Dearest Cowboys Box Set

by Mia Brown

  A man in a tight fitting suit brought drinks around, offering us all champagne that tasted incredibly expensive. Even with my world championship winnings, I wasn’t sure I could arrange something this incredible for a proposal. Or that I would even be able to think of something so good. This was definitely the perfect time to start the next chapter in our lives. An excitable shiver raced down my spine as I thought about the prospect of my ring on her finger. Of her being mine and committing to me forever more. Finally putting all of her hang ups behind her and letting me in once and for all. I never knew that she was so damaged, that she had so much done wrong to her, and I knew that I would do whatever I could to make it right again. To heal her from her pain, just like she had done for me. Opening up to her about Cassie helped to ease that weight on my shoulders, just a little.

  “This is nice, isn’t it?” Emily asked while brushing down the silk of her pretty white dress. She was wearing that angelic look I loved so much again. It reminded me of the early times we spent together when all I wanted to do was touch her, hold her, kiss her… she was in white the day she let me kiss her. It was amazing.

  “It’s incredible. You always hear about Las Vegas being glitzy, but this is the first time I’ve seen it for real… I suppose the same isn’t for you though, is it? You’re always at glamorous modeling parties.”

  She leaned her head on my shoulder lovingly. “I wouldn’t like to be anywhere other than here.”

  As I ran my fingers through her hair, my heart racing at the speed of light as I did, I agreed with her. “Yeah, there isn’t anywhere else in the world I would rather be either. And no one else I want to be with.”

  There was so much truth to that statement, and every time we were apart, I really felt it. It was essential to have that separation for our careers, but that didn’t make it easy. That was why we needed to make the most of every moment we were together. Try and make our whole relationship as perfect as this was.

  “I want this moment to last forever,” I murmured, just as the lights began to dim.

  Eventually, the show began, and I had to admit that I was pretty fascinated by the pyrotechnics and acrobatics. I hadn’t ever seen anything quite like it before, even when the circus came to town when we were kids it wasn’t anything like this. This was… magical. The performers were at the top of their game. Strong, powerful, incredible with the way that they moved their bodies. Even without knowing too much about the story lines being shown, I was gripped. In awe with the performers and also with how happy Emily seemed. My eyes kept darting between the show and her, and as I watched her face contort in bliss, I was more ecstatic than I’d ever been.

  This was a woman who had her innocence stolen from her when she was just a child. She had spent her whole life believing that she was a burden and not good enough… at least until she found modeling and she gained some self worth. But watching her see the Circle of Heavenly Movement performance, innocence came back to her. Her child like state was set free and she was happy and content at last. I loved seeing that look on her face. I wanted it to last forever. I would do anything to see her peaceful like this for the rest of her life.

  “This is the Romeo and Juliet part,” Emily whispered to me as she slipped her hand in to mine and nodded towards the stage. “You know, the lovely bit before the pair of them die.”

  “Where is the balcony?” I asked, since that was the only thing I really knew about the story aside from the tragedy.

  Emily giggled and rolled her eyes, thankfully knowing that I was joking. It was all symbolism and metaphors. Expression shown through dance and movement. Something probably suggested balcony somewhere.

  Before I could make another funny comment, the music quietened right down. It was the first time there had been any quiet since it began, and I could feel confusion all around me. It hadn’t yet been long enough for the performance to be over, so something had to be happening. Emily squeezed my fingers tighter in anticipation.

  “What is love?” one of the actors cried out, shocking all of us with his deep, booming voice. Up until this point, there hadn’t been any talking at all. “Is it tragic? Wonderful? Exciting? Difficult? Someone tell me what it is.”

  He moved towards the front of the stage and eyed the audience as if he was expecting someone to answer. I half thought there might one of the actors in the audience ready to make their big entrance.

  “Exult romance. Someone out there needs to exult romance to show me what it is.”

  A hushed whisper burst up from the crowd, causing Emily to dart a confused look my way. The actor remained silent for a few moments, really amping up the tension, even having me on the edge of my seat. Then he pointed. His finger directly aimed at me and Emily which made the pair of us stiffen in shock.

  “You two. You look like you understand love and what it is. Exult love!”

  God, this was like being on the kiss cam at a big game. The pressure, the humiliation, the inability to know what was the right thing to do… at least on my side of things. Until Emily grabbed me and she pulled me to her for a kiss which created booming cheers all around us. Her hands cupped around my cheeks and she kept me in place as she lengthened the kiss, really showing our love to the world. As she did this, it felt much less like a kiss cam moment and more like the sort of kiss to come after a wedding. This was serious romance.

  “You have shown me love,” the man declared the moment we broke apart. I had a feeling that we had left him hanging for much too long, which didn’t matter. I wasn’t even staring at him now; I had my forehead rested against Emily’s so I could look in to her beautiful eyes. “I now see everything that love can be.”

  The performance continued, but now it couldn’t get my attention even if the whole building set on fire. I only wanted to look at Emily, the love of my life was the only person I wanted to see.

