Her breath comes out in staccato gasps as she takes my face in her hands and locks eyes with me. “I…love…you,” she whimpers. I can tell that it’s taking a lot of effort for her to form a sentence—and that was the most perfect sentence anyone could have ever said.
“Oh! I love you so much, Lo!” I moan, totally losing all control and erupting into her with a force I never knew I had.
When I have nothing left, I feel shaky and collapse onto her. I can still feel her fluttering inside every now and then as she slowly comes down from it. I pant into her hair as she softly, lovingly strokes her fingers up and down my back. It takes me a little while to even form some kind of rational thoughts again, and I look at her like I don’t even have the words to tell her how much she means to me. Honestly, I don’t.
When I start to pull out, her legs clamp around me and she holds me in place.
“Stay,” she whispers. “Stay for just a second longer.”
That makes me smile so wide my cheeks hurt. She just let me come inside her, and now she wants me to stay there, keeping me locked with her so she can memorize the feeling.
I scoop her up in my arms, careful not to break the connection as I sit her on my lap. Her legs are on either side of me, and mine are crossed underneath her.
“I love you more than anything, Lo,” I whisper to her, rubbing her back.
“Right back atcha, stud.” She rests her arms on my shoulders and looks in my eyes.
“Will you love me when I’m just some regular dude and we don’t get to stay in badass hotel suites like this?”
“Yep.” She nods.
“Will you love me when I’m all old and I have to take Viagra to get it up?”
“James, if I know anything about you, it’s that you will never need Viagra to get it up,” she says, laughing.
I shrug in agreement.
“And yes, I’ll love you when you’re old and gray, when you’re sick, when you do stupid shit that you know will get you into trouble but you do it anyway,” she jokes. “There’s not a moment of my life when I won’t love you.”
It sounds so good that I have to close my eyes as I hear it.
When I open them again, she’s gazing at me with so much love that I feel like my heart could explode. Heavenly. She’s a fuckin’ heavenly creature. The only difference between my beautiful, kind, sweet, affectionate girlfriend and an actual angel is the wings.
“Lola,” I say before I can filter my thoughts, “will you marry me?”
Her eyes get huge and her eyebrows shoot straight up. “Seriously?” she asks with a stunned smile.
I feel totally vulnerable all of a sudden. That just slipped out. I was so overcome that I blurted it out without any kind of lead in. What if she says no? Does stuff like that happen, or do girls always say yes?
“You’re asking me right now?” she says through a laugh. “While you’re still inside me?”
I give her a shy, apologetic shrug before I joke, “What? This isn’t the fairy-tale scenario you’ve dreamed of since you were a little girl?”
She snickers and shakes her head. “Not exactly. But that doesn’t change the answer.”
Here it is. Fingers crossed.
“Yes, James,” she says, giving me a little kiss on the lips. “Of course I’ll marry you.”
“Really? You really will?” I excitedly ask her.
“Dude, did you think I was gonna say no?” she asks like I’m insane for even considering it. “I fucking love you, and I have since I was, like, six! Remember when I used to make you play house with me and you were my pretend husband? I’ve been training for this for years.”
I’m totally fuckin’ beaming, and I hug her tightly around her waist. “Jesus Christ, Lola, you have no idea how happy that makes me!” I sigh into the curve of her neck.
She laughs and pulls back, brushing her fingers through my hair as she looks at me with the warmest smile I’ve ever seen.
“Hey, can you wait right here for a sec? I need to get something,” I say, remembering the little surprise I had for her.
“Sure.” She slides off of me and sits up on the bed.
I hop over to my suitcase and dig through it all the way to the bottom. She’s watching me curiously as I take out a roll of old socks and open them up, reaching way down into one and finding what I’m looking for.
“Okay, here we go. Marriage proposal, take two.” I gesture like a film slate with my arms as I drop to one knee at the side of the bed.
Her jaw drops when she sees that I’ve got a big-ass diamond ring in my hand.
