"Yes," Sanford did, once his lap was clear. He leaned forward, reaching out and catching up my hands from where they sat on my lap. "It did."
"What was it?"
His eyes seemed to swallow me whole. "I met another woman, one who is the opposite of Valencia in every way, and I fell in love with her."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
*
Oh god, I can't breathe.
"What?" I gasped out, fighting against my chest. Had someone just wrapped their arms around me to strangle me?
Sanford's eyes remained locked on mine, not blinking or looking away. "I found myself stuck with this annoying, exasperating woman living next door to me, and she shattered all of my defenses," he said softly. His fingers rubbed ever so gently against mine, held in his grasp. "I kept on telling myself that I had armored myself against women, that I wasn't going to let myself get caught in that trap of weakness, of falling in love, again. And despite all my defenses, it still happened."
"You love me?" My brain felt as if someone had opened up the top of my head and poured in molasses. I couldn't seem to hold onto any single thought, each one slipping away from my grasp whenever I tried to reach out for it. "But what about you telling me that you didn't want anyone else finding out about us, that you didn't want this to get into anything serious, that we had boundaries?"
Sanford looked almost ready to laugh! That couldn't be right, could it? "Do you know what would have happened if I tried to impose any of those restrictions on Valencia?"
Wordlessly, I shook my head.
"She would have exploded," he finished. "She only wanted me as a status symbol. She would have told everyone, bragged about my wealth. But you never cared about any of that, did you?"
I shook my head again. I hadn't even thought about his money. I'd been too torn between loving his body, drinking in his affection, and getting annoyed whenever he put on his aloof act - which I now saw through like the smokescreen that it was.
"Hell, even the house," Sanford went on. "Valencia probably loved the house when she saw it. She'd see it as just another status symbol, a way for her to show everyone else how important she was. But you?" He laughed out loud. "You'd rather have me come sleep over with you in your little cottage than stay in the big mansion!"
"Well, all of my clothes and things are here," I defended myself, but he just shook his head at me.
"The point is, I told myself that, after Valencia, I'd never fall for another girl like her," Sanford said, tightening his grip on my fingers. "And I didn't. Instead, I fell head over heels, crazy in love for a woman who's different from Valencia, better than Valencia, in every single way imaginable."
Oh god, tears were starting to well up in the corners of my eyes. Why did I always burst out crying whenever anything important happened. I blinked furiously, trying to keep my vision from clouding over.
"Can you stop saying your ex-fiancee's name to me?" I asked, a loud sniff interrupting my words as I tried to pull the tears back into my eyes.
Sanford burst out laughing, but when he lowered his head, I saw that he also had little glimmers of moisture in the corners of his eyes. "I'll never speak her name again, if it makes you happy," he promised me.
Nope, there was no holding the crying back. "Then yes," I said, my voice sounding thick and choked.
"Yes what?"
I yanked back one of my hands from his grip and punched him in the side - lightly, of course. "Yes, I love you too, you big ass!" I cried out, as the tears cut paths down my cheeks, probably making me look puffy and awful.
To make sure that he didn't notice how the tears were probably making my face puffy and red, I threw myself forward, into his arms on the couch. Sanford drew me in, his arms wrapping around me as his lips found mine. We tumbled over onto our sides on the couch, and Whiskers grumbled as we forced him to hop awkwardly down to the floor and find a new spot.
I couldn't bring myself to feel bad for my cat, even with his broken leg. After all, he already had someone he loved - me.
I had him, too, of course - but now, I also had this big, strong man who wrapped his arms around me and kissed me so tightly that I feared he might actually succeed in crushing the life from me.
"I threw her out, by the way," Sanford murmured to me, when we parted long enough to get fresh breaths of air.
"Who?" My thoughts felt scrambled by that kiss, and I didn't want to do anything else but go back to scrambling them further.
