Fallon woke screaming, sweaty and terrified. Brody was right there, brushing her hair out of her face.
He murmured, “You’re all right. We’re home. I’m with you.”
“It’s over?” she whispered, and rolled into his embrace.
He held her so tight. “Yeah. They took Damon to get help. I guess they were able to break Malachi’s hold on Damon, but he jumped at the chance to forget everything about you. Talk about an asshole,” Brody muttered the last.
She sat up and slid her hand up his arm. “Damon just had problems with magic. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with him in the first place.” Fallon shook her head. “After seeing my mistakes, can you see how I doubted your ability to accept me for me?”
“Fallon, those were Damon’s issues. Not yours. Isaac, I don’t even have words to describe what kind of monster he was. Crazy or not, he wasn’t enthralled. There was no excuse for what he was willing to do. So no, I don’t understand how you blame yourself. But as long as you realize you won’t be my ruin, then I don’t care about them.”
She threw a leg over his waist and straddled him with a smile. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m never letting you go. I love you. Thank you.” She smiled wider than she probably ever had before.
“Oh, sugar, you’re stuck with me. I won’t let you let me go.” He rolled her over and rose up on his elbows to look down at her. “You’re everything Fallon. I don’t know what I would have done if Damon took you from me. I know I would have taken every last Dale and their fighters if Isaac or Malachi had taken you from me.”
“They didn’t. I’m right here. I don’t want to think about them ever again.” Her stomach growled, and he frowned. “What?”
“You’ve been asleep since last night. It’s almost noon. Let’s get you fed.” He gave her lips a quick kiss and sat up.
“I’d rather just make love to you.” She pouted.
“Yes. Well, you’ll need your energy for all the love making I want to do. Now get up so you can eat. Then we’ll get to the good stuff.”
* * * *
Thanks to a huge favor from Jess, breakfast was ready and he had a surprise for Fallon. Now Brody just needed to get his nerves under control. When Robert came back to fill him in on what happened to everyone, Brody talked the mage into making sure she’d sleep until late morning at the very least.
After everything they’d been through, he wanted to make it official, and he hoped like hell he wasn’t pushing too hard too fast, but mating was as permanent as a relationship could get. Jess assured him that Fallon would be happy. That was enough for him to take the risk and jump ahead.
As soon as Fallon sat down, he pulled breakfast out of the oven and brought it to the table. She dug into her food the second he set her plate in front of her.
“Hungry?” He chuckled.
“Starved. This was a good idea.” She licked her lips when she looked back at him, and then went right back to eating with gusto. He loved that.
Man, his hands were shaking, he was so nervous, but he wanted to do this right. He ate his breakfast without really tasting anything. Once she finished her plate, she stood and took both to the sink.
He got up and followed her. She turned around, and he dropped to one knee as he pulled out a little box. “I don’t ever want to lose you. I want to spend the rest of our lives proving to you just how much you mean to me. Please, Fallon, marry me.”
Fallon didn’t even look at the box. She just dropped to her knees and threw her arms around his neck. “Really?”
“Yes. I mean every word.”
Her mouth was on his, her hands in his hair. She broke the kiss only long enough to whisper, “Yes.”
He wound his arms around her, and delved back into the kiss. She was everything to him, and he wanted to be her everything.
Fallon pulled back. “I should warn you, I’m not one of those women who have grand dreams about gigantic weddings. As long as I have you, I don’t care about the rest.”
“Ditto. So we can figure that all out when you’re ready, but I do have this.” He pressed the opened box into her hand and she looked down.
As soon as he saw the ring, he knew it was hers. It was a thick platinum band with diamonds, sapphires and emeralds embedded around the outside. The surface was smooth and wouldn’t catch on anything.
“I love it,” she whispered, and looked into his eyes. “You didn’t need to do this. The ring is perfect, but—”
He stopped her argument with a kiss. “I would have taken you to pick your own, but I saw this ring and knew you it was yours.” He took the ring and slid it on her finger before he stood and pulled her to her feet.
“I’m so glad you crashed into my life, Brody”
“Me too.”
* * * *
Fallon’s phone started ringing.
Frowning, Brody stepped back. “You’ll want to get that. Amethyst has called you a couple times since yesterday. I got the impression that something was bothering her.”
She went to the counter and answered, “Hi Amethyst.”
“Fallon. Are you okay?” She sounded anxious. Fallon could just see her twisting the ends of her purple hair around her fingers in a nervous gesture.
“I’m fine. What about you? What’s wrong?”
“I hear you found yourself a good man.” She sighed. “He sounds like a total sweetie.”
Fallon grinned because he was. “Yeah. He is and I’ll tell you all about him later. But first, you’re going to tell me what’s wrong. I know that tone, sweetheart. What is it?”
Brody gave her a funny look but didn’t say anything.
“Well, Carl won’t leave me alone.” That wasn’t surprising. The jackass boyfriend had been a problem for a while. She dumped him just the week before Fallon moved up. “He’s stalking me. He shows up everywhere, begging me to come back. He hasn’t done anything but say some really stupid stuff. I just… I don’t know what to do.”
Fallon had a couple ideas of how Amethyst could solve that problem, but also knew she wasn’t likely to take that route. “So, don’t take this the wrong way. You have an option, and I know you know what I’m referring to. Just keep the option open and use it before you can’t stand to be near him.”
Her voice broke. “I really don’t want to go there.”
“I know, but you can make him want to avoid you without hurting him.”
Brody tilted his head, obviously confused.
“Mom’s been trying to get me to do that for months,” she groaned. “The idea of doing that just makes me sick.”
“Sorry. If I knew Opal was on you about it, I wouldn’t have gone there.” Fallon felt a bit guilty. Amethyst and her mother didn’t exactly see eye to eye on things.
“That’s okay. I had another idea anyway,” she said hopefully.
“Shoot.”
“I was wondering if your new shop has an opening for a piercer. Between my mother and my ex, I think a move might be a good thing.”
“We do. We don’t have a piercer at all. Adam and Tomahawk turn green anytime someone walks in and asks for a piercing. The big babies.” Fallon winked at Brody who shook his head. “So just let me know when you think you’re ready, and I’ll set it up.”
“Just like that?” Amethyst asked suspiciously.
“Remember, Jess is up here, which means she probably already lined the job up for you. And if not, I’m in tight with the owner’s brother, so don’t worry about that.” She grinned and Brody caught his bottom lip between his teeth. Fallon asked, “Are you doing okay? Really?”
“Yeah, thanks for talking. I should let you go. Brody says you need your rest, though you sound good.”
“I am good. But if you need to talk, you have my number.”
“I do. Talk to you soon, Fallon.”
“Bye Ame.” Fallon hung up and stalked over to Brody, winding her arms around his neck. “Now, where were we?”
“I was about to make love to you, and never stop.” He took her mouth in a heated kiss.