Page 14 of Hot Pursuit (Love To The Rescue #1)

NINE

VIOLET

Life was a funny kind of rollercoaster.

Full of highs and lows. Though, up until that accident, I’d thought mine had been filled with nothing but lows that somehow got worse.

Who would have thought that having an electrical post fall on my car would change the course of my life so dramatically?

I sure wouldn’t have. While I was simply hoping not to die and get through the day, life had finally given me something of my very own.

Logan.

Logan was everything I had never been brave enough to dream about. I stared out the kitchen window while I finished washing the dishes. The front door opened, and the smile on my face I usually sported grew.

“Vi!” Logan called out. I knew from our short time living together that he was at the door taking his boots and his work belt off.

“I’m home!” he called out. Home. Every day he returned from his shift and said those words, something inside of me melted.

Causing me to fall harder and deeper in love with him.

Home . That’s exactly what Logan felt like. What he had given me for the first time in my life. Not just the place but the feeling of it. Of belonging. I wiped my hands on my jeans and walked over.

“I see that.” I grinned, walking right to him, loving the way that whenever I was within reach, his arms would immediately pull me in. Like he couldn’t stand being away from me a minute longer. “Hi, handsome.” I grinned up at him, my hand on the center of his uniformed chest.

“Hey, princess.” I loved when he called me that. I’d never been given nicknames. No one had cared enough to do more than shorten my name. No one but Logan. I was his princess, his love, his everything. My heart felt like it was close to exploding in my chest with love and how safe I felt with him.

His head dipped down, and my eyes fluttered shut just as his lips met mine. The kiss might have started sweet and tender, but before I knew it, I was up in his arms, my legs wrapped around his waist.

“Fucking love having you here when I get home,” he groaned. I pulled away and cupped his face, smiling at him.

“I like being here.” And I did.

I couldn’t lie. There were moments when I worried that maybe Logan would get sick of me or bored of having me around and kick me out, but I knew it was just old habits that died hard. He loved me.

We’d been together for the last two months.

After the doctor cleared me, I started looking for a new job.

Logan didn’t want me to. If it had been up to him, he would have been more than happy with me staying home while he supported me.

But there was no way I would have ever felt comfortable with that.

Thankfully, I had found a job at a cute bookstore that had just opened and was only ten minutes from Logan’s house.

“How was work?” he asked, nuzzling his nose against mine.

“It was good. Jill is going to have a book signing in two weeks with that author I was telling you about yesterday?” He nodded and set me down.

“She agreed?” he asked, and I nodded, loving that he had been paying attention to how Emmi, the romance author my boss had been trying to book, had been nervous about doing a signing. She wasn’t very extroverted.

“Yes!” I answered with excitement. I loved Emmi’s books. “It will be cool.”

“I’m glad, baby.” He kissed the tip of my nose.

“How was work for you?” I asked, and he sighed.

“Busy. Everyone was driving like they had a fire on their ass or something. A lot of speeding tickets today.”

“No high-speed pursuits?” He chuckled.

“No.”

“Good. I would hate for you to go falling in love with someone else,” I muttered. The words slipped out before I could stop them, and something in the air changed between us.

“Hey,” he called, grabbing my hand tangling our fingers. “What’s that about?” he asked, not missing a beat or putting off something he thought was important for later. Logan showed me time and time again just how committed he was to me, to us.

“Nothing. It was just a joke.” I shrugged.

His gaze was intense, but I knew he didn’t believe it.

Maybe old habits don’t go away as easily as I thought?

“You want to shower before dinner? It’s all done and ready, but it will keep for a bit in the oven.

” He didn’t answer immediately like he usually did.

Instead, he watched me for a long moment before he nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be fast,” he muttered, kissing my forehead before heading into our room and shutting the door. I swallowed hard as an ugly feeling settled in my belly.

Not once since he had brought me home had he closed the door to our room unless I was inside with him. I tried to shake the thought away as I stepped into the kitchen, but it was easier said than done.

I loved our life together.

Why would I say that to him? Maybe because everyone you’ve ever cared about has left before? a little voice in my head quipped. It’d been two months to the day that I’d stepped foot into the place that had felt like home from the very beginning.

Two months of beauty and feeling loved and safe.

I shook the thought away and took out dinner, setting it on the table and pouring both of us ice water.

I was so deep in my thoughts, worrying about what I’d said and how he had closed the door without offering to have me join him, that I didn’t hear him step behind me.

His warm, strong arms wrapped around my waist, and I didn’t even jump.

I simply leaned back into him, letting his freshly showered scent and body heat wrap around me.

“Ready to talk now?” he asked calmly and without an inkling of judgment in his voice. Something about that, about Logan’s infinite patience, made the tip of my nose sting and my eyes fill with unshed tears.

“I’m happy,” I shared quietly. His embrace tightened, making me feel safe enough to keep talking. “I’m scared that… that I’m too happy.”

“Too happy?” he repeated, kissing my temple before turning me around to face him. “Is that a thing?” he asked sincerely without teasing me. I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. Maybe I was more worried about this than I had let myself believe?

“What if… what if you get tired of having me here or bored of me and—“ I swallowed as panic shot through me, swirling with anxiety I had been keeping at bay.

