Page 163 of Under Her Skin

Her brows furrow and I have no idea why anyone would wear that expression when not only asked to marry the supposed love of their life, but also become a billionaire by doingso.

“Blake, what’s the rush? I was just talking to Peyton and there’s a mansion down the street from them. We could move in together for a while. You know a trial marriage before doing all the legal stuff. Once that’s done, it’ll make it harder for us if we don’t work out.” Her delicate finger strokes my chin and it’s pissing meoff.

I pull her hand away from my face and frown at her. “I don’t want it to be easy to end what we have. Does that make sense to you? I want us tied up financially and mentally and even physically if you want the truth. Rachelle, I want to know you’ll be the one who gets the money I won if anything happens to me. Otherwise the state will get it or something like that as I have no living relatives that I know ofanyway.”

Her head is shaking and I cannot understand why she’d have a negative response to what I just said. “Blake, I don’t want yourmoney.”

“Do you hear yourself?You don’t want money? Are you insane? You’d rather someone else get what’s mine if Idie?”

“Don’t even talk about dying! You’re not old, for God’s sake! When did you get this idea that you were about to die?” She gets up and walks to the kitchen. “I’m getting a beer. You wantone?”

“No,” I say as I get up and follow her. “I want you to marry me. I really can’t think about anything else until you give me a straight answer. It’s either a yes or a no, Rachelle. I don’t understand this trial marriage thing and don’t want to. I want a real marriage with you and I’d like us to get apuppy.”

Her hands go up in the air for some strangereason.

“A dog! No, no, no! Blake, are youcrazy?”

“Why would you ask that? It’s a thing that people get sometimes. It adds joy to their lives. Are you against joyous living for some odd reason? Cause it seems like you are.” I reach out and take her into my arms. “Marry me,Rachelle.”

“Blake, this is just too soon.” Her head drops and all I can see is the top of her head as she leans her face against mychest.

“Would you let me put the engagement ring on your finger?” I ask then kiss the top of herhead.

“That thing lookslike it cost you a small fortune. I wouldn’t feel comfortable wearingit.”

“Please.” I give her asqueeze.

“I can’t. It’s too much, Blake. It’s over the top, youknow?”

She pulls out of my arms and opens the fridge and pulls out a beer. I take it from her and twist the cap off the tall bottle then hand it back to her. “I thought you’d like it, but if you don’t, we can take it back and get anything you want. If you want simple, then you can have simple. With all the money I have, I thought it would be a shame to put something cheap on yourfinger.”

She takes a long drink and I can tell she’snervous.

“At this point, I don’t want any ring. I just want you and I to take this thing slow, like you said wecould.”

“Movingin together is just like being married only you have no real stability. My things will remain my things and that’s not okay with me. I want you taken careof…”

She interrupts me. “Yeah, I know, in case you die.” She takes another long drink and walks to the sofa where she plops down. “I can take care of myself, financially. I don’t need your money,Blake.”

I follow her and sit across from her so she can look at me while I try to talk some sense into her. “I know you don’t need it. Look at it like this, I need to know if I leave this world, you will have my money. The only way I can be sure that’ll happen is if we’remarried.”

“What about love?” she asks as she winks at me. “I’d like love to be the reason I marrysomeone.”

“Rachelle! You fucking know I love the shit out ofyou!”

“So eloquently stated, Blake. I fucking love the shit out of you too.” She grins, and it’s making me furious. “And when did you start thinking about getting adog?”

“Okay, leave Freckles out of this fornow.”

“Who?” She laughs and takes another drink of her beer. “You named the dogalready?”

“Imight have.I’m dabbling with the names still. It’s a work in progress. Anyway, I’m starting to feel like I’m having to beg you to marry me and frankly that’s not a thing I thought I’d ever be doing. I did not see myself having to argue about getting the woman I love and she says she loves me to share my life and mywealth.”

Rachelle rolls her eyes. “She loves you, Blake. It’s a sweet gesture, it really is. It’s just too soon.” She places the empty bottle on the coffee table and sitsback.

“How long then?” I lean forward and look into her eyes as I wait for heranswer.

“I was thinking that if everything went well, and we got along great and all that we could maybe get married for real in three years or so, maybe five. But a piece of paper isn’t a big concern tome.”