"Is this moving too fast for you? Do I need to learn to keep my hands to myself? Spend more time at my own goddamn house?" Doing either of those things might actually kill me. I'm so in love with this wild woman, I can't even breathe through it most days. But if that's what she needs, I'll find a way to do it.
"What?" Tears well in her eyes, her bottom lip quivering. "You don't want to be here?"
"That's not what I said. I asked what you want from me, baby."
"I want you to stay!" she cries. "I'm trying to behave so you do."
Jesus.
I take a beat, trying to process what she's just said. And then I get pissed. I crank the knob on the stove, turning it off, and then snatch her off the counter, holding her up against my chest as I stomp down the hall to my office.
"What are you doing?" she cries, squirming in my arms. "Let me go."
I ignore her, ripping her shirt off over her head. Her bra goes next, and then her skirt and tiny pair of panties. Once she's naked, I sit, dragging her down on my lap. She fights me like a little hellcat, growling and hissing.
It'd be cute if I weren't so pissed.
"Settle down," I growl, swatting her on the ass.
"You settle down!" she retorts, poking me in the chest.
"Are you Paulina now, baby?"
She jabs me again.
I chuckle, gathering her hands up. She tries to get them free, so I haul her closer, kissing her until she melts against me. Only when she's still do I let her up for air.
"I don't want whatever idealized version of you that you think you need to be in order for me to stay, Olive," I growl against her lips. "That's not the woman I fell in love with. I fell for the wild woman who tells random strangers that she's stealing mail, accuses her next-door neighbor of being a serial killer, and calls the cops on his crazy bird. I fell for the woman who gets fired up about Heathcliff, thinks Aeschylus sounds like a sneeze, and who believes that good and love always triumph in the end, just like in her favorite book. I want the woman who wears matching PJs and has spa days with her dog, and plots against me with my bird. That's the Olive I fell in love with. That's the womanwho hasalwaysbeen good enough for me to stay, from the first fucking day, baby."
"Mason," she whimpers.
"I know people were assholes to you in the past. I know how carefully you guard your heart and how afraid you are to let people in because of it, butI'm not them, Rebel. I'm your man, and I'm not going anywhere. Hell itself couldn't drag me away from you." I tip her head back, forcing her to meet my gaze. "I'm so fucking in love with you and every wild thing you say and do. I'm not going anywhere."
Her lips part slightly, her expression part awe, part hope. "You love me?"
"Like fucking crazy," I growl. "So I need you to deal with this and stop acting like someone body-swapped you for a 1950s housewife, because that shit isn't you, and it's pissing me off."
"I hate cooking," she mumbles.
I chuckle, stroking her cheek. "I know you do."
"I hate doing your laundry, too. Your jeans are like 900 pounds when they're wet, Mason."
"You let me worry about my laundry. I'll cook every night. I don't care. But you aren't going to twist yourself into pretzels trying to be whoever it is you think you need to be to keep me here, Rebel. I'm precisely where I want to be, and I'm not going anywhere."
Her gaze flits across my face. "You really love me?"
I tug open the desk drawer, pulling out the little box hidden inside. "I bought this for you the morning after we slept together the first time," I say, swallowing hard. "I knew it was too soon to put it on your finger, but I wanted to do it."
I flip the box open, revealing the diamond ring nestled inside.
"Holy shit," she breathes, staring at it with wide eyes.
"This is how serious I am about staying, Rebel," I murmur, plucking it from the box. "Whenever you're ready, it's going on your finger."
"What…" She trails off, licking her lips. Her gaze flickers from the ring to my face and then back like she's watching a ping-pong match. "What if I'm ready now?"
"Don't say it if you don't mean it," I rasp. "Because I'll have this ring on your finger so goddamn fast, your head will spin."