Darkness Before Dawn (Darkness 2)

His lips twitch and he begins to lower his body, making my eyes bug out of my face and my breath halter when he settles on one knee. New tears pool my eyes and my hands swing to my mouth, covering it before a throaty sob escapes me when I see him reach for a little black velvet box on the table.

He takes a breath, his green eyes twinkling as he looks at me. "Blake, I feel like I've spent an eternity declaring my love for you and maybe I have. Hell, I'm sure I've been doing that for centuries. And as difficult as you can be, as stubborn as you are, and as big of a pain in my ass as you are, I wouldn't want to spend any of my time in any lifetime chasing after anybody else. You're it for me. You always have been and always will be. I can't picture myself loving anybody but you, there's nobody else for me. You are the most fierce, selfless, caring, compassionate, and loving human being I know. And I wanted to do this—build this house, throw this party—for you. So that we can replace the not-so-great memories you have with new ones, better ones, happier ones. I want to spend the rest of my life making happy memories with you. You're the love of my life, my best friend, my soul mate, my partner in crime. Blake Brennan, will you do me the incredible honor of adding wife to that list?" he asks in a hopeful voice.

Sobs rake through my body once he finishes, and my eyes drop from his to the ring he's holding in his hand, which I can't even make out through my tears. I look back into his eyes, nodding furiously, but begin to wail when I try to voice my response. I hear, but don't fully register the wild cheers coming from our friends, our family. I continue to sob, looking from his face to the twinkling diamond ring and back to his face.

"No pressure," Cole says with a chuckle, looking toward our friends and back to me.

I finally gather my wits and shout, "YES! OH MY GOD! YES!" Extending my shaky left hand to him, he carefully places the ring on my finger. I wipe my eyes swiftly and admire the three stones on the platinum band, more tears trickling down my face, even though I'm smiling as I remember our discussion about the three stones and what they stand for.

Cole places a kiss on the ring and stands smiling down at me, letting go of my hands and grabbing both sides of my face. "I love you. To the moon and back, baby," he says before crashing his lips against mine.

"I love you too. So much," I whisper, still crying against his lips, giving him one last kiss.

"Let me see the ring!" Becky squeals as we break apart.

"Oh great, here we go," Cole mumbles under his breath.

"Shut up!" she says, slapping his arm and pulling my hand toward her.

"Holy shit!" she exclaims, wide eyed. "You did good, Cole!"

Cole chuckles and nods his head in appreciation as Greg and Aubry step forward to look at the ring.

"The boy did good!" Greg says in agreement.

"Shit, it only cost him-" Aubry starts but is cut short by Cole's glare.

"It's beautiful, Blake," Aimee chimes in before hugging me from the side. "I'm so happy we're going to be sisters—officially."

I smile at her and give her a kiss on the cheek before going around and doing the same to every single one of them.

"You deserve it, Cowboy," Greg says as he pulls me into a bear hug and keeping me there.

"You do," Becky agrees with a smile as she steps toward us, her bulging belly stopping in front of me. I smile down at it and place a hand on either side, feeling at peace and genuinely happy for the first time since I saw her pregnant. I gasp, jumping slightly when I feel movement on my right hand.

"That was the baby?" I whisper in amazement.

Becky nods quickly and smiles. "She keeps doing that."

"She?" I ask surprised.

"He," Greg corrects beside me.

I look back and forth between them, confused. "So you don't know yet?"

"Nah, we're going to find out when she delivers," Greg says. "But it's definitely a boy!"

Becky rolls her big blue eyes. "Gregory, we're not going to talk about this again!"

I laugh and shake my head at my crazy friends before rubbing Becky's belly a couple of times and walking back to my fiancé.

I sigh contently on his chest, leaning into his hold when he places his chin on my head. "Was that epic enough for you?" he asks quietly.

I back away from him and look up, holding his face in my hands. "That, Mr. Murphy, is what I call beyond epic."

He beams at me before dipping his face to mine and sucking my bottom lip into his mouth. "Hm. I can't wait 'til these people leave. I haven't had sex with a fiancée before."

A laughed gasp escapes me and I slap his chest playfully. "Cole!"

"What? It's true—I gotta take advantage of that! I hear once you have a wife, the sex cuts down...by a lot," he says with a shrug, chuckling when I narrow my eyes at him.

As it turns out, even a small three-bedroom home cannot keep our clan away, and they end up deciding to stay over. While we're thrilled to spend time with them, especially with Greg and Becky since we don't get to see them often, trips to Wal-Mart for air mattresses is not how we envisioned spending the night. Not sleeping in our bedroom is also not how we imagined we would spend our engagement night, but since Becky is pregnant, we didn't think it would be right for her to sleep on a sucky air mattress on the floor.

I sigh loudly, looking around at the mess we have to clean up and wondering if Cole and I are spending the night again or heading back to Chicago with everyone else.

"You're not cleaning this up," Cole raps beside me, making me jump.

"I didn't know you were awake," I reply, turning my body toward him and caressing his arm.

He gives me a lopsided smile. "I just woke up. How can you be so pretty in the morning?" he muses as his eyes scan my face.

"I'm not," I groan, throwing my head back on the mattress. "This bed sucks."

He chuckles. "You are," he replies as he covers my body with his, opening my thighs with his and settling his weight between my legs. "You're the most beautiful creature ever made...and you're right, this bed sucks ass."

"You're just saying that because you want to have sex," I say with a laugh as I look at him, thinking the same about him.

He tilts his head as he regards me. "Nah, we're going to have sex anyway, I don't have to sweet talk you into doing that."

My laughter is cut short when he grinds against me, the hardness in his boxers making me gasp and tilt my pelvis toward it.

"Are you guys up?" Aubry asks with a knock on the door.

"Motherfucker," Cole mumbles under his breath, closing his eyes and exhaling as he clenches his hands on the pillow under my head. "AUBRY, WILL YOU EVER STOP COCK BLOCKING?" he shouts loudly, making me laugh. "He's an asshole. We'll have to take a rain check," he says before kissing me and backing away from me.

I pout as I watch him pull a white shirt over his head and adjust his hard-on in his boxers before he gets up and steps into a pair of blue basketball shorts. When he opens the door, I catch a glimpse of Aubry and Greg laughing when they see Cole step out and shake my head when I hear Aubry complain about Cole slapping him in the back of the head. Some things never change. I lie back down with a smile on my face and extend my arm to admire my ring for the millionth time. I look around the empty room, thinking of things we can do with it before getting up and heading to the shower. Once I'm dressed, I get the things we bought for the bathroom yesterday on our eventful trip to Wal-Mart and start putting everything in its place.

"I still think we should've gotten the tin trashcan, not that bamboo looking one," Cole says from behind me, making me drop the trashcan.

"Dammit! You scared me!" I say, turning around to face him.

"Sorry," he apologizes with a shrug. "Everything else looks good, though," he says with a smile as he looks at the shower curtain and toilet paper holder.

"Yeah, because you picked those out," I say with an eye roll.

He laughs and pulls me into a tight hug before letting me go and slapping my butt on his way to the sink.