Staking His Claim (18 page)

Matt could hardly think over the furious pounding in his chest. Was this her way of sending him a message? If so, she’d taken a serious risk of him not getting it. Like Brent, he didn’t buy the story about the position opening early.

He sprang into motion, shoving his feet into shoes and slamming his locker door shut. Unable to think of anything but the consequences of not getting to Lucy before she boarded the plane, he gripped Brent by the shoulders. “Flight number. Terminal. Give them to me, now.”

“Why?” Brent’s brow puckered, but his friend knew him well enough that it only took a quick study of Matt’s face to determine exactly why he wanted to find his sister. “Oh Jesus, Matty. Are you fucking kidding me?”

“No. I need her.” He worked to steady his voice. “She belongs with me and I’m going to get her, with or without your help.”

“I can’t believe you’re making me kick your ass two days after you saved my life.” He threw up his hands. “Has to be done. It’s a rule.”

“Set in stone,” Daniel murmured, watching them closely.

Matt’s patience was rapidly deteriorating. “Look, you can
try
and kick my ass later. I’ll give you the first swing. But right now—”

Brent laughed incredulously. “You don’t get to schedule your own ass-kicking.”

That did it. Whatever composure he’d been able to maintain evaporated. He shoved Brent up against the lockers and held him there. His friend looked too stunned to react, so he pressed his advantage. “Listen to me. I love your sister. I love her so much I can’t wait for tomorrow. To see what she says, what she wears, which laugh she’ll use. She’s not your sister to me. She’s
Lucy
. She’s the girl who makes me feel human.” Once the words started, he couldn’t seem to stop. “I know I’m not who you’d pick for her, I’m probably not even who
she
would pick, but I’ll change that. I’ll give her everything. Just tell me where she is.”

For a moment, the two friends squared off, taking each other’s measure. Then slowly, wordlessly, Brent braced a hand on his shoulder. “
If
you were to get there in time, you’d have some serious convincing to do, man. She already accepted the job. You better be up for it.”

Convincing? After everything he’d said…done? Panic rolled through him, blood rushing in his ears. He’d let his insecurities rule him, positive she’d run because she didn’t like what he’d shown her. Had he been wrong?

A sickening feeling opened up in his stomach as he recalled every word he’d spoken in the darkness their last night together.
We can’t keep sneaking around like this. I need to do the right thing.
He’d still been holding back, not giving her a hint as to what he felt, beyond wanting her in his bed. He’d opened up his past as a way to give her his trust, ask for hers in return. She’d likely seen it as an excuse he’d been giving as to why he
can’t
trust. He’d only confirmed it for her by neglecting to show up at the bench on time yesterday.

She’d thought
he’d
ended it with
her
.

Oh God, he’d made a massive mistake. She was getting ready to board a plane, thinking he wanted nothing more than casual sex from her?

No.
No
. This couldn’t be happening. Matt barely registered moving toward the locker room door when Brent laid a hand on his arm. He turned and met his friend’s grave eyes. “JetBlue terminal. I’ll text you the flight number. Go get my sister and bring her home.”

Chapter Nineteen

Lucy stood at the ticket counter waiting for her boarding pass, every click of the computer keyboard feeling like a nail driving into her skull. It had taken every ounce of her energy to convince her brother that leaving for France so soon was necessary. That the job wouldn’t be there unless she jumped on it immediately. In truth, she would have had to make the decision in the next few days, anyway. Putting it off would have only increased the likelihood of her running into Matt again and she simply couldn’t handle the emotional fallout from that.

“Paris in June.” The attendant, a kind-eyed redhead, smiled pleasantly. “I’m sure it’s going to be beautiful. Any reason for the last-minute trip?”

She started to give some generic answer about giving herself a graduation gift, but the truth picked that moment to set itself free. “Kind of…yeah. Some dickhead decided to use my heart to make fertilizer. I’ve only known him for a week, but I can’t turn the corner in this city anymore without thinking about him and his stupid,
stupid
gorgeous face. And the way he looked at me.” She blew a breath toward the ceiling. “I guess I just had something in my teeth the whole time and he was embarrassed to tell me.”

“Now, I’m sure that’s not true. You seem lovely.”

“Well, I’m not. I’m a liar and a nuisance. Ask anyone.”

The attendant’s fingers began to fly across the keyboard at a frantic pace.

