“I love you, too,” he replies. “UPS is going to need a bigger cart for the Edible Arrangement that’s going to come with my new job title upgrade.”
“Oh, god,” you groan, thinking of the card you sent him at the training facility so long ago.
Jokes set aside, you kiss and kiss.
“You’re going to be my husband,” Kai says, sounding dazed. “We’re going to get married.”
“I’ll be anything you want me to be,” you answer honestly. “I’ve been yours since the first time we met. Just took me a while to realize it.”
“I haven’t even put your ring on, yet,” he says. “I’m fumbling this whole experience.”
“Well, you’d better put me down and fix it.”
He sets you gently in the sand. The ring box sits on the table where he put it down a minute ago. You get your first good look at your engagement ring. It’s a thick platinum band set with a bezel-set emerald-cut diamond that is, to your untrained eye, absolutely flawless. And massive, god. It’s simple, but incredibly gorgeous. And, when he slides it onto the fourth finger of your left hand, it fits like it was made for you.
“You asked Maeve my ring size,” you realize, admiring the way that the fire in the diamond catches the candlelight in sparks of glinting white.
He laughs, delighted. “Of course I did,” he admits.
Epilogue
May 19th, 2026
You’re much better at dealing with jet-lag than Kai is. It’s understandable, given the fact that you’re much more accustomed to jetting halfway across the world and having to jump up the next morning, look amazing, and perform like your life depends on it. Having touched down in Lisbon around 11 PM the night before, he’s still dead to the world at eight the next morning, but you are awake in bed. The thick velvet drapes were left parted, and the soft sunlight woke you up an hour ago.
Ideally, you would have planned this vacation so that you arrived several daysbeforetoday, allowing Kai some time to acclimate. You guys spent the last week in Los Angeles, which really made the time zone difference stark. However, when Nike called and said they wanted Kai to be the face of their new campaign, you both pretty much dropped everything to go meet the execs out West. Kai was over the moon. As an athlete, it doesn’t really get better than that. You were also meeting with the photographer of next year’s Pirelli calendar, so you both managed to wipe out a lot of birds with one stone. You guys are still getting the hang of living together, which, for you, still looks like spending more time apart than a lot of couples would. Even engaged, you are still learning things about Kai. Things that a husband should know. (Luckily, you love all of them.)
Unfortunately, all that bird-killing productivity also means that it’s your second anniversary, but your partner is sound asleep. That, you think, will have to be remedied. You lay aside your phone, on which you were playing Wordle and deleting emails, and rub Kai’s bare shoulder.
“Hey,” you say softly, “time to wake up.”
He grouses in his sleep, as if the very idea is insulting to his dreams, and doesn’t stir. You repeat the motion, adding a little shake to it. Kai, being built like a brick wall, is barely stirred by the jostling, but it is firm enough to make him grumble.
“Eugh,” he vocalizes nonsensically.
“We’re going to miss breakfast,” you tell him, hoping that his passion for eating is stronger than his love of sleeping in after transatlantic flights. “I heard they bake their own pasteis de nata.”
“I don’t know what that is,” he mumbles, without opening his eyes.
“It’s an egg custard pastry. Describing it doesn’t do it justice. They tastesogood with coffee.”
“Hmph,” he grumps, noncommittal.
“You sure do wake up sweet,” you coo. You grab the sheet and duvet from up around his chest, and yank it down a bit, exposing his skin to the cool air. It was intended to annoy Kai, but you are intrigued by the shadow of his pubic hair just above where the sheet’s edge landed, and the thick outline of his morning wood tenting the covers. You push him onto his back and straddle his hips, making him emit a noise that is half-annoyed, and half a moan.
“You know,” you say, addressing him like he’s fully awake, “we have a lot to do. We’re staying in an actual palace, so there’s that. The city’s just a short train ride away. There’s food to eat, museums and old churches to explore,thingsto do…”
You emphasize this last phrase by reaching behind you and grabbing a firm hold of his cock through the sheets. Kai’s lashes flutter.
“We can do all those things in a few hours,” he groans.
“Oh, not just that.” You continue like he didn’t even protest. His dick twitches in your hand. The angle is bad, but you rub it up against your ass. Both of you are naked, but the bedding is all in the way. “Maeve threatened to shoot both of us if we didn’t come home having made some decisions about the wedding. She says that, until we decide when and where, she can’t decide which planner to hire. And there are a ton of other factors to consider.”
Kai’s lids are partially open, although he’s trying to pretend like his eyes are still closed. As if you don’t know what he’s up to. You’re directly in his line of sight, so you get your other hand down and start stroking yourself, slow and lazy, as if you have no idea that he’s watching.
“The logistics are terrible,” you sigh. “Keeping the press from figuring everything out is going to be a nightmare. And the size of the wedding party is still a problem. You’re going to have, like, a dozen groomsmen. Your three brothers, all your college friends…”
“Maybe just Steve for sure,” he murmurs. When he brings a hand up to scrub at his face, his thick gold engagement band and its cabochon emerald catch your eye, just like they alwaysdo. “When I brought it up to the rest of them in Colorado over Spring Break, they said it would depend on the time of year.”
