Page 32 of Meet Me at the Altar

I whistled when I saw the age of the Dalmore. I knew that shit went for almost two grand. It was twenty-five years old. The eighteen-year-old Yamazaki had to have her coming off just over a grand. The Macallan, which was a twenty-five-year-old sherry oak bottle, was no less than three grand. Those prices weren’t hefty to me, but I knew that she didn’t make a lot as a personal shopper. She made decent pay, but that was about it.

“Baby, I’m not trying to check your pockets, and I know you make a decent living, but how the hell did your pockets get hit up like this? You spent no less than six grand on all this shit.”

She sauntered up to me, lifted an eyebrow, and wrapped her arms around my neck. “You don’t like my gift, baby?”

“Yeah, but I’m the one who does the spoiling around here. You good? You need me to put some stacks into your account.”

She chuckled. “You know, I always dreamt of having a man who could do stuff like that, but I’m good. Besides, I’ve made a few lucrative associates over the years, and I saved and invested my severance package,” she replied.

“That’s what’s up.”

“Come on, let’s eat dinner, baby.”

We sat on the balcony to a dinner of carne adovada, Santa Fe salad, and jalapeño skillet cornbread. It was served with a white wine.

Once we finished eating, she ran into the room, turned on some jazz music, and stepped back onto the balcony with me.

She stepped in front of me and tipped up on her toes. Kalli looped her arms around my neck and pressed a kiss against my lips. “You know why I love you so much?”

“Why?” I asked, kissing her back.

“Although I know that you love me, it doesn’t stop you from working hard to prove it.”

“I’ll spend the rest of my days doing just that. I want you to be reassured of my love. Walking away from you during that time in my life may have been what I needed to do, but still, it was foolish. I will be here doing what I need to do to make sure that you know that I love you, and you never have to doubt my love for you.”

“Andrès, you don’t have to do that. I’ve always been assured of your love, even when you left me. I didn’t realize that your love for me was an intimate, erotic type of love, but I have never doubted your love for me.”

“Why are we waiting before you accept my proposal then?” I asked, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her closer to me.

She tipped her head back to stare into my eyes, and I leaned down and nipped her chin before I consumed her lips. She was warm and sweet like honeysuckle. Every time I kissed her, she was eager for my taste, as though she still couldn’t believe we had transitioned from friends to lovers.

“Because.” She pulled back from the kiss.

When nothing more came, I lifted an eyebrow and shook my head. “Because?”

She stared up at the sky and then frowned for a moment before I heard people in the garden below us talking. I looked over the balcony, and I noticed that they were pointing excitedly.

I glanced up at a big blimp flying overhead. I leaned over the railing to get a better look before I could read it.

“I’m all yours if you’ll have me—Kalli?” I read. “What?” I turned around to say something to her, but she was standing behind me with her hand outstretched. She wiggled her ring finger with the engagement ring I purchased sitting at the tip, covering her fingernail.

“I mean, I guess I’ll marry you.”

I walked toward her and slid the ring further down her finger until it fit snugly. “What do you mean, you guess?”

“If it doesn’t work out, we can always get an annulment.” She teased me.

“That won’t work. I’m marrying you for life.”

I kissed her lips and welcomed her moan into my mouth. That shit was doing something to my erection, and there was only one place to take this.

I untied her bikini top, and it fell into my hands. She slid her hand into my swim trunks and dropped to the floor as she tugged them along the way.

“Baby.”

“Hmm?” she mumbled as she licked her lips.

“Baby.”