Mercy for the Fallen by Lisa Olsen Read Free Book Online Page B

yes.” 
    So much for my playful mood.  “What’s so important?  Is it those people outside?  We can call the cops on them if they come back.”
    “No, it’s not that.  I want to talk about you and me.”
    That brought me up short.  “What about you and me?  We’re good, aren’t we?”  Christ… weren’t we?  I’d thought we were closer than ever.  Maybe we didn’t spend as much time together as we used to, but last night’s awesome proved we still knew how to make that time count.
    “No, we’re good.  But I can’t help but think we could be so much better.”
    “How?”  If he said word one about an open relationship I was going to let him have it.
    “You really can’t guess?” 
    “I may be part angel, but I’m not a mind reader, Parker.  If you want something, you have to tell me what it is.”
    Parker took hold of both my hands, leading me over to the couch.  “I want you to marry me.”
    “Not this again…”  He hadn’t brought up the subject for over a year.  The last time we’d talked about it, we both agreed it wasn’t necessary.  We were both happy, and we had Bunny, there was nothing marriage could possibly add to the scenario other than a tax break. 
    “Why not?  Whatever you were afraid of happening before, it’s pretty clear it hasn’t come to pass.  I love you, Mercy, and I want you to be my wife.”
    “We’ve been over this before.”  I shook my head, pulling my hands from his.  “What would getting married possibly change?”
    “Plenty… You love me, don’t you?”
    “Of course I do.  And it has nothing to do with our legal status.”
    “Marriage is more than a certificate and a box to check on your driver’s license, Mercy.  It’s a commitment.  To us, to our family.”
    “I am committed to us.  I’m not going anywhere.”  I started to see where this was coming from.  “Wait, is this because of Adam?”
    “You know I’ve wanted this for a long time.  I tried bringing it up before I even knew he was in town.  But Adam’s part of it, I’m not gonna lie.  What kind of a mixed message are you giving him that you won’t agree to marry me?”
    “I’m not giving him mixed messages, he knows I want to be with you.”  Not that it necessarily made it through that thick skull of his.  Maybe I did need to be more direct?  But I wasn’t going to get married just to send a message to Adam.
    “You have to be doing something to make him think he can waltz in here whenever he wants to.”
    “That’s the way Adam is.  He’s always been a pain in the ass, since the first day I met him.  He can’t help it.  Thousands of years of being worshipped by women tend to make a guy a little fat-headed.  He can’t bring himself to believe that I don’t want him.”
    “Don’t you?”  Parker’s eyes were hooded with vulnerability and I touched my forehead to his.
    Maybe a part of me would always want Adam, but I wasn’t a slave to those emotions.  I pulled back to look him in the eyes.  “I love you , Parker.  Not because I had no choice, but because I wanted to be with you.  I still do.  You made me fall in love with you and Bunny loves you too.  Adam dropping in out of the blue isn’t going to change that.”
    “I want Evie to have my name, not yours.  I want to adopt her, and make things legal between us.  I want us to be a real family.”
    I’d been all set to have Parker’s name on her birth certificate in the first place, but the papers Finch provided had my last name on them and Adam Anderson listed as the father.  I hadn’t pushed at the time, but in the years since, Parker was the only real father she’d ever known.  “I can have Finch do that if it’ll make you happy.  We don’t have to get married to do it.”
    “That’s all just paperwork.  I’m talking about standing up before friends and family and pledging to be together forever.  I want to know that you want to be with me as much as I want to be