Page 122 of All Right No

“Ashley Gore, I know I’m tarnished goods, and I don’t know that I’ll ever be the woman you truly deserve, but I love you with every inch of my body and soul, and I want you above everything else.”

She did have a stellar bod.

“Will you be mine, through sickness and health, going forward. In short, please will you marry me?”

There was no living without her. He’d had no more than a half-life from the moment he’d sent her away. Yes, she’d hurt him, but life wasn’t all puppy dogs and parties. Sometimes it liked to sucker punch you and leave you gasping for breath. What mattered was what you did after that point. If living without her in his life wasn’t living at all, then why choose to prolong his own agony, unless as Xane liked to point out, he got off on being a maudlin bastard. He refused to prove Xane right.

Only a teeny part of his conscience doubted the decision. Well, fuck doubt! The rest of him knew what it wanted.

She was on her knees before him, asking him for permission to love him absolutely and forever. She was offering him the one thing no one else had, the one thing he wanted more than anything, to be the most important part of someone else’s life, and to actually matter.

Well, he might be labelled a sucker for it, but he was sold.

“Can we have a Danger Mouse themed wedding?”

Her brow crumpled into a frown, and her lips pursed. Then she grinned at him. “Only if I can be Jeopardy Mouse instead of Penfold.”

Ash tilted his head to one side to consider. “But Danger Mouse without Penfold is like strawberries—”

“—without fish paste and broccoli,” she finished for him, causing him to beam from ear to ear. “I know… I know… Oh, okay,” she conceded. “Then, as long as I can be sexy Penfold.”

“Fishnets and curlers,” he said with a laugh.

Ginny laughed too as he helped her back onto her feet. “Maybe we should save that for the honeymoon.”

They gazed at one another, eyes on a level—well almost, even in her heels she was still tiny—and all the emotions Ash had been striving so hard to bury welled up and overflowed. “God, come here, I need to hold you.”

She smelled of flowers, and rain, and candy, and some dark and musky perfume that lanced his pleasure centres and got him all fired up. Ash backed her up against the car, and caged her against its vibrant paintwork. He no longer cared that there were hundreds of people watching. Memories of all the moments they’d shared over the last year assailed him: the first night in her hotel room, Paris, Roskilde, painting her toenails, and making out in Spook’s hot tub. Then her lips hit his and everything converged and animal instinct took over.

Ash tipped her backward so that they ended up sprawled upon the car’s bonnet. She fit the shape of him so perfectly. No one had ever felt quite so perfect in his arms. In the dim recesses of his brain, he was vaguely aware of the crowd howling like a pack of wild dogs.

He’d never stopped wanting her, or loving her, and it was funny, but now that she was here in his arms, it seemed so obvious a decision to choose not to be without her.

Ash crushed their bodies together and deep kissed her, spearing his tongue into her mouth, while she clawed at his back, hair, and clothing.

Her fingernails dug into his arse, then the spiked heels of her shoes.

Those killer legs of hers, wrapped around him, bringing their pelvises into alignment.

The temptation to unzip and get inside her right now was near overwhelming. “Ginny… Ginny… Oh, lord.”

“Ash,” she whispered, her need a reflection of his own.

“Want you so badly, Ginny Bear.”

“Me too.”

“But not here,” Spook intruded.

All of a sudden, the band, and crew were circled around them forming a shield against the crowd of onlookers. Ash straightened up and helped Ginny rise. “I think we better take this inside.”

“Good plan,” Cave Troll whacked him on the back. Several of the other guys gave him congratulatory thumps too.

“I’ll move the car,” Rock Giant offered.

Ash and Ginny synchronously shook their heads. No way was he laying a finger on that vehicle.

“Dani will,” Ginny insisted. “In any case, she has the keys.”