“Good.” She frowns making that crease appear between her brows.
I kiss the spot and let my lips linger there. “What are you worried about?”
“I won’t be able to afford BSU on my own.”
“We’ll talk to the dean of admissions, I’m sure under the circumstances they’ll work with us to keep you enrolled.”
She smiles. “Us?”
“Tangled, remember?” I release her only enough to drag her to the bed and lie down next to her. Ever since she held me this morning, I’ve been craving to be back in her arms with a ferocity I can’t justify. I tug up her t-shirt and trace patterns on her bare abdomen when her stomach grumbles under my fingertips. “Are you hungry, Kitten?”
“For food? Yes.”
I smile to myself. “Let me take you out to dinner, on a real date, where we don’t give a fuck who sees us.”
“No more hiding,” she says wistfully.
“Never again.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Emery
“What’s going on down here?” I stare at the wall of muscle standing in front of me, all of them in dress shirts and ties.
I came downstairs to meet Theodore who texted that he’d pick me up in five minutes to take me to an early dinner. I’ve been in our room studying for my organic chem final and realized I hadn’t eaten all day.
When I came downstairs I found all our roommates—Carey, Kaipo, Levi, and Loren hovering at the front door.
I narrow my eyes on them. “And why are you guys all dressed up?”
They can’t be going to some formal football dinner, Theodore would’ve been involved if that were the case.
Rowan comes down the steps wearing a dress, okay, now my interest is piqued. Her eyes widen on me and she takes the last few steps slowly, her gaze skidding to her boyfriend. “Oh, hey, I thought you were going out with Spider?”
I glare at her. “I am. Where are you guys headed?”
They all mumble something incoherent and shift on their feet. Clearly wherever they’re headed Theodore and I aren’t invited and my asking is making things crazy awkward.
The sound of Theodore’s car engine in the driveway makes me a lot less nosey. I haven’t seen him since he kissed me goodbye before sunrise this morning and I’m desperate to get my hands on him.
“Wherever you guys are headed, have fun.” I squeeze through them and out the front door and even after two months of living together, I still get butterflies every single time I see him.
He see’s me coming and walks around the passenger side to open the door for me. He looks as delicious as always in jeans and a long-sleeved RVCA t-shirt. “Hello, gorgeous.” He snags me around the waist and kisses me deeply before leaving me to stagger on my feet.
I’m still working on stringing together a coherent thought when the door behind me opens and our roommates come pouring out.
He lifts a chin to them, a bright white smile on his gorgeous face. “You guys ready to do this?”
They all respond in an affirmative hoot or holler.
“They’re coming with us?” I run my hands over my sweater and gray slacks. “Am I underdressed?”
“You have your ID right?” he nods toward my purse.
“Fake?”
“No, Kitten,” he says, amused. “Your real ID.”
I cross my arms at my chest. “What is going on?”
Our roommates gather around us, all of them grinning wide except Rowan who refuses to look me in the eye.
“Tell her, cousin,” Kaipo says, his voice laced with pure joy.
Carey kisses the top of Rowan’s head and agrees with Kaipo. “Yeah, man, it’s kind of fucked up not to tell her.”
“Tell me what?” My heart pounds a little faster when Theodore shifts nervously, he’s never nervous.
“It sounds crazy, but hear me out.”
I spot all the guys and Rowan watching us with expectation in their eyes.
A glint of something shiny catches my eyes and I turn back to Theodore to see him holding up a small ring. A diamond ring. I press my hand against my chest instinctively, to check and see if my heart is still beating or to slow it down so it doesn’t overheat.
“I’m throwing a Hail Mary, Kitten.” He drops to one knee and there is a collective gasp from everyone including me. “Marry me.”
Is he crazy? Has he lost his mind? Does he understand what he’s asking? To be tied to me forever, ‘til death do us part, through sickness and in health and… The string of doubt silences when our eyes meet and lock.
Theodore loves me.
He’d rather die than leave me.
He knows the darkness that lives inside me, I’ve shared with him my most demented dreams, and he’s held me and loves me for everything that I am.
Maybe we are mentally ill. There’s a possibility that we both suffer from a myriad of DSM diagnoses, but we deserve the same happiness as anyone else, and for us, there is no happiness outside of being together.
“You’re asking me to marry you, right now, on a Wednesday at three o’clock in the afternoon?”
He smirks, takes my hand and slips the ring on my finger. A perfect fit. He stands and tugs me against his chest. “I wasn’t really asking, Kitten. I was just going to stop by the courthouse on our way to get some Mexican food with all of our roommates in tow and hope once we got there you’d be down to tie the knot.”
From my place against his torso, I hold out my hand and stare at the simple, square cut diamond. “I guess if we’re already tangled, we may as well get tied.”
His muscles tense against me. “Is that a yes?”
I pull back and kiss him hard before saying, “Yes. I’ll marry you.”
“That’s a yes!” the younger of the Hemsworth-look-a-like brothers says and claps his hands. “This is fucking wild.”
He rests his forehead against mine. “Are
