on the chest was deserved, but worth it. She rolled her eyes and bounced up and down on her feet for a moment, clapping her hands together in excitement. I smiled at her reaction—happy to know that regardless of whatever bullshit I said, I was pretty sure I knew what her answer was going to be.
As if her thoughts were on the exact same page, she abruptly stopped bouncing and frowned.
“Wait. Did I ruin this? Did I just fuck up my proposal? Oh my god—Can we rewind? I’ll go back to the room and you can do whatever it was you were going to do.”
She started to move away and I reached out for her hand, giving her a fond look as I shook my head.
“You and I both know that I’m not any good with pre-planned speeches, so I was really just going to wing it. Now come here.”
She obliged without protest, beaming up at me after I pulled her close to my chest and cupped her cheek with my free hand.
“I love you, angel. You know that.”
“I know,” she confirmed with a nod. “I love you, too.”
“I fucked up once before, but I’ll never do anything to risk losing you again. Do you know that?”
She nodded again and I took a brief moment to lean down and place a gentle kiss to her lips before taking the metaphorical leap and dropping down to one knee.
“Then will you be my wife?”
“Yes!”
After I slid the ring on her finger and pulled her into a tight hug, I realized that this was the only time I had ever been happy to see her cry.
Because this time, her tears meant that I had done something right.
As I tightened my grip around her, I silently vowed to do whatever it took to keep her by my side forever.
And if I ever did something to fuck it up again, I still had the shackles in the bottom drawer of my toolbox.
Always good to have a fallback.
The End
Also by Arabella
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Full-length novels!
Dominion (Alpha Domain series, #1)
Shackled
Wrecked
Hunger
Quick reads! (Novellas and short stories)
Officer Stepbrother
Psycho Stepbrother
Hurricane
In My Stepbrother’s Sheets
My Stepbrother and his Best Friend: Dear Diary
Awakening the Alpha
Cowboy Alpha
Love Thy Neighbors
Hot for the Alpha Professor
Nerd Stepbrother
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