Never Tied Down (The Never Duet #2)(78)
She pulled away and gave me a nervous smile.
“Okay, but, give me a ten-minute head start, okay?”
I tilted my head, confused by her request. “You want me to wait ten minutes to go back to the room?” Suddenly it dawned on me that she was planning something. “What have you done?” I had so many wonderful images of Kalli’s body adorned with sexy lingerie.
“You’ll have to wait and see,” she said, trying to sound coquettish, but only coming off as ridiculously cute and a little silly.
“Is it sexy?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“I’m hoping that when you find out, it will lead to a lot of sex, yes.”
“Fuck,” I groaned.
“Ten minutes,” she repeated, then kissed me quickly right before she turned and walked away. I watched her leave, her dress even stunning from the back, and decided to take a walk on the beach to waste the required ten minutes. I grew impatient during those minutes, wondering what I would find when I went back to the cabana, what kind of surprise she was planning for me.
Finally, when I reached our private walkway, my heart rate sped up, and I could feel the pulse in my neck. I wanted to get to her, to hold her again. I’d been with her for nearly a week uninterrupted, and ten minutes seemed to be too long to be apart any longer.
When I made it to the door, I found a piece of paper taped to the front with Kalli’s unmistakable handwriting on it.
The door is unlocked. Come inside. Follow the trail and meet me at the end.
I opened the door slowly to find red roses everywhere. There were so many roses, I couldn’t contain the laugh that bubbled up in my throat. It was beautiful, but I couldn’t imagine how she’d pulled it off.
A path on the floor was lit with candles with red rose petals scattered all around. I suddenly remembered how I’d done this exact same thing when I brought her to the house for the first time. The pulsing in my neck turned to thundering as my heart accelerated. She was up to something, and it wasn’t just lingerie.
I followed the candlelit path, which led me to the balcony. Standing amidst roses and candles, Kalli stood at the railing with a smile I hoped to see every day for the rest of my life. She was beaming at me, simply radiating happiness, and it was all I could do to keep myself from running the rest of the way to her.
“What are you doing?” I whispered when I was finally close enough to her, right before I kissed her quickly.
“Do you like the view?” she asked, her voice wavering the tiniest bit.
“I love the view,” I said, placing my hands on either side of her face and kissing her deeper. I pulled away after a few moments and smiled. “You didn’t buy this cabana did you? It had to cost a fortune.”
She laughed, but then wiped away a tear that had escaped. “No, I didn’t buy the cabana, but I was hoping we could come back here every once in a while to celebrate our anniversary.”
“Of course, baby.” I said, bringing her to me. “But, which day should we count as our anniversary? The day we met on the video shoot, or the day you showed up in my dressing room?”
“How about the day we get married?” I couldn’t see her face, but her voice sounded odd, weak and shaky. My first instinct was to laugh softly, so I did. We’d spoken about getting married before, it was obvious, to me at least, that was where our relationship was heading, but we’d been so busy and both our careers had taken off at the same time. Life was running away with us. “Yeah, baby. We’ll work on that, I promise.”
“Riot,” she whispered, her voice so delicate. “I want you to marry me.”
“Babe, we’ll get married. I promise.” I pulled away to tell her how much I loved her, how I didn’t want her to worry about our future together because she was all I could see for me in ten, twenty, even fifty years from now. I wanted to tell her how I wanted her to have my babies, soon, how I wanted to start a family with her. I wanted everything with her. But when I pulled away to reassure her of all that, I was stopped by the look on her face and the ring she was holding up between us.
“I’m asking you, Riot. I’m asking you to marry me.”
My eyes darted between her face and the ring, wondering what I’d missed, how we’d gotten here. In her hand was a men’s wedding band. It was black and thick, exactly something I would pick out for myself. Was this really happening?
“You’re asking me to marry you? You’re proposing?” I took the tiniest step away from her, trying to take it all in. I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face, even if she looked terrified. I didn’t understand her nerves; surely she knew I would say yes.
“I want us to get married. I want you to marry me. And the longer I thought about it, the more I thought I should just ask you.”
“You want to get married?” I asked, smiling, moving closer to her.
“Yes,” she said, her voice suddenly breathy, watching me as I moved into her space so our bodies were touching, her hand with my ring in it still up between us.
“You want this forever?” I tucked a loose tendril of hair behind her ear, then moved my hand to the back of her neck, squeezing it firmly, watching her eyelids flutter as I did.
She nodded slightly, eyes finding mine. “I want you forever.”
“Then, you got me.” I took the ring from her and slid it onto my finger, laughing slightly at the thought of Kalli proposing to me. She had caught me completely off guard. “Tomorrow, we find a jeweler and we put a ring on your finger,” I said, wrapping my arms around her, pulling her as close to me as I could.