"The woman whose name I can't say any more." Sanford grinned up at me as I threateningly drew back my hand to hit him again. "Easy! When I got home and found that Valencia had showed back up, bullying Winston into letting her in, I made it abundantly clear that we were not, nor ever, getting back together."
"Are you sure?" I thought back to that woman, to my encounter with her on the front steps of the mansion next door. She had seemed utterly horrible, but strongly determined to achieve whatever she was after.
Sanford smiled up at me, stroking my hair and tucking it back behind my ear. It immediately sprang loose again, but I still loved the gesture, just like I loved his face, his eyes, his kindness to me. "When she hit Whiskers and I ran to the cat instead of her, I think she started to realize it. And then, just for good measure, I took something else from her."
"What?"
He reached down into a pocket of his jeans, his fingers fumbling for something small. "This," he said, pulling out his hand and unfurling his fingers so I could see the small object resting on his palm.
I gasped at the sight of that massive diamond ring that had decorated Valencia's finger. It glittered up at me from Sanford's palm, bouncing light into my eyes and appearing alight with an inner fire.
"Sanford - you're not-" I stammered, my mind once again hit with that molasses feeling.
A moment later, the man's eyes widened. "What? No, I didn't mean to suggest-" He laughed, but then his face grew serious again.
"Right, because it would be totally crazy of you to try and get me back by proposing," I went on, feeling relieved that he hadn't totally lost his mind. There was a little note of sadness, too, but I wasn't sure what that could be causing that. "I mean, that's a bit desperate, isn't it?"
"Probably," he nodded, but he still looked serious. "But then again, that would probably show you that I'm seriously in love with you, wouldn't it?"
"What?" What? He couldn't actually be considering-
But Sanford rolled off of the couch, landing on his knees on the ground beside it. I sat up on the couch, looking down at him in surprise, and he shifted his grip on the diamond ring so that he could hold it up to me.
"Stop it," I told him, fighting against the shortness of breath in my chest.
Sanford just shook his head, and now a tiny little smile flitted about his lips before vanishing again. "I'm serious. I love you, Elaine Dean, and I'm proving it."
"You don't need to prove it," I said, my eyes mesmerized by the ring. "I love you too, but this is taking things way too fast."
"Probably," he admitted, not moving. "But I did this last time and chose the worst woman on the planet for me. This time, I've found her opposite, and she's perfect. So take this thing, before my legs seize up down here."
I reached out with trembling fingers and took the ring. "I'm not saying yes," I told him, as I turned the ring back and forth in front of my eyes. "I'm just going to hold onto this until I think that I'm ready to make a decision."
His eyes seemed to pull at mine like magnets. "And when will that be?" he asked, still down on his knees.
I shrugged. "Whenever I feel like you've made up with me," I said, slipping the ring into my pocket.
"Really." His eyes still drew mine, but now I saw a new fire burning in them, a fire that warmed me and sent tingles running down my spine. I knew that expression well. "I think I can find a way to win you over."
I wondered if that same fire was reflected in my own eyes as I looked down at him, wanting him more than I'd ever wanted anyone
or anything else in my life. "Yeah? You better start trying, then. I'm going to make it nice and hard for you."
"I think that's my line," he answered, and as I snorted in laughter at this bit of wit, he swept me down into his arms, tugging me off of my seat on the couch and down onto the floor beside him.
"Wait! Shouldn't we get to the bed or something?" I gasped out, as his hands ran over my sides, peeling away my shirt. I noticed for a moment that this was the same marinara-stained shirt that I wore when I ran into Valencia, but Sanford didn't even seem to notice the reddish blotches.
"No time," he whispered harshly against me, biting at my ear, the back of my neck, making me moan as my body arched against him.
Well, okay. I couldn't argue with this, not when I could feel him hard against me, not when my need for him to be against me, inside me, drowned out all other desires and thoughts. I moaned as his teeth nipped at my collarbone, as he drew my shirt up and over my head, his hands not caring about my imperfect body, the curves that his former fiancee kept at bay with yoga and spin classes and probably starvation. He wanted me, not her, and he loved me for who I was, for how I looked. I felt my own love pouring out of my chest, a tide of warm, pink heat that could probably heat my house on its own in a snowstorm.
