Cuffs - Cara Lockwood Page 0,63

cameras and the best security system money could buy.

She broke free from the kiss, and he grinned, his green eyes an even lighter shade beneath the Pacific sun. She’d never get tired of those eyes. She knew it now, that somehow, they’d always make her shiver. She’d never imagined a relationship could be so fulfilling...that the love and affection would just grow and deepen. She’d spent a lifetime feeling like her dad had forgotten her mom, abandoned her for a new relationship, but now Mags realized that he had only been trying to heal the best way he knew how. She’d kept everyone out, and he’d let someone in. Now that she’d finally taken out enough bricks in her own wall, now that she’d finally let Gael in, she’d grown to understand that in a new way.

She now knew that being bound to someone wasn’t about being a prisoner against one’s will, about feeling trapped—it was about feeling safe. Feeling at home. Never in a million years would she ever have imagined being in a relationship with a suit, but, frankly, they just fit together. They belonged together.

“I need to call Ava,” Gael said. “I promised her I’d check in.”

Mags laid a trail of kisses down his neck. She tasted the salt water of the sea and his skin. God, she loved the taste of him. She thought she always would.

“Mmm-hmm,” she said as Gael set up his phone for a video call. Ava answered on the second ring. She looked healthy and beaming, a gorgeous eighteen-year-old who had been cancer-free for a year.

“You checking up on me, big brother?” she teased, grinning from ear to ear. She was in her college dorm, and a bevy of Shaded Moon posters could be seen behind her. She still loved that band.

“He completely is,” Mags said, tipping her face to the screen. “Don’t let him get away with it.”

“Hi, Mags! You look so tan already!” Ava gushed.

“More like burned, but thanks.” Mags grinned.

“Anyway.” Gael cleared his throat. “I saw an octopus, just wanted to tell you.”

“Oooh! An octopus!” Ava squealed. She was a freshman at Eckerd College in Florida, studying marine biology. Everything marine was fascinating to her, and Gael, Mags knew, couldn’t be prouder of his sister. She’d made up all her lost school time well before graduation and managed to get into the first college of her choice. The girl was on fire.

“I’ll send you the picture.”

“Do. Also. Look, Mags! The tattoo looks great!” Ava pulled up her T-shirt sleeve and showed Mags an identical tattoo of the falcon she’d done on her brother’s arm. “Thank you for doing it. It’s healed up nicely.”

“My pleasure.” Mags beamed with pride. She’d been glad to do it. She’d given Ava the tattoo on the anniversary of being cancer-free, after a minor fight with Gael about how big it ought to be.

“It looks good,” Gael admitted.

“Oh, I know it does.” Ava snapped her fingers at the camera. “You don’t have to tell me that!” She paused a second. “Aren’t you forgetting something, Gael?”

“Oh. Right. I promised I’d ask Mags.”

“Ask me what?” Mags glanced at Gael and then Ava. What were these two Quinn siblings cooking up behind her back?

“So...winter is coming up,” Gael began, a teasing smile on his lips.

“Yes?”

“And... I mean, this might seem sudden.”

Mags frowned. What the hell was he going to ask her? As it was, they practically lived together, hardly spending a single night of the week apart. She’d even started delivering packages to his condo, since he had a doorman that could keep them safe. He’d given her a key to his place many months ago. So now what?

“Spit it out, Quinn.”

“Well... I mean...” He looked at the sky. “Maybe we should date. Or something.”

“Gael!” Ava cried through the phone. “Be serious!”

Gael put the phone on the dock, using his snorkel as a stand.

“I think we’re beyond that now,” Mags said. If he kept this up, tonight it would be his turn to get lashes across his butt.

“Are we?” Gael blinked fast, trying to look innocent but only really succeeding at pushing her buttons. “Well, then, maybe...just maybe, we should think about...”

From behind his back, Gael produced a black velvet box. Mags’s heart completely stopped. What the hell was this? She felt the hammer thumping in her chest.

“Maybe we should think about getting cuffed,” Gael finished, and he opened the box. Inside was the biggest freakin’ diamond Mags had ever seen, a square princess cut, completely surrounded by