“I love you, too,” she said quickly, a little bit more color suffusing her cheeks. “So much.”
“I want to marry you.” He knelt at her feet, on one knee. “But this isn’t a decision I came to quickly. It took me years and years. Hell, I even asked you to marry me years ago. It wasn’t a joke, or a backup plan. You have always been my life. My heart. My happiness. And it’s time to take the next step. To promise myself to you forever and ever, officially.”
Tears ran down her face, and her lip quivered. Hopefully they were those damn happy tears, instead of painful ones. Why were women so fucking hard to read? “Steven…”
“It might seem fast, but we’ve been best friends for our whole damn lives. I held this very ring up to you at the lake all those years ago.” He held out the twist tie between two fingers. She bit down on her lip. Hard. “And I asked you to marry me. Well, I’m asking you again. This time, with a real ring. And a real promise behind it.” Setting the old ring down, he took the ring box out of her hand. She didn’t want to let go. He had to pry it loose. After popping the lid, he met her eyes and asked, “Lauren Brixton, will you do me the incredible honor of becoming my wife?”
She dropped to her knees and cradled his face, not even glancing at the ring. “I said it on that lake, all those years ago, and I’m saying it now. Yes. God, yes. So much yes.”
Laughing, she kissed him. She tasted like tears and heaven and her. He’d never grow tired of that. Or of her. She made him better. Happier. Whole. He took over the kiss, capturing her lips under his, and he rolled her onto her back. He lay on top of her, in his favorite place in the world, and pulled back. Smiling, he kissed the tip of her nose. Taking the ring out of the box, he grabbed her hand.
As he slid the ring on her left ring finger, he felt a rush of satisfaction. She was his. And, more importantly, he was hers. “This makes it official.”
She wiggled her fingers and smiled at the princess-cut diamond. “I hate to break it to you, but it was official at the lake all those years ago. I was just waiting for you to see it, too.”
“Sorry it took me so damn long.” He grunted, rolling his hips so his dick pressed against her sweet pussy. “But I’m here now…”
“Yes.” She wrapped her legs and arms around him. “And, by the way, my answer to your other question is yes, too.”
He skimmed his hand up her thigh, pausing just short of her ass. “What question?”
“Kids. I want them.”
His heart skipped a beat, and rushed straight ahead. “You do?”
“I do. Anytime. I’m ready when you are.”
“Let me marry you first,” he said, kissing the spot on her neck where her pulse raced. “And then…we start on the honeymoon. For now…let’s practice.”
He kissed her, and she clung to him. This was it. His forever. It might have taken him years to see it, or even consider it, but it was here. In her arms.
And he was the luckiest bastard in the world.