The Angels' Share (The Bourbon Kings #2) - J. R. Ward Page 0,47

is the wrong time. On so many levels.”

“We can go back to the house to your room.”

Lane broke away and started pacing around the cramped space. Which was like someone trying to go for a stroll around the inside of a gym locker. “I wanted this to be perfect.”

“So let’s go back.”

“I wish I had more to offer you. And I will. After all this. I don’t know what it will look like—but there will be something in the future.” He was aware he was prattling on, talking to himself. “Maybe it’s that farm in your daydreams. Or a grease-monkey garage. Or a diner. But I swear, it’s not always going to be like this.”

And he’ll be divorced. Damn it, maybe he should wait?

Except no, he decided. Life felt very precarious at the moment, and he had always regretted the time they had missed. Waiting to do the right thing, to do what you wanted and needed for yourself and the one you loved, was a luxury for the lucky clueless who had not yet had tragedy in their lives.

And also he wanted to start their future away from Easterly and Charlemont right here, right now. He wanted her to know, on a visceral level, that she was a priority to him, too. Even as Rome burned, she was important, and not because she was some kind of plane ticket out of hell for him. But because he loved her and he was more than looking forward to building a life together with her.

In fact, he was desperate for the freedom he was trying to earn during this awful grind.

As he glanced at her, Lizzie just shook her head and smiled at him. “I don’t need anything more than you.”

“God … I love you. And this should be perfect.”

As in happening in a different place. With a ring. And champagne and a string quartet—

No, he thought, as he properly focused on his Lizzie. She wasn’t Chantal. She wasn’t interested in that country club check list of stuff just so she could share it with her friends in the Wedding Olympics.

Sinking down onto one knee, Lane took her hands in his and kissed each one. As her eyes flared, like she suddenly guessed what was coming and couldn’t believe it, he found himself smiling.

A pool house. Who knew that this was going to happen in a pool house?

Well, better than in front of half the Charlemont Metro Police Department with their guns drawn.

“Will you marry me?” he said.

SIXTEEN

Edward took the long way home, coasting over the rural lanes that wound in and out of Ogden County’s famous horse farms, the headlights of Shelby’s truck the only illumination anywhere in the rolling landscape, the window all the way down beside him. The air was warm and gentle on his face and he breathed deep a lot … but his hands were tight on the wheel, and his gut was rolling.

He kept thinking of Sutton with that politician of hers.

Indeed, from all he’d heard, the Shit Dagney was actually a gentleman. The governor had been faithful to his wife, and unlike a lot of men, after he’d become a widower, he hadn’t run off with some twenty-five-year-old rent-a-fantasy. Instead, he’d focused on his kids and the Commonwealth.

And you could actually believe all that was true because if there had been anything to the contrary, the newspapers would have reported it or the man’s opponents would have brought it out during the campaigns.

So, yes, a gentleman through and through, it seemed. But that didn’t mean he was dead from the neck down. Hell, a man would have to be insane not to recognize Sutton as a full-blooded woman. And the fact that she was worth billions of dollars didn’t hurt, either.

Even penniless, though, she would have been a catch beyond measure. She was levelheaded. Fun. Passionate. Silly and sweet and smart. Capable of standing up to a man and calling him on his stupidity, while at the same time making you feel every ounce of testosterone in your body.

But she was wrong about one thing. That man, sitting governor or not, was going to make a move on her tonight.

The shit.

The truly pathetic thing was, however, that the governor’s amorous side wasn’t what really bothered Edward. It was Sutton’s rightful response that, as much as he hated to admit it, was the real reason he was out here, going around in circles.

Bottom line, the Shit Dagney was an amazing man, worthy of her in