Page 113 of Phantasm

When he continues kneeling with that hopeful look in his eyes, I drop to my knees, too, and cup his stubbly cheeks. “The answer is yes, Mr. Delacroix. I choose you.”

He gives me a boyish smile, his fingers trembling slightly as he removes my ring and replaces it with the new one. I watch his Adam’s apple bob as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a necklace. “I also have this. I’d like you to wear it, if that’s okay?”

I eye the heart pendant before rising to my feet and spinning around, moving my hair away from my shoulder. “It’s beautiful.”

“It was my mother’s,” he says, his breaths fanning my neck as he stands up and secures it. “She gave it to me that night.”

As his touch lingers on my skin, my heart thuds harder. I glance at him over my shoulder, and his eyes fall to my mouth. “I will always keep you safe. You know that, right?”

I finger the heart pendant and feel my chest ache with tenderness.

His mother once wore this necklace—her last gift to him. Now, he wants me to have it. “We keep each other safe, Darian.”

His fingers trail through the strands of my hair, and I lean back against his chest, looking out over the roses.

A thought occurs to me. “Were the bat flowers your idea?”

He snorts, which makes me smile. “You’re kidding, right? It was all Sinclair. You’re family now, he said. And family looks after each other.”

“Darian?”

He hums contentedly.

“We’re already married, so how can we do it again? I’m not divorcing you.”

“We can still have a celebration.”

Turning in his arms, I wrap my mine around his neck. “I like that idea.”

“Yeah?”

I kiss him. “Very much.”

“Good,” he says, sweeping my hair away from my brow and kissing the tip of my nose, lips, and cheek. “Are you ready for your punishment now?”

“I thought you had forgotten about that.”

A wolfish smile spreads across his face. He lifts me like I weigh nothing before he tosses me onto the bed and removes his shirt.

Giggling, I bounce on the mattress, surrounded by luxurious cushions and silk, watching my handsome, fearsome husband strip out of his clothes.

“Come here, wife,” he says, climbing on after me and circling his fingers around my ankle. “Let’s spank that pretty pussy.”

With a quick yank and a salacious grin, he pulls me down the bed to the soundtrack of my peals of laughter.

The End.