“I’m serious.”
He closed his hands over mine, leaned forward and kissed me, and I thought my heart was going to explode. “Yes. Yes.”
I stood up and slid the ring onto his finger, my sight going blurry with tears. He threw his arms around me and we held each other tightly. “Ya lublu tebya,” he whispered, which I knew now meant I love you. “Never in a million years did I think I could be this happy,” he went on, his voice cracking. “You are everything to me. Navsegda.”
“What’s that one again?”
“Forever.”
The lump in my throat grew, and I swallowed hard as we let go. Then I turned him to face the hotel behind us, where Ellen was crouched about a hundred feet away on our second floor balcony, filming the entire episode on her phone. Next to her stood my brother and sister-in-law, and Gage and Lanie, and they all started cheering. “Say hi.”
“Oh my God.” Maxim put his hands to his face and burst out laughing before embracing me again, burying his face in my neck. “This is the best day of my life.”
I laughed too. “This is only the beginning, babe. The best is yet to come.”
A few minutes later, everyone met us out on the lawn with tears and hugs and smiles and more champagne. Ellen made a toast.
“To my big brother Derek, whom we all thought was being too picky all those years, but who knew all along that perfection was only six thousand miles and one stolen bag away. And to Maxim, for chasing the dream that brought him here and never giving up. I can’t wait to call you my brother.”
“Cheers!” shouted Gage, prompting a chorus of them.
“Na zdorovie!” I added, then looked at Maxim. “How did I do?”
“Perfect,” he said, eyes shining. “You’re perfect.”
Later, after we’d celebrated at dinner and then some more in the bar, everyone went back to their rooms, and we discovered that ours had been decorated with rose petals and candles, courtesy of the hotel.
We lit the candles and appreciated it all for approximately one-point-five seconds before falling onto the bed and tearing at clothes. With the last of my psychological barriers broken, sex with Maxim was even more intense, unclouded by thoughts of guilt or shame. My desire for him was something I loved about myself rather than something I hated, and I reveled in all the ways I wanted to express it, whether it was getting inside his body or welcoming him into my own.
That night we took turns, flip fucking each other in hot, sweaty madness until we couldn’t hold back anymore and watched one another fall apart in the most achingly beautiful moment two people could share.
Afterward, we lay wrapped in each other’s arms, the balcony door open so we could hear the waves, the candlelight flickering, the air scented with rose petals and sex.
“I can’t stop looking at the ring on your finger,” I told him, lacing his fingers with mine above my chest.
“I want to put one on yours.”
I smiled. “When do you want to get married?”
“Is tomorrow too soon?”
Laughing a little, I kissed his forehead. “Probably. But we don’t have to put it off.”
“Good. I don’t want to wait.” He pressed his lips to my chest for a moment. “I want to be your husband. I want to have a family with you. I want to belong to each other, now and forever.”
My throat felt thick when I tried to swallow. “I want all of that too.”
He looked up at me. “And years from now, we can tell our kids the story of the night we met.”
“We were not a very likely love story,” I said.
“We were better than that.” He kissed my lips, and I felt it in my soul. “We were a real love story, and those never end.”
I kissed him back, my heart swelling like the ocean, vast and full and deep.
THE END