Adrian need to look spiffy, baby.”
She gapes. “You? You’re going to be at the party?”
“As a guest of my father who agreed to get me in. No doubt, to please his buddy Tag. It’s the best way for me to take the toddler Tag off guard. He’s easily distracted. He’ll see me there and be certain I’m there to kill Gabriel.”
“Because you will,” she snaps. “The first time you see him touch me, you’ll lose your shit.”
“I said the same damn thing,” Smith snaps. “Listen to your woman, Savage.”
“The first time he touches you?” I challenge. “He better not touch you.”
“That’s not realistic,” she argues, “and the very fact that you just said that is making me worse of nervous wreck than I already am. I won’t be able to hide my discomfort from him knowing you’re waiting to kill him. The instant he tries to touch me, I’ll be afraid you’re going to lose your shit and that endangers you and my father. You are not going to the party. The end.” She stands up and walks to the door to grab thee tuxedos.
The guys smirk and smile. Already on my feet, I shoot them two fingers and follow Candace to the foyer where I hang out at the side of the doorway out of view, until she shuts the door. I take the garment bags from her hands. “No,” she says before I speak.
I lower my voice for her ears only. “This might be the only time outside our wedding you see me in a tux, baby.”
She blanches. “Wedding?”
“Hell yes, Candy, baby. Wedding. I’m not going to blow this night and miss the chance to make you mine again.”
“Is that a proposal?”
“Hell no. I wouldn’t propose with those assholes here and us standing in the damn foyer. This right now is a promise of what’s to come after tonight. I’m not blowing that. Trust me. I’m asking you to trust me.”
“If he touches me—”
“I won’t lose my shit unless he pulls some shit.”
“Define ‘pulls some shit’.”
“I will protect you. You know I have to protect you.”
Her eyes soften. “What comes after tonight, Rick, that’s what matters.”
“Is that right?”
“You know it is.”
“Well then, baby. Let’s go finish this planning and get you packed, so we can go home together.”
She nods and kisses my cheek. I cup her head and give her a long stroke of tongue while she gives me a sweet little moan that has my cock twitching and my heart burn every shade of right. That’s when you know you have the right woman—when she can talk to your cock, your mind, and your heart, all at the same time without even trying. I wouldn’t just kill for this woman. I’d die for her. I just hope like hell that doesn’t happen. It’d be a bitch to win her back and then end up dead. I stroke her damp lip and motion her to the living room.
We rejoin the Walker team and I’m pretty sure I just asked her to marry me, and she said yes. I just need to get us through this night and ask her properly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Candace
My body is still warm from Rick’s kiss, my heart even warmer from his promised proposal when we enter the living room and rejoin the Walker team. We’ve barely sat down in our chairs again and I’ve barely started to gather my thoughts when my cellphone rings.
“It’s Gabriel,” Smith warns, tapping his MacBook that sits in front of him before I can even reach for my cell “I can tell you from our surveillance that he’s sitting at breakfast with his campaign manager.”
“I hope she takes him back to his room and spreads her legs again after they eat so that he stays away,” I say, grabbing my phone from my pocket.
Smith snorts his coffee. Rick snorts laughter. “Quiet!” Asher snaps.
I inhale and take the call. “Hi,” I say, and I don’t look at Rick or anyone in the room. I stare at my sneakers, praying this is the last call from this man that I have to take, ever. “How are you?”
“Running late,” he says shortly. “I’m about to walk into a meeting with the governor which is why I’m calling. I’m sending a car to pick you up at eight. I’ll meet you at the party.”
“And then you fly out after the party?”
“Unfortunately, yes. When I get back, we’ll fuck like rabbits to make up for all this fucked up separation.”
Spoken as he sits next to