Page 129 of Forbidden Desire

Once Josie is in bed, we spend most of our nights in here ravaging each other until late into the night. I’m not ready to miss out on that, but this morning has me changing my mind.

Erica wraps her leg around me and I look down at her, raising a brow suggestively.

“I’m just cuddling you,” she says, rolling her eyes.

I chuckle. “Cuddle away.”

We end up falling asleep again, worn out from the night before and all the party planning that had led up to yesterday’s party. An hour later, I wake again and slip out of bed, leaving Erica asleep in the sheets. I think back to over a year ago when I left her in this same bed, never intending to hurt her and never anticipating what may have come from that fateful night. I know now that I will never leave her again.

I grab a robe from my closet and slide it on before quietly slipping from the room. I pad down the hallway to the kitchen where I begin to put together a tray of Erica’s favorite things: Croissants from the corner bakery that I picked up yesterday, a vase of pink tulips, orange juice, and a double espresso with vanilla foam, courtesy of my espresso machine.

Once the tray looks to my liking, I open the corner drawer and reach all the way to the back. My fingers close around a velvet box and I pull it from the drawer. I hid it here yesterday before the party, after I picked it up yesterday morning from the jeweler. I hold the box in my hands and open it slowly to reveal a solitaire marquise-cut diamond on a thin gold band.

Little does Erica know, I had her friends help me pick it out. We spent hours at the jeweler, looking at the different rings and Beth and Sadie trying them on, so I could see what they looked like. They were absolutely giddy, lost in a world of carats and gold and platinum. We went a few weeks ago after I asked Erica’s father for her hand in marriage.

I was intimidated to ask the brute of a man who so vividly lived up to the picture Erica painted for me, but he was oddly permissive after a little groveling. I visited him at her parents’ home upstate, playing hooky from work, even though I told everyone I had meetings. He knew why I was coming, but still made me work for it, until giving me his blessing. Erica’s mother was there too, and I took her bawling her eyes out as her blessing.

Of course, I asked her brother, Troy. Truthfully, his blessing mattered the most to me because I know how close he and Erica are. Or were, before everything that happened. It’s been nice to see them growing closer again, now that there aren’t any more secrets.

I met him for breakfast near his apartment, claiming it had to do with business, but he saw right through it as soon as he sat down. He gave me shit, like any big brother would, but he gaveme his sincere blessing in asking his sister to marry her. He was the final one I had to ask before I felt right about popping the question.

I close the velvet box now and set it in the center of the tray, taking a deep breath as I pick it up. I had the idea of proposing yesterday at the party, but changed my mind at the last minute. I realized that I wanted this moment to be between just us two, and I can’t think of a better time to do it. I figure it’s our turn to have a secret together before we break the news.

I walk down the hall, balancing the tray carefully in my hands as I make my way to our bedroom. When I step inside, I see that Erica is still asleep. I set the tray beside her on my side of the bed before coming around and climbing in bed beside her. She stirs as I wrap my arms around her.

“Mmmm,” she moans softly, wrapping her hands around my forearms.

“Open your eyes, sleepyhead,” I whisper.

“M-mmm,” she protests.

I laugh. I’d let her sleep, but I’m too eager to know her answer. I need to know if she will spend the rest of her life with me.

“Pretty please,” I whisper in her ear.

“You’re relentless,” she groans, thinking I want something else from her, which I do, but not now.

She pulls herself to sit up and I sit alongside her. She clutches the sheets around her and I follow her eyes as they land on the tray. Before she can say anything, I slip off the bed unnoticed.

“Breakfast in—” she stops herself, and I know she sees the black velvet box in the center of the tray.

She quickly turns her head and sees me kneeling on the floor. Her hands reach to her mouth in surprise.

“Erica Marie Gunner. You came into my life when I wasn’t looking for anything, but you made me look. You made me see what life could be like with you. With someone vibrant, passionate, beautiful, sarcastic, stubborn, and loving. I fell in love with you that night on the rooftop. I know our story was written backwards and we got lost along the way, but I’d do it all again if it meant ending up with you, and if it meant being the father of our daughter. I love you. I always will. Please, let me spend the rest of my life loving you and raising our family together.”

I see a single tear fall down Erica’s cheek as she looks down at me. I look at her expectantly, waiting for the one word that would make my entire life.

“Yes,” she says, her voice catching as she sobs. “Oh, my God, yes.”

I pull myself up and climb on the bed, pulling her in my arms. She cries quietly against my chest as I hold her tightly. Finally, she looks up at me and a big smile spreads across her lips. These are the only tears I want to cause her. Happy ones.

“That was one hell of a speech,” she says with a soft laugh, shaking her head as more tears fall.

“May I?” I ask, nodding to the tray where the box still sits unopened. She nods enthusiastically and I pluck it from just under the pink tulips overhanging in their vase. I pull the box between us and open it slowly, the click of the gold hinges the only sound in the room until she lets out a gasp.

I pull the ring from the velvet cushion and reach for Erica’s hand. She’s shaky as she holds it out for me. I slip the ring onto her finger and she stares at it in disbelief. It looks perfect on her, like it was made for her. Like this moment was made for us. I lift her hand and press my lips to her knuckles.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” she whispers, looking from me to the ring.

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