Exposed [Book 4 in the Expiring Series]

71 Everyone's Confused

Colton~~

            In the seat across from me, Vienna stares out the window at the stars shimmering in the distance, across space and, well, time. Besides for the crew, everyone else is asleep, divided between the two bedrooms on board. Iris and Jonas are in one, Basile and Andrew in the other with Percy, Elisana, and Ean. Vienna and I have been in the one with my brother and Iris. I refused to share a room with Elisana and was not going to let some would-be-failed-assassin sleep in the same room as his targets.

The lights in the main cabin, where Vienna and I sit, have been off for a while. What light there is, comes from the stars.

Vienna's nose is almost up against the window. She sighs. "It's terrifying and yet beautiful." Her lips tug down. "Do you think it ever gets boring?"

"Probably if you have to look at it every day."

She turns her head toward me. "So, I'm going to find you boring one day?" She offers me a smile before propping her chin on her hand and looking back out the window.

Heart thundering, I take the opportunity to ease into a kneel in the space between our seats. "I would hope you don't."

Vienna looks down at me and freezes. "What are you doing?"

"We've discussed it a lot, I know, but I've refrained from getting on one knee before you until I could know for certain I'd be able to fulfill my promise to you. It's not the grandest setting. Not where I imagined doing this." I'd been planning to ask her in the maze at the Estate, beside the fountain where we met.
"Colton, we're in space. I don't think you can get any grander than that."

I look down at my shoe. I suppose space is actually a pretty damn romantic place to propose. Swallowing the lump that's formed in my throat, I look back up. "I wanted it—this moment to be perfect for you. I don't even have a ring. I just . . . I couldn't wait any longer."

She cocks her head to the side, brows furrowing. "You're worried I'd say no after everything we did to get here?"

"It's still your choice. Always your choice. I want you to marry me because you want to, not because you feel an . . . obligation to because we've traveled across a planet to make it happen."

"You"—she slides her hands into mine—"don't feel that obligation, right?"

I shake my head, squeezing her fingers. "How could I when I did it all for you in the first place?" I hesitate, breathing in the soft smell of her perfume to soothe my nerves. "Marry me, Vienna?"

Slipping off her seat, she crouches in front of me. "Taking on the Blackwood name. Do you think I'll suddenly become terrifying?"

"So you're saying it's a yes?"

"Of course, Colton." She cups my face with her hand and leans forward, until her lips brush mine. "Marry me, Beta?"

I pull her against me, dropping to both knees. "Yes." I crash my lips against her hers, pushing her until she's pressed against the edge of her seat. I pull back, rubbing my forehead against hers. "For the record, I asked first."

*****

In "the morning" when everyone is seated in the main cabin enjoying their breakfast, Vienna and I make our announcement, interrupting everyone's meal. Some of them clap. Some shout their happiness on our behalf, and why shouldn't our happiness give them happiness? Jonas hugs Vienna and punches me lightly in the chest—not really sure what that means.

Iris, though, is silent, her head slowly tilting to the side. "I'm sorry—I thought you were engaged this whole time. Did I miss something or did I imagine that?"

Her question throws me, and I rub the back of my neck. "No, we weren't."

"But by coming to Amoria, petitioning the Orders to let you get married, doesn't that mean you were already engaged?"

I glance at Jonas. "My brother had to get permission from them for the two of you to marry."

"But he'd already proposed by that point. I'd said yes. If you both agreed to get married, doesn't that mean you've been engaged? In that case, you've been engaged since before I met you."

Vienna's mouth opens and closes before she finally says, "He'd never actually gotten down on one knee or proposed."

Percy sinks into the empty seat beside Iris and grimaces at Vienna. "Iris has a point. You don't have to get down on one knee to propose. I can't believe we're the ones breaking it to you, but you've been engaged this whole time. If you were hoping for a celebration when we get home, you're about two years too late for throwing one."

Leaning against Basile, the armrest between them up, Andrew runs a hand through his curly hair. "Honestly, I figured the two of you were already married."

Vienna tugs at her hair. "You thought what?"

Andrew shrugs. "It made sense that the two of you had gotten married in secret and then found out that you technically couldn't be married and instead of coming clean jumped through a whole bunch of hoops to make it so that you could be married and would never get in trouble with the Society in the first place for having already done so."

Vienna grabs her glass of orange juice off the table and chugs it. "You all are absolutely impossible. Colton, I've changed my mind. I don't want to marry into this family."

Percy pats her on the shoulder. "If Andrew's right, you already have."

"Colton."

I push Percy out of the way and wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her against my front, her hips pressing against mine. "You know," I whisper near her ear, "this is one time that I wish Andrew was right."

And then I kiss my fiancée on the cheek, keeping her locked in my arms.

All right, announcement time. As you know Exposed is the last book, which is so weird to think about because this series has been going on since 2014. When I first started writing Exposed, I decided that I would write a book that would run parallel with this one called Engaged, focusing on Gwen and Alastair and Bently's love interest, set at the Estate as the main characters of Exposed are on Amoria. I'm still working on the details and creating Bently's love interest, and I don't know when I'll start writing it. There are some other projects I want to get to first, but during that time I'll probably write a few bonus chapters. The song that best describes Engaged is Death of a Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco. I love that this song is inspiring it because it was a reader who told me that that song reminded them of the love story in Expiration Date and that then led me to being introduced to Panic! At The Disco. I know, I was super late to that game.

I hope you're excited about Engaged, and I hope you'll enjoy the end of Exposed. We're so close. And it's so scary because I've been trying to decide how to end this series for so long. I still haven't fully figured it out. Maybe you'll even figure it out before me. I love you all and hope to see you in the next chapter ~Mikaela