He brushes my hair off my face. “Where’s mine?”
He’s teasing, but I’m in no mood for delays, so I improvise. I tear a strip of bacon in half, take his left hand, and wrap the piece of bacon around his ring finger, tucking the ends under so it stays in place. It’s a big, crumbly, greasy mess. He stares at it, looks at me, and then looks back at his hand.
I ask, “What do you think?”
“I think I can’t wait to tell our kids that you proposed to me with a bacon ring.”
“I didn’t pro—kids?”
He glances up at me with a glint in his eye and a smile playing around the edges of his mouth. “Four.”
My mouth falls open. “Four? You want four kids?”
He pulls me in against his strong chest, leaving a smear of bacon grease on my arm, and wraps his arms around me. He rests his chin on the top of my head. “You’re right. We should have eight. Start our own little army.”
I say loudly into his chest, “I am not having eight children!”
He sighs. “Fine. If you really want twelve, we’ll have twelve. But I think we should definitely consider a nanny at that point.”
I fake a growl. “You’re extremely lucky that I love you, jarhead, because if I didn’t, you’d be missing a few important body parts right about now.”
He stills. Slowly he pulls away, looking down at me with shining eyes. He whispers, “Say that again.”
I know exactly what he wants to hear, but he isn’t giving me my ring, and so I’m not giving him what he wants either. I ask innocently, “You’d be missing a few important body parts?”
He shakes his head. He’s so still, I think he might be holding his breath.
“Um…you’re extremely lucky?”
He shakes his head again, pulls me closer so our noses are almost touching.
“Honey, you’re getting grease all over my silk robe.”
“Say it,” he demands, and his eyes are so full of need, I melt.
Staring deep into his eyes, I murmur, “I love you. With my whole heart. And I will until the day I die.”
He groans and then gives me a kiss I’ll remember for the rest of my life, in no small part because he’s gripping my head with his left hand and now my ear is full of bacon.
“But I’m still going to keep the townhouse,” I say when we finally draw a breath. He does his bristling cat impression, all glaring eyes and hackles raised, hissing through his teeth. “Why?”
“Because the loft doesn’t have the right wiring for the quantum computer I’m going to build.”
He blinks. “Quantum…”
“Computer. Yes. What, you think I didn’t upload the source code from S?ren’s system to the cloud before you showed up to rescue me?” I make a tsk of disapproval. “Honey. You should know me better than that!”
He’s looking at me in total astonishment, which makes me feel pretty damn good. I love being able to surprise him, even though he knows me so well.
He protests, “The CIA said his whole system was corrupted. They examined it for weeks. They couldn’t get it to work—”
I bark out a scornful laugh. “You think I’d let the government have it? You know what they’d do with that kind of technology! No way, José! They can try to build their own. But if and when they do, they’ll have a little white cartoon kitty cat watching their every move.”
He looks like he’s trying to wrap his head around the idea and not having much luck. “So…that’s what you’re going to do with it? Watch over the government?”
I lift a shoulder. “That’s just a side gig. Its primary function will be saving the world.”
After a long, silent interval, Connor begins to laugh. It’s quiet at first, a low chuckle, but quickly builds to roar, until finally he’s laughing so hard he’s gasping.
“I always knew you were a superhero,” he says, shaking with laughter and drawing me close.
I wrap my arms around his neck and beam at him. “Can I please have my ring now?”
And the man that I love responds, “Princess, you can have anything you want,” and kisses me once more.