Page 39 of A Corruption Dark & Deadly

Annie felt herself start to laugh, even though it wasn’t exactly funny. The awkwardness reigned over her body and she just reacted instead of thinking too much about how she was being perceived.

“Why are you laughing?” Jericho asked, raising his brow. His face was serious but not offended. He was just looking at her with a peculiar look on his face, wrinkling his brow and causing her to lose her breath. He was so perfect, so beautiful, it hurt to look at him sometimes. If he told her to walk through fire, she probably would.

Truth be told, she had no idea how she got here, what happened to get her to this point in her life. She remembered the Annie before Jericho and couldn’t believe she had survived so long being so blind. She had been closed-minded, she thought she knew everything about everything, and she had hated Jericho without fully understanding who he was and why he did the things he did. Before she really understood him, she had been merely surviving. Just getting by. She thought she had been happy, but that wasn’t the case at all. Now she understood.

Being with Jericho changed everything, from the way she viewed things to the values she thoughts she held so dear. The justice system she had believed so much in was something skewed and wrong now. Nobody seemed to care about why things were done the way they were done. No one questioned why something was deemed right or acceptable while other things were labeled as wrong.

Jericho was the best man she had the pleasure of knowing. He was kind and honest and sweet. He took care of her and promoted a variety of charities which he donated to on a regular basis. He was one of the best bosses she knew and a lot of that came from her brother, who worked for him. He scheduled meetings with his employees and spoke to them personally about any ideas they had and how they liked their job. More than that, he actually cared about what they had to say. He took them seriously. What other boss did that? None she knew.

“It’s just,” she began, shaking her head. “Marriage, Jericho? Are you sure?”

“I’ve been sure about you the minute I saw you in my club, giving me a dirty look and trying not to look afraid of my bodyguards,” he told her. “I’ve told you this many, many times you know. Why would you be surprised that I would want to marry you?”

“Because marriage is serious,” she told him as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Marriage changes things.”

“It’s not supposed to,” Jericho told her, his tone serious.

Annie shot him a look. “How can you say that?” she asked. “Of course marriage changes things.”

“What I’m saying is that it shouldn’t,” he said. “Hear me out. Everyone thinks that marriage is just a piece of paper, right?”

Annie shrugged. “I guess some do,” she allowed, “but I’m not one of those people. Marriage isn’t just a piece of paper to me. I believe in the system and people take it for granted and shit on it every day. Love isn’t just a feeling, it’s a lifestyle. You can’t just say the words and think they’re true, you have to mean them. You have to show them. Getting married should be done because two people love each other, not because two people have something to prove or are going to have a baby or something else. There should be no other reason to get married than to get married.”

“I completely agree with everything you’re saying,” Jericho pointed out. “I don’t think you’re wrong about any of this.”

“Okay, so we’re on the same page,” Annie said.

Jericho’s lips curled up into an amused smile. “Not quite,” he told her. “If you have a great relationship with someone, marriage isn’t going to make it worse. If you have a shitty relationship, marriage isn’t going to make it better. Can we at least agree on that?”

“Of course,” Annie said, playfully rolling her eyes.

“Good,” Jericho continued. “So marriage isn’t going to change things one way or another. You just admitted it.” He smirked. “You and I, when we get married, our relationship is still going to continue to thrive. One piece of paper isn’t going to change that. Obviously there are plenty of legal reasons why marriage is beneficial to both parties, but quite honestly, I don’t care about stuff like that. I’m going to marry you regardless of all of that.”

“Really?” She raised a brow. “You realize you haven’t even asked me yet, right?”

“I will,” he told her. “I just want you to be prepared, so it isn’t a shock to you.”

Annie laughed. “Isn’t that what a marriage proposal is?” she asked.

“I suppose,” he said. “But not for me. I want you to know that I intend to marry you someday. Probably soon.”

“Soon?”

“Soon,” he told her. “Maybe in a week.”

“A week?”

“A week.”

“And where do you propose we get married?” Annie asked, deciding to humor him. “A courthouse?”

“Absolutely not,” he told her. “There’s a meadow I know, just out of the city. I could put a deposit today. You could go shopping for your dress. We could get a recording crew, a photographer. You could invite everyone you know.”

“Or we could elope,” Annie murmured.

“Elope?” he asked. He sounded surprised that she would even humor him in the first place. “Just you and me?”

“Just you and me,” she agreed.

“You would marry me then?”

Annie stopped to really consider. This whole relationship was still new and it was scary and awesome and wonderful. Marriage was a serious commitment. Would she be taking it seriously if she married a man she only knew for a couple months?

But she didn’t care.

“Yes,” she said with a small smile. “I’ll marry you.”