Gypsy Truths (All The Pretty Monsters #6)- Kristy Cunning Page 0,42

crowding my space all the more, as he lifts me at the waist and drops me on the counter. Pushing my legs apart, he steps in between them, smelling as fresh and tempting as always.

Not a hair is out of place as he puts both hands on either side of my hips, lips brushing mine in that teasing way once again.

“If you think I’m ready for sex so soon after Damien claimed me, you’re insane. My vagina needs a rest,” I decide to inform him.

He struggles to keep a straight face, even as he slides the ringer closer to me.

“I’ll leave it with you. When I see you wearing it, I’ll know your answer. I’ll be a patient man, Violet.”

I blink several times, because this is not what I expected when I came down here. I expected to kill a ghost and go back to my interrupted sleep.

Not a proposal.

“Why in the world do you want to marry me?” I ask, unable to help myself, because sometimes I can’t make things make sense, if they make no sense at all to me.

“Because your vagina can handle a derailed train, apparently. I’m not sure that’s bragging rights, bestie. I’m starting to think you’re a bit of a basic slut,” Anna chimes in from somewhere in the room, slicing through at least a little of the tension.

Vance casts some side-eye in her general direction, before giving me his attention again.

“You upset easily, and I have quite the lengthy past I’m sure you’re not going to approve of,” he tells me, as though that’s some sort of answer to my question.

His hand smooths up my side, and just the heat of his touch has a pulse racing in my achingly used nether regions.

“You’re going to have to make peace with the monsters we’ve been, the monsters we are, and the monsters we’re likely going to be. It changes from one century to the next, based on what we’ve learned from our mistakes. Damien got tired of the challenge too many centuries ago to bother keeping up with the elapsed time.”

“I feel like you’re telling me something important, but…I’m a little bit on information overload lately, so…”

I let the words trail off. I’m gonna need more than the gist. I need a spoon in my mouth with the simplified version of whatever he wants to say.

“If you want a direct answer when you ask a complicated question, I’ve got to be able to trust you’re not going to fall apart in my arms when you hear the truth. I don’t want to outright lie to you. Hence the reason it ends up going in circles before a collision finally happens. Stop expecting that much trust so suddenly. Trust is earned. Over time,” he says, brushing the hair away from my cheek, as his gaze roams over my face.

“Says the guy proposing to the girl he apparently doesn’t trust,” I point out.

His lips turn up at one edge in a smile, and his eyes almost seem to be laughing at me. “When you live as long as we have, you accumulate severe trust issues, Violet. It’s going to take quite some time for me to push past all those barriers.”

He tips my chin up, eyes on mine.

“I ask questions to give you a chance to explain yourself. You can’t expect me to be okay with everything you’ve done, but I’m open to hearing what it was really like when you made such decisions. I’m sheltered,” I remind him. “It’s easy for me to judge. It takes effort not to, but I put forth that effort the best I can, and run sanctuary to do away with all the things I can’t deal with, while giving you a viable alternative for this crazy law or that one. I am compromising.”

He laughs under his breath, his hands cupping my cheeks, as he presses in closer.

“I do trust you, Violet,” he says in a tone that makes my vagina forget there’s any lingering aches.

“I trust you to look after Damien,” he says…randomly. “This sanctuary taught you something important.”

For whatever reason, I know what he’s hinting at.

“Damien isn’t running much of anything, and he seriously needs to start taking care of all his rogue betas who are doing all that work with no alpha looking after them,” I say in agreement and a nod.

“You recruited him a top name in the rogue world. He’s actually a good representative for Damien. But you made Damien take a beta, something I