Just as they were about to brush over mine the captain of Gamble’s private plane came over the intercom. “We’re beginning our decent. Take your seats.”
Hopper smiled, pulling his lips away. I made a sound of impatience, wanting the kiss we almost had. “Soon,” he vowed, stroking this thumb over my lower lips
We sat down beside each other, when I reached for my seatbelt Hopp pushed my hands away and pulled it around my hips. I gazed up as he buckled the ends and adjusted the strap. He was so beautiful to me.
Taking his seat beside mine, he took much less time to buckle his own belt. The plane started to descend, and I looked longingly toward the window, which was covered by the blind. All the windows were covered. It was the only reason I wasn’t blindfolded right now.
A few nights after we went back to our place, he’d come home and said he wanted to take me somewhere. I got in the car without a second thought.
When we arrived at Gamble’s private airstrip, I realized somewhere wasn’t a movie or out for a pizza. He wouldn’t say, though; he just grabbed my hand and asked me follow.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d been on the plane, not too long, but it was still a place we needed a plane to get to. I glanced away from the closed windows to him with a question in my eyes.
He smiled and held up the blindfold.
Leaning forward, I surrendered as he tied it around my eyes and waited patiently as he knotted it at the back of my head. When it was on, I felt him sit back.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” His voice sounded amused.
“Two.” I guessed. The black cloth was impenetrable. Everything in front of me was dark.
“Leave it on ‘til I say,” he instructed.
“What is all this, Hopp?” I wondered.
In response, two warm palms settled over my jaws, his fingers spreading to cup my face. Gently, he tilted my head to the side, covering my mouth with his.
All curiosity about our destination fled from my thoughts. I was already here, exactly where I belonged. The total darkness the blindfold provided seemed to enhance my sense of touch. His fingertips whispered over my cheeks, along the sides of my neck. Swaying forward, I fell into his lips a little deeper. His mouth parted, and my tongue swept inside, stroking over his.
The kiss was warm, his lips the perfect combination of malleable and firm. Fog wrapped around my entire body, muffling my brain. I reached around, pulling him as close as I could. My fingers dug into the muscles of his upper back as I sucked in a deep breath without breaking the kiss.
The roughness of his tongue stroked my lower lip, and a shiver actually quaked my body. Hopper’s palm slid away from my cheek, melting down the side of my neck to my chest, then settled directly over my heart.
“I love you,” I murmured, between attacking his mouth with mine. “So fucking much.”
In response, he kissed me harder. Our teeth knocked together, but neither of us pulled away.
The jolt of the plane hitting the runway with a hard bounce finally broke us apart. My chest heaved, his palm still resting there as he pulled back into his seat.
“Leave that on, babe,” he said, his breathing heavy.
I waited impatiently for the plane to come to a stop. The sound of Hopper’s seatbelt clicking open made me reach for mine.
“Hang on,” he insisted, pushing my hand from the buckle.
“You’re not getting off this plane without me,” I said, unable to hide the hint of worry in my tone.
I felt his heat, the way his large body hovered over mine. “Never,” he vowed and kissed my forehead.
I listened to his movements and the murmur of his voice along with the pilot’s.
Finally, he came back and undid my belt.
Before I could move, his hand brushed over my dick, and I groaned a little. “You must be getting a pretty good hard-on with all this secrecy tonight.”
He laughed and folded my hand in his. With our fingers linked, Hopper led me through the plane. Cool spring air hit me, and then he grasped my other hand to quietly guide me down the plane steps.
Once we were outside, I felt a sort of familiarity in the air but wasn’t sure why. There was a heavy breeze tonight, and it pulled at my T-shirt and made me wish I’d grabbed a hoodie before Hopp had stolen me off to unknown places.
I was pretty sure I heard him blow out what sounded like a nervous breath, but before I could ask, he started walking, pulling me along with him.
“Nothing like a walk at night, in the dark, with a blindfold,” I cracked.
He chuckled. “How do you know it’s dark?”
“I’m pretty sure we weren’t in the air long enough to go to a different time zone, Hopp.”
His response was to tell me to keep walking.
After a minute or so, I heard the plane start up again, the wind around us picked up, and goosebumps rose along my bare arms. “Don’t we need that guy for a ride home?” I asked.
“We’re not going home tonight.”
Nothing like this had ever happened to me. I’d never had someone set up some kind of surprise. I’d never been taken on an impromptu trip. I’d never had someone think so much about anything that involved me at all.
For those reasons, and those alone, it didn’t matter if there was a heap of garbage waiting for me when he finally pulled this fabric off my eyes. It didn’t matter if it was all just to hand me a pack of gum.
I loved it, and it was the best gift anyone had ever given me.
“Thank you for tonight, Hopp,” I whispered, turning my head in his direction.
His footsteps faltered. His body turned toward mine. “You don’t even know what’s going on, babe,” he mused. “And you’re thanking me?”
“It’s from you. That’s all that matters.”
He made a sound. “You kill me, A. You really fucking slay me sometimes.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Just sometimes? I can do better than that.”
