It takes a second to land, but I watch as Luke’s brows furrow with confusion before morphing into skepticism. Then, he finally ventures into shocked disbelief as he searches my faceeagerly, and I know he understands what I mean, even though he doesn’t quite believe it.
“Ethan….”
I pull away from him briefly, leaning over the edge of the bed in search of my pants. Luke watches me, baffled, but intrigued, as I fish through the pockets and produce the ring box that has been weighing on me all night. When I return to him, I open the lid and watch his eyes grow wide as the reality of what’s happening strikes through him. He gasps, putting a hand over his mouth in surprise.
“Luke Shaw,” I say, and his eyes snap to mine, happy tears brimming to the surface. It’s enough to bring them to mine, but my voice never wavers. “You are the most amazing person I’ve ever known. You’ve changed my life in every possible way, and you’ve made me a better man. These last two years have been a gift that I never thought I’d get to experience until I met you. I love you so much that it fucking hurts.”
Luke lets out a small laugh, and the smile on his lips is dazzling. He cups a hand to my cheek, his eyes mapping mine with the same feeling I’m expressing echoing out of him. There is no doubt that he feels the same way.
“Loving you is the easiest thing in the world for me,” I say, “and I can’t imagine a day going by where that won’t be true. Everything I do, I want to do it with you. Everywhere you go, I want to go, too. You’re my person. I want the world to know it. I want people to see you in the street and know you’re unquestionably, unequivocallymine. I need you to be mine forever.”
“Then ask me,” Luke cries, the demand laced with eagerness. It draws a smile from my lips, my heart so full it could burst.
“Will you do me the honor of becoming my husband?”
“Yes! God,yes.A thousand times, fucking yes!”
Luke crashes his lips to mine, sloppy, wet with his tears, but hands down in the top ten for best kiss I’ve ever received. Nothing can beat this rush, knowing he’s just agreed to marry me. As I officially slip the ring on his finger, his happy tears swell, and he studies the intricate gold band and the delicate floral carvings carefully inlaid with small diamonds that give it a bit of extra sparkle. As soon as I saw it at the jewelry shop, I knew it was the one—and based on how Luke reverently stares at it, it seems I was right.
“Ethan… How did you… When did you… God, I love you,” he eventually says, turning his eyes to mine. There’s no mistaking the weight of sentiment behind the words in how he looks at me. It sends a quiver down my spine.
I stroke my thumb along his jaw. “Are you surprised?”
“I had no idea!” He chuckles, wiping the tears from his eyes. “I still can’t believe it. You’re not my boyfriend anymore. You’re myfiancé.”
The word rips through me with a new sense of gratification, and I can feel my cheeks warm with the sensation. Fiancé. Hearing it confirmed like that hits me more viscerally than I could have expected. Months of planning and stressing, culminated in this moment where everything’s finallyreal. My breath hitches slightly, and it’s enough that Luke can sense the difference in me. His eyes soften.
“Baby,” he says, a smile tugging on his lips. He doesn’t need to say anything else. He knows exactly what I’m feeling—he always seems to know. I’ll never get over how easy it is for this man toseeme. Or how all it takes for him to turn off the avalanche of thoughts that could otherwise bury me alive is a kiss that has me seeing stars instead.
His touch sends molten lava through my core, igniting every nerve ending, every neural synapse in my brain until I feel more lit up than the house below us. Luke’s not shy about the wayhe travels every inch of my body with vigor like he’s surveying newly conquered land; as if he didn’t know how thoroughly he’d already invaded my senses. My body responds like he’s flipped all the magical switches to get me going, and his need is evident as he presses himself against me.
We go in for round two, taking our time with each other, almost like it’s a new experience. There’s no rush to get to the finish line. My senses are newly heightened, freshly attuned to the sounds he’s making. He’s just as receptive, lost to pure sensation. Seeing him so undone beneath me, knowing that I’ve come to my own point of unraveling beyond recognition, only proves that I’m hopelessly bound to him.
As our pleasure peaks, both of us reaching our glorious crescendo, it feels that much more blissful with this new covenant between us. And Luke, a bedraggled, sweaty mess—who definitely looks like he’s just had his back blown out—is so fucking beautiful that my heart aches just looking at him.
I tell him as much, and he laughs, leaning in to kiss me again. This time, it’s tender. Loving. Yet equally as electrifying as our more passionate embraces. Then he curls up against my chest, settling in as if he wants to stay like this forever. As if we could meld together, never to be separated.
God, I would love it if we could. But despite the desire to never move again, my brain reminds me that there areso manypeople downstairs, probably wondering where we’ve disappeared to, and it’s surely rude if we never show our faces again for the rest of the night.
“We should head back at some point…” I sigh against his hair, hating the suggestion even though I know it’s the responsible thing to do.
“Not yet.” Luke nuzzles closer. “They’ll survive a while longer without us.”
I chuckle. “Okay.”
For the next few minutes, we lie together and relish the silence. My fingers lazily trail across Luke’s skin, and I watch him play with the new ring adorning his finger, twisting it back and forth with interest. I can feel his happiness as if it were a tangible thing.
However, I sense a subtle downward shift in his mood, and I can tell when he loses himself in thought. At first, this confuses me, and my mind immediately jumps to the worst. Does he regret saying yes to marrying me? Is he second-guessing his feelings for me? Did I do something wrong, and he doesn’t know how to tell me?
Then, Luke sits up with a heavy sigh, pulling his knees up to his chest, dropping his head. A clear sign that something’s actually wrong.
“What is it?” I ask, my heart jolting with my anxiety. But he doesn’t recoil from my touch as I delicately stroke his back—that’s promising, at least.
Luke is quiet for a bit, and I know he’s struggling to find the words—struggling with expressing what he’s feeling. His jaw works as he clenches his teeth, and his brow furrows.
“I started thinking about wedding planning…” He breathes deeply. There’s a very pregnant pause that does little to quell my nerves, but I wait patiently for him to finish. “And it made me think about my mom… How I’d always kind of wished she’d get to walk me down the aisle.”
Oh.
