I fall asleep again, completely spent after the intensity of our lovemaking. But I don’t sleep for long. When I wake up, I glance at the clock. It has only been half an hour. I guess it was just a quick power nap. When I turn around, Aiden looks up at me from his phone and smiles.

“I love you,” he whispers.

“I love you, too.”

“What’s new?” I ask, propping my head up with my hand. He shakes his head and runs his fingers over the outline of my face.

“Nothing.” He shakes his head. “Nothing important at all.”

We both know that he’s lying, of course. Whatever emails he’s getting now do not come with any good news. But I don’t really want to talk or hear about it now. And he’s clearly not in the mood for sharing either. Not yet. Not after the glorious thing that we have just gone through.

“Thank you,” I say after a moment.

“For what?”

“For what you just did. For this whole night. It was amazing.”

“You liked it?”

“I loved it,” I say, nodding. “I’ve never done anything like that before and…it was so incredible.”

“I’m glad.”

“How did you know that I would like it?”

“I didn’t. But I’ve seen how you responded to that kind of stimulation before…so, I thought I would give it a try.”

I smile, sitting up. My lips are chapped and my throat is parched. There’s a bottle of water on the end table and I open it, gulping all of it down.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you want any?” I ask when it’s already too late.

“No.” Aiden laughs. “I have my own.”

We sit on the bed in silence for a while. It occurs to me just how much I love being with Aiden. Just being with him. We don’t have to talk or fill the silence with endless chatter. No, I just need him to be present.

Suddenly, Aiden hops out of bed and goes to his suitcase at the far end of the room. He’s nude and I admire the way his muscles tense and clench as he glides through space.

“You are very sexy,” I say. “Have I ever told you that?”

“Maybe once or twice,” he says without turning around. “Okay, close your eyes.”

“What?”

“Close your eyes. I have a surprise for you.”

“If this is more sex, then I have to tell you, I need a break.”

“Just close your eyes, woman,” Aiden says. Against my better judgment, I do as I’m told. Perhaps, there is some way he could get me into the mood again, but it would take a lot. And I’m already quite sore.

“Ellie,” he says, taking my hand. I open my eyes and see him kneeling before me in all of his glory. He is on one knee. The faint light, the softness of candlelight, bathes his body and makes him look even more delicious and beautiful than I ever thought possible.

“Yes,” I say, pulling the sheet around my chest. Despite how gorgeous he looks, the serious expression on his face gives me some concern. What’s going on? What is he doing?

“Ellie, I have loved you since the first time I saw you. And ever since that moment, my love for you has just gotten deeper and deeper.”

“I love you, too,” I whisper.

“Whenever you’re not around, all I can do is think about you. I crave you. I have to have you. I need you. You make me want to be a better man, Ellie.”

Aiden pulls his right hand from behind his back and opens his palm. Tears well up in my eyes.

“What is this?” I whisper as I wipe them away and touch the outside of the little black velvet box in his hand.

“Ellie Rhodes,” Aiden says, taking a deep breath. He lets go of my hand and puts it on top of the box. “My dearest, Ellie Rhodes. Will you marry me?”

I look at the ring inside the box. All I can make out through my tears is the band that’s covered in a million tiny glittering crystals and the big yellow rock in the middle.

Aiden leans over to me and wipes my tears. When I look up at him, more tears stream down. All of my emotions are beyond my control at this point. This is the last thing I’ve expected him to ask me, and yet here we are.

“Will you marry me?” Aiden asks.

Before I can even think about it, my body responds for me.

“Yes, yes!” I exclaim and throw my arms around his neck. “I will marry you, Aiden Black.”

---

The End for Now

The story continues in Auctioned to Him 6