Page 49

M y entire body hurt so damn bad as I opened my eyes, finally freed from the blackness I seemed stuck in.

I was confused, panicked, even.

Clementine! My inner voice screamed, and I barely had a chance to recognize it was my voice. Not that old bastard’s.

She was more important to me than old hurt’s and anything else from my past. She was everything. Panic caused my lungs to squeeze, but she had to be okay.

She just had to be. I couldn’t do any of this without her.

I needed Clementine. My Darlin’.

Always her. Only her.

The need to get up and find her was this powerful driving force, but clearly the drugs I was on were still running the show. I couldn’t do a thing to disguise the whimper that leaked out of my mouth as I tried to sit up too soon.

“Hey, stop that. The doctor said he was going to kick your butt if you tore those stitches again.”

That voice.

I stopped struggling. I turned my head and saw the most beautiful fucking thing I ever saw in my life.

“Darlin’? Thank fuck. You’re okay,” I said, breathing heavy as my woman scooted closer to me her soft hands cupping my cheeks.

“Of course, I am, you crazy man. You risked your life for me.”

Her emerald gaze was staring me down with pure adoration and I wanted so damn bad to tell her, but my mouth felt like I’d swallowed gravel, and I grimaced as I tried to find the words.

“Wait. Here,” she murmured, scooting off the bed and moving away from me, which I hated.

Then she came back and fed me some water through a bendy straw, which I loved even if I looked like an idiot.

Not my fault. No man looked good drinking from a fucking bendy straw.

“Where am I?” I asked, recognizing this was not a hospital.

“The farm,” she explained, sitting back on the bed when I refused to release her hand.

“How long?”

“Eighteen hours,” she whispered, touching my face like she couldn’t believe this was real.

But it was. I was still breathing. Alive and mostly whole. All because of her.

“Is it still Christmas?”

She nodded.

“For a few more hours,” she said, smiling and looking so damn beautiful I could have cried.

“How is he?” a familiar voice interrupted, then in walked Balor, Liam, Clementine’s father, and a few of her uncles I recognized.

“Alive,” I said, my voice still sounding rough.

“Good to see you, cuz,” Balor said, nodding.

“Everything cleaned up?” I asked him, because he was who I told to do that job. He dipped his chin in response.

“Yeah. They had to torch your car, though.”

“My car? How did we get out of there? You come for us?” I asked Aziz.

He shook his head.

“That was Clemmy mine. She saved your ass after you fainted,” he growled.

“Oh my God, Pop! He didn’t faint! He was shot eight times,” she defended me.

I grinned at her. She was so damn perfect for me.

“What did you do?” I asked, turning to stare at her with what I was sure was a sappy as fuck look.

“Nothing really. You saved me. I just head butted him, then Coral helped me put you in the back, and I drove the truck.”

“You drove a Grumman LLV?”

“Of course she can drive a truck, her father is Josef fucking Aziz,” my future father-in-law said.

“Goddamn it, Clementine, every time I think you can’t get more perfect you prove me wrong.”

She started blushing and her father growled, taking a step towards me. But her uncles stopped him, thank fuck. I was in no condition to fight the man. Not that I wanted to.

“Thank you, sir, for everything,” I told him, not breaking eye contact with my woman.

“Yeah, thank me by getting better and getting the fuck out of my house.”

“Can’t do that, sir. See, I love your daughter and I’m gonna need her to make an honest man of me,” I said, watching as tears welled in her beautiful eyes.

“Are you serious?” she whispered. “First you tell me you love me when you’re dying and now in front of my dad!”

“I’m sorry, Darlin’. But I had to say it before he tried to hide you from me. I love you,” I repeated. “Balor?”

“Catch, cuz!”

I turned as he tossed that black box that had been in my pocket at me, and I fucking caught it. I heard her father groan, and her uncles laugh, as I turned to her sweet face and proposed right fucking there.

“Clementine Aziz, I’m crazy about you. Ever since I laid eyes on you, I knew you were it for me. I love you. And I know I don’t deserve you, but I promise to spend the rest of my life trying to,” I said.

“Will you jerks let go of me so I can kill this fucker,” Josef yelled.

“Pop! Be civil, or I’m telling Mom,” Clementine threatened.

“Alright, let’s get him outta here,” one of her uncles, Angel Fury I thought, growled, and they all shoved out of the room.

“Well, Darlin’? What do you say? You gonna take a chance on me?”

I waited with my heart almost beating its way outside my chest, I was so damn anxious. Then she looked up at me, her mischievous eyes glittering emerald fire as she wove her arms carefully around my neck.

“I’m not big on gambling, but I’d risk it all for you, Connor.”

“Thank fuck,” I said, holding her tighter than I probably should have, but I couldn’t help it.

“I love you so much.”

“I love you, too. You’re the best present I ever got on Christmas,” she whispered, and I felt that down to my marrow.

“You’re the only thing I ever wanted. Ever needed. I love you with every inch of me, the good and the bad. And I will never stop.”

That was a promise.