Page 23 of Lumberjack DADDY

She throws herself into me, tackling me to the floor of the studio. We roll around, laughing with each other in a tangle of limbs. We finally end up with her sitting on top of me, a hand on either side of my head, her face mere inches from mine. The air between us grows thick.

“I never expected to find somebody like you,” I tell her. “And now that I have you, I never want to let you go.”

“And I never want you to let me go. I belong to you,” she says. “And you belong to me.”

“Happily. I’ll belong to you for as long as you want me.”

“That could be a very, very long time.”

“Then I’ll be a happy man for a very, very long time.”

I pull the ring out of the box and slip it onto her finger. Emery holds it up to the light, admiring the way it sparkles in the goldenshafts of sunlight with a look of sheer awe on her face. But then she turns her light brown eyes to me, an impish grin on her face.

“I think it’s time we christen the studio,” she says, her voice sultry.

I laugh. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“I love you, Eli Proctor.”

“And I love you, Emery Pierce,” I respond. “And I always will.”

The End