Parking, I take my woman’s hand and lead her over to the elevator, swiping the card I was given last night when I finalized the paperwork.
“Real estate in this area is a real cluster fuck,” I say, a jagged shivering in my voice. A distant part of me taunts that I’m talking out of nervousness, a rare feeling for me. “It takes a while to get anything done. But luckily a floor opened up and I made an offer, a very generous offer. And now.”
Ding.
The elevator door opens onto a wide-open sun-drenched area, twinkling yellow light coming through the bright windows and showing the cityscape beyond. White pillars come down from the ceiling, supporting it, but otherwise, the office is empty.
“This is yours?” she murmurs, walking slowly into the room and turning in a circle.
I watch her for a few torturous seconds, my eyes moving over her legs and up to her face, flooded with curiosity.
“No.”
I walk over to her and grab onto her hips, squeezing possessively and pulling her right up against me. Her breath comes out in a quick frantic pulse, the same way it sometimes does when she’s on the verge of an orgasm.
Last night as we lay in bed, I jokingly called it her chipmunk squeak. She giggled sweetly, ensuring a pillow fight, but I went easy on my woman…
At least, until I bent her over and spanked her ass, stinging kisses which turned her skin a delicious shade of pink.
“It’s yours,” I tell her.
“Mine?”
“To start your charity.” My hands sink deeper and deeper into her hips, savoring every moment of contact. “I wanted to get you property here, on the site of your father’s death, because it was he who ignited your love for interior design. It’s the perfect place to…”
I trail off when she begins to sob, her eyes glittering with tears, beads of pain and grief sliding down her cheeks.
“No, no, they’re happy tears,” she says quickly, anticipating my apology. “It’s the perfect place to make him proud. It’s amazing, Conrad. You didn’t have to do this.”
“I did.” Closer, I lean down, looking straight into her eyes. “Because I love you. I love you and I’d do anything for you. I love you.” I laugh, a weight drifting away from my chest. “I love you, I love you.”
I can’t stop saying it, repeating it over and over, until her lips start to quiver again.
“I love you,” she whispers, choking back another sob. “I didn’t think you felt the same. I’ve wanted to say it for so long. But I didn’t want to risk…”
“There’s never any risk of us losing what we have, angel. Never. But I had to wait until I got you this place. I had to wait until I had this.”
I step back and lower myself to one knee, reaching into my pocket at the same time.
She starts waving her hands in front of her eyes, blinking away more tears, but her chest has stopped heaving now.
“What are you doing?” I chuckle as she waves at her eyes over and over.
“Trying not to cry.” She giggles. “You’re making me too happy, you evil man.”
“Of course I’m making you happy. I love you.”
“Stop, stop.” But she smiles as another joy-filled sob escapes her. “God, I love you too.”
“Callie Simpkins.”
Reaching into my pocket I take out the ring box, opening it to reveal a big glittering diamond. It’s a large piece, curvy and full, like my woman, set within a white-gold band that matches the shade of her dress. Everything sparkling brightly.
“Before I met you,” I say passionately, staring up into her tear-filled eyes, “I didn’t know if I’d ever feel so deeply, so fully. I didn’t know if I was going to die alone. I think I was broken, and no surgery could fix me. But you fixed me. Because you’re kind, beautiful, selfless, talented, shy, and sassy, the best combination. And just for me. Only for me.”
“Forever,” she whispers.
I cough back a surging wave of emotion, my throat constricting for a moment as the full magnitude of this moment hits me.
“Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she yells, throwing her hands in the air. “Yes, yes, yes.”
I grab the ring and lean forward, finding the right finger and slipping it on. She sobs as I slide it up, and up until it fits snugly right where it belongs.
Climbing to my feet, I wrap my arms around her and hug her close to me, squeezing down and kissing the top of her head. Her hands snake around me and her fingernails dig into my back, through my suit jacket, gripping onto me.
“I love you so much,” she whispers, her lips hot against my neck.
I turn down and bring my mouth to hers, our breath whispering over each other. “I love you too, angel.”
We kiss as the heat surges around us both, as the lust and the love and the future flutters between us.