Lucy took pity on the poor girl and shut her mouth, glancing casually at the television in the waiting area, which had a twenty-four-hour news station playing. Several people had gathered beneath it, pointing up at the screen and talking to each other. For the hundredth time that day, she saw the footage of the explosion in Lower Manhattan. It had been everywhere she looked, on the cover of every newspaper, playing on every channel. She’d found it extremely difficult to look at, knowing how much worse it could have been. What she could have lost.
Whom
she could have lost. Lucy started to look away from the screen, then did a double take. Matt’s picture suddenly took up half the television, underneath the words
Matthew Donovan, ESU Sniper, Saves Hundreds of Law Enforcement Lives, Hostages
.

Her scalp prickled as she reread it. Why hadn’t he said anything? She remembered her brother’s words then, when he’d returned home yesterday.
Let’s just say Matt picked a good time to start speaking up.
She’d been so relieved to hear Matt was unharmed, she’d completely let the cryptic statement slip her mind. After saving the lives of so many people, he’d come to her directly afterward, holding her close as he slept. As if he’d…needed her. Yet he’d never said why, just kept it all bottled up inside.

What else had he kept to himself?

She was distracted when the attendant pressed her boarding pass into her hand. “You’ll want to get to the gate quickly. They’re already boarding.”

Nodding absently, Lucy began weaving through the crowds of travelers, wheeling her suitcase behind her. Thoughts of Matt continued to intrude on her brain. A new voice telling her she’d missed something. Matt wasn’t the type of man who showed up with flowers and fed a girl recycled lines. He communicated in his own subtle ways. Ways that were easy to miss when you were so focused on what he
wasn’t
saying. What she felt for him wasn’t casual in the least. She’d
needed
to hear him say the same thing that night in the kitchen. Had his opening up about his past been Matt’s way of telling her he cared?

Or maybe she just wanted an excuse not to do the best thing for everyone and get on the plane to Paris. Yes, that’s what she needed to do. She wouldn’t stay in New York on the off chance Matt decided to—

“
Lucy!
”

She’d just reached her gate when Matt’s shout washed over her. The hand holding her suitcase handle went slack, sending her luggage crashing to the floor, but it took her another ten seconds to turn around and face him. He stood a few yards away, stillness in a sea of chaos, the way he’d been the night of the engagement party. Perspiration dotted his forehead, eyes a little wild as they scanned her head to toe, snagging on the boarding pass she held. As always, his distinct, male beauty made her chest hurt. He looked out of place in such drab surroundings, his gray eyes cutting through everything in their wake to jump-start her heart.

She waited for him to say something, but he just continued to look at her. Anger prickled along her skin. She’d made it this far and now he was holding her up. For what? More silence?

“What are you doing here?”

Pain clouded his features. “I’m sorry you have to ask me that. You should have zero doubt as to why the hell I’m here.”

Lucy shook her head.
No
, she was done trying to interpret vague declarations. Done with trying to read between the lines. She needed words. Something to reassure her that this thing between them existed outside her imagination. She snatched up her suitcase and kept walking. “Try again, Matt,” she called over her shoulder.

Doing her best to ignore him, Lucy got into line, readying her boarding pass and identification, even though every fiber of her being was screaming at her not to get on the plane. She could feel Matt’s gaze on her as he drew closer. “Don’t get on the plane, Lucy. Please.”

She looked up at the ceiling to keep the tears in her eyes from falling. “Why?”

“I went to the bench.” His voice sounded raw. “I’m sorry I was late, but I
was
there.”

Oh, she wanted to believe him, but with so much uncertainty dancing around them, how could she? “How can I know for sure?”

“
Virginia and Frankie Mason Until the World Stops Spinning.
” His gaze pled with hers.

Lucy’s heart leaped into her throat. She wanted to go to him, bury her face in his neck and hang on for dear life, but she needed more. Needed to know this thing between them was real. More than just a convenient itinerary with chemistry thrown into the mix. It had always been more on her end, but what about him?

Her turn at the gate was next. The flight attendant glanced warily at Matt, then reached for her boarding pass. Lucy took a bracing breath, starting to hand it over.

“Gigawatts.”

“What?” She and the flight attendant said at the same time, her boarding pass frozen in midair.

Matt shifted on his feet. “You asked me that night if I could go back in time and fix one thing, what would it be. I’m changing my answer.” He took a step in her direction, then stopped, as if afraid she might bolt. “I’d go back to the last night we were together and tell you that I’ve fallen in love with you. That I’ll never let you go.”

Lucy could barely see him through the blur of tears. The horrible pain she’d had in her stomach all morning faded a little more with every word he spoke. She demanded her feet to move, to go to him, but the intensity in his voice kept her rooted in place.

