Light Me Up (7 page)

“Are you serious? Damn him. I told him not to, just because I figured she might torment you. The pitfalls of our best friends being together, I guess.”

“Oh, it’s okay. If he were going to propose to her, I would want to know beforehand. He’s not, is he?”

Brian shook his head. “Not that I know of. But give him time.”

The thought of Ghost and Macy tying the knot made her want to laugh out loud with joy. If most people thought Candace and Brian were an unlikely couple, then those two were damn near impossible to imagine together. But beautiful. No one who saw how much they loved each other could deny that.

Candace caught Brian’s face between her hands. “At the risk of sounding extraordinarily sappy, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. You’ve given me the best Christmas ever.”

“I’m glad, babe. You don’t know what I’ve gone through trying not to let my cover get blown. I could tell your mom got to you at the party, so I debated proposing that night, but I had to try to see it through. I already had this planned before I knew she’d said anything, though. I want you to know that.”

That’s right, he had. He’d mentioned it in the bathroom before her mother nearly caught them. “So this is why you’ve been a little weird lately? Were you nervous?”

“I was going apeshit. Ask Ghost.”

“I can imagine what he’s listened to,” she laughed. “You did great. You totally had me going with the drawing.”

He gave her an incredulous look. “Seriously? You thought I’d do something that lame? Of course, in some people’s opinions, the whole thing was pretty lame.”

“Ghost’s, I assume?”

“Exactly.”

She laughed. “Well, I didn’t think it was lame, even if it had only been the drawing and not a ring. It’s beautiful.”

“I can do a drawing for you anytime. It’s not something I’d do for your Christmas present.”

“There are lots and lots of things you can do for me anytime, Brian Ross, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them every time you do them.”

“Oh yeah?” He leaned forward and nuzzled her neck. “Then why don’t I carry you into the bedroom and do some of those things? Before we go sing from the rooftops.”

“Yes, please and thank you.”

He pulled her from the couch and up into his arms. Kissing her all the way, he carried her as if she were feather-light to their bed. Her husband-to-be. Her fiancé. She could hardly believe it, though she’d known all along, in her heart, it would happen.

His hands roamed her body, sliding against her silky pajama top. Teasing her nipples to aching little peaks. She gasped and arched against him. He took the opportunity to slide her pants down a bit, so that the first little red-and-black heart tattoo he’d given her was visible just above her panties.

“Where it all started,” he murmured, and ran his fingertips over it before placing a kiss on it.

Candace threaded her fingers through his hair. “Mm-hmm. Where would we be if I’d never come to you for that?”

“I think things have a way of working out the way they’re supposed to. We’d have found each other some way or another.”

Closing her eyes, she smiled. “I think so too.”

Chapter Five

Candace rang the doorbell at her parents’ house, huddling close to Brian—she’d scarcely been able to keep her hands off him since they left the apartment. He was wearing the new leather jacket she’d given him for Christmas, and he rocked it. Not that he didn’t rock anything he
wore, he just looked particularly dangerous in leather. And he smelled incredible.

When she’d called her mother earlier, Sylvia had surprised her by inviting them over for dinner, so she’d put off telling her about their engagement until she and Brian could both be there. This would definitely tell the tale about her mom’s intentions. Sylvia could recover fast from anger or shock, but there was no hiding that initial reaction.

The mammoth front door flung open to reveal Sylvia herself, surprisingly casual in slim jeans and a green cashmere sweater. “Merry Christmas!” She gave Candace a peck on the cheek and, shocker of shockers, gave Brian one too. “Come in, come in.”

They followed her into the house, shedding their coats. “You seem…festive tonight, Mom.”

“Just glad everyone could come.”

Everyone? Ugh, she should’ve known her mom would probably also invite Candace’s older brother Jameson and his new girlfriend, whom she inexplicably loved. Her mom and dad and Brian could all tolerate one another pretty peacefully, but Jameson was a different story. The best that could be maintained between him and Brian was a hostile silence. Not that she could blame Brian at all for keeping up his end of it, given what James had done to him in the past.

But there sounded like a lot of people in the dining room, given the chatter coming from that direction. Way more than two couples.

“Who’s here, Mom?” It was then that she heard Brian’s mother’s unmistakable Italian accent, and her vibrant laughter.

“Oh, hell,” Brian murmured in Candace’s ear.

She glanced at him and whispered, “But this is great, we can tell them all—”

“When you agreed to come, I decided to invite the Rosses too,” Sylvia said, walking ahead of them. “We don’t get together enough, don’t you agree?”

