“I know, baby,” he whispered, kissing the side of my neck before he moved his hand so that his fingers were linked with mine. Then he moved again, and his left hand started fiddling with mine, which felt nice, so I relaxed into him even more.
There was silence for a long moment until he held the hand he’d been fiddling with up. “Hold that for me, will you?”
Looking down at what he was talking about, I froze as my finger glinted just like I’d been watching the sun do on the surface of the water.
“What?” I breathed, still staring at the large diamond on my finger.
“Hold on to it for me,” he repeated calmly. “I’m thinking for at least seventy-five years.”
“What?” I rasped, sounding like I’d been winded, which technically I guess I had been.
Carrying on like he wasn’t holding a marble statue of his girlfriend, Jarrod murmured, “And when I add the other ring to it, you can hold on to that for at least seventy-five years, too.”
I blinked repeatedly, wondering if I was seeing things. There’d been no discussions about the future yet, no hints or indication that he was going to ask me to marry him, so this had come out of nowhere.
I wasn’t prepared, I hadn’t even said yes yet.
“And what will you be holding onto?”
“The ring that you give me,” he replied like the answer was simple, and then added, “and you. Every day, every night, for the rest of our lives.”
“Are you asking me to marry you?”
The vibrations and movement of his chest as he laughed made my toes curl in the sand. “No, I’m telling you we’re getting married, because asking implies you have a choice.”
Ok, that was arrogant, but it was also one of the hottest things I’d ever heard, and I’d listened to all the books he’d narrated.
Figuring that words were now cheap and had no place in the conversation, I turned around and launched myself at him, taking him down onto his back on the sand.
Wrapping his arms back around me, he lay there grinning up at me as I stroked his cheek. “Is this you saying yes?”
“No, because that implies that I have a choice in the matter. This is me thinking that sex on the beach isn’t just a cocktail and we have this whole island to ourselves for the next four hours.”
There were some trees on the island, so to hide away from the fishing boats and the odd yacht that floated by, we hid amongst them and had the real-life version of the cocktail. And it was fucking awesome!Eight months later…
I was officially Mrs. Kline now, and it had been the happiest day of my life. I hadn’t cried, I hadn’t tripped as I walked down the aisle to where Jarrod was waiting for me in his black suit with a black shirt under it – sans tie, which looked freaking amazing on him. I hadn’t messed up my vows, I hadn’t dropped his ring. Nothing had gone wrong, not even the smaller details.
Of course I wished my grandmother was here to see it with her big hair, but I was wearing some of her jewelry so I liked to think that she was a huge part of it because she made the way I looked even more special.
Tony had helped me choose my dress for the day, and we’d decided on a plain white strapless one that had a lace overlay with long sleeves. Scarlett had designed my bridal underwear and what she’d come up with was the most beautiful corset and panties I’d ever seen in my life in white lace with light blue stitching at the seams. It might not be as funny as my character panties, but for this one day I wanted to stick with a level of sexy hot that he’d never forget and what she’d designed absolutely gave me that sexy hot factor.
Elodie was one of my bridesmaids – not a flower girl. We’d tried to get her to do that, but she wanted to hold a bouquet not a “dumb basket of petals”, and she’d stood beside me the whole time, grinning at Jarrod like it was the best show ever. Isla’s daughter and Olivia had also been bridesmaids, and it had just looked fabulous with them carrying mini versions of the adult bridesmaids bouquets, with Kali in his smaller version of the suits the men were wearing as a page boy, that I had to thank Elodie for putting her foot down.
Then, when Jarrod had kissed me after we were pronounced man and wife, Elodie had squealed with excitement and then thrown her bouquet at the people sitting on the right side of the church, almost knocking Cole out. That just added to the day for me in all honesty.