he snatched the thing from my fingers and wrapped his hand around my left wrist. “Hold out your hand, we’ll see.”
I relaxed, and he pulled my hand toward him, then slipped it onto my ring finger as the diamond winked at me in the low light. Slowly he slid the ring up toward my knuckle as if anticipating at any moment that it might catch. It was slightly looser than a ring I would normally wear—which was rare since I wasn’t a big fan of jewelry, especially on my fingers.
As a gamer girl, I used a keyboard a lot and kept my fingernails trimmed down to nothing. It didn’t give me the most picturesque hands for fine jewelry display, to say nothing of the scar across my knuckles. That was a trophy from my childhood when I’d tried to punch out my brother. I’d cut my hand on the railing behind him when he’d ducked, avoiding my blow. Twenty stitches later, I had a long, fat scar for life. It leant well to my image of a tough girl, so that was awesome.
But with this delicate, one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry on my finger, it looked out of place. Like a tiara on an orangutan.
I admired it, turning it this way and that under the overhead light while Lucas, apparently did the same. “Wow, it fits nicely.”
“Just a tiny bit loose but I can put something on the back so it won’t slip off.”
He shook his head. “I can get the jeweler to resize it for you.”
I frowned, pulling my hand away. “Uh, no that’s not necessary. I’m not going to be wearing it that long. You definitely want to save this for when you get married for real.” My voice died in my throat as the look on his face darkened. I’d said something wrong.
“You do—you plan on getting married for real someday, right?”
His cheeks bulged where his jaw tightened. “Marriage is a fucked up and outdated institution that I don’t ever hesitate to mock. For your benefit, I might add.”
My brows twitched. Wow. Those were some, uh, strong feelings. I’d have to ferret out sometime why he felt that way. But clearly now was not the time.
“But mocking marriage and giving me your great-gran’s wedding ring—”
He shook his head. “It’s no big imposition. It would only be sitting in this box gathering more dust.” He waved to the big box that, in fact, had no dust on it at all.
“What will you wear?” I asked in order to diffuse the sudden tension that had erupted from nowhere.
He turned back to the velvet box and pulled out a man’s wedding ring. “My grandfather’s ring.” Without waiting for me to look at it, he slipped it onto his left finger.
I raised my brows. “Wow. It’s a perfect fit.”
Lucas clenched his jaw, glancing down at the white gold band that was simple but engraved with etched patterns on it. Masculine, elegant and otherwise unadorned.
Huh… well… “Oh, put your hand down on the bed for a minute and I’ll snap a picture. I’ve been putting together a photo album of stuff for documentation of our relationship. In case we need to show anything for the interview. This will be a good addition.”
Lucas made a weird face but did as I asked, placing his hand down on the beautiful bedspread. I pulled out my phone, then I put my left hand down on top of his, angling it so that both wedding rings could be seen in the photo. It was an easy matter of snapping a few from different angles. My head bent close, focusing. I shifted and—the back of my head bumped his nose slightly. He sucked in a breath.
“Oh! Sorry.” His hand tensed under mine and I pulled my hand away.
He seemed… angry. Or at the very least, tense. I knew that this whole situation had blossomed into more than he’d bargained for and he was probably still pissed about it. I ventured a look up into his face. Then I drew back, slightly startled at the intense look in his eyes. He was looking at me like… like… he wanted to either punch me or devour me whole.
I pulled back with a soft gasp. We held each other’s gaze for long tense minutes, my eyes drifting down toward his full lips. In that moment and for no logical reason whatsoever, I really, really wanted him to kiss me.
I wanted him to kiss me so much that I leaned in and