There was a reason for that. Sylvia Andrews had said some things about
Gianna Ross’s son in the past that hadn’t set well with her. But it looked as if everyone was ready to bury the hatchet in the spirit of Christmas. Of course, the pressure Candace was feeling doubled, though she wasn’t as worried about Brian’s parents’ reaction as she was her own. The Rosses were likely to be overjoyed to hear the news, even if it did mean lifelong ties with the Andrews family.

A chorus of greetings went up as Brian and Candace entered the dining room. She accepted hugs and kisses from her dad and Mr. and Mrs. Ross. Jameson tossed
her a “Hey, sis,” and she was grateful for that much. When he and Brian exchanged the briefest handshake of all time, she could’ve scooped her jaw off the floor.

Holy shit, this was real progress. She hoped she and Brian weren’t about to tear it all apart with a few simple words.

God, she couldn’t stand it. “We have news,” she blurted, earning a wide-eyed look from Brian, who’d been in the middle of greeting his dad. She moved beside him and squeezed his hand tight. All eyes turned to them. Gianna and Sylvia, who stood beside each other, looked back and forth between Brian and Candace expectantly. Candace almost wanted to chuckle at the hope in Gianna’s eyes. She was probably eager for a grandbaby, marriage be damned. Sylvia would’ve hit the floor if that had been the news.

“Well?” Brian’s mother said. Judging by Sylvia’s expression, she was afraid to ask.

Candace looked to her fiancé for support. He smiled at her and put his arm around her shoulders. Together they faced their families.

“I—”

“He—”

Dissolving in laughter as they both tried to speak at once, Candace gestured for him to go ahead, rubbing her engagement ring with her thumb in anticipation of showing it off. Miraculously, no one had noticed it yet.

Brian drew a breath and announced, “I asked Candace to marry me this morning.”

All around the room, mouths dropped, and Candace thrust her left hand out for all of them to see. “And I said yes!”

She had no chance to watch Sylvia closely. Brian’s mom rushed them, nearly knocking them both backwards with the impact of her embrace. After she’d squeezed the life out of them both, she caught Brian’s head between her hands and kissed both his cheeks repeatedly while he turned bright red. As she was laughing at the display, Candace felt someone lift her left hand. She turned to see her mother scrutinizing her ring.

“That
is
different,” Sylvia said. “I figured it would be.”

Immediately, she wanted to bristle and give her mother the same different-isn’t-bad lecture she’d been giving for a year and a half now, but tamped it down. Sylvia turned the ring in several different angles, examining it in the light from the chandelier. Candace waited bleakly for the verdict.

“Two carats?”

Candace nodded.

“It’s quite striking.” Sylvia looked up at her and smiled. “It’s beautiful.”

“So…you and Dad, you’re okay with this?”

“We’re more than okay, but it doesn’t matter. You’re happy.
That’s
what matters.”

The slow exhale Candace released was practically a lifetime’s worth of stress and anxiety. To think it had been Brian Ross’s love for her that finally brought about this moment she’d never
thought would come. Impulsively, she grabbed her mother in a fierce hug. “I love you, Mom.”

Sylvia clung to her, and when she spoke, Candace could swear her mom’s voice wavered. “I love you, too.” It was the first time she’d heard those words from the woman in a long time, but then, it was the first time she’d uttered them in a long time too. Someone had to break the negativity cycle.

Because she realized now their talk at the Christmas party wasn’t just Sylvia being manipulative…at least, not in a bad way. And Candace had flown off the handle, not trusting that maybe her parents were indeed coming around. She would start making more of an effort to get along as long as they continued to make one.

“Sylvia, you must have known about this,”
Gianna said. “I told Alexander when you called that something special must be happening tonight.”

Sylvia released Candace, and she saw that for once her mom couldn’t
quite hide her emotions. “Actually, your son came over soon after our party and requested our permission to marry Candace. He thought we would appreciate the gesture. And we did, very, very much.”

He did what?
Candace turned to Brian, her mouth hanging open. “You did that?” She looked at Mrs. Ross only to find a similar expression on her face, and then to Brian, who wore his best devil-may-care grin. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“You know it.”

“So, yes,” Sylvia said, “we did know it was coming. We were pretty certain what her answer would be too.”

Gianna
smacked Brian on the arm. “Holding out on me, son?”

“You can cuss me out later,” he said.

“Don’t think I’ll forget it, either. We have a lot of planning to do, don’t we?”

