Page 287 of The Curse Trilogy

“Believe me, it’s very quiet. Grayson and Angelica are cleaning up her evidence left behind before the unaligned find out it was one of ours destroying their bars and killing their filth.”

“I’ll grab a shower, and then I’ll wake her up in a couple of hours. She’s going to need rest after that long in savage.”

“Okay. Let me know if you need anything.”

I hear the phone shutting off, and then his lips find my shoulder as his hand runs down the full length of my body. I’m worried he’s about to wake me up for a good morning fuck, and I won’t be able to refuse him. After last night, I know who I’m meant to be with, but I’m not ready to tell either of them yet.

Brazen has been incredible to me, and it’s going to crush him when I have to tell him it’s Hale. It has always been Hale no matter how much I wanted or want to deny it. I’m not ready to walk across that bridge just yet.

He stands up instead of proceeding with his seductive ploy, and I hear him whisper, “I love you too.”

My mind flashes back to the strip club where I told him I loved him, and he never said it back at the time. He rarely does when I’m savage. I almost want to scream it out to him that I choose him, but I can’t. Not yet.

He walks into the bathroom, and I quickly start looking around for something to wear. I lean down and pick up the lacy bit of clothing I was wearing, and I shake my head in disbelief at the garment I wore in public.

“I don’t think so,” I murmur aloud while tossing it back to the floor.

As bad as I don’t want to return to Seminole in one of his shirts, it’s better than that option. I’m sure Angelica and Grayson have already recovered my car with my clothes in it by now since they were stuck cleaning up the mess I left behind.

I rifle through his bag, and I find a long-sleeved white button up to pull on. I smile as I smell him all over it, and then a small box falls from the bag. I look at it peculiarly, and I start to pick it up when Hale walks back out to catch my prying.

“You can look at it if you want to,” he says softly while drying his hair off.

“At what?” I ask innocently as I lift the box from the ground.

“It was going to be your other birthday present.”

I start to lift it when the realization of what a small box like this would be holding slaps me in the face. I sigh as the crack I made to the box closes, and I put it back in his bag without delay before I do something rash and foolish.

He was going to propose. That’s why there were so many roses.

“I’ll take that as a no,” he says with a pained tone.

“I’m sorry if I messed anything up last night,” I say to deter this intense conversation I’m not ready to have.

“Not at all. I was finished, and I was taking out a source to show the appreciation of the United for his cooperation. I didn’t care much for the scenery until you got there. He chose the place for the record,” he quickly tacks on.

I smirk when I realize he feels the need to explain his reason for being in a strip club. Then I sigh as I look around at the floor littered with more empty vials than I had originally noticed. I pull the shirt on and button it up so I can quit wearing the sheet, and his eyes stare directly into mine without fear the whole time.

“It was hard to get me down this time, and… oh shit… my eyes,” I murmur as I jump up from the bed.

I rush over to the mirror, and he casually joins me as I stare at the eyes in disbelief. They’re still solid violet. I’ve fully evolved, or devolved, or something.

“I’ll buy you some shades on the way back. Clay will have something ready when we get there I’m sure.”

“Hale, I could have hurt you last night. That’s the worst I’ve ever been. My savage was so calm, eerie, but ruthless all the way here, and I remember every bit of it.”

He tilts his head in a bit of bemusement, and then he props up on the dresser behind me as he pulls me into his arms before letting his lips brush my forehead.

“If I had been there, I could have brought you down sooner. I was mad, foolish, and irresponsible. I didn’t know Clay was going to throw you in a room with Nicholas in my absence.”

“Hale, don’t do that. You’re not responsible for me. Besides, I don’t know if you could have brought me down any sooner by being there.”

“You came looking for me. You wouldn’t have been searching for me if I had been there,” he sizzles out, and his lips almost brush mine as he leans down while pulling me up from the floor.

“I did. I always do. Hale, I-”

Panicked knocks at the door interrupt me before I slip up and tell him how I feel. He grumbles in frustration, and I sigh in relief as he walks to the door in those low-hanging pants.