My phone was shaking in my hand. “Oh my God.” I looked at Skylar. “Oh my God. He published this?”
She nodded.
“Hey, Natalie?” Hailey called from the kitchen. “Can you come out here? I need you.”
“Oh, shit.” I put a hand to my cheek. “Is my face flushed?”
“Yes.” She giggled and fanned it. “But you better get out there.”
I moved past her and went through the kitchen into the shop, my pulse skittering out of control.
Then I gasped. The entire place was silent, all eyes on me. On the wall opposite the counter, where the pictures of Skylar usually hung, were four huge new photos.
Of Miles.
He wore the same jeans and t-shirt in each one, as if they’d all been taken the same day, and in every photo he held up a different hand-painted sign.
I moved closer, my hands covering my mouth, as I read each sign.
The one on the left said WILL.
The next said YOU.
The third said MARRY.
The last one ME?
Heart pounding, I looked around the room. Was he here somewhere?
“Pssst.” Seated at a table near the door, a little old lady pointed outside. “I think that’s what you want.”
I turned, and sure enough, out on the sidewalk and framed in the window, was Miles. Down on one knee. Holding a ring box.
“Oh my God.” On wobbly legs, I walked to the door and pushed it open. “What are you doing?”
He smiled and took my hand. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m upending your life.”
I laughed as a few tears splashed down my cheeks.
“Did Skylar show you the post?”
I nodded, swallowing hard. “Did you mean it? What you said?”
“Of course I did. I love you, Natalie. Let me show you how much.”
“But—”
“Just listen. I know I’m not what you planned on,” he said, his expression turning serious. “And believe me, I never thought I’d be down here on one knee, begging to love someone forever. But this is not a mistake.” He squeezed my hand, his eyes filling. “I feel it in my bones, Natalie. You’ve always been in my heart. You’ve always been the one I couldn’t forget. And all last night I kept thinking that this—you and me and this baby—it wasn’t an accident. It was exactly what was supposed to happen all along.”
“Miles,” I said, a sob breaking lose.
“You told me you were lost that first night we spent together,” he went on, rising to his feet. “And do you remember what I said?”
I nodded. “You said, ‘You’re not lost. You’re right here with me.’”
He opened the box, spoke low and soft. “You always have been. Stay with me?”
The sunlight winked off the big round diamond at the center of the ring’s setting, and I gasped.
“Is that a yes?”
I burst out laughing. “Yes!” Holding out my hand, I watched through tears as he slid the beautiful ring on my finger. It was a little big.
He looked at me sheepishly. “Sorry. I guessed at the size. It almost fits.”
I smiled. “Almost.”
He kissed me deeply, stealing my breath, our arms twining around each other. From inside the coffee shop and on the street, cheers and applause erupted. Miles lifted me right off my feet and swung me around, and I squealed in dizzy delight.
“This is crazy,” I said in his ear. “Are we really engaged?”
He set me down. “Well, I’m not too familiar with the concept, but I believe when you give a girl a ring and ask the question ‘Will you marry me?’ and then she says ‘Yes,’ that means you’re engaged.”
I lay my head on his shoulder. “I can’t believe it.”
“Told you your buns were worth matrimony.”
I picked up my head. “This was all a ploy for my buns, wasn’t it?”
“It was, and you said yes, so now I get to glaze those buns as much as I like. And also butter your muffin and polish your fine china.”
Skylar opened the door poked her head out. “We’re dying in here! You guys coming in or what?”
I turned to her, arms flailing. “Sorry! Yes, we’re coming.”
“Hard and often,” murmured Miles from behind me as he steered me through the door.
Giggling, I looked at him over my shoulder. “Promise me you’ll always make dirty jokes in my ear.”
He spanked me lightly. “With pleasure. Easiest promise I’ve ever made.”
• • •
The entire day, I floated around on a cloud, happier than I’d ever been, giddy every time I looked down at my hand. The feeling actually reminded me of being a kid and seeing a car in the Haas’s driveway for the first time each June. I’d know that my summer fun was about to start, and I’d go running across the orchard to play. We weren’t playing anymore, and we had a lot of important decisions to make, but for once it didn’t drive me nuts not knowing exactly what the next step was. Or the next ten steps. I had Miles. He had me.
That’s all I needed to know.
I knocked on the door, and when he pulled it open, I prayed those butterflies at seeing his face would never go away. “Honey, I’m home.”
He grinned. “Took you long enough.”
Before I could say another word, he pulled me inside, shut the door, and pushed me back against it, crushing his mouth to mine. Dropping my bag at my feet, I threw my arms around his neck and held him tight, reveling in the feel of our bodies pressed together, our hearts beating closely, our uncertainty gone.
“God, Natalie,” he murmured, taking my face in his hands. “I missed you so much. I missed you every fucking minute we were apart, and I hated myself for it.”
“It wasn’t all your fault.” I kissed his chin and his cheek and his lips. “Just mostly.”