  God, I can’t wait to marry you, I thought excitedly to myself. It’s going to be amazing.

  Thirty-Four

  Emily (couple hours later)

  “Oh my God, this food is amazing,” I moaned blissfully with my eyes closed. “Of everything I’ve tasted, this is the best. Who knew Las Vegas knew how to cook so damn good?”

  Alex laughed, his eyes shining with the same amount of happiness that I was currently experiencing. I had my reservations. I wasn’t sure that Alex was going to like the Circle of Heavenly Movement performance as much as I did. He didn’t have the same attachment to the stories as me, the same desire to sea this particular circus come to life, but it seemed that I was wrong. Alex had enjoyed himself just as much as I did.

  “I still can’t get over how good the trapeze performers were.” He banged his fist down on the table. “They were amazing, weren’t they? The way they did that thing where they soared through the air.”

  “I know! And the girls on the silks were great as well. I love the way they look so elegant.”

  It actually gave me a lot of ideas for modeling, watching them like that. They way that they held themselves and they positioned their limbs. There was never even a finger out of place. Then their faces. Without giving too much away in their expression, they did it all with their eyes. I loved that, I wanted to adopt it.

  “I want to go and see another show,” Alex chuckled. “I want to see more of this other side of Vegas. I don’t want to just pass through here on my rodeo tours anymore. I want to see it all.”

  “Well, let’s just stay then.” I rested my hand on top of his. “Let’s just run away to Vegas and never go home. Leave all of our responsibilities behind and just explore the city. Could be fun, right?”

  “Ooh, I never had you down for the running away type.” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully at me. “You get more and more exciting every single day. I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

  As happiness filled me to the brim, it felt like anything was possible. Like me and Alex could just run off and be just me and him for a while. I had worked so hard for my career, I did everythi
ng that I could to make sure that I made it to the top, and now that I was finally on my way there, I had something even better distracting me. A man that I knew I would give everything up for… not that he would ever ask me to do so.

  Alex was perfect, he was the best thing that had ever happened to me. Yes, he was still absolutely nothing like the man I thought I was going to end up with, he was the bull riding cowboy who I didn’t like at first, who was just supposed to help me shake off my reputation, but since that moment he had become everything to me.

  “Love isn’t a lie,” I murmur to him with a small smile. “I always thought that love was a lie. At least when it came to me. That I was unlovable, and nothing could ever change that, but you have changed that. These last four moths have been…” I dropped my fork as the emotion got the better of me. “They have been everything to me. You have been so wonderful. So understanding. So lovely. I don’t know what I would do without you now.”

  Even now, after all this time, he still didn’t mind having sex. And it turned out that he hadn’t slept with anyone since we’d been apart either. I was sure that for him this felt like re growing his virginity. I didn’t know too much about his love life from before me, only that it was a lot of one night stands, but since me he had waited. What sort of man would do that? He had to really love me to wait for me like he had.

  I didn’t want him to have to wait anymore, I didn’t want to wait anymore either, but I still wanted the wedding ring on my finger before I gave myself over to him. That had been my principle for far too long. I couldn’t just give up the ideal which I’d existed on forever now… however much I really wanted to.

  “You have been wonderful as well, Emily, this isn’t just a one way thing.” He smiled, but his eyes portrayed something. Like maybe he had a secret or something. “You have made me happier in my life as well. I don’t know what I would do without you either. I don’t want to know what my life would be like without you.”

  He pulled something out from his pocket and rested it in front of him. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that it was a small little blue box, the size of… I gasped loudly, clapping my hands to my mouth in shock. Was he for real? Was this actually happening right now? Just at the moment I had dared to think about marriage with this man, he seemed to have exactly the same idea as well. I thought it was a bit too soon to think about things like that, but if Alex was doing the same thing then it had to be right… didn’t it?

  “What are you doing?” I whispered quietly. “Is this… what I think it is?”

  All of a sudden, a guy with a violin came around the corner and joined us at our table. Somehow, he seemed to know to play one of the songs from the Circle of Heavenly Movement performance tonight which brought back all the same incredible feelings I’d been feeling while watching the dancers perform.

  “I know this is a little cheesy,” Alex chuckled. “It’s something that a British guy would do in a movie to please a woman, isn’t it? But I just wanted everything about this moment to be perfect.”

  “It is.” I nodded fast with tears filling my eyes. “It’s perfect.”

  “Emily Mason,” he started with a serious tone to his voice. “You came in to my life in an unexpected way.”

  “You stopped some guy harassing me, do you remember?” I couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “Oh, I remember. And I recall every moment of what’s happened with us since. It’s been the happiest, most vivid colorful time of my life. You have brought a new dimension to my existence that I didn’t know possible. Before you, I didn’t really believe in love either. At least, not for me. I guess I assumed that I would float through life forever, never really fully committing to anything. But you make me see that I am capable of more. You bring out the best side of me and I want to continue being the most perfect version of me forever…”

  It was at that moment, I realized that we had attracted the attention of everyone in the room. They were all waiting in a hushed silence to find out what way this would go. Luckily, there was only ever going to be one answer to this question. It would be very embarrassing if I was going to turn down this wonderful man’s offer!

