AllFreeNovel
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It’s been almost a week since she gave herself to me in the hotel suite, and life couldn’t be better.
Terrence is facing several counts of murder – my woman’s parents included – as well as a litany of other charges. That piece of shit is going away for a long time. With a little help, Kenny is moving into an apartment of his own, as well as looking into college courses.
But best of all, my woman is singing, filling the apartment with her voice, waking me up to her lilting tenor. Her songs are beautiful and heartfelt and make me want to blurt I love you every time I hear one.
The truth is I’ve been afraid to blurt it out, afraid.
It’s a feeling I’m not used to, but things have been so perfect with us, so storybook bright. I was worried about risking it.
But I can’t wait any longer. I have to make her mine, even more than she already is. I can’t just draw our future in snow, where it might melt and wash away in the sun.
I need to carve it in stone.
Forever.
“Nick?” she murmurs, laying her hand on my arm softly.
“Sorry,” I tell her. “Yeah, we’re going to the mall. I’ve got a surprise for you.”
She looks out of the window, up at the sky. Countless stars glitter down on us, a whole world of them, the moon shining brightly.
Your hair reminds me of the moon, she said in bed last night. So bright, shining all the time.
I chuckled and rolled over, kissing her and giving in to the desire which is always howling at the edges of my consciousness, always tempting me to take her, every second of every day. I know that’s never going to go away.
But tonight is about being civilized.
At least for a little bit.
“Won’t the mall be closed?” she asks.
“Yeah, it is. I made sure it was.”
She glances at me. “Hmm, you’re acting very suspicious, Santa.”
I smile over at her, the most honest, widest, realest smile I’ve ever felt. It’s like there’s a whole world of love stowed up inside of me, ready to release any time my woman so much as looks at me.
“Stop being such a nosy little elf,” I tease. “Be patient.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
She interlocks her hands in her lap, biting her lip in that way that drives me to the edge.
Civilized, I remind myself.
Just until I ask her the most important question of our lives.
“You’re really being suspicious now.”
She giggles as I wrap the blindfold around her eyes and tie it at the back of her head.
“Do you trust me?” I whisper in her ear.
She reaches up, searching for my face with her hand. When she finds me, she holds on tightly, digging her fingernails into my skin. I’ll never tire of the way her fingernails feel as they press against me, as though she has as much trouble holding back her as I do.
“Always,” she says.
“Then let’s go.”
I lead her by the shoulders through the entrance of the mall, our footsteps clicking and echoing in the emptiness as we walk. Santa’s Wonderland is lit up, but with a few changes.
Instead of Santa’s throne like chair, there’s a table and chairs, snow white, with white and red roses sitting in a vase.
Above Santa’s Wonderland, a sign hangs in glittering Christmas lights, spelling out words, the most important words I could ever direct at my woman.
Will you marry me?
“Where are we?” she murmurs, a quiver in her voice.
I wrap my arms around her from behind, turning her so she’s facing me, and then reach up and take off her blindfold. She looks around at the empty darkness of the mall, eyes narrowed, and then makes to look over her shoulder.
Touching her chin, I guide her gaze back to me. “Not yet. I need to say something first.”
She blinks and tears glimmer in her eyes. Perhaps she knows what’s coming, knows how important this moment is, destined to be branded into our minds forever.
“Before I met you, I never had much of a Christmas spirit. I never had much of any spirit. I never knew why, or what was wrong with me. Maybe something broke when I was forced to sit in that room, with my parents and the dead junkie… But whatever it was, my perfect, beautiful, amazing elf, you fixed it. You fixed me.”
She makes a croaking noise, as though trying to stifle a sob.
“The second I saw you, leaning on that fence with that mixture of shyness and sass, I knew I had to have you. I knew I’d die if I didn’t. I knew I’d kill to protect you with my life. I didn’t believe in Christmas magic, miracles, or love at first sight. But then I saw you, and I fell in love.”
The word love hangs in the air, bouncing all around us, causing mirrored smiles to spread across our faces.
