CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
LACEY
It’s funny how fast things can escalate. One moment I’m bedded up with the World’s Hottest Guy and the next we’re road-tripping our way around Iceland.
Yes, I get the joke—two people fresh from firefighting academy journeying to the land of ice and fire, but it’s a whole new world for me. Prior to this, I’d never been outside of States. Here, in this beautiful country I’d barely heard of, I realize how much I’ve missed out on… and how much I still have to explore.
It’s exciting. From the private jet to the luxury hotels and fine dining, I feel like a princess. It’s cold, sure (I swear I’m going to have icicles instead of nipples after this), but it’s amazing.
We start in Reykjavik, where, what do you know, most people actually speak English, driving in our cozy camper from eye-popping landscape to landscape each more spectacular than the last, and all with names I can’t pronounce. Snæfellsjökull, Reynisfjara, Eyjafjallajökull—the latter of which seems a rather long name for such a small glacier.
We see the aurora borealis, wild horses… and then we have sex, and more sex, and sexy sex sex until I’m finding it hard to walk my legs are so jell-oish. I have no idea how Payton manages to remain hard all day. It’s like he has a telegraph pole for a penis—not that I’m complaining. It’s wonderful.
The Blue Lagoon is a peace incarnate. The milky blue water envelops us, piped in hot from the geothermal power station to our right. Payton reclines back against the rock, his arm over my shoulder. “It looks like the moon, doesn’t it?” he remarks, gazing out over the alien landscape.
“It’s a hell of a long way from Pemberton Fire Academy, that’s for sure. Doesn’t your Dad care you’re spending all his money like this?”
“Technically, it’s my money, but even so, he makes tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands a day. What we’re spending here is a drop in the bucket. Besides, he owes me.”
“For what?”
“For being such a prick my whole life.”
I rest my head against his shoulder. “He’s your father.”
“Luke Skywalker had a father, too, and look how that turned out.”
Steam rises from the water around Payton’s head. “Eventually, you’re going to have to patch things up,” I tell him. “He’ll come around.”
“We’ll see.”
I run my hand down the front of his swim trunks, the milky water hiding the act. I’ve become especially keen on public sex these last few weeks, and that’s something I never thought I’d say.
Payton starts to smile, his eyebrows lifting. “You’re going to get us kicked out of here, Ms. Nelson.”
I take hold of his cock—hard, as always—and lightly pump it, my clit already tingling in anticipation. “Do you have a better suggestion?”
“How does room service sound?”
*
It’s sub-zero outside the hotel, a star-filled sky looking down upon us. I’m rugged up like the damn Michelin man, though this look doesn’t seem to dissuade Payton in the slightest. He happily grinds into my ass from behind, our snow pants sliding together, my pussy as wet as the small stream running beside us.
Fresh snow covers the ground.
I turn around and kiss him, hold his face in my hands and savor the sensation of his tongue in my mouth.
He’s yours, I think. He is all yours.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to do when we get back?” I ask.
He takes a step back watching the sky. “I only know two things: I want to be a firefighter, and I want you by my side.”
“You mean, literally fighting fires together? Because that would be kind of hard given we could barely keep our hands off each other at Pemberton.”
He smiles and nods to the sky. “Do you see the northern lights?”
I squint into the distance and see them starting to dance ahead, a shimmery veil of luminescence. “God, they’re beautiful.”
There’s no reply.
“Payton?” I query.
Still no reply.
He’s gone.
I turn around and freeze… Well, freeze more than I am already.
Payton’s kneeling there in the snow holding a ring, the diamond in the center of it mirroring the borealis behind me. “Everything’s beautiful from where I’m standing.”
I’m so shell-shocked I can’t put a sentence together. “Pay-ton… Wh—”
“Lacey Nelson,” he starts, unable to wipe the smile from his face, “you are the reason my heart beats so hard, and I know that if I don’t ask you to be mine, I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life. You’re the only one for me, simple as that. So, My Miracle, will you set the world on fire with me?” He takes a breath. “Will you be my wife?”
I’m choked up, reeling, but I nod and rush into his arms, losing myself in the heated kiss, so fiery in contrast to the cold world around us.
He breaks away to look at me. “I don’t know how I’m going to top this for a honeymoon.”
I laugh. “As long as you’re there, it’s paradise enough for me.”