“Lola Caraway,” I begin, “I have loved you for as long as I can remember. You are my soul mate, and I want to spend the rest of my life holding you and kissing you and cherishing you. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
She puts her hand to her chest. I see two tears trickle down her cheeks, and I do everything I can to memorize this moment.
“Uh-huh.” She nods rapidly with a huge smile. “Yeah! Fuck yeah, definitely!”
I laugh and take her hand, slipping the ring on her finger.
“Dude, have you had this planned the whole time?” she asks with a big smile as I wipe the tears off her cheeks.
“Kinda,” I confess shyly.
“For how long?” she says, her mouth hanging open with surprise.
“Don’t make fun of me—swear to God that you won’t,” I say, and she nods. “Okay, so remember when I asked you to move in with me the day after we got back to LA from your mom’s house?” She nods again. “When I told you I was gonna run and get us some lunch while you unpacked things, I went to the jeweler first. I bought you a wedding ring set, and I’ve been carrying around the engagement ring this whole time waiting to ask you.”
She gasps and her smile gets wider.
“It was a top-secret maneuver. Totally stealth.”
“No way!”
“Yep.”
“So, wait, that means you’ve been planning to propose to me since, like, three days after we slept together?” she asks like this is puzzling.
“Again, don’t make fun of me, but I’ve been kinda-sorta planning to propose to you since the night I first kissed you.”
She covers her mouth, and her eyes get huge.
“To be honest, it’s been in the back of my mind since I was, like, seventeen. My mom used to tell me that one day I’d meet a nice girl and settle down, but I always kind of thought, ‘Well, I already know the nicest girl, so I already know who I’d want to settle down with.’”
“You’re just…I-I can’t even…this is so…” She’s struck speechless.
It makes me smile to see that I’ve ruffled her so much. She’s adorably flustered.
She can’t think of what to say, so she glances down at the ring and looks back up at me. “You realize this is a gigantic diamond, don’t you?”
“Sure is.” I nod proudly.
“What the hell did this cost you? This is too much. I feel like Elizabeth Taylor with this thing on! It’s like I’m royalty!”
I laugh loudly and touch her forehead to mine. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about what this cost, missy!” I say, playfully scolding her. “That’s confidential, need-to-know-basis type shit.”
“And I don’t need to know?” she replies, smirking.
“You don’t have that kind of security clearance.”
“Well, I guess I’ll just have to say that I love you and I think you’re going to be a wonderful husband.”
I pause for a sec and look at her. “Goddammit, Lola, I love you so fuckin’ much!” I sigh as I grab her face and kiss her.
She wraps her arms around me, hugging me to her as I let my lips do the talking to show her how grateful I am for her.
“So, Lola Laird, huh?” she says when we part from the kiss.
“Dude, that sounded so awesome! Say that again.”
“Lola Laird,” she says slower and more seductively.
“One more time.�
��
“Mrs. Lola Laird,” she says with a laugh.
“Fuck yeah!” I exhale and kiss her more passionately this time.
There’s a lot of kissing after that, and then we take a bath together. I rub her back and kiss her neck—I literally cannot keep my hands off her. I feel like every time I touch her she can feel that reverence I have for her, the way I just adore her so goddamn much.
We crawl into bed, and I hold her close, caressing her skin and watching as she drifts off to sleep. I’ve hit the girlfriend jackpot with this one, and I’m psyched to put a ring on it. I kiss her forehead softly and then take a very content deep breath as I fall asleep with her in my arms.
Chapter 6
Lola
“LO. HEY, LO,” I hear James whisper.
Too tired. Can’t respond.
“Lo, wake up.”
I grunt my disapproval.
“Lo, come on,” he says through an audible smile.
“Five more minutes,” I manage to whine.
I hear him laugh and then I feel a blanket of firm muscles cover me. He’s pushed me onto my stomach, and he’s lying completely on top of my back, pressing his full weight into me. He’s messing with me to try to get me to wake up.
