I sucked in a deep breath before I spoke.
“I think you should repeat the question.”
Kyle jerked his face toward me, eyes wide.
I felt a tremor run through his hand, as his throat bobbed.
Slowing the car to a crawl, he veered off to the side of the road. Killing the engine, he unclipped his belt and turned his body to face me.
“I don’t think I should, princess,” he said quietly.
His voice was gruff, thick with emotion. “You’re grieving, and I don’t want to take advantage of you when you’re vulnerable.”
He stroked my cheek my one hand, clasped my hand in the other. “And truthfully, I don’t think I could bear the thought of you agreeing for the wrong reasons. I love you, I’m not going anywhere. I can wait for your answer.”
Unclipping my belt, I pulled my knees under me and grabbed his face.
“Well, I can’t wait any longer to answer you,” I told him truthfully.
“I love you, Kyle Carter…I have loved you from the moment you handed me that shot glass in your kitchen. I was lost, lonely and confused. And you were cocky and slutty and arrogant as hell, but something inside of you called to me, and I couldn’t keep away.”
I smiled and stroked away a tear from his face. “You’ve made me laugh, you have made me cry, you have made me mad as hell sometimes, but I wouldn’t change a single second of the time I’ve spent with you.
“I’ve never known the love of a man before you, and I never will again, because, for me you’re it. To me, you are everything.
“I am not asking you to ask me out of guilt, or grief. I am asking you to repeat the question because I don’t want to live another second of my life without joining my soul to yours. I’m only whole when I’m with you.”
I leaned in and kissed him lightly, before pulling back. “So ask me the damn question.”
“Delia Rose Bennett.”
I wrinkled my nose at the sound of my full name, which made Kyle chuckle.
“Sorry, baby, but I gotta say it right for this, it’s important.”
I nodded my head, smiling through my tears as I urged him to continue.
“Princess, I have screwed up so many times in my life; it’s like second nature to me,” he said, stroking my hand.
“And to be brutally honest, I never cared before I met you. I was alone in the world and that’s the way I liked it. I screwed around a lot. Treated women like objects, used them as a temporary distraction from a lonely, empty life. I never thought that would change and I was okay with that. Glad even. Until the night you stepped through my door and made me question every aspect of my life.”
He shook his head and pulled me closer.
“You changed everything. Without even realizing it, you made me see how twisted and conceited my life was, and for the first time in my life I’d felt something.
“I had looked into the eyes of someone filled with such purity, such compassion and goodness, that I felt naked and exposed. I felt it the instant our eyes met. You have the ability the see into my soul, Lee, right through all the bullshit. I was hooked and couldn’t get enough. I wanted you with a desperation, bordering on insanity.”
He smiled and stroked my cheek. “And by some small miracle, you wanted me too. I know I’ve fucked up enough times that I don’t deserve to ask you this. But I’m going to ask you anyway, because I’m a selfish man and want to claim your heart, body and soul, because, baby, you own mine.”
Kyle shook his head smiling as he jumped out of the car.
Coming around to my side, he opened my door before dropping down on one knee.
“Delia Rose Bennett. I want a life with you. I want to wake up with you in my arms every morning and hold you every night. I want my last name behind your first, and I want to be the reason your gray eyes sparkle.
“I want a lifetime of arguments and making up with you. I want to celebrate your happiness with you and console you through your sadness. I want to make lots of babies with you and raise them together. I want all of your kisses and I want to be the one to wipe away all of your tears.
“It’s pretty simple really, I just want you. I promise that I will love you more than anyone else, today and for every day that follows. You, our daughter, and any other children we have, will always come first to me. You will always come first. So please, please marry me?”
I threw myself into his arms with such a rush he fell back, landing on his butt.
“I want all those things with you, too. I want you, Kyle. Yes.”
*****
We sat there, on the side of the road, silently holding each other until our bodies were numb and Kyle’s cell phone beeped.