by Emily Bishop
“You have?” I didn’t know that.
“Some of my fondest childhood memories were made here. Even my iceman dad couldn’t let go of this place after we left here.”
“You lived here?” I whispered as realization set in.
“We did, before my dad took over Perkins Enterprises from my grandfather. We lived out here for a few years. It was where I learned to build boats and where I learned to fish. My mom and I even stayed behind when my dad went back to Houston.”
“Wow,” I breathed.
“Yeah. Mystic is as much in my blood as it is in yours. I’m never leaving it or you again,” Shane promised.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Shane
The early morning sun filtered through the windows in my bedroom, and the rays played off Fiona’s smooth skin. She was stretched out in bed next to me, wearing nothing but a tank top and lacy pink panties.
A fact that was very much appreciated by my throbbing morning wood. Fiona and I had stayed up all night talking, and she eventually fell asleep in my bed. I loved talking to her, telling her all about my time in Mystic, and listening to her own experiences growing up here. But this morning, I was done with talking.
I lifted my hand to her golden shoulder and traced a line to her hand, caressing each delicate finger gently. Fiona stirred, then cracked open one eye, and the colors of the Mediterranean Sea blinked out at me. She smiled when her gaze settled on me, a lazy, sexy smile that made my already throbbing cock twitch. I bit back a groan.
“Good morning, sleepyhead.” I tried for casual, but my voice was thick with sleep and arousal.
Fiona stretched and let out the low, happy moan of a person who was experiencing a truly satisfying burn in their muscles. At the sound of the moan, though, my throbbing became nothing short of painful.
I reached out and tugged her roughly toward me, the inches of distance between us suddenly unacceptable. Her mouth popped into a little ‘oh’ when she felt how hard I was against her thigh. I groaned.
“Looks like someone is awake,” she said, reaching down to cup my cock. I swore, nearly coming on the spot.
“Are you objecting?” I asked.
She giggled when I repeated the very same words from the beach to her. It was becoming a bit of a thing between us. “Never.”
“Good,” I grunted, then I sealed my mouth over hers.
She responded immediately, sliding her soft tongue into my mouth with a moan and bringing her hands up to bury them in my hair. I ran my fingers up and down her sides, relishing the goosebumps I could feel forming on her skin.
She pressed herself flush against me. Her hands tugged my hair and her body writhed. Her knee rested under my balls and every time that she surged up to return my kisses, it brushed against them. It was driving me fucking insane.
I blindly rolled her panties from her hips, and our kiss broke for no longer than was necessary for me to tug her tank top over her head. Her hands reached for the waistband of my boxers, and I groaned in relief when my cock jumped free.
She lodged her foot between my knees and kicked my underwear the rest of the way off. Her hands busily explored my abdomen and chest, sighing as she brushed her finger through my light smattering of chest hair.
Completely naked and intertwined as we were, I felt her wetness starting to seep out onto my thigh, and I suddenly couldn’t take another second of not being inside of her.
As I shifted to roll us over, she pushed back on my chest and broke the kiss that I needed as much as I needed air. A slow blush spread on her cheeks as she tried to find the words to say whatever it was she was thinking.
I wanted to give her time but I was thirty seconds away from spontaneous combustion. Mercifully, the words she’d been searching for tumbled out of her pretty mouth.
“Can I go down on you?” she blurted out, then looked like she was about to faint from embarrassment.
I gaped at her, urgency forgotten as I wondered how the hell I had gotten so lucky that the angel sharing my bed and looking down at me through lusty bedroom eyes was actually asking if she could suck my cock.
“Of course.”
Fiona kneeled in front of me and trailed her hands along my sides, sliding up my thighs but not touching me yet. It was pure, exquisite torture. She licked her lips, and I moaned at the sight. As if she could sense that I needed her on me more than I had ever needed anything, she reached out and began to stroke my cock tenderly, nearly purring at feeling it thick and firm in her hands.
She dipped her head, and I nearly shot off the bed when she took one of my balls into her wet mouth, swirling her tongue around it before letting it pop out from between her lips. She repeated the action gently with the other. I shifted so that she had better access to whatever the fuck she wanted.
My breathing increased, and I groaned as she ran the tip of her tongue up the length of my shaft. I was harder than a rock and becoming impossibly harder with every teasing lick and suck of her seductive mouth.
My hands tunneled into her hair, fisting the thick strands as I tried to keep myself from exploding like a damned teenager before she’d even properly begun her exploration of my cock.
She sealed her lips over the crown and lowered her head all the way to the root. A low growl escaped from my chest. I fucking wanted her so badly I could scream, but I tugged at her hair to let her know that I loved what she was doing.
Her mouth was hot and silky smooth. Her tongue worked my tip and the sensitive bundle of nerves beneath it on each upstroke. She sucked me hard, her cheeks hollowing and drawing her mouth all the way up my shaft before plunging hungrily back down again.
I groaned when she increased her suction, and I felt the first drops of pre-cum leaking from me. She swept her tongue across my glistening tip. My thighs quivered, my breathing grew ragged, and my head fell back against the pillow.
