by Amy Muscat
But I play even dirtier, I thought hearing his pained groan as I sashayed past him.
****
The rooftop terrace of the restaurant ‘E.B.Y’ was beautiful. It was decked with hundreds of flowers of every kind. It had fairy lights all over, giving it a romantic feel. Off to one side there were two outside heaters that weren’t on due to the fact that it was now the beginning of summer and the weather was just right this time of year. There was just one lone table with two chairs on either side, the same ones Keller and I were sitting in. The big wrought iron table was covered in a silky, creamy colored tablecloth and it had small lanterns on it with candles inside, making the surrounding area glow.
It was beautiful.
I don’t know how Keller had managed to get this table, in this restaurant. E.B.Y was one of the most-exclusive restaurants in the city and unless you were a celebrity, royalty or knew someone of importance, you couldn’t get in here. Or you had lots of money.
“This place is beautiful, Keller.” I told him after I had stopped looking around. “How’d you manage to get us a table here?” I was curious. I hope he didn’t have to spend a lot of money.
“The owner’s a friend of my dad’s and I called in a favor.” He said shrugging like it was no big deal.
“Really?”
“Really, Peyton.”
“Okay, well thank you for bringing me here, I love it,” I told him on a happy sigh.
“You’re welcome baby,” he smiled lovingly from across the table at me.
Just then the side door opened and a waitress came through. She smiled at us both and gave us our drinks we had ordered prior to coming up here.
“Here you go, one water- ice no lemon, and one bottle of bud,” she said and put our drinks down next to us. “Do you know what you’d like for starters or would you like me to come back?”
“No, I know what I want, and would like to order now please,” I told her. I was starving.
Keller chuckled.
Ignoring him, I told her I’d like the chicken salad for my starter and some bread with some balsamic vinegar and oil. I had a craving for vinegar lately and I was gonna fulfill that craving tonight.
“I’ll have the salad too, please.” Keller smiled at her and after writing everything down she left with a nod, telling us it should be about ten minutes.
Just as I went to say something, my cell started ringing.
When I pulled it from my purse, I saw ‘MOM’ on the screen.
I answered it was a grin. “Hello?”
“Hi baby.” My mom said into the phone, “Ivy’s just about to go to bed and wanted to say goodnight to you and Keller.”
“Okay, put her on the phone,” I told her and watched as Keller’s lips asked ‘Ivy?’ and I nodded to him. He smiled.
“Momma!” My daughter’s voice washed over me. Her tone happy, but tired.
“Hi, baby! You having a good time with nana and pop?”
“Yeah, but I got to go bed now.” I could hear the pout in her voice and could see it in my head. “Nana said that we have a busy day tomorrow and that I have to sleep longer,” she still sounded put out.
“Well, you do baby, so you have to listen to nana and go to bed now,” I told her in my stern ‘mom’ tone.
“Otay, can I speak to daddy?”
“Yeah, baby you can. Goodnight, I love you,” I told her.
“Night, I love you too, momma.” Her words made my heart clench and swell.
“Love you, here’s daddy,” I said to her and passed the phone over to Keller.
“Hi, princess.” His voice had gone all soft. It always did when he spoke to her; Keller was a big softie when it came to Ivy.
“No, princess, you have to go to sleep when nana tells you to.”
I narrowed my eyes at the phone in Keller’s hand.
That little…
She was using Keller to get to stay up later. Sneaky little mon... Well, Keller won’t fall for it anyway-
“Okay, okay. Ten more minutes, princess, and then to bed, okay?” Oh, he fell for it! He wouldn’t look at me, probably feeling the daggers I was sending him.
“Okay, night princess, love you too.” He told her, smiling into the phone
He lifted my cell away from his ear and placed it on the table between us, still avoiding eye contact.
One… Two… Three…
“Pey, stop looking at me like that, I can’t help it! She was giving me her pouting/ upset voice! You know I can’t say no to that!” Now he was pouting.