“Lola,” he whispers, intentionally breathing directly into my ear. “Lola Caraway, you must get out of bed,” he continues, drawing out my name for a Darth Vader effect.
I whine louder, annoyed but amused at his wake-up attempt.
He nips at my earlobe and then puffs a big snort of air across the back of my neck like a rodeo bull.
“Mmm, too early,” I grumble.
“I wore you out last night, huh?” he teases, pushing up so he’s seated on my butt with his legs on either side of me. “You even snored. It was a total fuckin’ K-O.”
“Mm-hmm. Congratulations, champ. Now let me sleep it off.”
“Nope.” He starts drumming on my lower back. “We gotta go to the convention this morning, so you gotta get up.”
“I only need, like, half an hour to get ready. I can sleep for longer.”
At this, he launches into a full-fledged drum solo that would make Tommy Lee jealous, using my shoulder blades, my butt, and my lower back as he makes drum noises with his mouth. He finishes, tapping my head with a symbol crash.
I’m tired and I hate him for waking me up right now, but I laugh. I have no clue how he has such energy after last night.
“Come on. Up. Pronto,” he says, leaning over to kiss the top of my spine.
I pout, but I can’t contest it. I knew about this, and even though I’d like to pass out until it’s time to get ready for the red carpet tonight, I know James has a few obligations today, and that he wants me to accompany him.
“You have five seconds.” He smiles against the back of my neck. “Or I’ll be forced to make you get out of bed.”
With that, he whips back the sheet so he can tickle my ribs.
Oh, how I’d like to smack him right now! But I can’t because I’m laughing too hard and trying to struggle out of his hold. Sometimes I think he likes overpowering me like this, just to prove that he can.
“Fine!” I gasp through breathless laughter. “Fine! I’m awake!”
“That’s better.” He snickers and smacks my butt.
“You’re awful!” I pretend to pout and push myself up off the bed.
“And just think how awful I’m gonna get when we’re married,” he jokes, giving me a big, smart-ass grin. “If you think I annoy the shit out of you now, look out, cupcake!”
I make a very dramatic grunt of exasperation and head into the bathroom.
He follows me in and leans on the edge of the counter while I take a seat on the toilet.
“Today shouldn’t be too bad,” he says. “There’s gonna be a lot of people, but we’re not gonna be down there for long.”
“And you’re doing the signing first, right?”
“Yeah. We’ll go to the booth, I’ll sign for a little bit, then we can walk around, get the lay of the land, and we’re off the hook until tonight.”
“Did you get the badges already?” I say, flushing the toilet and nudging him so I can wash my hands.
“Uh-huh. They were with the room keys.”
He smiles at me through the mirror, and I laugh inwardly at the situation. He’s shirtless with gray pajama pants, and I’m totally nude. I just peed in front of him, and neither of us raised an eyebrow. I have friends who were in relationships for almost a year before they peed in front of their boyfriends. I guess this is a pretty big bonus of dating someone you’ve known since they were a kid. James used to pee with the door open when he came over to my house, and I remember forcing him to stand guard when I peed in the woods on camping trips. We really have no limits with each other, which should be nice when we’re married because we won’t go through that early phase where you’re still kind of putting up a front.
“Want me to order breakfast?” he asks after kissing the top of my head.
“Sure. Oh, and one more thing,” I say, catching him before he turns to leave the bedroom.
“Yeah, babe?”
“I love you.”
His resulting grin is one of true elation, and I make a mental note to tell him I love him more often. I know he’s sensed my hesitation, which is quite unfounded, and I need to let him know that I’m in this for the long haul too. I guess I’ve been holding back because I worried about his commitment level, but I take one glance down at my left hand and feel significantly more confident about our future together. He asked me. He said he’d been planning to for months. He really wants this, and I’m grinning like an idiot right now just thinking about it.
