***
“Do you want another glass of wine?” Drake asked.
I sighed and leaned back in the hot tub. I’d already had two glasses of white wine, and I technically should be reviewing for a quiz in three days. I was enjoying my fall break, sure, but it was so hard to focus with a literal Adonis tempting me every minute. I was going to have to work harder to lay out those ground rules, definitely.
I shook my head and set my glass down. Then I tightened the tie on my bikini. “I think I need to be clear headed. After dinner tonight, I do need to study.”
He chuckled and kissed my collarbone. “Do you need an anatomy review? That happened to be my best subject in school.”
“Somehow, I think that’s a come-on.”
Drake laughed again and ran a hand up my right thigh under the water. “Always, but you have to admit that I have a talent with your body.”
“That, I don’t doubt,” I said, my gaze falling out onto the sunset before us on his yacht.
That was also a new addition. Drake was going all out into moving part time to San Diego. He had the penthouse complete with the required and, in my opinion, improved playroom. Drake had also acquired a yacht from a tech guru gone bust that was roughly the size of my parents’ home. We were sitting on the south deck and watching the sun go down. The orange of the waning globe melted into the soft, cotton candy clouds and the pink of the sky.
It was quite the sight, but it paled next to the utter spectacle of the man I loved by my side.
“I know I say this a lot, but this is amazing.”
“You don’t say it that much.” Drake considered that and then shrugged. “Maybe sometimes, but I put a lot of effort into trying to surprise you. I take my mission very seriously.”
“I can tell because you never stop, never fall short.”
“I hope that’s true,” he said, his tone sobering as he leaned back next to me in the hot tub.
“Why do you seem so sad all of a sudden?”
Drake’s jaw clenched, a sure sign of his tension. Readjusting my position, I brought my arms up behind his back and started to rub his shoulders, wanting to massage him to relieve his stress. It genuinely shocked me how tightly coiled he was, how rigid.
“Wow, work must have been rough last week,” I said. “Because you are still knotted up like crazy.”
“I think it’s from right now, actually.”
“Why? This couldn’t be a better day. It’s a dream date, even if I do have a quiz to study for.”
Drake shook his head. “Maybe I shouldn’t have encouraged you to go back to school. I had no idea you were the ultimate type A.”
I kissed his cheek. “You’d seen me actually negotiate on figures and how I’d press you for days. You so knew I was type A. Of course, I worry about grades, totally natural.”
“Or obsessive,” he noted.
“So, it’s not work that has you tied up in knots. What else is it? Did you have a call from home?”
He had a terrible relationship with his parents, even after he had paid off their debts. The salt of the earth farmers were never going to understand that he’d dedicated his life to all that “Hollywood Sodom and Gomorrah.” Still, his dad had recently developed a bit of a gambling problem, so Drake was getting more calls than usual from the Midwest. It left him in a funk.
“God, no. It’s not about my family, not in that way.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How is it about your family?”
“Belle, do you think about what we’ll do in a year from now or five?”
I blushed and poked at his rib. “I don’t even know if Dear Penthouse can predict that.” Seeing that the joke didn’t ease his tension, I sobered and tried a different tactic. “I guess I’ll get a job when I’m done, actually be of use now to the center in the Bahamas. Why?”
Drake didn’t say anything, but he did slip out from my grasp and hop quickly from the tub. I appreciated that he had not worn a suit. The sight of his penis bobbing free was something to behold. I pushed that flicker of lust away. Now wasn’t the time; something serious was clearly on Drake’s mind.
When he returned, he had a fluffy white bathrobe on and his right hand was balled in a fist at his side. Then he knelt in front of me, and I just knew.
“Belle,” he started, his voice wavering just a little, as if I’d ever say no. “This last year has been the best one of my life, minus a few rough spots.”
I nodded, saying nothing at first but reflecting too over the rough parts in our relationship and over the dangers we’d faced. It hadn’t been easy, not by a long shot, but it had been good.
He held out his arm and popped open the small, black box hidden there. I gasped at the ring, the princess-cut diamond that had to be at least five carats and set in a platinum band. I’d look like a movie star with something that glittery on my finger. Heck, considering the rich and famous he ran with, for all I knew, some director or Hollywood big wig actually had recommended this jeweler and ring type.
So surreal compared to where I was a year ago.
“Belle, I love you. I think I might have loved you from the moment I first saw you. You see all of me—the dark side, that beast and man—and you love me more for it, not less. I don’t want anyone else to be my lover, my partner, or my life. Will you marry me?”
Tears sprang to my eyes as I held out my hand. “Yes, God, a thousand times yes!”
He grinned and slipped the ring on my wedding finger. I stepped out carefully from the hot tub and was grateful when he slipped a terry cloth towel over my shoulders. Now that the sun was almost down, it was growing chilly on the boat, especially with the sea breeze whipping past us.
Reaching down, he stroked—or tried to—my wet curls. “You’re the most amazing woman I know, Belle Fontaine.”
“Well, that happens to even out,” I said. “You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met.” Then I stroked his cheek and looked solemnly into his big brown eyes. We never talked about certain things enough, but tonight I needed to be honest with him, to press where I could. “In fact, you’re a hero.”
Drake looked down, uncomfortable. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are,” I said, putting my fingers under his chin and forcing him to look at me. “I know you don’t believe that, and maybe you never will, but you were a hero to give your service, and you’ll always be my hero. You saved my life twice in the first month I met you, threw yourself into danger all for me. That’s not just a hero. To me, that’s a damn superhero.”
“But I—”
I kissed him then, my tongue and body saying everything my words never could, conveying the gratitude and dedication that he would always command from me. Drake was my lover and my hero, and one day soon, my husband.
And that meant the world to me.