“Hey, don’t go there. That’s not going to happen,” he gently said, bending so we were closer to eye level, but I couldn’t get myself to look him in the eye.

Instead, my gaze landed on the center of the shirt he’d put on.

It was a navy-blue one from his police department.

I knew it was worn soft and comfortable because I had just worn it last Sunday when we were out in the backyard, planting gerbera daisies in a flower bed.

“I’ve told you how everyone in my life…” My voice softened. “I don’t know how I would survive that.” I hated saying the words out loud, but I knew if I didn’t, I was only giving them more power.

“Survive?” he repeated.

“Losing you,” I quickly said the words. The pads of his fingers touched my chin with the most tender touch, tipping my head up so I could meet his softened blue eyes.

“That’s not going to happen,” he said with so much determination in his voice it made me want to believe him.

“You don’t know that,” I whispered a little harshly. I tried to step out of his hold, but he didn’t let me. Logan lifted me up and sat me down on the kitchen counter.

“Look at me, princess,” he ordered. “I love you.” His jaw clenched. “That’s not going to change. Not today or tomorrow or ever.”

“But—“

“No buts,” he cut me off. Fierceness shone in his eyes, something I wanted to cling to. “You and me, Vi? We’re forever. You get that?”

“I want to. I just... I get scared,” I admitted. My shoulders sagged slightly.

“And I understand that. I do, too.”

“You do?” My eyes widened. I didn’t think anything scared Logan. The man literally ran directly towards the bad guys when most people ran away.

“Baby, I just found the woman of my dreams. You don’t think I know, after doing what I do, the dangers out there and just how fickle life can be?”

“But… you’re so brave,” I pointed out.

“That first day you started at the bookstore? I drove past it about ten times to make sure you were okay,” he shared. My eyes widened.

“What?” I giggled, leaning closer into him. “Are you serious?”

“Very. What if some dumbass went in with bad intentions or some customer got stupid with you or one of your coworkers?”

“Logan—“

“Or worse, what if someone came in, someone younger and closer to your age, and catches your attention?” His gaze turned hotter, and he licked his lips.

“That’s not possible,” I whispered, cupping his face, I stroked his scruffy jaw. “I love you. There is no way anyone could ever make me feel what I feel for you. Ever.”

“Fuck,” he cursed, resting his forehead against mine.

“I was waiting to do something but…” His hand dropped and slipped into his front pocket.

“I’ve been carrying this with me for the last month.

Waiting and bidding my time. I wanted you to get to know me better.

To know what you were getting when it came to me, but honestly, I think we both need this more than I realized. ”

“Need what?” He stepped back and lifted me off the counter.

“I should do this somewhere else. I’d thought about taking you to the accident site, but that was a little morbid and—“ he kept rambling. None of what he was saying made sense. But when he kneeled and slipped a baby-blue box out and brought it up between us, the world stopped.

“Ohmygod,” I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands.

“Princess.” He took my shaking left hand, and just like that, with a single sweet touch, everything righted inside me.

“Ohmygod,” I repeated with tears in my eyes. I’d never dreamt of this. Of someone asking me what he was about to ask, or at least what I thought he was going to do.

“I love you. I knew you were mine the moment our eyes connected. We might have met in an intense situation, but fuck me, beautiful, I knew. I felt it in my bones, and my gut has never steered me wrong.”

“Logan,” I whispered.

“I love you, Violeta Perez. You’re mine and I’m yours. I know it’s only been two months, and with you living here, it might feel like we’re going at warped speed.” My lips quirked upward. “But I think we both know how life can be filled with highs and lows. How short it can be.”

“We do.” I nodded.

“I don’t want to wait. I want you to be my wife. And one day, if you want, be the mother of my children. Have a family with me, Vi. Build a life with me.”

“Logan,” I rasped. The image of the future felt bright and beautiful. I couldn’t hold back the tears.

“I want to be the man who stands by your side in the good times and the bad. I want to be the one you count on, lean on for anything and everything. Violeta, will you marry me?” He opened the baby-blue box, but I didn’t look at what was inside. It could have been a candy ring for all I cared.

“Yes!” I answered, staring into his beautiful blue eyes, eyes I was going to look into for the rest of my life. He took my hand and slipped a ring on my finger. My eyes dropped to it, and I gasped at what was on my hand. “Logan! This is too much!” The ring sparkled brightly right at me.

“Nothing is too much for you.” I couldn’t stop staring at the princess cut engagement diamond ring set in a gold band.

“You didn’t have to—” I started to say, but the words hitched in my throat with overflowing emotions. I didn’t need things from Logan. All I wanted was him.

“I know. I wanted to.” And that was the difference between the people in my past and Logan.

It was why I was going to work my hardest, even when the most stubborn of voices wanted to seep doubt into my head, to make things work.

It wasn’t going to be easy or perfect; I didn’t want that or need it.

I wanted real, and as I stared at the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with, I couldn’t wait to go through life with him.

Sometimes, life was hard.

Life could even feel impossible, like there was no way out of the deep dark pits of despair, but when you meet someone who gets it, just by going through it together, holding on to one another, it becomes a little easier and brighter.

And I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next, because one thing was for sure: loving Logan Monroe was going to be an adventure worth experiencing!