“I don’t know so much about that,” Brian said. Everyone looked at him in obvious consternation.
Oh, hell.
Candace couldn’t believe he was bringing this up
now
. He could at least let the mothers have their fantasy of a huge society wedding.

“What do you mean?” his dad asked him.

“You think we’re turning you guys loose to plan our wedding? No way. We talked about this on the way over; we’re all about spontaneity. We’ll probably elope.”

Amid the outrage that flared at his bombshell, Candace made out only one thing: Brian’s dad chuckling. “Smart kids.”

*     *     *

It was like a scene out of a movie, one she’d always wished her life resembled. Everyone sitting along a long dining table, an incredible spread of food, laughter,
Christmas music playing faintly in the background. The man she loved more than anything at her side. And her family—whether from resignation or a true desire to make her happy—actually accepted him. Inked, pierced, metal-loving tattoo artist. Who loved her madly, to have put up with so much crap from his future in-laws. Maybe all of that was coming to an end.

She should have known he would make everything right for her. He always did. He always made sacrifices and bit the bullet for her where her family was concerned, and she’d do her best to repay him for the rest of her life. Help him build his business to be the best it could be, help him build their life together so it would be beyond his wildest dreams.

She would ask Brian later to pinch her, because she must be dreaming. He would enjoy that.

Within a few minutes after his elopement announcement, everyone had thought he was joking, thankfully, but she dreaded the fallout when they figured out he’d been dead serious.
They had plenty of time to worry about that, though. Right now, it was all a little too much for her to handle emotionally. She whispered to Brian that she was going to the bathroom and then excused herself from the table, heading directly for her old bedroom with its little bathroom—the one they’d steamed up a couple weeks before.

There, she allowed herself to have a little freak-out. Not a cry, which had been a frequent occurrence in her life. Not a break to fume or brood so she could compose herself. She had a giddy, dizzy, oh-my-God-is-this-really-happening, genuine jumping-up-and-down-and-twirling outburst of joy.

Then a deep breath and a quick fix in the mirror, during which she noticed a carefree sparkle in her eyes and a brightness to her smile that hadn’t been there in a while. Not because Brian didn’t make her happy all by himself—he did. It was simply that she’d always thought in the back of her mind that it might come down to having to choose him over her family, and while she’d known she was prepared to do so, it wasn’t what she wanted. And his actions had also put to rest the niggling little question that sometimes kept her up at night: Would he finally get tired of her parents’ bullshit and cut her loose because of it? There had been so many times she wouldn’t have blamed him. But he wanted to stick it out with her. Forever. She grinned down at her ring, the sight of it blurring as tears filled her eyes.

Okay, so maybe she’d cry a little.

Good God, she loved him, so what the hell was she doing up here having a sappy-happy explosion? Just as she turned for the door, however, he appeared, making her jump. She hadn’t heard him enter the bedroom.

“Oh! You startled me.”

His dark blue eyes glanced over her. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fabulous. I’m
perfect
.”

He grinned. “Yeah, you are. My mom just elbowed me and told me to go check on you. Not that I wouldn’t have on my own, but I figured you were all right.”

Mrs. Ross probably had ulterior motives. The woman wanted grandchildren, and she wanted them now, after all. “Have I told you today that I love you?”

He tilted his head, looking pensive and absolutely gorgeous. “I don’t think you have,” he lied.

“Well. I love you, Brian Ross.”

“And I love you, Candace soon-to-be Ross.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She didn’t have to see herself in the mirror to know she beamed at him. “I love that too,” she said softly, moving to him and sliding her arms around his waist. She went up on her toes to kiss him, but he stopped her by cradling her face in his hands.

“Remember when we were in here before and you told me to light you up? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you as bright as you are right now. I did a good job, right?”

“Baby, I can’t even tell you what an amazing job you did. I’m still half speechless.”

“In that case, to hell with talk. Being in here again is giving me ideas.”

She giggled as he leaned down and nibbled her neck, kissing a path up to her ear. “Brian…”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t think we should…” His hands moved around to cup her ass and squeeze her against his hardening cock. “Oh…”

“What was that?”

They shouldn’t, oh, they shouldn’t… but he felt so good and so perfect and smelled so freaking awesome… “Maybe, um, maybe we should…wait…oh, fuck it.” She grabbed his head and pressed her mouth to his, succumbing to his expert way of kissing her senseless.

“Don’t worry, sunshine,” he said against her lips. “I locked the door this time.”

Find out how it all began with Brian and Candace in
Rock Me

Now available in print and
ebook