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After rowing for a good amount of time, our kayak floated in the middle of nowhere. The water was pitch black as far as the eye could see, shining only with the pale starlight from above. It had taken some persuading to even get him in the boat in the first place considering how dark it was with the new moon. Not to mention the fact the last time I commandeered a boat, I purposely crashed it. Apparently he was still a little sore over that whole incident.
Instead of giving him a verbal answer, I leaned over the side and ran my fingers through the water. Brilliant blue flashed over my hand, dripping back into the sea to rejoin the blackness.
“A bio bay,” he gasped, trailing his hand along the water. The ripples lit up in the wake.
“Do you like it?”
“Who could possibly say no?” he quipped.
I chuckled quietly, peeling off my t-shirt. A second later, I was in the water, a larger burst of light erupting all around me. Surfacing with a sigh, I swiped water and hair out of my eyes. “Are you coming?”
I didn’t need to ask a second time. He dropped the anchor before unbuttoning his shirt. Tossing it aside, he dove past me, disappearing under the surface. The water lit up in gentle waves, illuminating his path straight back to me.
His hands slid up my sides, like a diver skimming along a tether to the surface. As soon as he emerged, I pressed my lips to his. The glowing blue water around us lit up his smirk when he pulled away from me. “Why is it every time we’re in a boat, you make get me out of it?”
“I like seeing you wet.” I brushed the long, sopping curls out of his eyes before kissing him again. Thankfully, we were close enough to the kayak that I could grab it to stay afloat. In return, he captured my jaw and kissed me hard, the salty water on his lips mingling with the mint left over on his tongue from his mojito.
My fingers scraped along his ribs, doing my best to pull his body closer to mine. Tearing my mouth from his, I kissed my way down the side of his neck, biting the juncture of his shoulder.
“You better not be trying to start something,” he said sternly, rolling his shoulder away from me.
“I’m nottryinganything.” Flashing him an impish grin, I slid my leg between his and hooked it behind his calf to make sure my sea otter didn’t float away.
“I believe that as much as I believe you when you say you’re looking forward to domesticity.”
“I am!” It was probably the last thing he ever thought would come out ofmymouth, but it was true. Being with him —reallybeing with him — reined in my wild side and made me yearn for things I’d once avoided at all costs. I still wanted to travel and marvel at the world, but I also wanted to make him crepes on Sunday mornings and argue about how to properly load the dishwasher.
There was a disbelieving smirk on his face, accompanied by an arched brow. “You’ll get bored.”
“I won’t.”
“You always do.”
“Not this time.” I nuzzled the side of his neck, pressing soft kisses upward, until I reached his ear. “You’re all I need. All I’lleverneed. All I’lleverwant.”
He hummed his skepticism, but tilted his head to the side regardless, exposing more of his throat.
“Marry me,” I breathed against his wet skin.
Oh, fuck… Bennett!
I didn’t intend to blurt it out quite like that, but my brain suddenly lost control over my mouth. Now it was out in the open and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to call it back.
“What?!” He recoiled so fast he sent a wave of shimmering blue across the surface of the water, lighting up his bewildered expression. I don’t think I’d ever seen his eyes as big as they were, which meant I hadnoidea what was going through his mind. Nothing caught Leander Welles off guard. Except, apparently, a marriage proposal.
The plan was to asksometimeduring this trip, to declare my intentions publicly and without reserve. After everything, I never wanted him to doubt my commitment, but words weren’t enough. Especiallymywords, words that were infamous for spinning webs upon webs of lies. Marriage was the only thing I could offer to demonstrate the magnitude of my feelings, the sincerity of my vow to never be parted from him ever again.
“Marry me, Leander,” I repeated, trying my best to scrutinize his expression in the near-dark. “Say you’ll be mine for the rest of our lives. God knows, I’m not a poet. I can’t describe how perfect you are or credit the stars for bringing us together. All I can do is promise to love you as no one has ever been loved before until I take my last breath.”
His lips parted and shifted just so, enough that I knew he was biting the inside corner of his mouth. Save for the rocking of the waves, he was utterly still — and silent.
Sosilent.
Shit!
The butterflies in my stomach dropped like stones, one by one, with each passing heartbeat. How many horrible scenarios had he already gone through in his head? How many reasons had he come up with to say no? How would we — how wouldI— ever recover such a fucking misstep?
Marriage? Who was I kidding? I swore I’d never get married after seeing the shit show Camille put on over the course of my life. I even made sure kids were out of the picture by getting a vasectomy at the ripe old age of eighteen, cutting off the baby-mama drama at the pass.
