“I know what I want, Rachel, and you’re it.”

“You’re insane!” she scoffed. “Off-your-rocker, certifiably mad.”

“You already mentioned that.”

Rachel saw a mischievous grin, unlike any she’d seen on him before, spread across his lips as he moved to sit up in the bed, the same bed she was currently scrambling from.

“Running away from me?” he questioned with a faux frown. “Now, I’m kind of insulted.”

Standing between the bed and the wall, Rachel continued staring at Cole like he had lost his mind. “Well, you’re acting a little crazy, don’t you think?”

“No,” he stated in a voice that was incredibly sane.

Grr. He’s making me sound like the crazy person.

“So, you’re telling me that you want to get married? To me?” Rachel asked, completely flabbergasted.

Cole made a show of looking around the empty hotel room. “Is there anyone else in the room that I don’t know about?”

“Would you stop being so…so…” At this stage, Rachel knew she must look absolutely ridiculous, flapping her arms around and stuttering.

But none of this is making any sense! Especially the fact that I want to say yes.

“So smart? So intelligent? So sexy?” he offered arrogantly as his eyes twinkled at her.

“Calm!” she finally got out. “So damn calm!”

“You don’t think I’m smart and sexy?”

“I think this is an outrageous conversation, and I am very naked!”

“Yes,” he muttered, letting his eyes wander down over her, “I had noticed that. So, say yes, agree to marry me, and come back to bed.”

“You don’t even know me!”

“I know you better than you think,” he replied quicker than she had expected. “I know that you are the little sister of Mason Langley, you run Exquisite with him, and he looks out for you whether you like it or not. You’re an incredible pastry chef, yet I haven’t had the pleasure of sampling any of your creations, except for the sinful caramel sauce that needs to be a permanent staple in my life.”

Throwing the sheet off his body, he climbed out of the bed and made his way toward her, like a wolf on the hunt. As Rachel stumbled back to the wall, he continued, naked like she was.

“You had an insane girlie crush on my friend and business partner throughout, I can only assume, all your high school years. And because you have the biggest heart in the world, you both are still as close as any brother and sister could ever be. You’ve lost both your parents, and you now run your mother’s flower shop even though your first passion is cooking.”

He paused as she stood there, rooted to the spot. Staring up at him, she felt completely gobsmacked.

“How am I doing so far?”

Grudgingly, she had to admit, So far, he is spot-on.

* * *

Cole looked down into the face that was the very reason for his—yes, slightly insane—behavior. Running his fingertips down her arms to her hands, he took a hold of them.

“You have people in your life who love you deeply, and for some reason, the entire week we’ve been together, you haven’t wanted them around. This week, you spent your evenings alone with me, looking for something that none of them could give you.”

Pulling her forward, Cole wrapped her arms around his neck and gripped her hips, lifting her, so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Turning, he walked them back to the bed.

“You’ve been hiding away, not dating, and for someone who craves to be touched, you’ve refused anyone’s hands. And that is all wrong.”

Cole studied her closely as her eyes, tinged with fear and excitement, searched his face.

“Oh? But what about you?” she asked.

With a smug smile, he placed his knee on the bed and laid her down on the crumpled sheets. “You didn’t refuse me, and I am all that is right for you.” He kissed her quickly and lifted his head. “So?”

“So?” She giggled from beneath him.

Nipping her bottom lip, Cole repeated the words he hadn’t even known he had in him the first time. “Will you marry me?”

He felt her hand stroke up his back, and when it reached the tattoo between his shoulder blades, he arched into her touch.

“What does this mean?” she asked, momentarily trying to distract him.

“You want to know about it now? I think you’re avoiding the question.”

“Me? Deflecting?” she asked. “Hmm, I learned from the best. Tell me, please?”

“Then, you will answer me?”

Using some of his own tactics against him, she pretended to think on it for a moment as she stroked her fingers between his shoulder blades once more. “Perhaps.”