I brush my teeth and clean up while he orders breakfast. When I’m fresh and dressed in a comfy robe, I peek out into the living room to see him on his phone in his pajama pants and a T-shirt. He holds up his finger to me, and I nod, getting a complimentary water from the fridge while I wait. Our room was stocked with beverages and snacks from the hotel because James is a VIP at this shindig.
“Yeah,” he says into the phone. “I was really proud of it. Me and Amber worked together a lot, but that one was something special.”
Immediately, I put together that he’s doing an interview. He’s had a lot of phone interviews like this lined up over the past couple weeks. Everybody wants to ask him about retiring and about his movie, Collared, which garnered so many nominations. It’s like the Thriller of the ceremony, and it’s up for an award in almost every category, even the technical ones like Best Editing and Best Marketing.
I pretend not to listen, because I really should give him some privacy, but I’m too nosy, and I end up eavesdropping.
“No, I don’t think I’m really gonna miss it that much,” he says, taking a glance out the window at the Strip. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved making movies and I love almost everybody that I’ve ever worked with, but I’m just not there anymore. I’m really starting to look forward and to think about my future. I’ve got this awesome girl now, and my focus is on that.”
It takes a considerable effort to freeze my face and suppress a smile. I’m supposed to be pretending not to listen, after all.
“I totally get it, and I know some people can do it. My best friends have been dating for, like, ten years and they still work in the business, but I’m starting to realize that I’m kind of a true love guy and that I want to be with just one girl, you know?” He laughs at whatever the journalist’s response is and then smiles. “I know, right? Who would have thought that I’d fall head over fuckin’ heels like this? But she’s great. If people knew her, they’d understand immediately. They’d be like, ‘Yeah, I’d quit my job for that girl too.’ Shit, if I was President, I’d resign just to be with her.”
I have to turn away because my lips are starting to twitch and my face is exploding with a joyful expression.
“Yeah, totally excited for tonight,” he continues. “I’m trying not to get my hopes up t
oo much, ’cause you just never know with these things, but I have a pretty good feeling about it, and I think me and the gang might not be going home empty-handed.” He laughs. “We’ll see. If it happens, I’m just gonna wing it and try to speak from the heart.”
There’s a knock at the door, and I know it’s room service.
“All right…for sure, man. Well, thanks so much…you too,” he says before hanging up.
I stare at the cart of food James has ordered as I let the waiter in. James signs for the meal, hands him a big tip, and the man smiles and nods, heading back out into the hallway.
“This is a feast.” I laugh, uncovering the plates. Did he order everything on the breakfast menu?
We’ve got omelets, pancakes, bacon, sausage links, home fries, waffles, French toast, and a variety of juices from classic orange to Naked Mighty Mango.
“Did you just tell them to bring you one of everything?” I ask, cracking open one of the pomegranate acai smoothies.
“I couldn’t decide what I wanted,” he says. “Plus, I was hungry as hell, dude. Had to get back some of what we burned off last night.”
I blush, my senses remembering everything that happened last night with such clarity that it’s like it’s happening all over again.
He might have a point about the calorie count. I tear into the pancakes and scarf down half my omelet before I can blink, and the two of us sit there in silence, the only sound coming from forks clinking against dishes as we devour everything in front of us.
I’ve noticed that I eat a lot more now, but that I’m not gaining any weight. In fact, I’m looking more toned and athletic. I thought about it the other day after eating four slices of the large New York style pizza we’d ordered, and I think it’s because I’m getting a lot more exercise these days. James seems to have boundless energy, particularly when it comes to sex, and I’ve discovered that a few hours of rigorous fucking can be great cardio. Can’t get that from a treadmill, I think to myself as I look him over.
“So, when we get down there, I’ll show you around. I think you’ll be impressed. It’s a lot like Comic-Con, but with more cocks and tits,” he says, describing today’s Adult Entertainment Convention.
Desired Page 8