My own hands reached out for Sanford, tearing at his clothes. I definitely tore off some of the buttons on his shirt, but he just growled at how his clothes still clung to him, throwing them off as he returned his attentions back to me. I felt his member, hard and throbbing between his legs, and he gasped as I wrapped my fingers around its length.
"Mine," I told him, feeling how he responded to my touch, how, despite all his strength, I could control him. I loved that rush of power, loved knowing that I could dominate him with my sensuality just as well as he could dominate me with his strength.
He grinned back at me, flashing me that savage grin that, when I first met him, intimidated me so much. "Mine," he replied, pulling me astride him so that he could run his raspy tongue over my nipples.
No time to take off the panties. He pulled them aside, his muscles standing out beneath his skin as they tensed with effort. His fingers rubbed against me, but I was already warm and wet and open for him, a womb waiting for him to fill.
He entered me, big and hard and commanding, and I shattered against him. I slumped down on top of him, my bare skin afire as it pressed against his, my every breath and movement making me hyper-aware of him inside of me. I wanted this sweet, delicious agony to go on forever.
He moved against me, and I clung to him and rode out the rising waves of pleasure that he created. He kissed me, held me, loved me in a way that told me that there was no one else, had never been anyone else except me. I clung to him like he was my rock in a thrashing ocean, gasping, moaning, begging for more.
"Tell me yes," he commanded, his voice a hoarse whisper as he made every nerve and fibre of my being sing in pleasure.
"Yes," I answered him, my voice breaking as he pushed me over the edge and ecstasy swept me away into Heaven. "Yes, yes, yes!"
He held me, and loved me, and I knew that he'd always be there to drape that warm, comforting arm over me while I slept.
Epilogue
*
I sat in the ornate Louis XVI armchair, for once not noticing its beauty as I drummed my fingers on the armrests and tried to think of what I would say to Sanford when he got home.
Normally, I loved sitting in this chair, looking around at the rest of this sitting room. Sanford had agreed to let me repurpose most of the antiques to decorate the house, and the room looked as if I'd stepped back in time into Versailles, with intricately detailed Persian rugs on the floor, the stamped tin ceiling polished to a shine, and lovely, beautifully restored classic French furniture set around a central marble coffee table. Even the Queen herself would feel at home here.
Sanford sometimes joked that this made me his queen, and he always greeted me with a little bow and a "Your Majesty" when he came home to find me in this sitting room. I, of course, would usually stick out my tongue at him and blow a raspberry, shattering the illusion.
Naturally, he loved it. He'd usually bend down behind me to kiss at my neck, distracting me from the laptop open in front of me on my lap and putting a stop to my productive work for the afternoon.
Not that I minded at all, although I made him carry me upstairs so that we didn't sully the restored furniture.
I glanced up as I heard a "meow" from the room's doorway, and grinned as Whiskers came sauntering in. "Hey there, old buddy," I greeted him, moving my computer aside in expectation of what he'd do next. "Woke up from your nap?"
Whiskers approached me, looked up at me for a moment while meowing, and then, just as I'd expected, jumped up into my lap. I groaned as the weight of him hit my thighs, but I wrapped my arms around him and adjusted so that he could flop down on top of my legs. "You know, you won't be able to keep on doing that forever," I told him.
He just purred up at me, rolling a little so that I could scratch under his chin. His eyes squeezed shut as I petted him, clearly blissfully enjoying the moment.
The ring on my fourth finger glittered up at me as I rubbed my hand through Whiskers' orange fur. I'd originally intended to stand strong against Sanford, making damn sure that the man wanted me, and that he'd stick with me through both the hard times and the easy ones, before I finally put the thing onto my finger.