“Hey.” He caught my bottom lip between his teeth, biting down gently. “Be careful, little girl. Just because I asked you to marry me doesn’t mean you’re off the naughty list.”
“What’s this? An overly amorous husband already?”
“Yeah. What’s your advice book say to do about that?”
I smiled. “Run.” Ducking beneath his arm, I took off running through the living room, squealing as I raced through the dining room and kitchen, Miles hot on my heels. Breathless with laughter, I looped back through the front hall and bolted up the stairs. Miles took them at least two at a time, grabbing me just as we reached the top.
“That’s it, little girl. You’re in trouble with me.” He threw me over his shoulder and I pounded my fists against his butt.
“Let me go!” I howled, kicking my legs.
“Never.” He went into his room and tossed me onto the bed, set his glasses on the table, then crawled on top of me, kissing my chest and throat and lips. “Do you hear me? I will never let you go.”
I dug my heels into his ass, pinning his erection between my legs. Desire swept through me. “But will you let me come?”
He gave me a wicked smile. “First and often.”
“Oh God, Miles,” I murmured as he kissed his way down my body. “I missed you. I missed this. I missed everything.”
“Then let me take care of you.” Getting to his knees at my side, he pulled off my shorts and panties, and pushed up my shirt. “Poor baby,” he said, low and sweet, moving aside the white lace cups of my bra to expose my breasts. He kissed each hard, tingling nipple as his hand moved up the inside of one leg, hitching up my knee. “All this time and no attention. Let me make you feel good.”
I arched my back and closed my eyes, bringing one arm over my head. His fingers trailed up my inner thigh, making my core muscles clench. “Did you wait for me to make you come? Or were you a bad girl? Did you do it yourself?”
“I waited for you.” I reached down with my other hand and rubbed his cock through his jeans. “And I wanted you so badly.”
He teased me open and rubbed my clit with one fingertip, making my whole body twitch. “Does that feel better?”
“Yes,” I panted as all the angst and tension and misery I’d felt over the last few weeks centered beneath his nimble fingers. “Yes.”
Dipping one fingertip inside me, he spread my wetness over my clit in tight little circles that made my stomach quiver with desire. His other hand whispered across my chest, barely brushing my nipples, trailing between my breasts. I kept my palm over the bulge in his jeans, torn between begging him to fuck me right now and letting him get me off with his hand. He was just so fucking good at this! The thought that I got him to myself for the rest of my life was nearly enough to push me right over the edge.
My breaths came faster and louder, turning to moans and sighs as he took one nipple between his fingers and gave it a series of little pinches before holding it firmly. “Yes,” he whispered as I began to writhe under his hands. “That’s it. Let me watch you lose control.” He switched to the other nipple and increased the pace and pressure of his fingers on my clit, and my entire body seized up.
“Oh God—yes…” I dropped my head to the side, my hips moving involuntarily, my cries loud and unabashed.
“Fuck yes. Come for me,” he growled, and his voice sent me soaring over the peak, exploding beneath his fingertips in hot, frantic pulses.
Within seconds after the climax the pressure was too much, and I grabbed his wrist, curling onto one side. “Miles.” I couldn’t catch my breath. I could barely open my eyes.
“You. Are so. Fucking. Beautiful.” Eyes on me, he tore off his clothes while I watched, my insatiable body shivering with want. When he was naked, he stood next to the bed, grabbed my legs and turned my body ninety degrees. Hooking his hands behind my knees, he hitched them up alongside his hips, my heels resting on the edge of the bed.
“I want you inside me,” I panted. “Now.”
“Shhhhh.” He lowered his mouth to mine, and I grabbed his head, holding him to me. Our tongues tangled and tasted and teased. Slowly he kissed his way down my chest to my stomach then my thighs, kissing one and then the other. “I’m making my way inside you, believe me.” He brought his mouth between my legs, teasing me with warm breath and soft lips brushing gently back and forth. I moaned as he stroked up through my pussy with a firm, flat tongue that felt like velvet against my skin, once, twice, three times. Finally he lingered at the top, kissing and sucking gently on my clit, his hands pressing my thighs open.
“Oh, God,” I murmured, grabbing handfuls of my hair. “That feels so good, soft like that. I love it.”
“I like hearing what you want,” he said, his breath on my wet pussy making my toes curl. “I want to give it to you.”
“Just like that,” I said as he swirled his tongue over the sensitive little bud. It tingled and throbbed, bringing me closer to another orgasm. “Yes, yes, yes. Now more. Harder.”
He did exactly as I directed, and within seconds I came again, my hands yanking my hair, his name falling from my lips.
“Please.” My voice was weak as he straightened up, kissing a path up the inside of one leg and setting my heel on his shoulder. “I want everything. Give me everything.”
