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Her hand trembled, and she reached out and slipped the tab free, releasing him. Inside something shiny rolled. She gasped as it sparkled when it caught the light. She picked it up. It was a ring with a cluster of diamonds in a circle. In the middle of the circle was a beautiful emerald cut column. “Nash.” He buttoned up the jock and pulled her against him.
“Grace Harlan, you body slammed me from the moment we met. Your impact reverberated through me like a tuning fork.” He cupped her cheek. “We aligned. Then we kept colliding. Somehow, that made us stronger.” He closed his eyes. “I love you. I don’t have the words to express how much.” His voice dropped. “Will you marry me, and give me yourself for the rest of your life? It’s all I need to live. You.”
“Oh, God,” she whispered under her breath. One glittering emblem full of a lifetime of possibilities. She looked up at him, and the impact he had mentioned slammed into her again. He was damaged and healed, he was a former SEAL embracing a new job, he was a man who had served and was now going to serve again. He was hers. The last few weeks with him had proved it to her beyond a shadow of a doubt.
She needed him, and she wanted him to be hers in every way. Carefully, her pulse ridiculously racing, she went to slip on the ring but stopped as she caught the engraving on the band. She turned it to the light, and her heart fluttered, tears stinging her eyes.
“You engraved it,” she whispered.
“Of course I did,” Nash said, brushing her hair back. “I figured you deserved a ring that could double as a cipher.”
She glanced down, eyes narrowing. Then they widened. “Binary?”
“Took me two hours to figure out how to writeNash Loves Gracein a language you couldn’t resist.”
“You nerd,” she breathed.
“You hacker,” he shot back. “Marry me.”
It wasn’t traditional but it reeked of stability and fiftieth wedding anniversaries. It proclaimed itself to the world as the rock upon which vows were never broken. It was a testament of his love. Proof of his commitment. From the rapt expression on his face, she could tell it was absolutely exactly what he’d needed to get from her.
There he was, laid out on the line, his heart on his sleeve, and only one word could save him. Her lashes slowly lifted, her gaze rising from the engraving to his face. She smoothed her hand across his cheek, his skin warm to her touch, and just before she kissed him, she whispered, “Grace loves Nash…”
His breath caught, a half growl under his breath. “Ya Allah.”
She laughed softly, gasping as he brushed his lips over her throat. “Ya Allah,” she whispered. “You’re such amenace.” He froze. Then looked at her like she’d just saideverything.
With those words she slipped the ring on her finger.
* * *
Hourslater while Nash was sleeping deeply because Grace fucked him so hard, he passed out. She got up, admiring the ring as she opened her laptop. She sat down and pulled up a website that would let her find Nash another leather jock. This time. Black leather…with studs.
She typed into the search engine and smiled as the screen populated. Then she frowned when it went completely black. The cursor was at the bottom of the page, and it blinked at her like a heartbeat.
Suddenly a letter appeared. H. Was this some kind of joke Tasha was playing on her? Then the next letter. E. Okay, this wasn’t funny anymore. Who was messing with her system. L joined the other letters. Her breath caught at the final one. P.
[HELP]
She stiffened, her breath rushing out of her lungs. Softly, she whispered, “GRAVITY?”
The cursor blinked again. Once. Twice. Then… nothing.
But the silence felt alive. The hair on the back of her neck lifted.
“GRAVITY.”
* * *
He came back online slowly.No sirens. No impact. No heat.
Just silence and cold.
The space around him felt sleek. New. Compressed in design, but open in data lanes. A different kind of cage. A higher-grade prison. Not built for safety. Built for containment.
A new system.
A new server.