One Dirty Night - Page 137

I followed his push and froze.

Nick gave me a strained smile, kneeling at my feet.

Oh my God.

My heart relocated into my throat as Hunter rested his palm on my hip and laughed quietly. “Spit it out, man. She’s trembling like a leaf.”

“Ella…” Nick cleared his throat from choking gravel. “I…eh, it’s no secret that I’ve loved you for almost two years now. Every day I work with you, I fall a little more. Every night we play, I can’t believe you’re mine. Not only have you cured me of my grief, but you’ve also filled me with hope for the future. A future I wouldn’t have had unless you took my heart and kept it safe in your hand.”

Tears welled on my eyelashes, clinging to my mascara. “Nick…”

“He’s not done yet, little witch.” Hunter squeezed my hip. “Let him choke on the words. It’s his penance for making you think he could ever share you.” He shook his head with another roll of his eyes. “As if he ever could. I mean, look at the bastard. He’s so fucking in love with you, Ella, he’d massacre an entire city if they so much as glanced at you wrong.”

I looked and truly saw.

Without confusion or fear.

With trust and absolute affection.

And I knew.

Knew what this was and why he brought me here.

Love poured out of me.

The drifty, dreamy subspace I was well acquainted with these days swamped me without need of punishment or praise.

I sank into it.

I relaxed on Hunter’s knee.

I sighed and glowed and—

“She’s ready, Nicholas,” Hunter murmured. “You have her trust. Best reward her.”

Holding up a stunning diamond ring in a trembling hand, Nick held my stare and whispered, “I adore you while I work beside you in the lab. I love you when your mind creates such fabulous experiments. I worship you when you chase the same crusade as me. I respect you and yearn for you and can’t believe how lucky I am. I’m utterly obsessed with you, Ella Fitzgerald, and…I brought you here to prove to you that I’m ever so thankful for the night we shared in this room…with Hunter. Without that night, I might never have faced how I truly felt about you. I would’ve done the stupidly noble thing and kept pushing you away until someone else made you happy. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever endured watching Hunter be with you…but I wouldn’t change it. I’m grateful to him because…he gave me you, and I have no intention of ever letting you go again.”

Reaching for my hand, he swallowed hard. “If you can forgive the idiotic idea of bringing you here and making you think I would ever share you, please, please say you’ll marry me?”

I didn’t remember falling off Hunter’s knee.

I didn’t remember Nicholas catching me.

But I did remember Nick’s kiss and the absolute adoration he poured hotly down my throat.

He kissed me like he’d done that first night.

Aggressively, violently, and with the thinnest edge of control.

I kissed him back in relief.

I kissed him with every part of me.

And when we finally pulled apart and Nick slid his ring onto my finger, Hunter no longer sat on the throne but had his hand on the doorknob and a sad, wistful smile on his face. The broken black-glitter heart beneath his eye seemed extra symbolic in the angelic white room.

He didn’t belong in this place.

He wasn’t ready to fill with light like us.