Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Preacher was a good man. I’d known that almost from the start. I hadn’t quite realized he was the best man I’d ever known.
I had known I loved him for a while. I’d fought it. But I hadn’t realized how much I admired him.
He was imperfect. Broken but healed. And there was something incredible about that.
I followed him up the steps to the porch and stepped inside. I swallowed, looking at the man who had just bared his soul to me. He was giving me a somber look.
“Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
“No, but . . .”
“But what?”
“You’re not going to chain me up again, are you?” I joked, eyeing him warily.
“Not in the way you think.”
And then Preacher lowered himself to his knee.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Preacher
“Cynthia,” I started, with the box in my hand as I kneeled. It’s a good thing I don’t have arthritis, I thought. Because my lady deserved the whole shebang, knees and all. I was pretty sure most guys were nervous when they proposed, but I wasn’t. I’d never been so sure of anything in my entire life.
“I didn’t have high expectations for life. I never expected to meet someone like you. I couldn’t have imagined anything so good, or beautiful, or pure as the love I feel for you. A long time ago, I thought God had forsaken me. But I was wrong. I know now that he didn’t give up on me. He sent me to you.”
She smiled tremulously. I cleared my throat, not quite done. I had a lot to say to her before I actually popped the question.
“You have changed me, Cynthia. I’m a better man when I’m with you. I know I’m probably still not good enough, and never will be, but I’ll never stop trying to live up to your example. I want nothing more from life than to cherish and protect you for the rest of my days.”
Her eyes were definitely more than a little misty. I nodded in satisfaction. It was a good thing I had a way with words when I needed them.
Because I needed her to say yes.
“So I have to ask you, once and for all, will you be my wife?”
She stared at me. I stared at her. You could have heard a pin drop in the cabin. Even the birds in the trees outside shut the fuck up.
“Yes, Preacher. I will be your wife,” she said softly. “Now get up off your knees and kiss me.”
Well, I didn’t need to be told twice.
It was the best kiss I’d ever had. There was something special about it. Almost holy. The kiss was a promise and a pledge.
“You’re wrong, you know,” she said as I slid on the ring a few minutes later.
“Wrong? About what?”
“You are good enough. You are more than good enough,” she said, cupping my face. “You are the best man I’ve ever known.”
Well, damn. Now it was my turn to get teary-eyed.
I noticed she’d barely looked at the ring. It was a pretty big rock, though probably not as big as the other ring she’d been offered. I frowned.
“Don’t you like it?”
“It’s perfect,” she said, still staring at me.
“It’s a couple of carats. Clarice helped me pick it out.”
“She knows my style,” she said happily, still not looking at her hand. It was a simple ‘princess-style’ band with a solitaire, not surrounded by diamonds or big enough to reach her knuckle, like Zach’s ring was.
“I can afford something flashier.”
“I don’t want something flashier. I want this ring.”
“But—”
“Preacher, shut the hell up and take me to bed.”
I scooped her up and carried her to the bearskin rug in front of the fireplace instead. I lay her down gently and lit a couple of candles. Then I stripped her down.
“I’ve been wanting to do this since I met you,” I murmured huskily as I pulled off my shirt and kicked my boots off. I left my pants on. I’d get to that later. Right now, I just wanted to look at her, lying there naked against the soft fur.
“My God, woman, how can you be so beautiful?”
She stared at me, her breath coming in little gasps. It humbled me to know she wanted me as much as I wanted her. I could hardly believe the intensity between us. It would have scared me in earlier years.
Maybe everything really does come at the right time, I thought in amazement.
I couldn’t wait another second to touch her. My hands skimmed over her legs and up her thighs. I didn’t lay on top of her, though. Not yet. I needed to worship her for a while first. If this is what God meant when he stole Adam’s rib, he’d been on the right track. I was more than happy to give up a body part for this woman. I’d give her everything I had and more without her having to ask.