The Consequence (The Evolution of Sin 3)

His eyes sparkled brighter than the sapphire diamond ring. “I believe in nothing as much as I do our love. I want to be able to call you my wife. I can think of nothing better than being your husband, except perhaps being the father to your children.”

“Oh God,” I sobbed, so inelegant with emotion, so saturated with love and hope and all those emotions that steal your breath away and set your mind to spinning faster than a top. “I love you so much. Of course, I will be your wife. I’ll be anything you want me to be.”

“Vraiment? Tu seras ma femme?”

“Yes,” I cried, sliding my hand into his hair and the other over his dear, dear face. “Of course, I will be your wife.”

I had never seen anything as wonderful as his face broken open with joy, his eyes so bright and his smile so wide. It almost hurt to know that I was capable of bringing such a man to his knees with elation.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and tugged me even closer so that he could place his cheek against my stomach. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He looked up at me with a slight smile. “Do not take offense, but this time I was talking to our baby.”

I laughed, smoothed a hand through his wind tossed hair. “I will never take offense to that.”

He tugged me down to the deck, dragging me into his lap so that I was sitting there, my legs wrapped around his back, my face tucked into his neck and his arms wrapped securely around me. We stayed like that for a long minute, trying to absorb the monumental amount of joy saturating the moment.

“Marry me right now,” he said, finally.

“Sin,” I giggled, pressed a kiss to the pulse in his throat.

His arms tightened. “Marry me right now.”

“Don’t kid.”

“I don’t have time for jokes.”

“I thought it was that you didn’t have time to be friendly?” I teased, leaning back so that I could look into his face.

It was a very serious face, at the moment. “I don’t have time for a lot of things. This is why I want to marry you right now.”

I pursed my lips as I took in his utter sincerity. “Are you asking me to elope?”

The idea wasn’t totally absurd. As it was, most of my family would have a hard time justifying attending our wedding given that Sinclair had been with Elena as little as six months ago. I didn’t even know if I was prepared for the society wedding that Willa Percy would want to throw us and I certainly wasn’t prepared for Mama’s exclusion in the preparations. My heart panged. No, if I were going to marry Sinclair, as I was suddenly so desperate to do even though the thought hadn’t ever really occurred to me, we would have to elope.

“No,” Sin was saying, carefully looking into my eyes. “I’m saying that is why I brought you here.”

“To Mexico?” I asked, surprised yet again.

He shook his head slowly. “No, here to the place where I knew for sure that I had fallen in love with you.”

I frowned as he stood up, offered me his hand so that I could get up as well. He led me to the side of the deck, gesturing dramatically to the scene in front of us.

It was the same beach we had spent the afternoon snorkeling at during our weeklong affair. I immediately recognized the huge outcroppings of red rock that acted like parenthesis for the long curve of sterling white sand and the gracefully arching palm trees and colorful fauna beyond that. But I registered all of that with the periphery of my mind because the sight of the people waiting on the shore, mingling amid white chairs before an arbor wrapped in bright hibiscus flowers, consumed me. I spotted Santiago and Kat Herrera, Cage and Candy and the rest of the original Mexico crew, even Margot and Antonio, the Percys were talking to Eddie and Rossi who had their arms around each other.

“Sin, what have you done?” I breathed.

His chuckle stirred the hair by my ear as he wrapped his arms around me, as if he knew my knees were about to give out and I needed the extra support.

“I’ve tried to make us both happy by giving you a wedding filled with all the people you love, in a place where we fell in love.”

“And how does this make you happy?”

“Mon amour, I would marry you in front of dumpster with sewer rats as witnesses if it meant I could marry you immediately. This seemed like a better option.”

I laughed, turning in his arms so I could link my arms around his neck and press myself flush against him.

“I promise, I’m going to make you so happy,” I murmured reverently.