Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 167204 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 557(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167204 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 557(@300wpm)
Well, this is not the reaction I was expecting.
Holding me a little tighter, he murmurs, “You’re going to have my baby.”
My heart flutters hearing those words from his mouth.
It sounds silly, but I hadn’t thought of it that way yet.
My brain was looking at the chaos factor, at all the ways this is going to derail the life I had planned, but… I guess there’s an upside, too.
It’s just a small upside by comparison.
I swallow, hating to bring it up, but also needing to bring him back to reality. “I don’t think the other people in your life are going to be very happy about this development.”
Killian pulls me back and looks down at me. Then he reaches over for something on his nightstand. “This wasn’t how I planned to do this, but…”
I frown, watching him grab a little box and put it between us on the bed. It looks like a jewelry box, but it feels mean to give me jewelry when I explicitly told him all that was missing from my stupid mistress package was—
He opens the box, and I gasp at the sight of a gorgeous platinum band set with little diamonds all the way around it. In the center is a large round diamond surrounded by tiny sapphires, then an outer halo of small diamonds angled to look almost like a flower.
“Oh, Killian. It’s beautiful.”
“You like it?” He takes the ring out of the box, grabbing my left hand and gently sliding the band on my ring finger.
My heart squeezes. “Maybe we shouldn’t put it on that finger.”
“Why? That’s where an engagement ring’s supposed to go.”
His words are like a punch to the gut. I start to take the ring off. “You can’t be engaged to two people at once,” I state.
He grabs my hand, stopping me.
Then he tips my chin up and makes me look at him. “I’m not. I told you I was going to take care of the shit with Sloane. I know you doubted me,” he says, his blue eyes twinkling as he leans in to kiss the corner of my mouth. “But you shouldn’t have. I got it done. The arrangement with Sloane is off. Aiden’s gonna take my place—marrying her, and at her dad’s company. So my commitment to the Whitleys… it’s over. I’m not tied to them anymore, and that means I can marry whoever I want to marry. And the only one I want to marry is you.”
I can feel my jaw hanging open, and my eyes feel dry from being wide and unblinking, but I can’t process what he’s saying to me.
“You broke your engagement with Sloane.”
“Correct.”
“And your commitment to her dad.”
“Technically, I didn’t break that, I just facilitated a replacement he deemed acceptable.”
“Aiden.”
“Yes.”
“He’s not a Blue Blood,” I say.
“Well… he wasn’t.”
My eyes widen even more. “You let him in?”
“Had to. It was the only way. I still don’t like the guy, but… someone had to marry Sloane, and it wasn’t going to be me.”
“You willingly gave up a multi-billion-dollar empire just so you could have… me.”
He smirks, leaning in to kiss the corner of my mouth. “We’ll build our own empire.”
I’m too stunned to speak.
When I finally manage words, I still can’t process the facts. “But you… you could have had everything…”
He shakes his head firmly, then sinks his fingers into my hair. And the way he looks at me…
“Nah. You’re everything, Brynn Blakely. None of it was worth anything if it didn’t come with you.”
He’s made my heart crack in half before, but this time the ache is because it’s just so… full.
Emotion wells up as the reality starts hitting me.
He really did this.
He really got out of the opportunity of a lifetime to be with me instead.
He picked me over everything else.
He wasn’t playing to me or lying to me or…
I shake my head. “I’m so sorry.”
He shakes his head disapprovingly. “Nothing to be sorry for.”
“I didn’t believe you,” I say, still astounded. “My own mother wouldn’t pick me over garbage, and you picked me over…”
Everything.
He turned down a life nobody would turn down…
Because I’m everything to him.
I feel myself tearing up, and Killian laughs softly when he sees the shine in my eyes. “Don’t cry,” he says, but he says it tenderly, kissing my forehead. “I’ve made you cry enough.”
“They’re happy tears,” I say, sniffling, then looking down at the beautiful ring he put on my finger. “You really wanna marry me?”
He nods. “I do. But I think I should warn you, it’s a forever deal with me. I’ve told you before, but once my ring is on your finger, it doesn’t come back off. Once I make you my wife, the idea of you leaving me is unacceptable. I am demanding and sometimes completely fucking unreasonable. I have an insatiable appetite for you, and sometimes it makes me crazy. I also adore every fucking thing about you, and what I want most is to fall asleep with these curls spread across my pillow every night of my life. So, knowing what you’re signing up for and that there’s absolutely no way out… Brynn Blakely, will you—?”