“Restored?” I repeated, still confused. “As what? As a church, a historical site...?”
He opened his mouth, taking in a deep breath as if he were a little apprehensive. “As a… house,” he finally answered.
“A house? I don’t understand.”
He breathed out a laugh and approached me. “I should’ve talked to you about it, but I…” He looked around. “I really wanted this, and I was hoping you’d want to live here.”
I froze.
“With me,” he added.
Live here? With him?
I mean, yeah, I was already practically living in his penthouse in the city with him right now, but I still had my apartment, and this was a house. A whole different level.
I loved the idea of turning it into a home. As strange as it might be to other people, it’s where some of my favorite memories with Michael occurred. I loved it here.
But…would this be just his place, and I’d live here? Or would it be ours? Could he send me packing any time he wanted?
Or did a house mean something more?
“So what does this mean exactly?” I inched out, my heart drumming faster.
He kept his eyes on mine and walked up to me slowly, moving forward and pushing me back. I gasped, hitting a stone column.
With amusement in his eyes, he leaned in, whispering, “Turn around.”
I hesitated, wondering what he was up to, but…
I never backed away from a challenge.
Turning around slowly, I let him take my hands and plant them on the column in front of me. Then he snaked a hand around my waist and covered my back with his chest, nuzzling my neck with his lips. I wasn’t cold anymore.
“It means that I want to keep playing,” he said, his voice deep and filled with heat. “It means that until the house is done and we’re ready to settle back here, my apartment is your apartment, my bed is yours, and my eyes are only on you.”
He kissed my neck, his hot lips sending shivers across my body.
“It means that I’m going to do my best to piss you off every
chance I get, because there’s nothing hotter than you when you’re mad.” I could hear the grin in his voice.
He dipped his hand down to the inside of my thigh. “And then I’m going to do my best to remind you of how nice I am, so you can’t stop thinking about me when we’re not together.”
I sucked in a breath, feeling his fingers inch up my thigh, already making me throb.
“It means that you’re going to finish school, but I respectfully request that, when you come home, you do me before your homework,” he continued, brushing his thumb over my clit through my panties. “And it means that you’re going to have to constantly look over your shoulder for what I have up my sleeve next, because I’ll always be coming for you.”
And then his other fist came up, and I watched wide-eyed as he uncurled his fingers and a glint of sparkle appeared in front of me. I stopped breathing as he slid the ring on my left hand and continued to whisper in my ear, “And you’re going to want every second of it, because I know what you like, Rika, and I can’t live without you.”
I shook, my eyes pooling with tears as he wrapped both arms around me and held on for dear life.
“I love you,” he breathed out in my neck.
Oh, my God. I pulled my hand down, holding it with my right, as I looked at the ring.
A flood of heat hit my chest, and I stopped breathing. I know this ring.
It was a platinum band with an array of diamonds, looking almost like a snowflake. One stone sat in the middle, surrounded by ten more, with yet another circle of about 20 diamonds on the outside.