Taking a deep breath, Cole stared down into the face that had somehow become essential to his well-being. “Okay. It’s a Vegvísir. It’s a symbol used by the Nordic people, an Icelandic magical stave. It’s meant to guide the bearer through rough weather, like a compass of sorts. I got it done when my mother’s disease started to rapidly progress. I felt helpless, like there was nothing I could do but hang on and hope we made it through. I’m still hanging on.”

He felt her fingers tracing a circle around it, and as her eyes closed, he knew she was picturing the tridents all intricately interwoven with the Viking rope.

“You can hang on to me,” she offered as her eyelids fluttered open.

When their eyes connected, Cole swallowed against the unfamiliar lump in his throat. “Can I?”

“I still think you’re crazy,” she muttered, “but you are very persuasive.”

“So, is that a yes?” he pressed, needing to hear it.

“Yes.” Laughing, she leaned up and then surrounded him in a tangle of arms and legs. “Yes, you insane man, I’ll marry you. But you have to deal with Mason and Josh.”

With her legs wrapped around his hips, Cole pushed up from her. “And if I do? You agree to tomorrow?”

As her blue eyes sparkled, she released her arms from around his neck. “Is that even possible?”

Playing with a strand of her hair, Cole told her, “We can get the license tomorrow, but we will have to wait until Saturday to make it official.”

“I can’t believe we are even having this conversation. You do know that we have no excuse, right? Neither of us is drunk, and we aren’t in Vegas. What happens here won’t stay here.”

“Are you trying to tell me that you need to be drunk to marry me?”

Shaking her head against the mattress, she snorted, and he found it completely endearing.

“No, but I’m impulsive. You? Well, let’s just say, I don’t think anyone will believe that you agreed to this.”

Leaning down so his mouth was by her ear, Cole moved his hips against hers.

“So, you think people will say that you drugged me? Or maybe I was seduced?”

As her fingers slid through his hair, he groaned against her ear. Raising his head, he looked down at her and was surprised to see a serious expression fixed on him.

“I’m serious, Cole. People will assume I talked you into this.”

“People being Mason and Joshua?”

“And Lena and Shelly.”

“So?” he questioned as she massaged his scalp. “They can assume whatever the hell they like. The two people who matter are right here, and I will be more than happy to set the record straight.”

He felt her hand smooth down to his neck and squeeze.

“And if it doesn’t work and we hate each other by next week?”

“Such an optimist, Rachel.”

“I mean it.” She pouted.

Taking her hand from behind his neck, he pinned it to the bed and did the same with the other. “I can’t ever imagine hating you, but if you get sick of me and decide next week that you want nothing to do with me—”

“Yes?”

Lowering his mouth to hers, he informed her with nothing but devious intentions, “Tell me, so I can change your mind.”

* * *

Rachel awoke with the sun hitting her in the eyes as it was shining directly through the hotel window.

Oh shit! Did last night really happen?

It was quite possible that she had fallen asleep after they had tumbled into bed, and she dreamed the last half of the conversation, not that that was any less disturbing.

Fantasies about marrying Cole? Wow, now, I really am losing my mind.

Taking a quick peek over her shoulder, Rachel was almost relieved to see that the bed was empty, but by the looks of it, Cole hadn’t been gone long because his pillow was still indented.

Stretching her legs under the sheet, Rachel rolled to her back and pushed her arms above her head. Last night was an interesting evening, that’s for sure. She had gone into it believing she was going on her first date ever with him, and she had come out the other side—

“I was wondering when my fiancée would finally wake up.”

Engaged!

Rachel watched the steam billow around Cole as he stepped out of the bathroom with a white towel wrapped around his waist, and yes, she realized the shock of him nearly naked still was not something she was over.

“Early this morning, I remembered that we have no clothes to wear, except the ones from last night, so I called around and had some things delivered. They should be here shortly.”

As he moved toward the bed, Rachel was silent as she tracked a water droplet sliding off the bar in his left nipple. It started a slow, lazy descent over his rib cage and down his waist until it hit the towel secured around the sexy V of his hips.

Now was not the time, however, to think about where the water droplet had gone. Now was the time to go and visit Lydia and to maybe have her son’s head examined.