Casing ✔️

Chapter 41

I turned, using my blinker even if we were the only ones around. Then I saw where we actually were.

It was the hill where we had our first date, with the ruins, and the lights, and the starry sky. I barely saw that the road turned again, causing James to lean over and grab the wheel with a chuckle.

"You can park here." His voice was suddenly heavy and filled with emotions, and I looked at him with worry, to which he just smiled and said, "I just really like this place."

Yeah, right. I sent him an incredulous look. He just kept his smile on, and got out of the car. I managed to scramble out before he could open the door for me, and I smiled innocently, as if I didn't know he was going to try. But I knew exactly why he'd instructed me to go here, of all places.

He took my hand and led me up the hill, towards all the twinkling lights, and the table set for two. Cloches covered what I suspected was the same delicious pizza we had here the first time, just to recreate that very nice night, until it was interrupted by James having to keep his best friend from killing a man.

"I don't want to beat around any bushes this time either," James said, bringing my attention from the table and the cloches and the lanterns around us. He squeezed my hand, and walked up in front of me.

My stomach was already going wild, dancing and tumbling and doing gymnastics of all kinds, making my heart beat faster to keep up. I knew what he was doing, yet I was giddy and nervous, and so completely surprised.

"The first time I saw you at that ball, I knew I wanted to know you. I had to know you. And with all those romance books you read, you might understand when I say I was sure I'd seen my entire future when I first looked into your eyes." His free hand cupped my cheek, lifting my face as he stepped closer and looked into my eyes.

His smile was more brilliant and bright than ever, and I shuddered as I raised my free hand to hold his wrist.

"It might sound dumb, too, but I don't give a fuck, Elina, because you're my princess, and I'm your prince," he continued, still staring so deeply into my eyes that I was sure he was saying these words directly to my soul, tattling them in place, to make me remember forever. "I've asked you this so many times before already, and the last time you told me to get a damn ring if I was serious. So..."

He took out a box from his jacket, and even if I expected it, I gasped when he sank to his knee in front of me, one hand still holding mine. He opened the box with his other hand, a diamond ring so big and bright like him glistened up at me, making my lower lip tremble.

"Elina George, I'm as serious now as I was the first time I asked this," he started, his voice breaking ever so slightly, "I love how you challenge me and order me around, and I love how you want to slap me and kiss me at the same time when I've been busy at work. I love when you tell me exactly what you want, and I love when you're a tiny bit afraid to tell me about the smutty scenes you read. I never want either of those things to stop. I'm not going to stop asking you until the day I die, or until you say yes, whichever comes first. So, please, will you marry me, Elina?"

I'd started shaking after the first sentence, and I sank to my knees in front of him, not caring that my stockings would get dirty. I laid both hands on his cheeks and blinked several times to keep my tears from running down.

He was perfect. He always was, and he always will be. So I nodded at him—I nodded and said, "You've finally won me over. Yes."

His lips were on mine before I could take a breath after saying that one word that would change everything, the one word he knew I'd eventually utter from the start. It hadn't been that long, but I knew so deep in my bones that he was it, and I didn't want to waste any more of our precious time by denying it.

I'd already been taken away twice, one time more dangerous than the other, and in this life there was no guarantees we would make it to next year, or even tomorrow.

So I kissed him back, my fingers entangling in his hair, and feeling the weight of what he felt for me pour into me as he groaned so deeply of relief that I felt my heart almost crack for him, and what he must've felt while I was gone.

When we both pulled back for air, I asked, "Do you want to move into the apartment with me?"

"I already have, kind of," he replied, chuckling, "but yes, I'll change my address first thing tomorrow."

He kissed me again, sweeter and softer this time, before he pulled back and took my hand down from the back of his head. He lifted his brows at me when he took the ring out of the box and slid it onto my finger, his smile growing.

"It's gorgeous," I said, finally seeing it properly. The band was studded with smaller diamonds, growing bigger towards the biggest in the center. I smiled when I met his gaze.

"It had to be, to match you."

"Stop being so cute," I complained, pushing his shoulder.

"Or what?" He raised a brow teasingly.

"Or I might want to discard the probably delicious meal you have planned, and go home to bed." I kept my voice neutral, but it was impossible to hide all of the sultry meaning behind the words.

"We should eat, then, before it gets cold." He winked at me, and gracefully got up on his feet, pulling me up with him.

It turned out living together was pretty great, but my studio apartment turned small very quickly when James brought work home with him, and when Damian dropped in to work with him. So we quickly found out we needed a bigger place.

A house was better, even though James already had plans with his parents that he and I would take over the mansion at some point. It didn't take long before we got a pretty sizable house in a quiet area in the city, pretty close to where Damian had his house as well.

It was practical, it was big and we could both get on with our own things in there. I could have my library, he could have his office, and we would have space enough for Damian, and—even though I said when I first met him I wouldn't want him as a brother-in-law—Nina.

Though I doubted him, or James, would approve of having her too close for a longer period of time.

Maybe I could find another nice girl for him, and I could poison her with my book-loving self, and steal her away from him when he and James were out doing God knew what. Though I had Ava as a pretty good friend by now, I knew I couldn't push her into my wine-and-erotica nights. Maybe just wine, but I wouldn't get to read much then.

My mind was going a mile a minute with all the possibilities for my future as we settled into the house, and I got a whole garden with very comfortable lounge chairs and a fire pit. James was seriously the man of my dreams, knowing exactly what I wanted, and how I wanted it.

I was more than ready to become Mrs. Davis, and live my whole life this close to the core of the Strac mafia family. No matter the cost—because life isn't worth running away from at all.

The wrong people would know where and how to find you anyway, once you'd been on the inside. I was born on the inside, and I knew even if I ran, someone would know I'd been there by the casings left behind—both from me, and the man I loved.

🖤

Thank you for reading Casing.

Be sure to check out the bonus chapter, as well as Damian's story!

xo