I have headphones on and am trying to watch a really old episode of Sabrina when I hear a knock on my door.

“Can I come in?”

I take the headphones off. “Yeah, come on in.”

My feet are tucked under me. I’m facing my laptop.

“What’s up?” I ask.

He sits on my bed and smooths a small wrinkle in my bedspread.

“We need to talk.” He looks up at me. “And it’s serious. Sit over here.” He pats the bedspread next to him.

“Yeah?” I sit next to him. My feet don’t touch the ground.

He swallows and snorts a little. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“What?”

“You know how you proposed to me downstairs? You’d become Danny’s stepmother and my wife?”

“Yeah.” My heart starts beating a little faster. “But you didn’t seem like you were into it.”

He rubs his eyes. “Things change. I just called your dad.”

“And?”

“He’s letting us do it.”

My little heart feels like a hummingbird’s right now.

“No shit?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says. “I’m going to ask you to marry me.”

My heart soars. I feel like I’m jumping over a rainbow right now.

Right there, in my little bedroom and with his son asleep upstairs, Jeff sinks to one knee.

“Elia, I promise to take care of you for as long as we’re married. I’ll make sure that you’re in a good position when you leave. I’ll pay for your years of college, as many as you want. Will you marry me?” He fishes a ring box out of his pocket and opens it. It’s a small diamond in a fabulous setting.

I always thought that I would get married when I was madly in love. Maybe I’m young, but I always believed in the forever kind of love, the sort when the prince goes hunting for you and heals you with true love’s kiss.

What he’s offering is temporary. It’s only to save his son. Oh, I know that sleeping with him has something to do with it, even if my dad doesn’t. This proposal isn’t because he’s overwhelmed by love for me. He’s just doing it for the sake of expediency.

I don’t care. I will take what he’s offering before it’s gone.

“Yes.”

He takes the ring out of the box and slides it on my finger. The band fits me perfectly.

“How did you even get this? Did you just run to the jewelry store?” I look at the clock. There’s no way he could’ve called my dad and driven to the nearest jewelry store. They’re probably closed right now anyway.

“It’s my grandmother’s ring.”

I swallow hard. “I’ve never seen it before.”

He sighs and rises. He sits on the bed. “With my first wife, she dragged me to a diamond dealer and had a custom design so that it suited her personality. My mother was kind of devastated, actually.”

I swallow even harder. “So you’re giving me something that you’ve never given anyone else?” My stupid little heart is flying like an eagle, soaring where the air is thin, even though I know that this engagement is not real. The marriage will end. I can’t get my hopes up.

“Yup.” He looks down at the ring on my hand. “I remember the smell of lemon,” he tells me. “She loved lemon bars and would bake them all the time. She’d serve them with tea, but I always got 90% milk and 10% tea. She’d like you. She’d be happy to have you as Danny’s stepmother.”

I’m trying not to cry. It shouldn’t feel this real, but it does. He’s just given me his grandmother’s ring.

“I promise to take care of it for as long as I wear it.”

“I know you will,” he says. “I know.”

When he leans in for a kiss, it’s so gentle and tender that my entire body melts as quickly as a popsicle on a hot July day. Warmth is spreading through my whole body. He kisses my neck and bites me hard enough to make my back arch.

Not long ago, I was messing around on my computer. Now my clothes are coming off and he’s yanking open his pants, the buckle clinking as it slides to the floor.

“I have to make you mine.”

His big hand is sitting between my thighs and pets my clit.

“You’re wet,” he observes.

“Yes,” I whisper.

He gets back on the ground, kneeling between my thighs. The touch of his tongue feels like a paintbrush that’s on fire. My hips jerk forward as he continues to consume me, two fingers circling my clit around and around. I can’t scream, so I just breathe heavily and as quietly as I can.

When my body goes hurtling into the stratosphere, Jeff pushes his cock into my entrance. The slide forward is slick from my orgasm.

Our eyes meet as he slides all the way in. His hands go to my hips, forcing me to move with his rhythm. He’s breathing hard, chest rising and falling rapidly. He leans forward and bites the top of my right breast, which makes me come. I’m trying very hard not to scream as my body clenches again and again around him.

He yanks my feet up and puts my ankles at his shoulders. He’s even deeper now, touching me so far inside that I think he’s going to pop out of my throat. My head is whipping from side to side as he grunts and lets go. I can feel his warmth spreading through my body.

Too soon, he withdraws slowly enough that I feel a shiver of pleasure.

“You’re perfect,” he tells me, looking at the come spilling out of my body. “Perfect.”

He dives to the side and brings my hand to his mouth for a kiss before I can even blink. He’s kissed the ring he put on my finger.

“We’ll get married as soon as we can," he tells me.