My stomach dipped, and the familiar tingling started at the base of my spine. My balls drew up. I was seconds away from spurting rope after rope of thick cum down her throat and just about to warn her when that heavenly mouth disappeared.
My eyes flew open to the glorious sight of Fiona on her knees, one leg planted at each side of my hips as she positioned herself and sank down onto me. She moaned as I slid into her slick hole, and one hand went to her peaked nipples.
I felt wild, wrapping the other hand around the nape of her neck to bring her lips to mine and kiss her hard. My taste lingered on her tongue, causing fierce possessiveness to sweep through me. She was mine, and only mine.
With that thought at the forefront of my mind, I hammered my hips up and reached for her clit as she rode me furiously. Her innermost muscles started clenching around me, her greedy pussy milking me, trying to suck me in deeper.
Our moans mingled together, panting until Fiona was practically vibrating on my cock, screaming my name. I pressed my thumb to her clit and watched her topple over the edge, her eyes becoming indigo darts as the pleasure swept through her.
The rush of heat as she came undone around my cock set me off. I groaned her name over and over again as I finally let go of the orgasm that had been building for what felt like hours.
Fiona collapsed onto my chest, and my arms went around her, tracing lazy circles on her back as our breathing returned to normal.
“So what do you feel like having for breakfast?” I asked finally, my voice soft and lazy.
“I already had what I wanted,” Fiona quipped, climbing off me and cuddling into my side with a wicked grin fixed on her beautiful face.
We lay there for a few minutes before I turned on my side to face her. “You know, this could be us every morning.”
“What?” Her eyes widened to almost comical proportions.
“You could move in with me, if you wanted to,” I offered. I wanted her there every morning but it had only been a few months, and I respected the fact that it was her decision.
We’d only just overcome what I hoped was going to be the last of the
obstacles between us. I didn’t want to push her into something that she didn’t feel ready for yet.
“I can’t,” she said, without even thinking about it. I must have looked crestfallen because she quickly started explaining. “My dad made me promise that we wouldn’t move in together until we were married.”
“Married?” I asked softly. There it was again, for the second time in as many days. It was like the universe was trying to tell me something. I looked at her thoughtfully, picturing what it would be like to propose to her, right on the spot.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Fiona squeaked.
“Like what?” I was confused.
“Like you’re considering asking me to marry you.” She buried her head under the pillow.
I lifted the pillow that was hiding her beautiful face from me and threw it across the room. “I wasn’t. It just came up yesterday, too. If that’s what the universe wants, who am I to fight it?”
“You don’t have to, I will,” she said adamantly.
“Is that a no?” A sinking feeling came over my stomach.
“Yes. I mean no. I mean, are you actually proposing?” She growled more than asked.
“When I propose, you’ll know it.” I smirked.
Fiona perked up. “When?”
“It’s only a matter of time,” I told her, feeling less confident that her father would allow it than I might have sounded.
She stuck her tongue out at me, hopping off the bed and walking her extremely yummy, naked ass to the bathroom, pausing in the doorway. “I still have to say yes, you know.”
“Semantics,” I argued, following her. “You will. You were hoping I was asking just now.”
“Bullshit,” she called out, turning on the shower and waiting for the steam to start billowing before stepping inside.
“How about just moving in for now, then?” I offered again, walking to the edge of the rain shower.
“I told you, I promised my dad I wouldn’t until we got married.”
I groaned. “How firm is that no?” I questioned, desperately wanting exactly what we had that morning, every morning.
“Very,” she said. Then she dipped her head beneath the water and let it cascade over her. “For now.”
I grinned. I could take that. “Okay, how about I just join you in the shower? For now?”
“I thought you would never ask,” she said, squealing as I slapped her ass lightly on the way in.
“What do you want to do today?” I asked, lathering soap onto my hands and dragging the suds down her body. I was very close to losing concentration on the talking again.
“I haven’t really thought about it. You?”
“Whatever it takes to prove to you that I’m here, staying here, and that I love you and will keep loving you for the rest of my natural life,” I promised.
Epilogue
One Year Later
Fiona
Shane and I were back at the Irish pub, eating Guinness pies with my dad and talking about how much things had changed since Shane showed up in our lives. It had been almost a year to the day. Even though it wasn’t an official anniversary, we’d been celebrating a sort of anniversary week for the past few days. Reliving our date at the Irish Pub was day four of the festivities.
“Drew missed a damn good meal,” Shane said, pushing his empty plate away from him.
My father laughed. “He finally found a girl who could keep his attention for more than a week but they’ll meet up with us later.”
“Yeah,” I said. “After he and his girl finish their date at Fields of Fire. Way to be original, Drew.”
Shane smiled. “Drew swears that it’s the secret to why you and I are still doing so well. The joke’s on him. You totally shut me down after that date.”
“Did I?” I asked, grinning.
“Oh, yeah,” Shane said. “It was brutal.”
