Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 45301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“Bria?” Braden says, with a note of nervousness in his voice.
It’s like he thinks there’s a chance I’m going to say no, like I’d ever say no.
“Yes,” I whisper, and then say it louder, until I’m screaming it. “Yes, yes, yes, yes!”
He makes a whooping noise as he darts forward and grabs my hand, laughing as he fumbles to find my ring finger. I giggle as the world becomes blurry with tears again, as the sunlight shifts across my vision and hazes everything.
Finally, he finds the right finger and slips the ring on, leaping to his feet and wrapping his arms around me.
I bury my face against his chest, feeling the firmness of him, the solid security.
“Wait a sec.” I giggle, leaning back in his embrace, in my fiancé’s embrace. “How did you know my ring size?”
He leans down so our noses tickle each other. “I measured you in your sleep. Why...are you offended?”
I slap his chest playfully. “I’m sure you’ll find some way to make it up to me. I’m kidding. I’m so freaking happy, Braden. I can tell how much effort you went through to make everything perfect.”
He smiles as he kisses the edge of my mouth. “And how did I do?”
“I couldn’t be happier,” I reply. “Everything is just amazing. You’re amazing.”
“Not as amazing as you, Bria. I mean that. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you.”
“I love you more.”
He removes his lips from the corner of my mouth.
“Impossible,” he snarls, before kissing me full on the lips, claiming me as I open my mouth and kiss him back.
We sink into each other as the sun shines down at us, as our future opens before us, as love and light and happiness flare in my chest, my heart beating like a promise that Hollywood happily ever afters really do exist.
Epilogue
Three Weeks Later
Braden
I finish the length of the swimming pool and haul myself up, feeling the morning sunlight beating down against my skin. It’s the first morning we’ve had to ourselves since shooting wrapped up, giving us time to simply be together.
But when I woke this morning, my woman was gone, a note on her bedside table.
I need to do something important. Wait for me. I won’t be long.
I wander over to the lawn chair where I left the note, gazing down at it as confusion thrums inside of me. Water drips down my skin, between my pecs, down my abs as I stare at the note and try to make sense of it.
I texted her the moment I saw it.
Is everything okay?
Her text came right back in a flash.
Yes, everything’s fine. There’s no need to worry. I just need to sort something out.
Dropping into the lounger, I lean back and close my eyes, letting the sunlight turn the inside of my eyelids red.
The color shifts and becomes these past three weeks, becomes my woman as she flutters around our new home with Maximillia, the two of them dreaming up ways to decorate it.
I think about the long evenings spent together, enjoying leisurely meals after shooting, or falling into each other’s arms and disappearing into the hunger of our desire. I think about the way Bria has emerged from her shy and nervous personality, even more, becoming sassier, spunkier, and yet still with that hit of shyness that causes my manhood to stir in the beginning.
I think about how we lie in bed together after we have sex, make love, and the banter we share about our future children’s names.
“If he’s a boy, I think we should call him Bear.” Bria giggled breathily last night, her fingernails clawing against my abs as she rested her cheek against my chest. “Aren’t you going to ask me why?”
She’s so damn cute when she gets like that, stirring even more love inside of me until there’s so much I feel like I’m going to burst from it. It’s like there’s a cup filled with love inside of me, except that with Bria it’s always overflowing.
It makes every part of life better, easier to appreciate.
I haven’t stopped smiling since she said yes.
“Why?” I asked her last night, sifting my fingertips through her hair.
“Because he’s going to be a little monster, just like you.”
“Is that how you see me, is it?” I teased, moving my hand from her hair to her side, getting ready to tickle her like crazy, mostly so I could hear the adorably dorky laughter she gifts me when she’s being tickled. “A little monster?”
She rolled around the bed as I chased after her, and then she took the lead, mounting me and ‘pinning’ my arms above my head.
We both knew I could roll over and crush my body against hers at any moment, but it was so damn sweet to let her ride me, to study the confident beauty in her face as she reached her release.