Hmm. I hesitate, so he makes my decision for me.
“This one,” he says, holding out the small present. “I want you to be able to enjoy it for a bit before…”
He lets the rest of his sentence hang in the air like a threat, but I’m far too curious about the present to care. I haven’t had a present in three years, and I can’t wait to open this one. Which makes me remember, with a sudden pang, that Logan told mehe’d never received a present in his life.
“Logan!”
I’m speechless as I open the box and stare at a huge opal ring. The stone is green flecked with blue and yellow, set on a thin gold band with two small diamonds on either side of it.
“Logan,” I repeat, vaguely aware that my mouth is wide open.
“For my good girl,” he murmurs, leaning in to kiss me. “That stone looks exactly like your eyes. See?” He tilts it one way, letting the light catch it. “That’s when you’re wearing your contacts, and they make your eyes sparkle.” He tilts it the other way, and the sparkles seem to grow longer. “That’s when you’re my little crybaby.”
“Logan…” I take the beautiful ring from the box, admiring it, but then I freeze just as I’m about to put it on.
Which finger does it go on?
“Is this…” I swallow audibly. “Is this an engagement ring?”
“No.”
Oh.
I hadn’t been expecting anything like an engagement ring, so why does his answer make my heart hurt? My smile grows tense as I battle with humiliation, pain, and the fear that I’ll lose him after all, that none of this is real, or permanent.
It’s a sudden, crippling sensation that I don’t know how to push away.
“Lia.”
I’ve brought up my hands to my face, because I can feel the goddamn tears about to fall, and I donotwant him to be turned on by them now.
“Lia.”
Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
“Lia!”
His hands pry mine away from my face, and pin them to myback.
“You’re a very silly girl, do you know that?”
“Andyou’rean asshole.”
Then I bite my lower lip, realizing I’ve just insulted the man who remembered my birthday, cooked me a birthday cake, and bought me the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Logan, I didn’t mean, I just—”
He cuts off my apology with a deep kiss, and drags me back onto his lap.
“I wasn’t planning to ask your hand in marriage,” he breathes against my ear, “because as far as I’m concerned, your hand is already mine. As is the rest of you. Anyway, captors don’t marry their captives, do they?”
“Uhm…”
“That’s what you are, Lia,” he growls in a way that makes me wet. “My little captive. That’s what you are, and what you always will be. Now, if you want a marriage certificate to make official that pretty cage I’ll be keeping you in for the rest of your life, well, I’m more than happy to oblige. But nothing can change the fact, Lia, that you’re mine. I own you, little ghost girl.”
He takes the ring from my hand and slides it onto my ring finger, before drying my tears.
“Logan, I’m sorry,” I say, feeling both terribly turned on and terribly guilty. Thank you—”