After a couple of seconds, I blew out a breath and laughed, shaking my head at him.
“I know…” I smiled softly at him and he grinned back at me.
****
We had just finished our main courses; Keller had gotten the steak with potatoes and I had gotten the chicken and potatoes, with a creamy sauce over them. It was so good.
“You want any dessert?”
I placed my hands over my bloated stomach and said, “Maybe in a bit, I’m full at the moment.” The twins made me want more food than when I was pregnant with Ivy. I had to pee more often, too. We’d only been here about an hour or so and I had already been to the bathroom three times.
“Okay, baby.” Just then we got a gust of wind and I shivered. “You cold?” He asked me, already shrugging his suit jacket off his shoulders.
“A little,” I told him, just as he rounded the table and placed his jacket over my shoulders.
As I went to say thank you, a song came on over the speakers. ‘Into the Mystic’ by Van Morrison.
This was mine and Keller’s song! When we’d been younger, I loved Van Morrison, still did and he used to sing this to me all the time. We had declared it our song.
“Dance with me, Pey?” I looked up and saw that he had his hand out to me, waiting for mine.
I grinned and said I’d love to.
We walked to the middle of the roof, and he spun me out and back into him, making me laugh, just as Van’s voice floated over us.
“We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won
As we sailed into the mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly
Into the mystic”
My right hand was placed over his heart, gripping onto his shirt pocket, and my left was clasped into his right, while his left was wrapped around my back and he was gripping my hip.
We were swaying to the music, my head lay in his neck and I breathed him in. Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male. And Keller was all male.
I felt his arms clench and pull me closer to him. I felt his lips at the crown of my head and he started singing in his husky, deep voice, to me.
“When that fog horn blows
You know I will be coming home
And when that fog horn whistle blows
I gotta hear it
I don't have to fear it
And I wanna rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
And together we will float
Into the mystic
Come on girl”
His voice sent shivers through me, the good kind.
He lifted his head, let go of my waist and spun me out again and when I was attached to his body again, he dipped me down. Hollywood style.
I laughed and as he lifted me back up he placed a kiss on my lips.
Then instead of pulling me back into his body, he pulled both of my hands up and gently placed a kiss on each knuckle before he dropped down… on one knee!
Oh. My. God!
“Keller…” I put a hand over my mouth to cover the gasp that left me.
“Peyton, you have been the only person my whole life that I have ever loved. You have given me a beautiful daughter and two more on the way. You have been the light in my darkness, when everything went wrong with my mom and Cameron, you were there
to help me through it and I thank you for that.” He inhaled a big breath. I had tears in my eyes as he carried on. “The love I feel for you goes bone deep, you’re my soul mate, Pey, and I’ll never let you go again. Me and you? We’re like a double helix, pie. We’ll never be apart.”
The tears in my eyes started flowing down my cheeks like a river, and I hiccupped a sob.
He had tears in his eyes too and in his voice was strained as he said, “From the moment I first met you, you enticed me. From your hair, to those beautiful emerald jewels, that are your eyes, to your attitude. Everything about you sucked me in. As we got older, the power you had over me only grew stronger and stronger. That’s what you did- do! That’s what you do every single day. I am and have always been enticed by you… I love you with every part of my being, so… Will you, Peyton Ivy Emerson- my Pie, make me the happiest person alive and become my wife? Will you marry me?” He was holding his breath, biting his bottom lip and looking up at me with hopeful eyes.
Through my sobs and tears I somehow managed a “YES!”
He stood up so fast, I was surprised he didn’t get dizzy and wrapped his arms around me. He picked me up and spun me around, shouting his joy. When he eventually put me down, I looked up into that perfect face of his and into those gorgeous chocolate swirls, I found that I had never been happier than I was at this moment.
“Thank you,” Keller said and dipped his head and pressed his lips to mine. This kiss was different from all the others; it was full of love, passion, lust and happiness. But most of all it was full of promise: a promise for the future.
