Молли Харпер: Nice Girls Dont' Live Forever

He nodded solemnly. “I will.”

“And when I have my spastic fits of insecurity, when I make inappropriate jokes and wonder aloud why you love me, you’ll understand that this has nothing to do with you but years and years of conditioning by my mother?”

He smirked. “I will.”

“Will you agree never to accept invitations issued by my family unless you check with me first?”

He nodded. “Absolutely.”

I giggled, throwing my arms around him and kissing him deeply. “I love you.”

“Wait, it’s my turn,” he said, cupping my face so I was locked in that bottomless gray gaze of his. “Do you promise to trust that I want to be with you and no one else? That I’m not going anywhere? Will you promise to stop trying to find problems in our relationship where there are none, to give us time to work on the problems we do have?”

“What problems?”

Gabriel huffed out a breath. “Jane.”

“I will,” I promised.

“Will you quit trying to push me away?”

“I will.”

“Will you promise never to let Dick move into our house?”

I snickered. “I will … but, um, there’s one last thing.”

Gabriel frowned. “What’s that?”

“Can we wait on telling my mother that you’re moving in? As much as she likes you, she has this thing about ‘living in sin.’ The minute she finds out, the pressure for you to make an honest woman of me will start. She’s already making noises about us getting engaged. I think this would just fuel her fire.”

“I could always propose,” he suggested, kissing my cheek.

Suddenly, my mouth went dry. As much as I couldn’t imagine my life without Gabriel, I knew that neither one of us was ready for the rice-and-veil route just yet. We’d only reconciled a few weeks before. As sure as I was of his love, I needed more time before I could accept a ring from him.

What can I say? I’m a contrary soul.

“Thank you, but I’m not ready yet,” I told him. Gabriel tried and failed to tamp down the flash of disappointment on his face. “I won’t marry anyone but you, Gabriel Nightengale. But for now, let’s just see if we can live together without anyone getting hurt. And the family thing, it won’t be that big of a deal. It just means you can’t leave any evidence of you living there lying around where my family can see it, like clothes or personal items or your car. It’s just for the next few decades, until, you know, they die.”

“Let me get this straight. You can face down psychotic vampires and legions of anal-retentive entrepreneurs, but you’re afraid to tell your parents that I’ll be living with you before marriage?”

I nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly it.”

“We’ll have to talk about this,” Gabriel said dryly.

“But hey, between Jenny’s new attitude and having you present at Christmas, I may be able to escape the holidays unscathed.”

Gabriel blanched, his face even paler in the moonlight filtering through the window. “Christmas?

With your relatives?”

I smiled, my fangs nicking my lip. “Welcome to the family, honey.”

Gabriel smiled back and kissed me, long and deep. “I can live with that.”