An amused groan cut through the night. “What if I’m leading you out into the woods to kill you and dump your body?”
“Morbid,” I mocked. “And I have to say if that’s the plan, then you’re fucked because your getaway plane just took off without you.”
He chuckled, and I sighed. “Guess it would be a good way to go, then, at the hand of a man I love more than life itself.”
There was a beat of immeasurable silence. “Killing you would be like killing myself.”
I squeezed his hand. “How about you show me why we’re really here?”
We started walking again, only to stop a moment later. “Hang on.”
A door creaked on its hinges when he pulled it open, and another note of familiarity came over me.
Hopper grasped my hands again. “Up some steps.”
Some steps was more like several flights. But soon, we reached the top, and he positioned me in the center of a room, commanding me to stay.
After a low click of some kind of switch, there was another heartbeat of silence, only to be interrupted by Hopper. “Outdid themselves,” he murmured.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I felt him step close, his fingers tucked beneath the blindfold. “Ready?”
I smiled.
The second the fabric was gone, I blinked rapidly as light flooded my vision. Swiveling my stare, images and light became apparent and my mouth ran dry.
Swiftly, I glanced at Hopp. He was watching me, clearly nervous. I went back to gaping. We were in the control tower. My control tower, the one at our airstrip. The one I used to sit in, in the dark, and drown in thoughts and pain.
It wasn’t a dark, painful place right now. Hell, right now I probably couldn’t feel pain in here even if I tried.
Usually cold and dark, empty and sort of sterile, this round room was anything but. White lights were strung around the ceiling and around the control counter circling the room. A giant paper star hung from the center, and it too was lit up. The single rolling chair was pushed off to the si
de, out of the way. In the center of the floor was a giant air mattress covered in blankets and white pillows.
There were some candles placed around the mattress, all in various sizes. They weren’t the kind with actual flames, but the flickering battery-powered variety. The lights reflected off the windows, which in this tower took up basically every wall. The whole space glowed around us, and outside, the dark night was the perfect black backdrop. Well, it wasn’t totally blank; the sky was dotted with stars, as if they too wanted in on the sparkling action.
Slowly, I pivoted in a circle, taking in the tons of candles, the lights, and the bed.
“You did this?” I asked reverently.
He nodded.
“How?” I asked, still shocked, still unable to stop looking around.
“I had some help.”
My eyes went back to him, an unspoken question in their depths.
“Drew and Trent,” he replied.
“They sure know how to string some lights,” I said, gazing around again.
He half smiled. “Drew said something about them having some experience with this kind of thing.”
I had no idea what that meant. I didn’t care enough to ask. I sank down on one end of the air mattress, which was supported by some kind of metal frame. “This is pretty awesome,” I said, a little awestruck. “I can’t believe you did this.”
“You like it?”
I made a scoffing sound. “Are you fucking kidding?”
He smiled and reached for my hand. “It’s not all.”
Allowing him to pull me up, I tugged him close. “You look sexy in all this candlelight.”
His mouth curved up. “You kinda look like an angel.”
“It’s the blond hair.” I confirmed. Inside, my stomach flipped, my heart beat erratically, and I was pretty sure my palms were turning clammy as the seconds ticked by.
Of all the things I’d imagined tonight, this wasn’t even on my radar. Romance was something I never, not ever, assumed was for me.
His smile flashed.
Quickly, I tugged him to me in a crushing hug. His arms went over my shoulders, around my upper back. My arms tucked around his waist, pressed in against his lower back, and held him hard. I wished we could fuse together in that moment. I wished I could slip beneath his skin, wanting so desperately to be as close to him as possible.
Eventually, he began to pull back. I made a sound, clutching him close again.
His chuckle vibrated my ear. “There’s more.”
Pulling back, I studied his eyes. “More?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“Why did you do all this?”
Taking my hand, he maneuvered me around the candles, pulling me toward the control panel flush against the expansive window. Hopper stepped in front of me, his back to the window, leaning against the counter. His thighs parted, and I stepped closer, between his legs. The string of lights lining the counter behind him glowed, and I noticed right beside where he sat was some kind of switch on the end of one of the cords.
“Do you remember that night up here?” he asked, glancing around.
I nodded. “I thought I’d lost you. I’d come up here to let that pain eat me alive… Then you walked through that door.”
“I saw the open gate, and I felt sick. I thought something had happened. I couldn’t get to you fast enough.” He recalled.
“You told me about your past,” I murmured, remembering how painful that night was but also how it had set me free.
“You told me about yours.”
I shifted just a little closer. “You love me in spite of it.”
“I’m going to love you forever, A,” he vowed.
“I think I may love you longer.”
One side of his mouth curled up. “You trying to outdo me, babe?”
I glanced around again, pointedly surveying everything he’d done. “I’m pretty sure there is no competition.”
Hopper linked our fingers together, shifting a little farther against the control counter. “I didn’t know I could love someone so much. We connect on a level I honestly didn’t know existed,” he told me, glancing down at our linked hands. Lifting his eyes to mine, he went on. “But it’s not enough.”