As he pulled back, he took my shaking left hand into his, and placed the most-beautiful ring I had ever seen on my ring finger. It was cut into a square/ rectangle shape, with diamonds going around the whole band and the stone in the middle was magnificent. Stunningly beautiful.
But as I looked closer I realized that I’d seen that ring before…
“This was my mom’s ring, you remember? It’s a Tiffany Soleste Emerald cut. I’d always wished it would go on your finger one day and when I told my dad, I was going to propose he gave me it and told me how my mom would love for you to wear her ring.” He sounded choked up as he said this and I placed my hand on his jaw and rubbed, soothing him silently.
“I love it, Keller. I’d always loved your mom’s ring. Your parents had a perfect marriage and I think with this ring, it’ll pass onto ours. It would be like always having a part of your mom with us, y’know?” I smiled up at him, tears burning my eyes again.
“Yeah, baby, I know,” he bent and kissed the ring. “It sort of fit with the name, don’t you think, Emerald cut?”
“Yeah, it fits perfectly- both name and on my finger, Kel.”
“I love you,” he breathed out.
“I love you, too.” I told him and stood up on my tippy toes and kissed him so heatedly I felt my body burn with love, lust and happiness.
I heard fireworks off in the distance and wondered if anyone else was enjoying their night and if they were as deliriously happy as I was right now.
“I really do love you, pie. More than you could ever know, and I promise you, I’ll be the best husband and father I can be.” He pressed another soft peck on my lips.
“You already are, Keller. You already are,” I told him and kissed him again, until all I could think about was him, all I could smell was him, and I could feel was him. He consumed me, body, mind, heart and soul.
And I’ll love him forever.
This man had my whole heart. I loved going to sleep next to him every night, and waking up next to him every morning. He was a selfless lover, father, and friend. Everything that he did and said made me fall in love him more and more every day.
I was enticed by him.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy Muscat is twenty-two, a London girl, a bookaholic, and when she’s not writing or reading, you can find her pulling a pint behind the bar where she works, where she drives all her customers mad talking about people that don’t exist.
FIND AMY HERE:
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to my family for putting up with me and my craziness for the last couple of months.
A ginormous thank you to all my Gils!! I love you girls. X
Thank you to Danni and Charlie for being there every step of the way. I would’ve never had certain parts of the story in there if it weren’t for you two girls! X
Thank you to all my customers, you guys are seriously awesome! You have had to listen to all my ideas for god knows how long- and I thank every single one of you for having to listen to me rant and moan and witness my frustration spells. I love you guys! X
Also thank you to all the girls for sharing your stories to me. X
A big thank you to Melissa over at MGbookcovers. Thank you for putting up with my fussiness with my cover, but in the end we got there and out came a beautiful book cover and all credit goes to you, Hun. I highly recommend anyone who needs a cover design, to go to Mel- she is perfect! X
Thank you to Feisty Girls Book Blog for doing my cover reveal and passing people over to my page! X Feisty Girls Book Blog
A massive thank you to Laura my awesome editor! Lady, you have had to put up with me for a couple of months now and you have turned my story into a polished book. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for having to deal with me and my moaning and my bad habit of pestering you. I, again, highly recommend anyone who needs their book edited to go to Laura- she’s the best out there! X Editing For You
Thank you to my beta readers, Sirenda and Hannah. You girls were the first people who I don’t personally know who read my book and the whole time you ladies were reading it, I had big butterfly’s flapping around in my stomach, awaiting your responses. And then you came back and really liked my story! Thank you for your honesty and pointers. You girls are the best! X
Thank you to Ena and Jennifer over at Enticing Journeys book promotion for doing my blog tour! I know you were fully booked and yet you managed to fit me in and do my tour- thank you for that! X Enticing Journey Book Promotions
Thank you to Max Henry over at Max Effect. You are a brilliant formatter, lovely. Thank you for making my book readable! X Max Effect
