Page 94 of Your Two Lips
“Can I have that bourbon first?” she said with a hooded gaze and a bit of sass. That was better. I poured her two fingers over a big single ice cube.
I turned to see her standing by the heater, its hologram flame giving off a warm light. With her eyes fixed on me, she slid those lulu pants off her hips slowly and let them fall with a rumple at her bare feet. I was already hard.
I walked toward her as she stepped away from the pile of material, the invisible string between us pulling me to her. Taking her time, she undid the buttons of one of my oxfords she had commandeered weeks ago. I had no problem with that. She could have all my shirts. Her honey-blonde hair lay against her creamy skin and a hint of the palest pink ribbon as the sides of the shirt draped away from her body.
“Love,” I whispered and handed her the glass. Still keeping her eyes on me, she took a long sip and gave the drink back to me with a nod. I took a sip of the rich sweetness. It paled in comparison to the sweetness I would soon have on my tongue.
She moved to the last two buttons, and I had to kiss her because she was beautiful and mine, and I was going to worship her for the rest of my life.
The loose shirt slid off her narrow shoulders and dropped to the floor. I stepped back to take her in. “Love,” I whispered again. Then I looked closer. The skin near the apex of her thighs was red and tender below the satin ribbon looped over her hip.
“Em, what happened?”
“A tattoo.”
“What?” I knelt before her. “A butterfly?”
“It’s my animal.” My breath whooshed out as I looked up at her. She had a tattoo like the ones I shared with my family.
“What does it mean?”
“To me, it means change, balance, lightness.”
To me, it represented her vulnerability and her strength in living that way.
“I love it. It’s you. Your animal chose wisely.”
She shifted her weight slightly. “I didn’t get it to push you. I wanted it, and so I did it.”
“I don’t feel pushed.” Looking at her, I was dazed by my fortune. “I like where you put it. Like it’s just for us in this private spot on your body.”
I eased my hands up her thighs and placed a tender kiss on the not-quite-healed skin. This wasn’t what I imagined, but it was perfect. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring. A teardrop-shaped solitaire in a nest of tiny diamonds caught the light. It wasn’t flashy and extravagant. It was us. Me, my family, and our friends were the tiny diamonds that surrounded that single teardrop, what I hoped would be the last one in her life.
I held it up to her. “Emily, I love you. You’re my heart, my future, my balance. Be my family, with or without kids. All that matters is you. Marry me.”
Her breath caught, and her lip trembled. “Oh, Finn … I … really?”
I chuckled. “Yes, baby. Did you ever doubt?”
“I worried, worried you would change your mind about … everything. Sometimes I can’t believe all of this is real. Your family, cooking with your mom, shopping with Tess, being here with you in all this beauty. I was so afraid I couldn’t keep it.”
I stood and held her gaze with mine. “It’s you and me, Em. Anyone else who comes along would only add, but you and me will always be enough.”
She brushed her palm against my cheek. “I love you, Finn.”
I took her hand, slid the ring home, and then swept my hands up to cradle her face. “Any child that you and I diaper and take biking and forbid to date before eighteen … will be our child because we love them together and we love each other. The love the parents share and the want they have for the child, that’s all that matters.”
I pulled her against me, burying my face in her hair, inhaling her scent, absorbing the softness of her skin. “Emily, I can imagine a life without kids, if it comes to that, but I can’t imagine a life without you. Say my favorite word. Marry me.”
“Yess.”
