“I can’t lose you and experience that pain, Cade. Not again,” I whispered.
“You won’t,” he promised. “You never did. I was always watching. I may have thought I let you go but I couldn’t. I won’t. Never, Ms. Hardy. You’re my future wife.”
I laughed with tears in my eyes. “Not until you propose.”
He hummed low, and then he slid his hands under my shirt to slip my shorts and panties off. “I can’t do that for a while. I need to grovel some more first.”
And then his mouth was on me. I sobbed out with need for him.
“Just so we’re clear,” I moaned, “I want a lot of groveling. Right now, I still hate you.”
He chuckled into my pussy. “And I still love the way you hate me, dollface.”
32
Epilogue
Cade
Three months later
I knew she needed time, and so did I when I left.
If I could have changed the world’s damn clocks, I would have. I contemplated fucking with the daylight savings and time zones. Like it would have mattered.
Instead, I did what I could for us, or for her.
She deserved the world, and I’d thought it would be better for her if I wasn’t in it.
I claim to be good at the dark web, not knowing a woman’s mind.
I’d spend the rest of my life making it up to her. I knew afterward I should never have left.
There were still days I wondered if she was better off without me, if somehow I still put her in danger by being tied to her. Yet, I did know better than to leave again. Izzy Hardy would always be my weakness, the girl I couldn’t look away from or leave behind, even if I tried.
I had tried. Yet, in the month I was gone, I’d also checked on her every day. I’d hacked her text messages, listened to her voice mails repeatedly, watched the security cameras to see her face over and over again.
I knew what people meant when they said a person could die of a broken heart. Without her, I would have died, and I think she felt the same.
Every morning, I saw the way she looked at me—with a smile so wide on her face that I hoped the world would never be without it, I heard the way she moaned out that she loved me or hated me, dependent on the day.
Izzy was living.
Living her life to the fullest.
So, I intended to lock her down and make sure she would be mine, living exactly that way for the rest of her life, by buying a ruby the same color as the roses she now wanted every day.
We were at her parents’ celebrating her brother’s birthday just months after getting back together, and I knew I had to pull her father aside to discuss his daughter’s hand in marriage.
Instead, all the guys hovered around the grill while Izzy grabbed her niece and tossed her up in the air before disappearing inside with her mother and Delilah.
Mr. Hardy flipped some of the steaks and let his sons all glare at me as I stood there in a suit while they wore gym shorts and baseball caps that didn’t match their T-shirts at all.
“You like your steak rare or what?” Mr. Hardy asked. It was the first thing any of them had said to me since Izzy brought me home and announced, “Cade and I are together now. Get over or under it, but I’m not dealing with the bickering. He’s mine and I’m his. Take him or leave him.” Then she winked at me and ran off to play with her niece.
“Rare is fine,” I answered.
When I slid my hands into my pockets and stared at Mr. Hardy’s son, Declan stared right back at me. I knew he was the one I had to win over. And for once, I couldn’t intimidate someone. He had nothing for me to hold over his head to gain his respect. Respect was all I wanted, not fear or coercion. I was good at getting those two things.
“You plan on sticking around this time?” Declan asked, menace in his voice.
“I never left.”
“She said you did. For a whole month.”
“I watched her, made sure she was safe, and confirmed the world knew she was an Untouchable. I needed to make sure—”
“You know about her first love?”
I nodded.
“She can’t lose someone like that again.”
I rubbed my chin. Her family, although they loved her . . . I don’t believe they understood her strength. “She could. She’d be fine.” Declan narrowed his eyes at me. “She’s stronger than you give her credit for.”
“Are you questioning how well I know my sister?” He tilted his head.
Dom, on his brother’s right, bulked up like he was ready to fight.
“I’m just correcting you on my fiancée’s resilience.”
“Fiancée?” Mr. Hardy perked up at that and scratched his flannel-covered belly. “You propose yet?”
“I intend to tonight. It’s why I’m standing out here trying to make small talk when I’d rather be on my phone working.”
Her dad chuckled like he was happy with my candor. Her brothers practically growled in unison. But Mr. Hardy plucked the steaks off the grill and handed one of the plates full of meat to Dex. “Go on. Take the food in. And Dimitri, find your mother and tell her it’s ready.”
Good. He was helping even the odds. Now it was just three against one.
He squared up with his two boys, and they all sized me up. “What are you gonna do if we say no, Cade? Respect our decision?”
“Respectfully, no. I’m not even going to respect her decision if she says no. But I’m giving you the courtesy of bringing it to your attention.”
Declan grumbled a “What the fuck” when his father let out a belly laugh and slapped his son’s shoulder a few times. “See, that’s the same thing I would have said about your mother to anyone who told me no. He’s fine, boys. She’ll give him enough hell as it is.” Then he walked up to me and patted my cheek twice like I was a five-year-old. “Enjoy married life. Going at the world alone is too damn lonely anyway.”
I think all our jaws were on the floor at how easily Mr. Hardy accepted me.
“We also need Bug back, Mr. Hardy. The cat’s hers.” I figured I’d drop all the bombs at once.
He actually hesitated with that. “Fine, but I want visitation hours then,” He grumbled before he meandered away, probably to go cuddle the cat before we took him home.
“Dad’s lost his marbles,” Dom murmured.
“Fuck me,” Declan groaned. Then his brow furrowed when his phone went off and he looked at the screen. “Oh no. She’s not.”
He stomped away as he punched buttons on the cell like they were the enemy. It seemed the man had some issues to deal with of his own as he bellowed once someone picked up his call, “You’re not going to his place. If you do, you can bet your ass, I’ll come get you to drag you out of there myself.”
Dom and I glanced at one another before we heard him whisper with fury, “Babe, I swear to God, I’m not playing.”
A second later, he held his phone out to see whoever was on the other side of the call had hung up on him. “Fuck,” he grumbled.
Dom looked him up and down as he walked back up to us. “What’s got your panties in a bunch?”
“She never listens.” He glanced at me and slapped that glare on his face that he thought would drum up fear. “I need your jet.”