I tried talking things over with Della, but that didn't really help much. As soon as she caught sight of the ring in my palm, she howled with envy and love for me, and told me that I had to say yes and I had to make incredibly handsome, sexy little babies with Sanford, that I owed it to the human race! I also apparently had to hire Della for the wedding catering and alcohol, and I had to tell her all about the wedding night, and let her make sure that I picked the best dress to flatter my figure and show off my assets... When I insisted to her that I was going to wait until I was certain before accepting the proposal, Della looked on the verge of stealing my phone to answer "yes" for me.
That decision didn't carry me along for more than a fortnight before I broke down and, in the middle of breakfast, burst out that yes, of course I'd marry him, and I wasn't ever going to let him go.
Sanford, of course, had just looked up at me and smirked for a moment before returning his attention back to his coffee. He acted so smug, as if he'd known that this was coming all along!
I made sure to prolong his next orgasm, twenty minutes later, for as long as I could hold out. Just to teach him a lesson, of course.
But as it turned out, there was a lot more to getting married than just saying yes! Over the next tumultuous few weeks, I introduced Sanford to my parents ("He seems very nice," my mom burbled, blinking through lovestruck eyes up at Sanford as she fluttered her lashes and imagined that she was twenty years younger. My father talked with Sanford for fifteen minutes in some sort of deep, incomprehensible babble about some sports team, and then offered my new fiance a beer. In my father's language, the offer of a beer is a clear sign of his approval), bought a massive stack of wedding magazines that soon turned into fodder for Whiskers to scratch, and overall realized that I was in far too deep over my head.
"Just hire a wedding planner," Sanford said to me one night as we lay together in bed, drenched with sweat from our recent exertions. "Money isn't an object. Just tell her what you imagine for the perfect wedding, and she'll make it happen. That's her job."
A part of me still wasn't at all used to the idea that I didn't need to worry about money any longer. I kept on trying to cut corners on prices, worried over the pennies adding up, and I think it amused Sanford to no end.
"But you're not working!" I pointed out to him a few days later, when he came home to find me fiercely negotiating with a wedding planner over her fees. "You've got lots of money now, but what happens after it runs out? You'll just start up another business?"
He pulled out the other chair at the kitchen table. "Actually,
I was meaning to talk to you about that," he said. "I think I would like to start another one up, although I'll need your help."
"My help?" I blinked at him. "What can I help you with?"
"So many things," he chuckled, reaching out and petting me with one finger under my chin. "But in this case, I'm thinking of going into the business of restoring old furniture. Fixing up some of those antiques that you say are too broken to sell, but not worth the cost of fixing." He grinned at me. "I'm sure we can work out some sort of discount."
Ignoring the lecherous subtext, I blinked as I turned over my fiance's new business idea. "You want to fix furniture?" I repeated. "Do you know anything about it?"
He shrugged. "I might have been working on a few pieces in the garage during my spare time. Want to come take a look?"
Out in the garage, my mouth dropped open as I stared at what Sanford had been doing out here during the last few weeks. "A few pieces?" I repeated in disbelief, my eyes wide as I took in the expanse of shaped wood pieces, propped-open books, and tools of all shapes and sizes, neatly organized on boards or laid out on tables.
"I wanted to make sure that I got them right," Sanford said behind me. "Take a look at the chair over there. I took it out from the sitting room on the first floor - you said that it was too broken to sell, but not worth repairing on its own."
In amazement, I wandered over to the chair that he'd indicated. The chair was a Louis XVI armchair, and it looked perfect, like it had just been delivered to the king himself. Every single inch of the wood was elaborately shaped into pleasing, smooth whorls, burnished until the entire chair practically glowed. The cushion was a soft ivory color, covered in detailed embroidery that traced out patterns complementary to the shape of the wood.
"You did this?" I asked, reaching out and running one hand gingerly over one of the wooden arms, as if afraid that the whole thing would splinter into matchsticks at a touch.
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