The Man I Thought I Trusted - E. L. Todd Page 0,53

most important thing in the world. His love felt real, unconditional, like there was nothing I could ever do to make him stop loving me.

My eyes softened.

“I love you.” His hand moved into the back of my hair as he cradled my face close. He spoke quietly but still loud enough for them to hear, wearing his heart on his sleeve like a real man, like he didn’t care if people heard his declaration of love.

I kissed him on the mouth for a bit before I pulled away. “I love you too.”

His other hand grabbed mine on my thigh. With his eyes on me, he gently opened my fingers before he placed something small in the center. Then he wrapped my fingers around it, making it a closed fist.

All my friends gasped.

I felt the key to his penthouse in my grip, the warm metal the same temperature as my skin. My fingers squeezed it tighter, but that was when I realized it wasn’t a key at all.

I inhaled a deep breath when I figured out what it was.

He kept his focused gaze on me, his look intense like it was in the bar the night we met. “Will you marry me?”

My head immediately dropped as my fingers opened, seeing the diamond ring he’d placed there.

“Oh my god,” Matt whispered.

It was a simple band with a single diamond in the center. It wasn’t a big diamond that a billionaire would buy his trophy wife. It was small and humble, just like me. He’d picked out a ring I would want, not an obnoxious rock that would just get in my way.

I lifted my head and looked at him again.

He waited for my answer, confident that he already knew what I would say.

He didn’t take me to a fancy restaurant or on a luxury trip to propose. He asked me exactly how I would want to be asked, unexpectedly and with my friends there to celebrate. He truly understood who I was and never tried to change me, even when he didn’t always agree.

I opened my fingers again, grabbed the ring, and slipped it onto my ring finger.

His lips slowly lifted into a smile.

My hands cupped his cheeks, and I kissed him. “Yes,” I whispered against his mouth, listening to my friends clap and cheer.

“Aw,” Denise said. “That was so sweet…”

Matt whistled.

I knew that meant I’d have to walk away from the job that I loved, but it was a compromise I was willing to make for this man. Truly, I didn’t feel like I was losing anything, but gaining something better. I wouldn’t have to fall so far as to take on the Lifestyle section, though it would be a big change of pace. But he would make up for all the excitement that I was leaving behind.

When Dax pulled away, his smile was gone, and now he looked at me with emotional eyes, like he’d just gotten everything he’d ever wanted. His fingers moved into my hair and pulled it from my face, his palm cupping my cheek as he regarded me. “Carson Frawley…sounds right.”

“What makes you think I’d change my last name?” I teased.

“Because it sounds so hot.”

“Yeah.” I gave a slight nod. “It does sound pretty hot.”

19

Dax

I’d asked someone to marry me before. I’d picked out the ring, planned how I’d ask the question, so the novelty should be gone.

But it felt like the first time.

Because this time, it was right.

Carson was the one.

The food was left on the coffee table in the living room, and her boxes were stacked near the windows in my bedroom to be unpacked later. We were in bed, making love, enjoying each other as fiancés.

With her thighs squeezing my hips, I rocked into her, seeing the shine of sweat on her forehead from the lights coming through the window. Her green eyes were lit up with their own illumination, the fire burning in her soul. Her fingers dug into my slightly damp hair as she rocked back with me, the metal from her ring coming into contact with my skin.

She pulled me close as she started to writhe, her back arching, her head rolling back, her toes curling against my ass. Her nails dug into my flesh as she dragged them down the back of my neck, the sweat burning the openings as it poured inside. “Yes…”

The only thing better than having an orgasm was watching her have one. She tightened around me like she did all the other times, her wetness