Page 39 of Awake in Cheshire Bay

“Maybe she grow too?”

“I’d like to think so.” My chin tucked into my chest.

Mona wasn’t a bad person, on the contrary, she was someone I likely could’ve been friends with – had the right circumstances been there. As it was, because she was busy dragging Lily away from things, she saw more nasty stuff than she ever wanted – probably helped to keep her on the straight and narrow path. Sadly, I was a part of it, but that’s how one stayed a breast of going-ons. I was sure those parties tainted her image of me too, and she saw me as just another one of Lily’s wild gang, which wasn’t true. Lily and I never ran in the same circles.

I just hoped she kept her lips sealed about the past. That shit didn’t need to be brought up ever again.

“Guess I need to return you home.” Antonio pumped his hips and gripped mine, rubbing me across his pelvis with enough pleasurably pressure to take my breath away.

“Yes… please.” It was meant as a response to his statement, but the carnal waves inside crashed over me, ready for another round of sexy times.

He stopped moving. “When you tell your friends?”

“About our engagement?” My gaze fell the ring.

He proposed with a gigantic rock, big enough to have cost more than my business and house combined. It was truly too much of a ring, but where we were now on the Grand Divertmento, weirdly enough, it wasn’t out of place. However, for when I back home in Cheshire Bay, I had a smaller copy to wear – a ring that had once been his grandmother’s. It was dainty and elegant and spoke softly about our impending nuptials whereas the true engagement ring I was to wear for the formal announcement and at any social gatherings outside of Cheshire Bay, screamed the news from the mountain tops.

“I’ll tell them as soon as I get home.”

Which was tomorrow evening, after our final full day of travel. We were expected in Wharf Point before nightfall.

“No, other.”

Ah, the other. The loaded other.

As in when am I moving away from the only place I’ve called home?

He brushed the hairs off my face and rolled up to face me. “Most business is near my home.”

“I know.”

The past year he’d made several layovers with me, to the point where the locals had accepted him as one of them, but it wasn’t permanent. He always needed to fly somewhere else as his home base was in Europe. He’d secured the Seattle location, but it wasn’t the hub, and we both knew it. A giant sacrifice on my part was needed, especially now having accepted his strong hand in marriage.

“I’ll tell them in the new year.” I sealed the promise with a kiss.

I needed at least a few more weeks myself to come to terms with the idea of selling Amber’s Ale and moving ten-thousand kilometers away. As much as I loved Antonio, and I truly did with all my heart and soul, this was a bigger step than getting married. But I could do it, and I wouldn’t be alone. Maia, his sister, video chatted with us at least once a week, and his almost sister-in-law Genevieve, did the same. I already had a new family waiting to welcome me with open arms when I arrived full-time in the Mediterranean.

“I love you, Ember.”

“I love you.”

Beneath my hips, the swell of his love grew and pushed against me, ignoring all other thoughts. “I happy you be Mrs. Antonio Welsh.”

I thrust my hips and connected with him, looking deep into his eyes. “Mrs. Amber Middleton-Welch, thank you.” I made sure to pronounce my new last name accent free.

A broad smile filled his face. “Whatever name you want.”

“For now, make me a woman.” I tipped my head back, pushing my breasts into his face. “Then send me home to help my friends have their Christmas Day wedding so I can get ideas for ours.”

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