Wicked Stage
Page 13
He was happy to oblige. In another couple of hours, the sky would be pink and they’d be drinking coffee and boarding a plane. But for now, the sky was dark and the night was quiet. He could feel the tension of the last month leaving his shoulders, a lovely sort of lightening and lifting.
Jess stopped abruptly. “I think I got us lost. I don’t know where I am.”
He gathered her close, feeling the world right itself as she fit perfectly under his arm. “You’re with me.”
She stood on her tiptoes and he kissed her. “Then it doesn’t really matter where I am,” she said. She blushed and scrunched her nose. “Sorry. That sounded really cheesy. Must have been all the drama tonight. I don’t have much of a filter between my brain and my mouth right now.”
Adam’s pulse began to beat faster. His palms felt sweaty. He looked around. The street was deserted. Snow was falling lightly. Jess had rosy cheeks and she was smiling up at him and saying cheesy stuff.
Maybe this was the right time for that question after all.
He stopped walking and turned her body so they were face to face. “On Thanksgiving, you said you wanted us to be real.”
She flicked her eyes up to the white sky. “That was a dumb thing to say.”
Huh? He waited, stomach churning.
She reached up a cold hand and cupped the back of his neck. “Then and now, we’re as real as it gets,” she said. Her dark eyes crinkled at the corners. “The word love doesn’t even seem big enough for how I feel about you.”
She turned even pinker. “I told Drew you were ‘everything’ and even that doesn’t really capture how you make me feel and how much I want you and need you and—” She stopped, looked at the ground. “Yep. No filter tonight.”
Adam put her bag on the ground. Trust Jess to just take over. He was supposed to be the one doing the romantic talking. Instead, he was barely able to breathe or speak. She just...undid him. Always.
“I don’t have the right words or big enough words to express how I feel about you either,” he said. “But...”
He got down on one knee.
Out of his pocket, he pulled a small ring box.
Jess stared down at him, her dark eyes large and still, her breath held.
He opened the box to reveal a small platinum band with a row of channel-set diamonds. “Something small and simple that won’t bug you,” he said.
Her eyes got wider, but she didn’t speak. “I got a chain too,” he mumbled. “So you can wear it around your neck when you’re typing or golfing or whatever.”
She smiled now, and tears spilled down her cheeks. She didn’t wipe them away. “Is there a question you’d like to ask that accompanies the ring and gallant kneel?”
A laugh rumbled through his chest and burst through his lips. It was one of the first things that he’d loved about her—her ability to surprise a laugh right out of him.
“Yes, Blondie. There is.” He took the ring out of the box and slid it on her finger. “Marry me?”
Jess sank to her knees and kissed him softly on the lips. “Yes.”
* * * * *
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to Carina Press. The Strange Tango series has been a joy to work on. I can’t believe how quickly the three books came together and how much fun the whole process was! As always, thank you to Kerri Buckley for her great work editing the novella and for always knowing where a little more and a little less is needed.
Thanks to my agent, Janna Bonikowski, for her evergreen advice and for always making me laugh when I read her emails.
Thanks to everyone who reads the series! All writers know that it’s a leap of faith to put words on a page and let people read them. But it feels like a miracle when someone wants to talk to you about what you’ve written and what they liked or had questions about...I am always thrilled. I especially liked the positive comments from readers about Jess being an IT geek. As someone who’s worked in information technology for almost twenty years, it makes me really happy that this resonates with romance readers.
I am blessed with so many wonderful girlfriends and I wish I could name every single one. (And maybe I will if I’m lucky enough to keep writing and publishing books!) Thank you in particular to Ash and Anne, who have never missed a single (major or minor) milestone in my life for the past (let’s not count the number of) years. You two are amazing, extraordinary women and every heroine I write will always have pieces of each of you.
Finally, thank you to Matt, who took me to London last winter, which inspired the setting of Wicked Stage. Do you think they’ll let us have that same room the next time we go to the Savoy?!
About the Author
There are only three things Michelle Dayton loves more than sexy and suspenseful novels: her family, the city of Chicago and Mr. Darcy. Michelle dreams of a year of world travel—as long as the trip would include weeks and weeks of beach time. As a bourbon lover and unabashed wine snob, Michelle thinks heaven is discussing a good book over an adult beverage.
Visit Michelle on the web:
Website: www.MichelleDayton.com
Twitter: @MKDaytonWriter
Also available from Michelle Dayton and Carina Press
Strange Tango
Twisted Taste
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Stories also available for purchase separately.
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ISBN-13: 9781488081125
Wicked Stage
Copyright © 2017 by Michelle Dayton
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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