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Not Joshy. Josh.
I cup her cheek with my hand. "Fuck, you have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."
She's looking up at me with wide eyes, her lips slightly parted. "You have?" she asks, stunned.
I let out an incredulous chuckle. "Yeah," I tell her simply as I lick my lips, still tasting her on them.
Her eyes follow the movement of my tongue, her cheeks flushing.
She pulls away from me slightly and puts a hand up to her forehead like she's feeling faint or something. "But Josh, you're my best friend."
I feel my chest squeeze with panic. No! I can't let her overthink this and shut me down. Not now. Not after I've tasted her.
I grab her hands and hold them against my chest as I look into her eyes and lay everything on the line. "And you're mine. You always will be, Kiera. My best friend. My love. My everything."
She gapes at me a moment before she shakes her head and says, "Oh, Josh…what if we don't work out or something? I couldn't bear to lose our friendship." She worries her bottom lip between her teeth as she looks up at me.
I cup both of her cheeks in my hands as I tell her desperately, "That won't happen to us. Kiera, you're it for me. Always. It's always been you. Don't you know that, baby?"
She blushes when I call her baby. Maybe for some people it would be odd to suddenly call their best friend baby, but it rolls easily off my tongue with Kiera. I've been calling her that in my head for so long it feels natural.
She's silent, so I go on, telling her honestly, "I think you feel something for me too, Kiera. You're just so afraid of losing our friendship that you're scared to let go, but, baby, I promise nothing will ever hurt our friendship. Taking our relationship to the next level will only bring us closer."
Tears are shimmering in her eyes now, and I add for good measure, "Fuck, Kiera, even if you don't feel anything for me now, I feel enough for the both of us." I drop my forehead down onto hers as I stroke my thumbs along her pretty little cheeks. God, she's so delicate, so perfect. "I love everything about you, Kiera. I've been in love with you for years. Why do you think I've never dated anyone?"
Kiera pulls back enough to look up at me shyly. "I've never dated anyone either, you know," she points out to me.
Yes, I know she hasn't because any time I heard talk of a guy wanting to ask her out, I made sure he never did.
She doesn't need to know all of that, though.
I blink when her words register to me. I know she's never dated anyone before because I orchestrated it that way, but is she saying what I think she's saying?
She bites her lip and nods up at me even though I haven't asked a question. That's another thing about us. We're so close she can anticipate my questions before I ever ask them.
"I love you too, Josh. I think I always have, but I just never thought you felt the same way. You've never even tried to kiss me, so I just thought…" she trails off.
I gape at her in wonder, my breath coming out in shallow puffs as I register what she just said. She loves me. She said she loves me. I grab her shoulders and pull her close to me as I ask her intently, "Do you mean it, Kiera? You love me? Like love me love me? Not just as your best friend?"
She licks her lips and nods up at me shyly, and fuuuuck. My heart feels like it's about to explode.
I kiss her deeply, unable to control the emotions roiling through me at her admission that she loves me.
"Are you telling me all this time we could have been together?" I ask her, kicking myself in the ass for not making my feelings for her known much sooner.
"It looks like neither of us wanted to risk our friendship," she whispers before tears shimmer in her eyes again. "Josh, you're the best friend I've ever had. I couldn't bear it if we broke up and I never saw you again."
"That'll never happen," I vow to her. "You know it won't," I assure her. "In fact," I get down on one knee in front of her right there in the middle of the dancefloor, "to show you just how serious I am about us…."
"Kiera," I take both of her hands in mine and kiss her knuckles as I ask her the question I've wanted to ask her for years. "Will you marry me?"
She's silent for so long I worry that I've sprung too much on her at once, but then my heart soars when she falls to her knees and flings her arms around my neck.
"Yes! Yes, Josh!" Tears are streaming down her beautiful cheeks. They're smearing her makeup, but she's never looked more beautiful to me. Hell, she's more beautiful to me without that shit on her face anyway.
I pull her into my arms and kiss her again. We're completely oblivious to all the people gathered around us aah-ing at the proposal they just witnessed.
This isn't exactly what I had planned tonight. I'd merely planned on kissing Kiera at midnight and telling her how I really feel, but once my lips touched hers, it was like a floodgate was opened. Everything came pouring out in droves.
