Several vague answers were on the tip of my tongue, but as I drank in the sight of her, it suddenly became clear that I was a fucking idiot.
“I had the perfect day planned,” I explained.
She tilted her head to side and examined my face. “Today has been wonderful, Will,” she said with a genuine smile.
I shook my head and snorted. “Today has been a series of clusterfucks. But the biggest one was my own stupid ideas of what this day should be.”
She lifted her brow but waited for me to continue without comment.
Sighing, I took her hands in mine, my thumbs brushing lightly over the backs. “I wanted to sweep you off your feet. To make this day the perfect fairy-tale proposal.”
Aurora gasped softly. “Proposal?” I nodded, and we stood there in silence for a few moments. My heart was pounding so hard, I wondered if she could hear it. The look in her eyes shifted, and when she started to say something, I had a sense of where she was going and cut her off with a quick, hard kiss.
“Just listen, okay?” She contemplated my request briefly before nodding. “I should have known better. I should have listened to my heart, the part of me that truly knows you, instead of my head.”
I drew her hands up to my mouth and placed a soft kiss on each one before continuing. “I was being a fucking idiot, baby. I should have realized that the only thing you wanted was sincerity, and all this bullshit I had planned were just shallow gestures.”
“It was sweet—” She tried to interject but stopped when I frowned at her. Her eyes rolled so hard I was surprised they didn’t get stuck in the back of her head. She inclined her head in a gesture that encouraged me to continue.
“It was ridiculous. So let me try this again. The right way.” Slowly, I lowered myself down onto one knee and stared up into the gorgeous face of the woman I wanted to spend eternity with. The woman I couldn’t live without.
“Aurora, you own me, heart, body, and soul. You are everything I hoped for in my life, but so much more than I could have ever imagined. I knew the moment we met that you were the one for me. You were meant to be mine. To be the love of my life, my wife, the mother of my children, the person I grow old with. The one I argue with, the one I burn up the sheets making up with”—I grinned when she blushed bright red—“the only one I’ll ever want.”
Tears gathered in her eyes and slipped down her cheeks, but I didn’t worry because she was beaming down at me, happiness shining from her eyes.
“Will you marry me, Aurora?” Before she could answer, I added one more thing. “Just to be clear, baby. We are getting married. This is just a gesture to show you how much I love you.”
Aurora rolled her eyes to the ceiling and grumbled, “It was so perfect right up until you let the caveman out.”
I shrugged, unrepentant. I wanted to make this romantic for her, but I also needed her to know that there was only one outcome. We were getting married. Period.
She chuckled before returning her gaze to mine, her eyes sparkling with love and joy. “Yes. I’ll marry you.”
I surged to my feet and lifted her into my arms, spinning her around before pressing her into the wall once again and kissing her deeply.
A sniffle broke the silence, and we both pulled back to look at each other with surprise. I glanced around the small space when we heard it again.
“That was so beautiful.” The voice from the intercom piped up. Another sniffle and a sigh, then he spoke again. “We fixed the problem; would you two still like to ascend to the top or come back down?”
Aurora and I locked eyes for a moment, then the tension broke, and we dissolved into laughter. After a minute, I yanked her back into my arms and sealed my mouth over hers once again. We were interrupted by the clearing of a throat. “Since there are cameras in the elevators”—he emphasized the word cameras—”seems like we should bring you back to the ground floor so you can find some—um—privacy.”
My stare was locked with Aurora’s, and I grinned devilishly. “You’re quite right. We need to get home so I can make love to my fiancée.”
Aurora blushed bright red, and the voice on the intercom coughed awkwardly.
I drew her in close just as the elevator began to move again, taking us down to the ground floor. “I love you, baby. I can’t wait to marry you,” I whispered.
Her face softened, and she melted into me. “I love you too, Will.” She glanced down, and when her eyes lifted back up, they were shining and open, completely honest. “I’ll marry you whenever and wherever you want. I just want to be your wife.”