I reached beside me and squeezed his hand. “Well, I hope I’ve made up for it since.”
My father cleared his throat loudly. “I’m sitting right here, guys.”
We all laughed. He didn’t really mean it. My father had gotten used to how affectionate we were together. It was just one of the nice things about life in Mystic now.
Although my father’s life was doing well, too. He had paid off his debts with the money Shane gave him, invested some of it in the renewable energy side of Perkins Enterprises, and donated the rest to the Ruth Hall Foundation for Brain Cancer Research.
“So when’s your next trip to Houston?” my father asked.
Shane shook his head. “Not for a while. I promised a certain someone that I would keep travel to a minimum, and I intend to keep that promise.”
“You’ve been great about that,” I said. “Although these days, I don’t mind the trips so much.”
“Because I force you to come with me,” Shane said, grinning.
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to force me.”
He shot me a look.
“Okay,” I said, giggling. “Maybe the first couple of times. But now I like to go so I can check in on the Foundation and spend some time there.”
“How’s that doing, by the way?” my father asked.
“Great,” I said. “Mom would be so proud. It’s going strong and actually making some breakthroughs.”
My father’s eyes misted over at the mention of my mother but he smiled. “She really would be thrilled about it. Not to mention that her daughter spends her free time volunteering for them online.”
I shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
“You’re helping people,” my father said. “That’s always a big deal.”
“Yeah,” Shane said. “You could help a lot more people if you quit your job at the hardware store and took up a full- time remote position working for the Foundation.”
“We’ll see,” I said.
I’d already decided to take the job with the Foundation, but I hadn’t told Shane yet. I was planning on doing it later, as part of the anniversary celebrations, which had been going on all week. The whole anniversary week thing had been Shane’s idea. No one could accuse him of not being romantic, as much as he objected.
Over the last few days, he’d made a point of taking me back to all the places in Mystic that had come to mean something to us, back in those tumultuous days when we were falling in love and fighting it with everything that we had. I was ridiculously happy we both lost those fights against ourselves.
The past year was the happiest I’d ever been, and Shane claimed he felt the same. We spent every spare minute that we had together, and while I kept my promise to my father of not moving in with Shane, both our places were littered with the other’s things, and we spent most nights sharing a bed at one house or the other.
Since that fateful morning Shane had finally made things right with my father, there was no more talk of or even jokes about marriage. I had been dropping hints to Shane about it recently but he was ignoring them. Or blind to them.
My bladder pulled me from my reverie and brought me back to the present, where Shane and my dad were debating about fishing while demolishing their Guinness pies and steadily draining the pitcher of beer. Their relationship was better than ever, and it warmed my heart to see them talking so openly and easily. Unfortunately, my bladder didn’t care about my heart.
“Excuse me, gentlemen, I need to pop into the bathroom quickly,” I interrupted them.
Shane flashed me his panty-dropping smile and pulled me close for a quick kiss.
“Hurry back,” he whispered before releasing me.
I swooned. He did the cutest damn things sometimes.
I did as he asked and was headed back to the table in a flash. Only, Shane wasn’t in the booth. He was in front of the booth. On the floor. Down on one knee.
My heart felt like it had grown wings as it hammered in my chest, fluttering against my ribs like it was trying to get to the one person it belonged to. My world narrowed, and everything around me fel
l away until there was only Shane.
It was incredible to think that we were in a packed restaurant, and there were probably a hundred eyes on me but I only cared about him. The rest of them completely disappeared.
It kind of felt like that moment just before you go over the edge of a water slide, when gravity takes over, and there’s no turning back.
The next second, I found myself standing right in front of him, watching him beaming up at me as he reached for my hand.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, my voice shaky.
“I thought that was pretty obvious. I told you that you would know it when I proposed.” He smirked but there were tears in his eyes and emotion cracking in his voice. “I love you, Fiona. Before I met you, I felt like the world was spinning out of control. But I didn’t really care because I didn’t feel like I was a part of it. You are my center of gravity, my north, south, east, and west. I would follow you to the ends of the earth or stay completely still, as long as you were with me. We fought with each other and for each other, and forged our relationship by fire, or at Fields of Fire.”
That brought a smile to my lips, even though my mind was spinning.
“I want to spend the rest of my life fighting with and for you, and proving to you that I am the kind of man who deserves you. Will you marry me?”
Shane flipped open a ring box that had been resting on his knee, revealing a beautiful, solitaire-style ring.
I glanced at my dad from the corner of my eye and was vaguely aware of the fact that he was wearing a satisfied smile and nodding at me. But I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Shane.
“Yes,” I breathed.
He broke out in the widest, most gorgeous smile and rose, sweeping me up in his arms and spinning me round and round before setting me down on my feet and sliding the ring onto my finger.
I stared at it sitting on my finger, stunned. Then I was overwhelmed with happiness, gratitude, and thankfulness. I felt like I just won the lottery. The man of my dreams, the one who I knew without a single doubt in my mind was the one for me, was finally my fiancé.
