“You want it, now?”
His eyes darkened to a molten brown and midnight blue. “You bet. Right now.” He pulled her so tightly against him, the air was squashed from her lungs. “I love you. I need you. I’ll always want you. Will you say yes?”
Her heart stopped beating. She stopped breathing. She could only stare at him.
“Will you?” he asked gently.
“I don’t need marriage to know you love me or to feel secure.”
“That’s not why I’m asking.” He wiped a lock of hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. “Marriage won’t define how I feel about you. I’m asking because I want you to have my babies, and I want them to grow up with a mommy and a daddy, a legal mommy and daddy. I don’t want them to ever feel insecure.”
Tears of joy she couldn’t hold back any longer ran over her cheeks.
“No tears. I’ll make you happy, Princess. What do you say?”
She cupped his cheek and kissed his lips. “You know I will.”
“Say it. Say yes.”
“Yes.”
He cradled her face between his hands and plundered her mouth like a starving man, kissing her until she was surrounded with only him, his clean linen and soap smell, the minty taste of his breath, and the way his chest muscles bunched under her hands.
Slowing the kiss to a gentle halt, he reached for something in the back pocket of his jeans. She blinked when he handed her a piece of paper.
It looked like a gift certificate. She scanned the print and then her lips parted. “You’re getting me a tattoo?”
“We’re getting it together.” He rubbed a thumb over her ring finger, tracing the line where a wedding band would go. “The tattoo is your engagement ring. I don’t ever want you to take it off.” Bringing his lips to her ear, he whispered, “Just you and me, Princess. Forever.”
Her body molded to the shape of his. She absorbed his heat and reveled in the safe feeling of his strong arms around her. Sometimes, she was terrified that Ivan was only an illusion. She was petrified she’d wake up to discover this moment had only been a dream, but when he pushed the rose into her hand and folded her fingers around the stem, the sharp prick of a thorn reminded her this was real.
* * *
THE END