Tainted Butterfly (Tainted Knights 2)

Tainted Knights had had a concert the night before, and we had planned to make an entire weekend of our visit before going up to spend a few days with Alicia. Because Kin and Santana were also with us, it had turned into a group thing and we were now walking the streets, listening to the music from all the bars on Broadway. It was a fun night, but I wasn’t exactly enjoying spending the night with all my jackass bandmates.

This was supposed to have been my night alone with Kassa, the night that I asked her to marry me. I’d had it all planned out, and when Kin and Santana had said that they were coming along, Kassa had gotten so excited that I hadn’t been able to say no. She was just now starting to get back to herself after the miscarriage, and I had loved seeing the spark in her eyes so much that I had told her that we could do whatever she wanted.

“Let’s go check out the live music on the rooftop at the Hard Rock,” Santana suggested, tugging on Kale’s hand.

“Sure, babe,” he said. “I could go for a beer anyway.”

Jace and Kin walked behind them, with me and Kassa bringing up the rear. I kept my arm over her shoulder, and she had her fingers linked with mine, a happy grin on her face.

“Thanks for this weekend, Gray,” she told me. “I really needed it.”

I bent and gave her a kiss on the lips as we walked. “Anything for you, baby.”

“I know I’ve been a little crazy lately, but thanks for putting up with me.”

I paused in the middle of the sidewalk, not caring that there was a crowd of people trying to move in both directions. “Kassa, I told you you’re allowed to not be okay, and I meant that. It’s taken a while for me to be okay again too.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m really glad you’re getting back to being okay though. I love seeing this smile on your face again.”

“You really helped me a lot,” she murmured, looking up at me with those big, blue eyes so full of love for me that it made my heart hurt in all the right ways. Every time I saw that look in her eyes, I thanked God that he had given me this woman. “I love you so much.”

“I love you more.”

Her eyes twinkled at those four little words.

“Hey, you two coming?” Jace called back to us from almost half a block ahead of us.

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled. “We’re right behind you.”

The Hard Rock was only a block away, and when we got there, we went straight upstairs. A band was already playing country cover songs. They sounded pretty good, and Kassa was tapping her hand against her thigh to the beat as we left the others to get their drinks at the bar.

“Oh wow,” she breathed as she drank in the view while we walked out onto the rooftop patio. She dropped my hand and went over to one of the two long couches, watching the people below.

Downtown Nashville looked alive below us, but it was how beautiful Kassa looked that took my breath away. Her hair was pulled to one side in a braid that fell over her shoulder. She was wearing a flowery dress that stopped mid-thigh with a jean jacket over it and cowboy boots on her feet. I stood there, watching her, while she laughed at a group of girls on one of the pedal taverns. They were squealing and doing shots at the red light below.

Fuck it. It didn’t matter if I waited for the perfect time, because every day with her was perfect to me. And I was tired of waiting. I wanted my ring on her finger.

I pulled the ring from my pocket, where I had put it before we had left the hotel earlier. While she was still focused on the people below, I dropped to my knees behind her and waited for her to turn around.

“Holy shit,” Jace muttered behind me.

“Shut up, Jace,” Kin snapped at him.

Kassa’s head turned at the sound of their bickering, which was a regular occurrence these days, and a frown was scrunching up her face. “What are you two fighting about now…” She trailed off, her mouth falling open when she saw me. “Gray,” she breathed, her eyes going wide, her chin already trembling. “What are you doing?”

I grinned, took her left hand in mine, and pushed the ring onto her finger. “Kassa, I think I fell in love with you the minute you crawled into my bed that very first night. We were just kids. Fuck, you were still just a baby, but something inside of me came alive that night. You told me you loved me for the first time that night. Do you remember?”

With tears spilling from her eyes, she nodded.

I cleared my throat of the lump that was trying to ruin this moment, blinking my own tears back. “I was feeling lost and hurting, but you just crawled into bed with me and shared your bowl of fruit, and I knew in that moment that everything was going to be okay because you were beside me.”

“Always,” she whispered. “I will always be beside you.”

“The morning after I made you mine, I bought this ring,” I confessed. “I knew I was going to marry you, that you had to be mine for eternity. When I walked into the jewelry store, I saw this ring and knew it was made for you. Fate wanted us to be together so much that they inspired someone to make the perfect ring just for you, little butterfly.” I uncovered her hand and lifted it to my lips, kissing the butterfly-shaped diamond. “Don’t fight fate, Kassa. Say yes—say you’ll marry me.”

She didn’t even look at the ring as she threw her arms around me, nearly making me fall backwards before I caught her. “Yes,” she sobbed, kissing every inch of my face. “Yes. I’ll marry you. I love you. I always have. From that first night. I knew I was yours then, Gray. Even at seven years old, I was yours.”

Someone sobbed behind us, and Kassa and I both lifted our heads and found Kin a snotty mess. She wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “That was just so beautiful. I never thought that this dumbass could be so romantic.”