she gratefully used it to blow her nose. "Whoa, fuck, note to self don't do that... again." Kallie blinked at Brock who was on his knee beside her.
He opened his fist, displaying a small black velvet box. He slowly reached up with his other hand and opened the lid. "I was going to wait until Valentine's Day, but today made me realize I didn't want to wait a minute longer. I almost lost you. It terrified me. I need you in my life. I need you to be my wife, my partner, and my friend. With our careers, I can promise you more fucked up shit than you should have to deal with, and you'll have to put up with my family, too." Brock dropped his hand, taking the ring from her view. "Fuck, that's not selling this very well is it?"
Kallie laughed and ran her hand down his arm to the hand that held the ring. "You had me at the first murder investigation. The fucked-up shit and family balance each other out. Good with the bad."
Brock's brows drew together. "The family's the good part, right?"
Kallie threw back her head and laughed. "The best part."
Brock held her hand and slid the small round solitaire onto her finger. It was absolutely perfect. "So that's a yes? You'll marry me?"
She leaned forward and kissed him. "Yes, I'll marry you."
"You know what that means, right?" Brock stood, still holding her hand in his.
She blinked and shook her head. "Ah… no."
"Proposal sex, acceptance sex, and then fantastic engagement sex." He helped her to her feet.
"Oh, that..." She laughed as he nodded his head, a cheesy smile plastered his face.
"Yeah, that." He dropped her hand and cupped her face. “Let me make love to you until what happened tonight is a distant memory.” His smile faded as he stared into her eyes.
She couldn’t help the shiver that ran through her at their intense connection. She sighed and leaned into him. “That could take a long, long time.” The emotion she’d been trying to fight cracked through and her eyes filled with tears. Happy tears, but it was a crack in the dam.
His thumb wiped away a fat drop that pushed over the edge of her eyelashes. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here, and I’ll love you the way you deserve to be loved.” He stood and brought her up with him. He lowered and placed a tender, almost-there kiss on her lips. Kallie burrowed into his arms, and he wrapped her up, cocooned her in safety and, most importantly, love. What she’d had with Rich had never been this.
Brock led them through the small apartment. He carefully removed her shirt, kissing the exposed skin of her shoulders. His fingers traveled over her skin, raising goose flesh in their wake. He unfastened her holster from her jeans and placed her service weapon on the nightstand before he unfastened his secondary weapon and placed it beside hers. The fact he didn’t have his primary weapon jolted her from the moment. Rich’s actions hit her again, stealing all her joy.
“No, this time isn’t about him. It’s about you and me. Our lives together. He doesn’t have a place between us. Not now, not ever.” Brock kissed her until she was breathless. He didn’t dominate her, but led her higher than she ever dreamed she could go.
His fingers trailed over her skin and cast off her bra. Brock lowered her to the mattress, his strength holding her when her balance no longer could. He’d never let her fall. She knew that as surely as she knew she’d pull oxygen into her lungs with the next breath. Brock was a constant, a rock, and he was hers.
When he slid inside her, the unsheathed heat of his cock felt delicious. She cradled him in between her legs, holding onto him as his hands and mouth made her feel like a princess. If this was a fairytale, she never wanted to wake up. She’d met her prince. He wasn’t perfect, but then again, neither was she. He was a man-child, coarse and foul-mouthed at times. He also worked too hard, drank too much coffee, slept fewer hours than any person she’d ever met, and had problems being civil to her new partner. Brock King wasn’t perfect, but he was hers and hers alone.
Thoughts of anything but Brock seeped from her mind as he played her body like a master musician plays a fine instrument. He knew how to touch her