My body jolted as if he’d slapped me. All the warm and fuzzy I’d been feeling was blown away by a frigid wind. “What?”
“I want more, Arrow. I want you in every way possible.”
“You have me,” I swore. “In every way.”
Hopp shook his head. “There’s one way I don’t.”
“What’s that?” I asked gruffly.
With a sound, he stood, but I didn’t move back to make room. Instead, our bodies bumped together as he moved to stand beside me and pick up the small device with the switch. “Look out the window, A.”
I gazed out into the dark night, not seeing whatever it was he wanted me to see.
“You looking?” he asked, glancing at me.
“I’m looking.”
I heard the switch click. Light flickered outside, below the tower.
Shock rippled through me, and my gasp filled the room.
I stared down at the words below, scripted in white lights.
Marry Me
Hopper was asking me to marry him.
Shock rendered me immobile for a few heartbeats. Then I jerked upright to stare between him and the illuminated words.
“We’re already bound in ways no one can ever touch.” His voice was raspy, slightly shaky. “You already own me body and soul… but I’m selfish, babe. I want you in every way—on paper, in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of everyone who sees your left hand. I want to be irrevocably bound, not just in our hearts, but by name.”
I swallowed, my tongue thick, then blew out a breath.
My body trembled.
“I want you to take my name. To be my husband. To have yet another piece of me no one has ever had or will ever have. Marry me, Arrow. Say you’ll marry me.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, staring down at my shoes. Tears made my vision blurry as I glanced back at the giant words, then at the man who’d just asked me to share his name.
“Almost my entire life, I thought I wasn’t worthy of love,” I told him. “Then later, I was completely broken, lonely in ways no one could fathom.”
He spun, his chest pressed against my side.
I turned, staring into his eyes. “Until you.”
“Until me.”
I curled my palm around the back of his neck. “I belong with you.”
“Fuck yes, you do, babe. Just like I belong with you.”
I sniffled, trying to hold my shit together.
Hopper shifted, reached into the side pocket of his cargo pants, and produced a small black box. He sat on the control panel again, raised the lid on the box, and held it out. “Marry me.”
“You got me a ring?” I choked out.
He made a face. “Is it too much? Do dudes give each other engagement rings?”
I laughed but immediately freaked. “I don’t have a ring for you.”
“I don’t need a ring, babe. I just need to see this one on your hand.”
I nodded.
“Is that a yes?” He made a sound. “Put me out of my misery here, A.”
I hadn’t answered.
A huge smile broke over my face. You know, the kind of smile I didn’t think my mouth was possible of forming?
I did. Except it was far bigger than even I thought was achievable.
“Yes.”
He made a triumphant sound, ripped the ring out of the box, and tossed it over his shoulder. The black velvet bounced off the window and fell against the string lights.
Lifting my hand between us, Hopper gave it a squeeze. I spread my fingers wide, and he poised the band at the fingertip.
“We aren’t married yet, but I want this on you.”
“I won’t take it off, Hopp.” I promised.
He slid it home. The wide band fit perfectl
y. I had no idea how. Maybe fate. Maybe he was really good at guessing ring sizes.
“I hope you like it,” he murmured, brushing his fingertips over the metal.
“Actually, it’s pretty fucking sweet,” I told him, tilting my hand to look at it closer. I’d barely glanced at it before. It could have been a bread tie for all I cared. It was from him, and the words he’d spoken when he gave it to me made it priceless.
It was a wide band, dark, almost black. In the center was a row of diamonds that sparkled beneath the lights hung around the room. It was a little flashy, and it made me smile because I recalled what he’d just said about people looking at my hand and knowing I was taken.
But it wasn’t so flashy it would look ridiculous.
“It’s, ah, this metal is called black tungsten. It’s supposed to be hella durable. I figured with all the work you do under a hood, it would be good.”
I blinked furiously, feeling its weight around my finger.
I had a tattoo on my chest, a tattoo representing everything Hopper was to me. This was different, though. This was something that would always be on display.
“It has diamonds.” He went on, the nervousness in his voice fucking cute. “I wasn’t sure about them.” He cleared his throat. “But the simple ones were too plain… I wanted you to have better. You deserve some diamonds.”
I chuckled, rubbing over the metal with the fingers on my opposite hand. I was already getting used to seeing it there, even after mere minutes.
“If you prefer something else, we can take it back—”
My head shot up. “No way. It’s perfect.”
“You’re cool with wearing a ring?” He shifted from foot to foot.
“I’m cool with wearing your ring.” I still couldn’t believe this was happening. I couldn’t believe someone was so willing to tie themselves to me in every way humanly possible.
Hopper blew out a breath. “I was so fucking nervous.”
I grinned. “Are you kidding? You had to know I’d say yes.”
He shrugged, and I laughed again, pulling him in by the back of his neck until our foreheads touched. “Yes,” I whispered. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
Between us, his hand found mine, and his fingers began twirling the metal around on my finger.
“I’m gonna get you a ring,” I vowed. “Just seeing it on your finger is gonna give me a hard-on.”
#FinishLine (GearShark #5) Page 6
