She smiles before lifting up on her toes to kiss me sweetly. She tastes like cherry Chap Stick. It makes me hungry in a hundred different ways.
“You’re a good man, Colt Avery,” she whispers against my lips.
She hits me hard with that shit. I nearly blush myself.
“We should get inside, love birds,” The Hotness teases. “We wouldn’t want to be late, would we, Colt?”
“You guys go ahead. I need to show Lilly something.”
“This is a fancy party, dude,” Trey warns me. “Please don’t whip it out in front of the whole team again.”
“Again?” Lilly asks on a laugh.
“It was Halloween!” I cry defensively. “You’re lucky if you don’t see a dick on Halloween.”
“I think you’re celebrating Halloween wrong.”
“Whatever,” I mumble, pulling Lilly toward the side of the house. “We’ll meet you guys inside.”
“You know, I was kind of hoping that since I’m not working this party I could go in through the front door like a real person,” Lilly objects as I stride toward the kitchen entrance.
“This is going to be better. I promise.”
“I’m trusting you.”
“That’s all I ask.”
The wait staff is different than it was back in November. They look up at is in surprise when we come into the kitchen but no one questions us, although I can feel them watching us as I open the pantry door and push Lilly quickly inside. I lock it just as quickly behind us.
She stands in the corner by the bags of brown rice, her hands on her hips. “Colt, I didn’t have sex with you in here four months ago and I’m not going to do it now.”
I chuckle, shaking my head. “No. That’s not what we’re doing.”
“Then what are we doing in here?”
“We’re going back to the beginning.”
“What?”
I clear my throat, swallowing down the lump that’s rising inside it. “There are a thousand different ways I could have done this. I know because I looked them up online. Literally thousands. But I also know that most of them are nothing you would be comfortable with. I know that you need it to be small and private, just you and me, so that’s what I’m doing.” I drop down to one knee in front of her, taking her hands in mine. Her eyes are huge, glaciers pure and blue staring down at me in amazement.
“Oh my God,” she breathes.
“I know this is fast, even by my standards, but I love you. I knew there was something incredible about you the day I met you here in this room, and I find something new to love about you every single day. I find those things and I memorize them because I see you. Crystal clear. And no matter what your answer is to this question, I want you to know that I’ll never forget you, Lilly Hendricks. I will say your name every day for the rest of my life, and when I die it will be the last word to cross my lips. I promise you that.”
Tears fall from her eyes. They drip down her cheeks, off her chin, onto our hands clasped together. They fall like rain and when she smiles they burst from her eyes in a torrent that washes over my skin, cool and clean.
I reach into my pocket to pull out the box inside. Her breath hitches when she sees it. When it gets real.
I open it slowly, showing her the large emerald cut diamond inside.
“I know you probably wish it was smaller,” I joke with a crooked grin, the one I know she loves. “But you gotta let me do some things big.”
I’m relieved when she laughs roughly, wiping at her eyes to clear them. “This is big,” she agrees. “This is all really big.”
“But is it too much?”
She shakes her head, dropping to her knees in front of me, a smile on her face. “No. It’s perfect.” She bypasses the ring, reaching for my face and kissing me hard. “Everything you do is perfect.”
“Is that a yes?” I ask, my nerves fried. My skin prickling with adrenaline.
“What was the question?”
I chuckle, taking hold of her hips to pull her closer. “Will you marry me, Lilly?”
“Yes, Colt. I would be proud to marry you.”
She lets me put the ring on her finger. It looks even bigger on her small hand and I can tell it freaks her out a little bit, but she’ll get used to it. Same way she got used to me. The same way she fell in love with me; slow and sweet.
I jacked up my knee again this season. We lost our shot at the Super Bowl. Lilly’s dad is battling a bitch of a disease. And still when I hold her close, her body shaking against mine with laughter and tears as I ask her to promise again and again to be my wife, I can’t help but feel hopeful. I feel that high, that rush that loving her gives to me. I’m looking forward instead of back, toward a new day, a new life, a new season, and one thought is pushing hard at the forefront of my mind.
It’s going to be a fucking good year.
Thank you for reading SUGAR RUSH!
The third book in the series following Kurtis Matthews is coming late 2016.
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Keep reading for a preview of THIS IS THE WONDER.