Fairytale Come Alive (Ghosts and Reincarnation #4)(144)

“Socks on, Elle,” he interrupted her.

She stared at him for another moment. Then she bent over and pulled on his socks. When she was done, he was close and he pulled the sweater over her head. It was huge and covered her from neck to thigh, well past her nightgown but it left her legs bare. Even with her legs bare, the minute she shoved her arms through the sleeves, Prentice grabbed her hand and led her out to the balcony.

Heart still racing, Elle didn’t argue or resist.

She followed.

He closed the door behind them and guided her to the railing before he stopped them and guided her into his arms.

She tipped her head back to look at his face in the moonlight and the illumination from the soft lamps lit on either side of the bed that were coming through the windows of their room. When she did, she saw he was already looking down at her and she noted he looked serious.

She opened her mouth to speak, knowing he had to feel her heart beating against his chest where it was pressed close but she didn’t utter a peep.

Because he spoke first.

And when he did, it was to ask, “You’d throw yourself in front of a bus for me?”

She bit her lip as she tried to control the beating of her heart. This was an impossibility so she answered, “Well –”

That was all she got out before Prentice spoke again.

And when he did, this time it was a thick, hoarse whisper, “You’d throw yourself in front of a bus for me.”

She would and he knew it. He knew it and she knew that he felt that knowledge burrow deep and he liked it.

Elle felt tears stinging the backs of her eyes, her body melted into his, her arms tightened around him and she whispered back, “Yes, Pren, though I hope I never get the chance.”

A short, sharp laugh escaped his throat but that was it before his head dropped and his forehead came to rest on hers.

Then he said in his soft, low, sweet, beautiful voice, “You know I love you.”

“I know,” she replied just as soft but probably not as sweet and beautiful.

“You love me,” he declared.

“With everything I am,” Elle confirmed, his eyes closed slowly and his arms squeezed her tight.

Then they loosened, his eyes opened to look into hers and that voice kept coming at her. “And you know I want you in my life until my last breath.”

Her heart tripped over itself.

“Pren.” That was all she could get out, she could say no more and Prentice didn’t give her a chance.

He pulled slightly away at the same time he reached behind him to wrap a hand around her left wrist. Then he shifted it between them as his other hand went to the pocket of his pajama bottoms. The next second he was sliding a large diamond ring on her finger, the diamond brilliant, gorgeous and huge but the setting was simple, unadorned, the luster, brilliance and size of the diamond the only thing it needed.

“I’m making that official,” Prentice told her, his voice still sweet but it was again thick as Elle stared at the ring and couldn’t speak at all because her heart was still beating a mile a minute but now it was doing it in her throat. “That is the ring I wanted to give you twenty years ago. That is the ring my Elle deserves to wear on her finger, the ring that lays my claim to her, shows the world she’s mine and shows her how much she means to me. So that is what she’ll have.”

Elle’s eyes, filling with wet as her lips trembled, lifted to his and when they did his hand, warm and strong, curled around hers tight and pressed it to his chest.

“Merry Christmas, baby,” he whispered.

Elle stared at the man she’d loved for forever, the man who breathed life into her, the man who set her free, the man who, again, slid the perfect ring on her finger making all her dreams come true and she knew she was right earlier.

She had her happily ever after.

And it was happy.

So she stuffed her face in Prentice’s sweatshirt, yanked her hand free from his so she could wrap her arm around him again, both her arms spasmed and she burst into tears.

Prentice gathered her closer, pulling her deeper to his warmth and he held on tight as she wept tears of joy into his chest.

When this went on for a good long while, he whispered into her hair, “Baby, we need to get you inside. It’s cold and your legs are exposed.”

Her head jerked back then it jerked side to side.

Then she pulled her arms from around him, lifted her hands and placed them on either side of his head. With wet on her face, tears still spilling over, she got on her tiptoes to get closer.

And in a fierce voice, Elle told him, “When Cinderella is on her balcony with her handsome Prince, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, they don’t feel cold, Pren, they don’t feel anything. They just feel happy.”

She watched his face shift, go soft, his eyes warm and his arms convulsed around her as he murmured, “Elle.”

“I love you,” she whispered, got higher on her toes and touched her mouth to his then moved back half an inch. “I love you.” Her fingers slid into his thick, fantastic hair and she repeated, “I love you.”

“Elle –”

Her fingers clenched in his hair and she pressed her body deep into his.

“I love you, Prentice Cameron.”

Elle stopped talking and stared into his beautiful eyes, eyes she’d look into every day for the rest of her life and for the first time in that life she felt blessed.