Forever With You: A Contemporary Romance (You and Me Series Book 4)
Page 16
I couldn’t help myself; I grinned back. “That so?”
“It is,” he confirmed, nodding. He turned, laying on his side, head propped on his hand, while I alternated between looking at the sky and his face.
Sitting so close, I decided to wait his silence out by occupying my mind with my favorite past time: memorizing the constellation of freckles and marks on his face. It helped, of course, that the real constellations were merely a glance away. I was fairly certain that the Little Dipper was on his right cheek while the edge of his nose, dripping down the brim to touch his cheek gently, was the whole of Cassiopeia. His tongue darted out of his mouth, running over the swell of his bottom lip, and my eyes dropped immediately to follow the movement.
“Well,” he murmured. “Now that I’ve got you here.”
I smiled and met the unasked challenge. I kissed him lightly, our lips pressing soft and slow against one another. Grayson leaned over me, one hand on my shoulder, his thumb running across my collarbone.
He pulled back, and I sighed contently. His eyes were closed, long lashes fluttering for a moment before stilling, his lips still parted. I kissed him again, just as teasingly and brief, and he sucked in a shuddering breath and then gave me a piercing look.
“Marry me.”
The words were exhaled from his gasp, trailing out of his lips breathily. My heart stuttered before stopping completely, and I sat up so abruptly, I nearly knocked him over.
He sat with me and, quite without intending to, we both laced their fingers together, staring at each other with moon-wide eyes. The seconds ticked by as we both searched each other’s faces.
My jaw hurt a little, and I realized I had dropped it. I closed it with a snap and leaned forward. His expression seemed frozen, a little too wide, but otherwise blank.
I swallowed hard. “Did you mean that?”
My voice was even softer than his had been; as if we spoke too loudly and the bubble would burst, the desire would escape.
Grayson nodded without hesitation. “Entirely.”
“Are you sure?”
His expression broke a little, a smile cracking through the hard exterior. “I’m the one that asked you, you know.”
“I know.”
Grayson pried his left hand away from my grasp and used it to brush a lock of hair off my forehead. He looked at me with love written clearly on his handsomely chiseled face.
“Jade, I love you. I—I’ve seen love, before. I mean, I’ve played it before. I’ve pretended so many times to feel what I feel with you, thought that I knew what it meant, what it looked like. I used to think that love was a feeling and in a way, it is, but it’s so much more, too. It’s—it’s everything. Jade, you’re everything. I’ve tried to live my life without you and I can’t. I won’t. It’s not a life at all. I didn’t know that love was more than just someone to come home to. It’s someone to want to come home to and to—to—know that no matter what, everything really will be okay. As long as you’re there and I’m there, we’ll be okay.” He paused, licking his lips and taking a deep breath. My own breath hitched and he smiled. “I love you. So, please. Marry me, diner girl.”
I surged forward, knocking him off balance. We both fell, and I lay, sprawled on top of him, peppering his face with kisses. He let out a surprised little bark, and I swallowed the rest of my laughter, kissing him hard. My laughter shifted to a moan as he deepened our kiss, and I wound one hand into his hair after haphazardly knocking the beanie off of his head. I tugged a little, and he gasped. We kissed until our lungs ached and we were both desperate for air.
I pulled back, panting. He looked up at me hopefully.
“Grayson,” I whispered. “You absolute fool.”
His smile fell. He cocked his head to the side, adorable in his confusion. I couldn’t help but kiss him again, albeit shortly this time.
“You’re—of course, I’ll marry you. I’d be so goddamn lucky to marry you, Grayson.”
His whole face lit up, and he let out a bright whoop of joy. He pulled me into a bone-crushing hug, both of us rolling a bit as we clutched to each other, happily. Eventually, laughingly, we rolled to our backs, trying to subdue our chuckles of relief and joy. I wound my fingers through his. We only pretended to look at the sky for a moment before giving up and staring at each other.
“We have to tell the others,” I was glad Alana hadn’t said anything about being pregnant tonight. I wasn’t going to wait to tell them all about this just to avoid stealing the thunder.
“Actually,” he coughed, looking a little sheepish. He reached into his pocket and drew out a little velvet box. He handed it to me hesitantly. “I might have already told them. I’m sure Madeline has informed Alana by now.”
I opened the box and swallowed thickly at the sight of a beautiful, sparkling tear-shaped diamond set in a gold band. “You’ve been planning this?”
He shrugged, though the motion was stilted from being on the ground. “I might have been carrying that around for a month.”
“You know,” I murmured. “I love you so much.”
“Only half as much as I love you.”
My heart felt too full. It nearly hurt from the pressure and I recalled another time this ache had blossomed so prettily in my chest. “Just a boy in love?”
Grayson recognized what I was saying immediately. His too blue eyes were molten at that moment. Nodding, with bits of brown curls framing his freckled face, he vowed, “Just a boy in love.”
Thank You
Thank you for reading Forever With You!
xoxo,
Tia & Penelope
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About Tia Lewis
Tia Lewis is an author of erotic and dark erotic romance. She enjoys writing about strong, possessive, dominant heroes and sassy, smart heroines. Her characters range from hot, dominant bikers, billionaires, to powerful gangsters, and all kinds of bad boys in between. You can find her cooking, reading, or traveling when she’s not busy working on her next release.
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About Penelope Marshall
Penelope Marshall was born in the Philippines, and raised in Southern California.
She picked up writing in early 2016 and instantly fell in love with the craft. Her writing runs the romance gamut from sweet romantic comedies, to tough alpha male military suspense thrillers, with a little young adult, and paranormal thrown into the mix.
A good plot twist is what drives Penelope’s writing, striving for that jaw dropping moment at the end of each book.
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