I was only supposed to stay here temporarily while I recovered from my accident, but throughout my recovery, I accumulated so much stuff here that my own apartment was practically empty, except for the furniture. Once my leg completely healed, I’d already become a permanent fixture in their lives that it didn’t make any sense to move back to my apartment. Plus, after months of waking up to a sunrise with Jo by my side, I didn’t want there to be a single day when I didn’t wake up beside her to feel the warmth of her naked skin next to mine, to see her breathtakingly blue eyes. My life had almost been ripped from my fingers in the blink of an eye, and I didn’t want to waste another second of my new freedom.
We spoke to Junior about me moving in officially, but it wasn’t necessary since he’d already thought I’d moved in.
His response was, “You already live here.” Then, he quickly added to himself, “Grown-ups are weird.”
Today marks the anniversary of the day I came home from the hospital after my accident, and to celebrate, I’m asking the love of my life to marry me. And there’s no one else better to help me with this than Junior.
While Jo busies herself in the kitchen, I tap my finger for Junior’s attention, and he grins, putting his Kindle down. I nod to the sugar pot in the center of the table, and he goes to work by unscrewing the top and purposely pouring the loose sugar onto the table, like we discussed.
He spreads it out with his hand. Through the sugar, with his index finger, he writes the words, Will you marry me?
When he’s done, he looks triumphant, and I give him a wink while I reach into the cupcake box sitting on the chair beside me, and I take out a pink cupcake. I set it down beside the sugar before taking a princess cut engagement ring from my pocket and placing it on top of the cupcake.
I keep an eye on Jo, and as she turns the stove off and begins to plate our food up—creating smiley faces on the pancakes with strawberries, blueberries, bacon, and whipped cream—I give him a five-second countdown with my hand.
Once we’re down to zero, he knocks the now empty sugar pot over. “Shoot. Mama, I knocked the sugar pot over, and sugar is everywhere.”
She looks over and simply smiles. “It’s okay, baby. It’s just a little sugar. Drew, can you clean that up for me while I finish breakfast?”
I pretend I didn’t hear her and focus solely on my cell phone, absentmindedly scrolling through my Facebook feed.
She huffs in annoyance and mumbles, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.”
With a plate of food in one hand and a cloth in the other, she approaches, and it’s not until she places Junior’s plate in front of him that she gasps. I set my phone down and look up at her to see her eyes filling up with glistening tears as she stares down at the words spelled out in the sugar. I stand from my seat and shift the chair away.
With the cupcake in my hand, I get down on one knee. She looks down at me with a mixture of surprise and awe, tears spilling down her cheeks.
“Sugar, I love you. I love your son. I love our life. I never thought I’d find the one to spend my life with, let alone my soul mate, my forever. But, a year ago, you literally came storming into my life, and I haven’t been able to look back since. You never thought forever could exist twice in a lifetime, but I was able to make you believe again.
“The night before my accident, you told me that Christopher was your first love, but I was your forever. I knew then that I was going to marry you. I didn’t know when, but I just knew that, one day I’d make you mine. So, baby, sugar”—I smile, earning me a cry-filled giggle from her mouth—“will you marry me?”
She drops to her knees, crying hysterically while laughingly whimpering, “Yes, yes, yes.”
I take the ring from the cupcake and tilt it to the side, showing her the engraved word of Forever inside the ring.
“Drew…” she sighs as she reads the seven letters that sum us up in one single word.
I take ahold of her left hand, and my heart jolts within my chest as I slide the frost-covered ring on her finger.
She admires it, her eyes filling with more tears. “It’s incredible.”
Then, in usual Jo fashion, she all but launches herself at me, smacking her lips on mine.
Our kiss lasts all of two seconds before we hear, “I know you’re getting married, but jeez, would you cut it out with all the kissing? I’m trying to eat my breakfast here.”
We both laugh into each other’s mouth before we pull away.
“Later,” I promise with a whisper. “And I may have something else for you, too.”
The day continues on. Junior goes to soccer practice, and we head on out for celebratory ice cream before kicking back to watch the FC Dallas versus Houston Dynamo game.
Every time I glance Jo’s way, she’s wearing a breathtaking smile, happiness oozing from every beautiful inch of her. I love that I’ve made her smile and that I get the privilege to make her smile until the end of time.
Forever.
Later eventually arrives, and when the bedroom door finally clicks into place once Junior is sleeping soundly in his bedroom, she attacks me, and the kiss we started off with this morning turns explosive, animalistic, and out-of-this-world hot.
In a matter of seconds, we’re both naked, breathing heavily between heat-filled kisses. Wasting no time, I bury myself deep inside my fiancée with hard, fast thrusts, listening to her moans of pure ecstasy, while she’s clawing her fingers down my back. As I fill every inch of her pretty pussy with my commanding cock, it doesn’t take us long until we’re falling over the edge. I swallow her screams with my mouth as she spasms through her orgasm while she milks me for everything I’ve got.
Once we’re both spent, I pull my lips away to gaze at her post-orgasmic glow. Her fingertips caress up and down my arms, her smile in place, as she locks eyes with mine.
“I have something else for you,” I say.
“That wasn’t it?” She giggles, breathless.
“No, you know sex is a given on a daily basis, sugar.” I smirk.