  “I want to spend every day making you happy, Emily. I want that incredible future that me and you could have. The one filled with joy and happiness every single day. The one that I dream about.”

  Shit, I was about to fall apart. To have such a strong, tough man admit that he dreamed about his future with me made my knees knock together and my whole body turn to jelly. He was a play boy cowboy, a man who knew how to ride a bull with ease. These men were known for not being able to speak their feelings, but for me, he would tell me anything and everything. He had well and truly opened himself up wide to me.

  “So, what do you say, Emily? Will you have that amazing future with me? Will you be my wife?”

  I paused for a second before I answered, just to soak up the atmosphere of this moment before it ended. But when someone screamed out ‘oh, just answer him, honey,’ I knew that it was time to speak. To give him my answer.

  “Of course I will, Alex. I would love nothing more than to be your wife.”

  He popped the ring box open and pulled out a gorgeous princess cut diamond that made my heart sing with joy. It was classy, but sweet too. Definitely not too over the top which I wouldn’t be able to handle. It was perfect. As Alex slid it on to my finger and he leaned across to kiss me, much to the delight of the cheering people watching us, I wanted him more than ever. It was impossible for me to hold myself together like this. There was a yearning in my core, an intense need that I almost wrapped my legs around him and begged for him to take me right here.

  “I love you so much,” I murmured in to his ear. “And I want you so bad.”

  Shit, I couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth. I sounded like such a sexy bad ass!

  “You do?” He pulled back and cocked an eyebrow at me suggestively, causing space dust to explode in the pit of my belly. “Well, we’re engaged now, is that close enough to marriage for you?”

  I bit down on my bottom lip, really trying to think this through. If I gave in to what my body wanted, then we would be having sex right now. I would straddle him and let him take me to heaven, giving me the satisfaction that my body so desperately craved… but through the fog of lust, there was a part of me that still knew engagement wasn’t marriage and I rationally needed that full commitment to be as satisfied as I could fully be.

  “It isn’t.” His face fell as I broke is little heart. “I do need marriage. But I also want to have sex tonight.”

  He gave me a bit of a look, as if he didn’t understand what I was talking about. “That’s a bit of an issue.”

  “Is it? We’re in Las Vegas. If you haven’t forgotten there is also another side to this city… many wedding chapels which we could use to our advantage. We could go and get our marriage license and turn this engagement ring in to a wedding ring…” He was still looking at me like I had lost my mind. “What I’m trying to say is will you marry me right now? Let’s go and get hitched then get back to our hotel room already. Have some… alone time…”

  I ran my fingers down his arm hoping that he would finally agree to what I wanted. This was the perfect solution to all of my problems. I didn’t have any hesitation about this man, I wanted to be his wife right now. I loved him and I was secure that he also loved me. There wasn’t a damn thing to hold us back.

  “Are you sure?” he gushed excitedly. “That sounds amazing. But, is it what you want…?”

  I grabbed his hand and rose from the table, no longer needing to eat any more of the food. The hunger inside of me now had absolutely nothing to do with the incredible Las Vegas provisions. “Let’s go now. I want you.”

  He could see the deep, dark desire in my gaze. That was why he reached out for my hand and he took it. I dragged him to me, and we raced out of the restaurant together with everyone clapping us as we left, celebrating the first day of the rest of our
lives with us.

  Thirty-Five

  Alex (an hour later)

  “Are you sure this is where you want to get married?” I asked Emily, needing to check as we stood outside the twenty four hour wedding chapel. “You don’t want the big white wedding? The church? The dress? The cake?”

  “I’m already in a white dress, aren’t I?” She shrugged and giggled. “This is a nice enough dress for me.”

  “But everything else that comes with a wedding… I don’t want you to miss out.”

  “All the superficial stuff.” She rolled her eyes dismissively. “I don’t care about any of that. Marriage isn’t about that for me. It’s about me and you declaring our love for one another, committing to be together forever. I don’t need all the fancy stuff, I don’t want people watching, I don’t need to impress anyone. I just want it to be about me and you. I mean, it isn’t exactly like we’re hurting for money and gifts, is it? We don’t need all of that.”

  “I suppose not… but don’t girls dream about their wedding? I can wait. We don’t have to have sex tonight. I was only joking when I asked about engagement being enough… sort of.” I tried to laugh, but it wasn’t the easiest.

  My body disagreed with me. It screamed that I definitely couldn’t wait and that I was about to go crazy if I gave up this opportunity to be with this amazing woman, but it was the right thing to do. Everything had to be right for Emily. This was all about her. She was the one who had waited forever. I didn’t want it to push her.

  “Well, I can’t.” She winked at me. “I can’t wait. I don’t want to wait any longer. I want us to start our future at last. It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for this moment, and this feels right, don’t you think? Me and you, here in Las Vegas, basically eloping… doesn’t that feel very romantic for me and you?”