Page 7 of Please Save Me

I’d taken my drink back just in time to choke on it. I slipped my finger into the pink satin of my dress, suddenly feelingveryhot. And not in a confident way, either—in the, ‘oh my God, I’m five degrees from sweating my boobs off’ way.

“W-wow… that is… How do you feel?”

Lucian squirmed a little under the weight of my question.

“I would really like to take her to the courthouse, and soon. Like ideally, we would have been married yesterday?” His words came out slowly, lacking all of his normal confidence.

I let out a laugh, hoping to shake off some of the overwhelming nerves. When that didn’t work, I picked up my drink and downed the contents. “You don’twant to propose and have a real wedding? Won’t your grandparentsflip outif they find out you eloped?”

My words came outwaysqueakier than I meant for them to, and Lucian’s face tightened for just a second as the waiter came by and placed a pink cocktail in front of him. After carefully setting down the perfectly full glass, he pointed to my drink and asked if I wanted another. I very quickly said yes.

A fancy skewer of candied raspberries lay across the white foam on top of Lucian’s drink. Lucian picked up the garnish and placed the pick in his mouth, removing the entire stack of berries with his teeth. I could hear the sugar crunching as he chewed.

“Look, it’s not that I don’twantto propose to Mason, and we’ll have a wedding… someday. But, she doesn’t want Rosie to have her last name; Cameron is weirdly against giving Rosiehislast name, so I figured I’d fix it by giving Mason a new last name.” He swallowed the fruit in his mouth before wrapping his tattooed fingers around the stem of the glass. “It’s called problem-solving.”

If the circumstances had been a little different, I’d totally be okay with this. Mason and Lucianneededto get married. Every minute they delayed was a slap in the face of the inevitable. But the idea of Mason getting married while pregnant brought up memories I didn’t want to deal with—ones that always resurfaced just before the holidays, no matter how hard I tried to push them down.

“I know what problem-solving is. It’s just...” As I struggled to verbalize my emotions, I played with my empty cup,reallywishing I hadn’t drank it so quickly.

Lucian reached forward, resting his warm, familiar hand on mine. After ten years together, he felt like home to me. I looked back up and met his intense gaze. My heart flipped, and I struggled to calm my thoughts. Even though I knew Lucian and Mason were adults who deserved to make their own decisions, my instincts wanted to screamabsolutely not!

“I… can we compromise?” I pleaded.

His brow furrowed as he raised his glass, still not taking a sip. “A compromise?”

I nodded, running through everything I could say, trying to rehearse it like I would my responses during meetings. But my mind was running so fast that I didn’t have a chance to glue together a coherent proposition.

“Maybe you can propose to her now? And then, after Rosie’s born, you can have a small ceremony…. say, like, next year? After the holidays are done?”

Compassion filled his eyes as he breathed deeply. Lucian knewexactlywhy I didn’t want them to get married right now. It was the same reason I poured so much extra effort into making the holidays special. No one could be sad in a house that looked like a set for some cheesy Christmas movie.

“Soph, Rosie’s due on Christmas.”

“I know, I just…. Please?”

He breathed in deeply before mumbling, “Fine.”

The waiter came by and set down another lemony drink in front of me, and I hurriedly grabbed it, ready to embark on any conversation that didn’t end with us bringing upher.

“To us?” I proposed, raising my glass in the air.

Lucian gave me a tight-lipped smile as we clinked glasses and sipped our drinks.

“Well, how is it?” I asked with a smile.

He pressed the corners of his lips together before taking another small sip. “It tastes like juice.”

I laughed as the tension fully lifted between us, and I could finally breathe right again. “See! It’s nice to let loose a little, isn’t it?”

Lucian nodded before putting the cup down and reaching for his soda. I knew I was right to give him this experience. If alcohol was going to be a problem for him, he would have chugged his cocktail and asked for another.

As the night wore on, the ambiance of the restaurant slightly shifted. The stylings of a jazz band replaced the hum of conversation around us. I’m not sure if it was the alcohol in my veins or the fact that Lucian was six feet and three inches of pure sex appeal, but all of a sudden Ineededhim.

I reached over, my hand resting on his. “Hey, I think we should take this to the bathroom.”

I prided myself on being someone who was weirdly vanilla, for everything going on in my house. I didn’t mind being tied up, pegging Lucian, or even forcing him to orgasm until he learned to be a good boy. As long as I was in charge, I could doanythingmy partners wanted.

But having sex in public places?Thatgot me hot under the collar. I wasn’t sure if it was the thrill of possibly getting caught, the stress of having to stay quiet, or that doing it in public meant my partner wanted me so badly it couldn’t wait.

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