“You haven’t seen persistence, Lucy. You have no idea what it looks like until you’ve seen it on me. I’ve fought for my life before and I’m doing it again now. Do not doubt that I will be on the flight behind yours. I will haunt that museum until you give me the time of day. I will
live
there.”

Lucy’s throat felt so tight she could barely speak, so she ripped her boarding pass in half instead. Matt fell back a step, both hands resting on top of his head, relief evident in every line of his body. She couldn’t stand there a moment longer without feeling his arms around her. Leaving her suitcase behind, she covered the distance separating them in three steps and threw herself into arms that banded around her without hesitation. Applause erupted around them, passengers who had witnessed the scene, some of them recognizing Matt from the news.

“Holy hell, Matt.” Her voice wavered. “Have I mentioned that when you talk, you really make it count?”

One of his hands tunneled through her hair, turning her head so he could kiss her mouth. “I’m sorry. Christ, I’m so sorry.”

A shiver passed through her. “I almost got on a plane.”

Matt fell back into the nearest seat, taking her with him. “Don’t remind me. Ever again, please.”

Lucy held him tighter. “I love you, too. Let’s just focus on that.”

“You love me.” His breath shuddered out at her ear. “You love me?”

She nodded into his neck, inhaling his scent like a drug. How had she thought for one second that living without him was an option?

Matt shook her a little. “Baby, sometimes what I’m thinking doesn’t translate into words. You’re going to have to badger them out of me until I get better at this, okay?”

“I can badger.”

He tipped her face up for another slow kiss, then stood, lifting her in his arms. “I love you. I’ll never keep that to myself again. That’s a promise, Lucy.”

She swallowed a fresh wave of happy tears as he walked them toward the exit. “Give me a ride home for old time’s sake?”

Matt’s laughter rumbled through her, before he turned serious. “This time,
every
time from here on out, we go home together.”

Epilogue

Matt sat in the back of the stretch limousine, arm draped over the black leather seat, waiting for the door of his building to open and Lucy to emerge. She’d been asking for weeks what he wanted for his birthday and he knew she’d been frustrated by his vagueness. He didn’t like seeing her irritated, but appeased himself with the knowledge that she’d find out soon enough.

Matt’s mouth lifted into a smile, as it had been doing more and more frequently lately. Specifically, the last four months. Since Lucy. She’d taken the position they’d offered her at the Met and promptly been promoted when they saw how competent and dedicated she was to the job. His favorite part of the day had become picking her up from work. Watching her practically float down the endless steps, brimming with news about her day. He still felt the urge to pinch himself every time, in disbelief that this girl could be walking toward
him
. Then she would throw her arms around his neck and everything in his world righted itself.

She’d made a pretense of moving into her childhood home in Queens, but after spending one too many restless nights away from him, he’d gained her agreement to move into his apartment in Tribeca. It had baffled him, at first, that he’d ever been so comfortable in his solitude. Until he realized he’d just been waiting for Lucy. Then it made perfect sense.

Drumming his fingertips impatiently on the armrest, he thought back to their first week living together. She’d still been acting like a guest, refusing to touch or move his things. One morning after she’d left for work, he’d stood in the middle of the space, looked around and realized it had all the character of a morgue. White walls, gray furniture, black…everywhere. Sort of like his life before she’d come into it. At a total loss, he’d called Daniel’s girlfriend, Story, and asked for her help. His apartment was now painted bright-ass pink.

He loved it.

Lucy walked out of the building, effectively putting an end to his concentration. She wore a tight blue sweater-dress and knee-high leather boots in deference to the cooler October temperature. Her strawberry-blond curls had grown out, swaying at her shoulders as she searched for him on the sidewalk. When she caught sight of him sitting in the limousine, her gaze narrowed, but he saw the hint of mischief in her expression. Lucy loved surprises, yet another thing he’d learned about her.
Not enough
, Matt thought, as she sauntered forward. He wanted to know every single thing about her
.
If she gave him what he wanted for his birthday, he’d have all the time in the world to do it.

Matt stepped out of the limousine and held the door open for Lucy. God, she looked beautiful. Color in her cheeks, eyes sparkling.
Please let me have something to do with that.

“You rented a limo on your own birthday? I’m officially the worst girlfriend ever.”

He shrugged. “I can’t drive and keep you distracted at the same time.”

The bloom in her cheeks spread, her lips parted. “That sounds promising.”

Matt crooked his finger at her and she pushed up on her toes to kiss him softly, but it wasn’t enough. He wrapped an arm around her waist and took a deep pull off her mouth, keeping her against him until that sense of rightness slipped into place, as it always did for him when they were together.