With me still inside her, I reach over to the nightstand and take hold of my phone. Pressing my thumb over the Menu button, the Touch ID unlocking the screen, I tap the Realtor app. Once I’m on the right page, I hand the phone to Jo. She looks at the screen where it shows a 3,645-square-foot gray-stoned brick home—including a remodeled modern interior with hardwood floors and skylights—with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a huge backyard with a pool, and a two-car garage.
I’ve been looking for a house since pretty much the moment I officially moved in the apartment, and it’s taken months to find the perfect one. I want to get her and Junior out of this apartment and into a family home—our forever home.
So, I sold my apartment and put every penny I owned into the new house.
I just hope she likes it.
I watch as her eyes take everything in and how the creases along her forehead deepen after each passing second.
Finally, her eyes lock on mine. “What is this?”
“It’s our new house.”
“It’s our new what?” she gasps in shock, dropping the phone onto the bed.
My smile widens. “You heard me. It’s our house. Well, it will be tomorrow once I’ve signed the final papers. I’m not going to sign anything until you’ve seen the house first.”
“You’re fucking crazy.” She playfully smacks me on the shoulder.
I laugh. “Sugar, you said yourself that living here was only temporary. In fact, I can even recall the exact words you said to me all those months ago. ‘Thank God staying here is only temporary, and I don’t have to live across the hall to an asshole like you for long.’”
Her eyes sparkle with recognition of the words she all but screamed at me the first night I met her. “Now look at me. Instead of living across the hall to an asshole like you, I’m actually living with the asshole.”
I chuckle. “So, what do you think of the house? I’m going to take you to see it tomorrow before I sign the pa
pers, but if you don’t like it, we can find another house. Hell, I’ll build you a house if that’s what you want. I just—”
“Drew?” she cuts me off with a blinding smile.
“Yes, sugar?”
“I love it, and I love you,” she breathes.
And the words zero in straight to my heart.
“It’s amazing, and I can’t wait to grow old and gray with you in that house. But it has four bedrooms, and there are only three of us,” she points out.
I nod, inching my lips closer to hers. “Well, one of the rooms can be a guest room, and the other is for the baby I’m about to impregnate you with.”
She gasps at my words. “You want a baby?”
“No. I want your baby.”
Her eyes gloss over with unshed tears, and her smile is so beautiful that it physically hurts me to breathe right now—in the best possible way.
“Let’s make a baby then,” she says, shifting her hips.
I have to bite back the moan from the friction of her pussy against my already hardening dick.
“I fucking love you,” I declare before pressing my lips to hers and claiming her mouth.
She’s the first to pull away as she replies with, “I fucking love you, too.”
“So, sugar,” I say, lifting a hand and pressing a kiss on the ring I put on her finger hours earlier, “you ready to start your forever with me?”
“Forever began a year ago when I banged down your door at two in the morning.” She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me toward her lips, laughter dancing in her eyes.
Smirking, I say, “And, now, the only thing I’ll be banging at two in the morning is you.”
Her giggle is cut off when my lips connect with hers, and with my cock now completely hard again, I slowly begin to move inside her.
As I make love to her for a second time, I know I’m one lucky motherfucker.
She’s mine.
Forever.
Damn. If that isn’t the definition of perfection, I don’t know what is.
The End
Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who’s purchased Our Forever. You help keep my dream alive, and for that, I thank you.
Secondly, I would like to thank my other half, Mark, for being incredibly patient while I was on this writing journey. When I’m in the writing cave, I have to lock myself away from the real world, so I can concentrate on the fictional world, and that means ignoring everyone. Luckily for him, he doesn’t mind since he’s usually downstairs in the living room, getting lost in the fictional world of Lego video games (Star Wars, Marvel Superheroes, Jurassic World—you name it) or living it up, gangster-style, playing on GTA. So, I also thank Xbox for developing these games in order to distract my man-child enough for me to write.
A huge thank you to my betas—Susan Scott, Fran Brisland, Geraldine Evans, and Vikki Ryan.
Thank you to Mandy Hollis. I scheduled her to do a photo shoot for this book, but unfortunately, she couldn’t find the right guy for Drew, and she was such a sweetheart, trying to help me find the right photographer.
Thank you to Sara Eirew. That woman sure knows how to take a picture. The moment I found the image I used for this cover, I knew it was the one. Mike Chabot and Tiffany Marie definitely help bring Drew and Jo to life.
A huge thank you to Sarah Hansen, who, yet again, designed the perfect book cover for the story.
A massive thank you to my graphic designer, Najla Qamber. She designed teasers and banners for the release of Our Forever, and she’s probably one of the most patient people to deal with my fussy ways.
Thank you to my editor, Jovana Shirley, who kicked my ass in the best possible way with this story.
A final thank you to my family and friends who endlessly support me and the bloggers who go out of their way to promote me. I love you guys.
Until next time…
Love,
Elena Matthews
xoxo
Receptionist by day, author by night, Elena Matthews is from Manchester, United Kingdom, the home of Manchester United, MediaCity, and of course, Coronation Street. When Elena isn’t writing, she can be found with her nose in a book or watching guilty pleasures, such as Grey’s Anatomy. And, when she isn’t doing those things, you can often find her on Facebook, or obsessing over Kellan Kyle, book-boyfriend extraordinaire.
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