Page 92 of The One I Love
“I like the sound of that,” he says, kissing me on the top of my head. “Tell me what else you see.”
I smile, and suddenly the whole picture is unfolding in front of me. “You’re wearing khakis and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up.”
“I’m liking this already. I’d put on a tuxedo for you, but I wouldn’t like it.”
“I figured,” I say through a laugh. “I’m wearing a silky white dress. Both of us are in bare feet. Because…sand.”
“Obviously,” he says. “Can I make a request?”
“Of course. It’s your hypothetical wedding too.”
He laughs. “I know our friends will want to be part of it—and we probably have to let Simon officiate if we ever want a moment of peace again—but I think I’d like only one person standing next to me.”
I tilt my head back to look up at him. Only one? BetweenOliver, Wes, and his brother Noah, I’m curious who he’d want. “Who?”
“Luke.”
I don’t even have a chance to try and fight the tears. “Really?”
“Of course,” he says. “This wedding wouldn’t just be about us. It would be about becoming a family. So, it’s fitting if Luke is next to me. Mariah next to you, if that’s what you want. The four of us becoming a unit. A family.”
Oh, this man… Every time I think he can’t do, say, or show any more how he loves me, he goes and says things like that.
I stand so I can turn and straddle myself across his lap. I take his face in my hands and bring him in for a kiss that I hope communicates everything I feel for this man.
“I love you, Shane,” I say as I still have his cheeks in my hands. “I love you so much.”
“Oh Amelia,” he says as he brings our lips back together. I’m mad when it doesn’t last longer, but that’s only until I hear him say four words I’ll never forget. “I love you too.”
We fall back into a kiss that’s not appropriate for public consumption. Luckily, we found a secluded part of the beach, and even if there were people here right now, I don’t care. I love Shane, he loves me, and for the first time in my life, I feel at peace. I feel truly loved. I feel whole.
And it’s all because of him.
Our mouths move together in perfect harmony as his hands travel under my T-shirt. It’s nothing indecent, but the feel of his gentle touch and callused fingers against my skin is always a welcome sensation.
The kiss deepens, and I can feel Shane getting harder under me. My hips start moving because I’m desperate to find relief in my aching center. Shane’s lips move down to my neck, kissing, making me arch back so far that I think I might touchthe handlebars of the bike. He starts sucking on my breasts through my shirt, and somehow it’s pleasure and pain, because I want to feel him on me. It’s actually hurting that I’m only getting fractions of what I could be if his mouth was on me, sucking and nipping in ways only he can do.
“Shane…please…”
He brings me back up so we’re looking eye-to-eye. “Here?”
I nod while simultaneously looking around to make sure we haven’t been joined by anyone. The sun has set, and there’s barely any light on the beach. The only sound is the waves crashing against the sand.
“Yes. Here. Now.”
Shane’s lips plunge back into mine before he starts inching back. “Stand up.”
I do as he says, carefully backing myself up so I can swing my leg over the seat. As soon as I’m standing, Shane appears next to me, turning me around so I’m facing the bike.
“You are so beautiful.”
He reaches around me, somehow undoing my jeans from behind.
“So sexy.”
He pushes them down my legs, just low enough so I can spread them apart for him.
“And mine.”