There it is.
Matt pulled back, holding her hand as she ducked through the door. He followed her in, signaling the driver to go. He hadn’t been lying that one of the reasons he’d rented the limo was to keep her distracted. From their destination.

With a flick of his wrist, he closed the panel separating them from the driver. The second reason didn’t need an explanation. Every opportunity to touch her, hold her, would be taken. If that made him selfish, so be it. It was his birthday, after all.

As they pulled away from the curb, he opened his arms and Lucy climbed onto his lap. The way her head tucked under his chin with such perfection caused his eyes to close, even as his heart rate kicked up at having her close.

“Where are we going?”

“You think I’ve kept you in the dark this long to tell you now?”

“Not even a hint?”

“No.” Matt cleared his throat. “Lucy?”

He didn’t have to say anything else. His girl knew what he needed to hear. “I love you, Matt. So much. Always.” She rubbed a hand down his chest. “I still want a hint.”

This is why he’d needed to distract her. If she kept talking to him in her husky voice, touching him at every opportunity, he’d screw this up. With a hand on her chin, he tipped her face up for a kiss. It started sweet, but as usual, the taste of her, the weight of her on his lap, made him hard. His body didn’t care that they would be arriving at their destination in ten minutes, it wanted to be tucked snugly between her legs. Lucy’s ass circled in his lap and they groaned into each other’s mouth. All it would take was a few shifts of their clothing and he’d be seated in her tight heat.

No, that’s not what today was about. Later. He’d have to wait until later. Even if it killed him. Matt pulled away, but pressed light kisses to her lips until her breathing evened.

“What did you get me for my birthday?”

Her jaw dropped. “You told me not to get you anything.”

“Since when do you listen to me?”

She looked up at him from underneath her eyelashes. “I listen to you all the time.”

Yes, she certainly did. The reminder made him want to press her back onto the leather seat and reward her for just how well. “
Outside
the bedroom, Lucy.”

“You got me there.”

Matt waited, frowning at the way her fingers fidgeted with her skirt.

“Don’t overreact. I booked us flights to Florida to meet my parents. They’re for next month. But they’re refundable.”

He grabbed her hand to stop the distracting movements, but he didn’t say anything. Couldn’t with the lump in his throat. She wanted to introduce him to her parents. Apart from what he hoped to gain from her today, that faith in him was the best present she could have given him. He leaned in and kissed her, long and hard, until he found his voice. “Don’t cancel them. I want to go.”

Her smile made his chest hurt, so he tucked her head back under his chin. They stayed that way, Matt stroking her hair, until they were a few blocks from their destination. Thankfully, Lucy looked too lost in her own thoughts to determine where exactly they were in the city. Just to be on the safe side, he pulled the blindfold out of his pocket. She didn’t flinch or question him when he tied it over her eyes. Her trust in him was so absolute, he wanted to crush her against his chest and never let go.
Soon. Later.

When the driver opened the door, Matt took Lucy’s hand and helped her out. He nodded at the man to wait, then led her down the path. A curious smile curled her lips at the end, but the frown between her eyebrows told her she didn’t know their location. Finally, they reached the spot he’d been leading her to and removed the blindfold…to reveal her grandparents’ bench.

She looked down at it, then back up at him, tears in her eyes. “Matt?”

He kept his eyes locked on her face as her mother and father stepped out from behind the surrounding trees, along with Brent and Hayden. Troy and his girlfriend, Ruby. Story and Daniel were there, too. Every single one of them was smiling, happy about what he was about to do. Not dreading it, not wishing she would have done better. It made his heart swell until he could barely breathe.

Lucy let out a watery laugh and fell back on the bench. Right where he wanted her. She must have thought such a public proposal was hard for him, because when he got down on one knee, she reached out and clasped his face in her hands, rubbing her thumbs along his cheeks. Didn’t she know this was the easiest decision he’d ever made in his life?

“Lucy Mason, you brought the color in. You brought me to life when I didn’t even realize I’d stopped breathing.” He laid his hand over hers on his cheek. “Now I can’t get enough air. It’s everywhere because of you.” When he pulled the ring out of his jacket and popped open the lid, she didn’t take her eyes off his face for a second. “Be my air. Let me be yours. Forever. Marry me, Lucy.”

“Yes.” She knelt down in front of him on the ground, meeting him halfway as always. “Yes, Matt. Of course, yes.”

Everyone he’d invited to the proposal cheered around them, including a few bystanders who’d stopped to witness the scene. He held her tight against him, as the group closed in around them.

“Triple wedding. I hope you’re ready,” Story said on a laugh.

Lucy laid a soft kiss on his lips. “We’re ready for anything.”