“Always,” he said, his eyes dark with desire as he pushed inside me. “Everything I have, everything I am.” He brought the other leg up and kissed my calf and ankle and instep before putting it on his shoulder. I touched my knees together as he gripped my hips. Holding me still, he thrust in and out with steady, rhythmic strokes. “I love watching my cock slide inside you, nice and slow. I love how wet and warm and tight you feel. I love that I can make you come with my fingers and my tongue first, then fuck you so hard you’ll come again.” Each time, he pushed a little harder, reached a little deeper, until finally he buried himself completely and leaned into me, bracing his hands on the bed and crushing the tops of my legs to my breasts.
At that point, something about the angle and depth made my insides start to contract and I lost the ability to string words into a coherent thought. My entire being was reduced to just my physical self, every nerve ending on fire, every muscle tense, every inch of my skin humming. Breathless and near delirious with want, I waited, suspended on the moregasm plateau, in that sublime marriage of ecstasy and frustration, desperate for that moment of release. Our eyes met.
“Oh, fuck,” he breathed, rocking his hips a little faster. “It’s been too long, and you feel so good, and you’re so fucking beautiful. I can’t stop.”
“No! Don’t stop!” I cried, feeling myself begin to tip. “I want you to do it. I want to feel you throb inside me. It makes me come so hard.”
My words sent him over, and he cursed and growled and gasped as he lost himself to me, my insides gripping his driving cock like my body couldn’t get enough. When he’d regained control, he slipped my legs off his shoulders and slid an arm under my back, moving me further onto the bed so he could lie next to me. Tears dripped from my eyes as we clung to each other, arms and legs tangled, my head buried in the crook of his neck.
“God, I love you,” Miles said, kissing my head. “I fucking love you so much. Now I get it.”
“Get what?” I pressed my lips to his collarbone, breathed in his scent.
“Being in love. Why people like it. When I first realized I was in love with you, I felt sick. I thought I was having a heart attack. It was terrible.”
I had to laugh as I wiped away the tears. “And now that you know I love you back?”
“It’s the best high I’ve ever felt, the most intense. Now I get why people want to live together and take care of each other and get married and have kids. It’s this feeling.”
Shocked, I propped my head in my hand and looked at him. “You even get having kids?”
“Yes.” He looked as amazed as I felt. “I look at you, and I love you so much I want to do something about it, but nothing is big enough, nothing is good enough, nothing is extreme enough.”
I smiled wryly. “Having a baby is pretty extreme.”
“Yes. It is.” His hand moved between us, and he brushed the back of his fingers against my stomach, making me shiver. “And I know we didn’t plan on it. But I want this, Natalie. I didn’t even know how much until right now. I want to have this baby with you. I want us to have something with each other that we don’t have with anyone else. I want us to be a family. In fact, if you weren’t pregnant right now, I’d keep you right here in this room and fuck you until you were. That’s how bad I want this baby.”
I burst out laughing and rolled onto my back. “You’re insane. This whole thing is insane. Are we really doing this?”
“We are.” He moved down and kissed my stomach. “Hi in there. I hope I didn’t wake you up with all that pounding.”
I played with his hair. “He’ll get used to it.”
He looked up at me and blinked. “You think it’s a boy?”
“No idea, babe. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” He laid his cheek on my belly. “I’ll be happy either way, boy or girl. Hey, I think I feel it moving.”
I laughed. “You don’t. Not yet. A few more months on that.”
He grinned, his eyes wide like he couldn’t believe it. “This is so fucking amazing, Natalie.”
“You’re going to be a great dad, Miles.” And he was, I could feel it. That playful, wide-eyed side of him that found so much joy in the world, found something to be happy about every day, found pleasure in little things like cinnamon buns and big things like love and family—that’s what would make him a good father. My throat got tight as I realized how lucky I was.
“Thanks.” Kissing my stomach once more, he sat up and reached for his glasses. “So should we go tell your dad that I knocked you up?”
“Um, no. We will not be saying it like that.”
“Why not? I’m planning to make an honest woman out of you.”
I picked up a pillow and clubbed him with it.
“Hey.” He took the pillow from me. “At least now I can admit it was me who threw that baseball and cracked your mom’s kitchen window that time. That will no longer be the worst thing I’ve ever done in their eyes.”
I sat up. “You know, you don’t have to come with me if it’s too awkward. I can tell them myself.”
He jumped off the bed and started pulling on his pants. “No. You’re not doing this alone. And I know you don’t want to hear me say this is the right thing to do, but fuck you, it is, and I’m going.”
Smiling, I watched him pull his shirt over his head. “OK, OK. You can come. We’ll do it together.”
Twenty minutes later, we walked across the lawn toward my parents’ house hand in hand. My stomach was a little jumpy, but all in all I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I’d be. My parents would be surprised, but they loved Miles, and I knew they’d be happy for us and thrilled to have their first grandchild on the way.
“Hey.” I squeezed his hand. “You know what I just realized? I gave you a first!”
“You sure did. Many of them. And you know what I just realized?” He tugged me in front of him, wrapped his arms around me from behind, and whispered in my ear. “You’ll give me all my lasts too.”