Chapter 31

Ella

“Come on, Joe. What is this?” I laugh as Joe walks me out to the yard, covering my eyes, “I don’t like surprises!”

“Oh, but this is a good surprise! You’ll love it, I promise,” he says, gently kissing the back of my neck.

“Don’t let me trip, okay?”

“No peeking!” He lets go of me and I keep my eyes shut. I can hear him shuffling things around, and, is he lighting something?

“There! You can open your eyes now, Ella,” he says. I can sense the excitement behind his words.

I slowly open my eyes and suddenly I’m greeted with an extravagant display. A small table and two chairs set up for a meal, complete with candles and a centerpiece of blue roses! The whole garden glows in the slowly waning light of the sunset. The warm glow of the hundreds of small candles surrounding the deck and lanterns floating on the pool is breathtaking.

“Joe! When did you have time to do all of this?”

“Oh you know, I prepared most of it in advance, and then threw the rest together while you were dropping Marnie off at her party,” he shrugs modestly.

“Please! This looks anything but thrown together.” I run up to him and hug him, “You had to have been planning this.”

“Well, it’s always how I’d imagined I’d do it… for you.” He looks down at me and offers me a shy grin. I think for a moment and realize what exactly it is that he means.

“Oh Joe!” I hug him again, squeezing extra tight, “It all looks beautiful. Thank you.” I give him an extra big kiss on the lips.

“It all pales in comparison to you my love,” he whispers to me as he sits me down at the table.

I giggle and my cheeks turn red, “You are so cheesy,” I say, as he heads off to the kitchen.

“You love it!” he calls back at me.

“I love you!” I call, trying to get the last word in, but hear him faintly shouting, “I love you more,” from inside the house. I roll my eyes as I make myself comfortable.

I can’t believe he would put all of this together for me… he’s such a romantic! Do I really deserve all of this? I really do love it, all of it! Especially the blue roses. And the floating lanterns… they are my favorite part.

How did I end up with such an incredible guy? He loves me and he shows me all the time. He does all these sweet and romantic things, and he’s so excited about the baby! He really wants to make sure our little one gets a great start in life. It’s so cute when he looks at cribs and quilts online. Joe comes out with two plates and a bottle of wine, placing them in front of us.

“Gosh Joe, this looks amazing! I love salmon.”

“I asked Cam and Kat what a few of your favorite things were, just so I would get it perfect,” he smiles, his cheeks a little pink.

“I’m sure I’ll love it. And don’t worry, it’s not like I’m going to say no just because the food’s a little off.” I raise my eyebrow at him.

“I used to be quite the cook, you know. You’re actually going to love it!”

* * *

“Oh Joe, that was incredible. I mean it! You should really cook more often,” I grin, licking my lips.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” he says, collecting up our plates and quickly taking them into the kitchen. He returns with another bottle of wine.

“Another one, Joe? Are you sure the first one wasn’t enough?” I laugh.

“Well, I just wanted a little bit of this one. I’ve not planned a lot for desert, but this is the same wine we had on our first date,” he smiles helplessly.

“Aw… that’s so sweet.” I blush, as he pours me a glass of sparkling water mixed with grape juice and hands it to me. I take one sip and he looks up at me hopefully.

“How does it taste?” he asks, like he’s holding in his excitement.

“Oh Joe, you didn’t!” I giggle, looking through the glass, I can’t believe he would do something as cheesy as that! I take a moment to swirl the liquid around in the glass, oh gosh, what if I’ve swallowed it! “But, there’s nothing in here.” I turn to Joe and see him down on one knee holding a small box with a ring inside it, “I swear if you weren’t proposing right now, I’d smack you!”

He laughs as he takes my hand, and I can feel myself about to cry tears of joy.

“Ella LeBlanc. We’ve been through a lot in the short time that we’ve known each other, but in that time I’ve come to love you more than anything. Don’t tell Marnie I said that.”

I giggle a little, I thought that might be coming.

“I may not have been thinking about this for a while, but it was the easiest decision I’ve ever made. So with this ring I ask you, Ella LeBlanc. Will you marry me?”

I feel tears creeping down my cheeks and I can’t help but sniffle a little as I feel happier than I have in my entire life.

“Yes Joe. Of course I will marry you!” I say excitedly.

He places the ring on my finger and almost jumps up to kiss me. I can hear him laughing a little as well. I’m just so happy I can’t help it! It’s a strange mixture of crying and laughing, but I love it, I love this feeling and I love him. I look down at the ring, a platinum band with three large sapphires and beautiful diamonds in between… it fits perfectly.

“You didn’t have to do all of this… or get me this ring. I already said yes.”

“Yes I know, but I wanted to. You deserve this and I wanted it to be perfect for you.” He holds me tight and whispers to me, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I reply.

He takes my hand and leads me to the door, “What would you like to do now?” he asks, suggestively, “Would you like to go to bed?”

