realized Julia was starting to shiver. “Let’s get you warmed up, darlin’.”
“I never imagined I could be cold today.”
He withdrew from her and put her down carefully, making sure she had legs under her before he let go to get out and find towels. “You’ll be sweating again in ten minutes.”
Deacon wrapped her in a towel and kissed her. “Best shower ever.”
“We keep topping ourselves.”
“I hope we keep that up for the next fifty or sixty years.”
“I’d be down with that.”
He kissed her forehead and then her lips again. “I’m down with anything that includes you and me forever. In fact…” He directed her toward the apartment’s only bedroom and sat her on the edge of the bed.
“In fact, what?”
“Hold that thought a minute.” Still bare-ass naked, he went to his dresser and found the velvet box he’d hidden weeks ago, waiting for the right moment to ask the most important question of his life. If you’d told him six months ago that he’d be dying to shackle himself to one woman for the rest of his life, he would’ve laughed his ass off. Since meeting Julia, however, he understood why sane men went crazy over the women they loved. Crazy had never felt so good.
His need for her only grew exponentially with every day he spent with her, and he was wise enough to know that keeping her by his side forever was essential to any chance he had to be happy. After giving himself a second to get his shit together, he turned to find her watching him with the curious, wary look that had been permanently etched into her gorgeous face when they first met.
Deacon hadn’t seen that in a while and didn’t want to be the cause of it now. “Nothing bad, darlin’. Only good things from now on, remember?” He told her that any time she seemed worried or afraid or anxious. “So turn that frown upside down.”
She smiled, which made her eyes glitter the way he liked them best. He never wanted her to be worried about anything, even if he knew that was a rather lofty goal.
Kneeling before her, he kept the box hidden in one hand while he used his free hand to bring her down for a kiss. “You know how much I love you, right?”
“I think I do.”
“Actually, you probably don’t know the full extent of how you occupy every available space inside me.”
“Deacon,” she whispered, her eyes sparkling with tears.
He often teased her about being a waterworks, but he wouldn’t change a thing about her, even how she teared up at corny commercials on TV. She was perfect for him.
“When I’m not with you, I’m counting the minutes until I can see you again. When I’m with you, there’s nothing else I want or need. And you know how much it means to me to be your shell, to protect you from anything that can ever hurt you. I was hoping that maybe you might, you know, agree to marry me.”
He held up the square-cut diamond ring he’d chosen with Blaine and Tiffany’s input and held his breath waiting to hear what she would say.
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she stared at the ring for the longest time before shifting her gaze to his face.
“If you don’t like it, we can get—”
She kissed him. “I love it. I love you, and yes to marrying you. One thousand percent yes.”
“That’s a whole lot of yes,” he said, weak with relief.
She smoothed the wet hair back from his forehead. “You weren’t really worried about what I’d say, were you?”
“Not that so much as getting the ring right. I was a bit obsessed with that, actually. Tiffany assured me you’d love it.”
“She was right. I do. But I loved what you said even more than I love the ring. That’s the stuff that really matters to me. You know that.”
“I do know, and I promise to always keep you safe, my sweet Julia, and to do my very best to make you happy every day.”
“You couldn’t offer me anything that would mean more to me than that, but you could put that sparkly ring on my finger any time now.” She held up her hand and waggled her fingers.
Smiling, Deacon took it out of the box, slid it on her left hand and then sat back to admire the way it looked on her. “Perfection.”
“Just like us.”
He hugged her tightly. “Just like us.”
Chapter 32
After talking it over with Dara, Oliver decided