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The scent of her, mixed with the smell of the sea, is almost too much to handle as I lower my face toward her hair, inhaling deeply.
As I let my eyes roam over the glittering water – the sun a shiny white proclamation of happiness in the sky – I let my mind skim over the past few days.
Since we first had sex, we’ve been inseparable, Maddie staying at my apartment every night. Sometimes we’ll sit side by side in my office, writing together, and other times we’ll devour each other’s bodies in a violent unleashing of hungry need.
We lie together on the couch, each engrossed in our own books, and last night she even read to me from her novel. Sitting at the edge of the bed in her bathrobe – the sexy silk one I bought for her, the one that hugs her body divinely – she brought her characters to life with her gorgeous voice.
My body stirs at the memory, the blush moving over her skin, down toward her cleavage. She was still sweaty from when we’d last had sex, her hair messy around her shoulders.
I drag my mind away from the vignette before it causes me to snap and lose control.
I need to stay focused.
Today is a big day, the most important of our journey so far.
I think instead about little Boxcar, safe with Kelly in her new apartment. Maddie was right about their boss acting like the dickhead he is after she quit, unfairly picking on Kelly, so I offered to put her up in a new apartment with enough funds to live on until she found her feet.
“I’m so freaking glad she accepted,” Maddie told me last night. “She can be proud sometimes. But I think she wants me to be happy. And she knows I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if she ended up homeless.”
“Plus she’s a great dog sitter,” I said.
She smiled at me. “Yes, she’s the best.”
I pull my mind back to the present again as The Endless Searcher rounds the corner to the harbor.
The marquee sits right where I knew it would be, with a glittering table and chairs beneath it, a red rose sitting in a crystalline vase.
My woman turns to me and I step back, so I can get a proper look at her.
Beneath her life jacket, she’s wearing a flowing summer dress with little flowers on it, the sort of dress that becomes thrall to the wind and molds to her body, outlining her perfect shape. Her hair is sex-messy from the wind and her cheeks are full and flushed and happy.
“Is that for us?” she asks.
I smile. My days of not being able to smile are long gone. Maddie has changed that, and so much more.
“It might be,” I say with a teasing note in my voice. “I guess you’ll just have to be patient.”
My heart is drumming in my chest, an endless hammering when I think about all the ways this could go wrong.
Am I moving too quickly?
The thought should be laughable.
We’re planning a forever together.
Is there such a thing as too quickly for us?
I don’t know, but there’s a chance, a small chance she might not give me the answer I so hungrily need.
But there’s no other choice.
I have to claim her. Claim her for life.
The crew brings the boat to the dock and I leap down before we’re fully stopped, land in an easy crouch, and turn for my woman. She peers down at me, eyes glinting with emotion, letting me know she suspects something.
Reaching up, I grab her by the hips and lower her to the ground.
“I’ll never get used to how easily you can carry me,” she says with an intoxicating smile.
“I’ll never get used to how good it feels, carrying you,” I say, taking her hand in mine and leading her over to the marquee.
The harbor is quiet and the crew has been instructed to hang back, to give me and my woman the space we need for this important moment, the most important moment we’ve shared yet.
“What is all this?” she murmurs, her gaze flitting over the table, the rose, the red carpet laid beneath it all and the shredded rose petals scattered over it.
“It’s my attempt at showing you, Maddie,” I tell her firmly, taking both of her hands in mine and squeezing hard, possessively, so she can feel all the passion burning inside of me.
“Show me what?” she asks.
A quiver of emotion in her voice betrays her question, letting me know that she already knows what I’m going to say. Or at the very least she suspects it, suspects there’s more going on here than simply a meal by the water.
“That I love you,” I say. “I love you. I love you, Maddie.”
I didn’t plan on saying it so many times, but once the words are out it’s like I can’t stop them. They bubble up from deep inside of me, fierce and true, the truest words I’ve ever spoken.