“Actually,” I say, stopping him, “I was thinking we could stay out here for a moment.” I’ve got a naughty idea… it’s dark out and no one will see… why don’t we go skinny dipping in the pool? I’ve teased him about it before, but why not now?

“If you want to? I don’t really,” he freezes and his eyes widen as he sees me stepping backwards toward the pool, slowly reaching for the zipper on my dress.

I drop my dress to the floor and step out of it, slowly slipping into the pool.

“Uh, that could be fun yeah,” Joe stutters.

I take off my underwear while in the pool which proves to be a little difficult, and I drop my soaking wet bra and panties by my dress on the deck. Joe looks down at them and back up to me.

“Are you coming in?” I ask.

“Give me a moment, I just want to admire you,” he smiles, “I wish this moment could last forever.” He takes out his phone.

“Hey!” I laugh and splash him.

“Don’t worry, I got a good one,” he winks at me before taking off his clothes and joining me in the pool.

We swim together and I can only just touch the bottom of the pool, he holds me up and pulls me close to him.

“I’ve got you…” he whispers to me.

I balance myself on his shoulders and kiss him passionately. He runs his hand through my hair then over my body, exploring every inch. I move my hand down to his hips then start slowly rubbing his cock.

“You look so beautiful in this light,” he says. “You’re glowing.”

“Oh stop,” I blush.

“Never,” he whispers to me as his hand slowly finds its way between my legs. I inhale sharply as he starts to massage my clit.

I start to think that maybe this wasn’t the best idea, since anyone could see us right now, but I feel so much more sensitive. I love the way his skin feels against mine and the way his hands feel as they massage me and play with my breasts.

He takes hold of my hips and starts to lift me up, it’s so easy in the water, like I practically weigh nothing. I can feel his cock sliding effortlessly inside me as deep as he can go… I love the way he holds me up, I can wrap my legs around him and kiss his neck.

“What if someone sees?” I ask him.

“Let them,” he whispers, “They’ll only see a man loving his soon to be wife. They’ll just be jealous that they aren’t as beautiful as you.”

I moan as he thrusts up into me, creating ripples in the water and causing the lanterns to swirl around us. I tighten my grip on his waist with my legs and tense around his cock and he moans loudly. He grabs me tight and kisses me again.

As we get lost in our moment of passion, he slips up on the bottom of the pool and we lose our balance, sending us both splashing into the water.

We laugh together as we resurface.

“Shall we take this to the bedroom?” Joe asks, “I have a few more surprises.”

“Ooh, okay,” I grin, wiping my hair out of my face.

Joe looks around for a moment before jumping out of the pool, I take his hand and he helps me out. We run inside the house, dripping wet and I notice a few rose petals scattered on the stairs.

“Uh, Joe, what’s this?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at him.

“Oh nothing,” he says, “Come on!” he squeezes my hand and pulls me up the stairs, and more rose petals cover the floor up to his room. We stop by the door and he encourages me to open it.

“Okay,” I say, slowly reaching for the door. As I open it I see more petals all over the floor leading up to the bed, and more candles all around the room, “Oh Joe, I still can’t believe you did all of this for me!”

“As we discussed, the lengths that I will go to make things perfect for you know no bounds.” he smiles at me and takes my hand leading me over to the bed, “How about a massage?”

“That would be lovely,” I say, as I lay down on the rose petal covered bed.

I can smell the oil from here… it is heavenly. He places his hands on my shoulders and starts to rub, and it’s like all of my worries just melt away with his touch. I feel so relaxed, like I’m floating on a cloud.

He moves down to my lower back and hits my ticklish spot, causing me to giggle and roll over. He then leans over me and starts kissing my neck, down to my chest, then he starts massaging my breasts and playing with my nipples as I moan uncontrollably.

“So… where did we leave off?” I ask, biting at his lip.

“I think we were about here,” he whispers to me as he spreads my legs and gently rubs his rock hard cock against my clit, I inhale sharply and he takes hold of my waist as he pushes his cock inside me.

We moan together as he starts to slide in and out of me, making my toes curl. I grip the sheets and close my eyes, relaxing back onto the bed as he does what he does best.

“How’s that?” he asks, his breathing getting quicker.

“Oh, it feels so good,” I say, “I’ve missed this.”

I wrap my arms around him and pull him close for a passionate kiss as he starts to speed up. I’d forgotten how good it could feel being so close to him. It was like the walls had been broken down and there was nothing but us, making love on this bed surrounded by soft glowing light and rose petals.

I can feel myself reaching my climax, and it’s like I’ve completely melted and can feel nothing but pleasure rushing through me until—

“Oh!” I cry out, as waves of pleasure crash over me. Nothing exists apart from my pleasure right now. I can’t believe I ever lived life without this.

As I come down from my cloud I pant as Joe kisses my neck.

“Tired…?” I ask him.

“Sorry, I—”

“Oh—” I hadn’t even noticed.

“Sorry, I know I can last longer, but it just felt so good.

“I like that you get so excited.” I grin when I see his cheeks going a little pink, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he says, dropping to my side and holding me close.