Since he’s not speaking, I continue, “I know this may seem sudden, since we’ve only technically been back together a really short time, but I’ve learned recently that life is too short to be without the person you love. Even a life that spans two centuries, if we’re lucky.” I take the colander away from him and set it to the side. He takes a dish towel I pass over, eyes on me the entire time, like he’s trying to figure out if I’m serious or not, despite what his craft must be telling him.
He’s still not saying anything. So I add what’s been percolating around my head since the moment I gave him both my body and soul. “I want to live with you. I miss that so much. I want to wake up to your face, go to sleep with it being the last thing I see. Fight with you over which television show or movie to watch. Eat dinner together when we’re both at home. Share our successes and defeats. Encourage each other to chase the dreams we want. Know that we are free to be who we are and that the other person accepts us as is. Spend our holidays together, and share our families so they becomes ours, not just yours or mine.” I reach out and claim his hands so I can lace my fingers through his. “I want our last names to be the same. I want us, when we’re ready, to add to our family, and for that baby to know that he or she is so incredibly loved by both parents. I want us to grow old together, so that when we’re nearing the end of our existences, we can look back and think, ‘Wow, we were the luckiest and strongest because we had each other.’” I take a measured, deep breath. “I actually do wish I had the power to break our Connection so I could show you that, even without it and Fate and everything else out there, I would still choose you, Jonah. You’re who I want. You’re who I need.”
He’s still not saying anything with his mouth, but it’s okay, his eyes are doing all the talking I need to hear. They’re filled with awe—but more importantly, they’re filled with love.
I take one of his hands and press it against my heart. The muscle in my chest isn’t racing for once. It’s slow and steady. It’s sure. “I love you, Jonah Whitecomb. More than you can ever imagine. Will you marry me?”
He steps into me, so that our feet overlap one another and our chests press together. Both hands cup my face and he stares down at me with those beautiful, beautiful eyes that I’ve lost myself in too many times to count over my lifetime. My heart finally kick starts, because sometimes, even though a girl can be one hundred percent positive about what she wants, when a boy you love looks at you the way mine is looking at me, you have no control over your body at all.
I’ve known him for sixteen years, and it occurs to me that I fall in love with him a bit more every single day.
One of his thumbs slowly traces my lower lip. His head dips so that not only do I feel his thumb on my mouth, but his breath, too. I love him, I love him, and—
“Yes.”
I can’t help the blissful smile that overtakes my face. And then my mouth meets his, claiming sweet victory.
Dinner is totally not going to happen. Both of our shirts are somewhere in the kitchen. My skirt is in the hallway, I think. His shorts are in the doorway to his bedroom. I’m on his bed, my knees digging into the soft sheets as I rise up to meet him. My heart’s thumping a staccato that the entirety of Annar must hear, and I’m lightheaded and yet more grounded than I have felt in years.
His knees brush against the end of the bed. “That thing you do,” he murmurs, hands falling soft against the comforter. “Where you block your feelings from me—”
“Never again,” I say quietly, the vow filling the space between us.
He smiles, the dimple gentle yet lips mischievous. “I wasn’t going to ask you to hide yourself from me tonight. Because,” one knee, then two bring him up onto the bed, “I want to know exactly how you feel when I make love to you.”
Ohh, things in me go molten pretty damn fast. “Yeah?”
“Because when I get to feel what you’re feeling when I’m in you,” he continues, and heavens above is this man sexy, “it’s the most fucking amazing sensation in the entire universe.”
Oh, sweet heavens above, he just set my entire body on fire, and he did it with just words. My butt drops to hit my heels, my palms go flat against the bunched up sheets below me just to prop me up, because I’m pretty sure my muscles just turned to jelly.
“You—you were saying?” My words come out as tiny gasps.
I love how his lips curve up on one side as he slowly crawls towards me. “Right. I was asking if you think it’s possible to shield me.”