Page 167

“I can explain,” I tell her. It’s about the hundredth time I’ve said that to her since I pulled her from the water, and honestly I don’t know what explanation could possibly make what I did all right.

But somehow she doesn’t seem as much mad as she is milking the moment.

Perhaps there’s still a little bit of the vixen I’ve had these past few days left inside, enough that she isn’t going to run a mile as far and as fast as her little feet can take her.

Not that I’d let her get away.

She shakes her head. “I’d love to hear your explanation for letting me think we’re boyfriend and girlfriend instead of…” She lowers her voice. “Brother and sister.”

“Stepbrother. Stepsister.”

“Still.”

I shake my head. “It makes the world of difference, believe me. You can’t tell me you didn’t want what we had.”

“I did,” she says without hesitation. “I still do. But society has rules, and this goes against them.”

Taking her hand in mine, I kiss the backs of her fingers and watch her eyes close as she chokes back a moan. So. She still wants this. Then not everything has been in vain.

“Come with me,” I tell her.

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea. Maybe we should just book separate rooms and figure out what we’re going to tell Mom and Dad—”

“Baby, what do you say when Daddy tells you to do something?”

She blushes. “I don’t…”

“What do you say?”

For a moment, she hesitates. Then I see the change come over her. She goes from shy, easily embarrassed Mina to something else. My little girl.

“Yes, Daddy,” she says, straightening her back.

“Good girl. Now follow me, we’re going somewhere quieter.”

When we reach the roof, I have to make sure she goes out first, otherwise she would never agree to it. She kept asking on the way up if it was really all right and we wouldn’t get into trouble.

And honestly, it’s nice having my old Mina back again.

“I don’t want to go near the edge,” she says, her eyes wide. “Promise you won’t make me.”

“I’ll never make you do anything you don’t want to do, baby. You’re mine to protect, mine to love. I know I did a bad thing, letting you think we were already boyfriend and girlfriend, but it just felt soright. You are everything to me, Mina. Everything. You have been, since that first day.”

“You’ve always been everything to me. Ever since that first dinner. I met you and I was nervous because I was meeting my new family and my mom wanted me to make a good impressionand I spilled the gravy and you…you made it all okay. You always make it all okay.”

I smile at the memory. I remember it so well. And now, I want to build some new memories.

“Baby. I need you. I need you with me, always.”

“But we—”

“No buts. This is how things have to be. You know it and I know it. We were made for each other, Mina, and the thought of being apart from you is the only thing in this world that scares me. I don’t ever want to face another day without you by my side. You’re my babygirl, my precious little one.” I drop down onto one knee as the traffic down below hums and roars, and the night sky stretches for the whole world in every direction. “Marry me,” I tell her, dragging out the ring I bought earlier. The one I had brought to the hotel and left at the front desk while she was doing her show. The one that will bind us together forever.

“What? I don’t—”

I laugh as she stumbles over her words. “There’s my perfect girl. My Mina. There’s only one word you need right now, baby, and that’syes.”

“Y…yes…” she says, and a little grin pulls at the corner of her mouth. “Yes, Daddy.”