Epilogue — The Proposal — Madison

I sat on the couch draped under a blanket while Kade carefully placed thick kindling in between thick logs in the fireplace. He’d been quiet today. Preoccupied even.

But at the moment, he was focused on getting this, our first real fire in our fireplace going. I wasn’t sure he knew what he was doing, but his determination made up for any lack of experience.

I was impressed when the fire roared to life.

“There,” he said, turning around and dusting his hands. He wore a proud grin. “That should keep us warm through the night.”

I didn’t bother to point out that we had electric heat in the apartment.

“Not bad for a southern boy from Houston,” I said. “How did you learn to do that?”

“Google,” he said, crawling over me and settling behind, pulling me into his arms.

“Google, huh?” I kissed his cheek. He smelled wonderfully masculine. Like pine and the minty scent of his toothpaste. “What else have you learned on Google lately?”

“Well…” He lifted my hair and kissed the back of my neck, sending delicious shivers down my spine.

“There was this one thing.”

I grinned up at him.

“But first I have something for you.”

“Yeah? What’s that?” I had a feeling I knew exactly what he had for me. I could feel his erection pressing against my ass.

He pulled a little square white box from somewhere… behind the sofa cushion, maybe, and placed it in my hands.

“What’s this?” I asked. My heart rate went into an involuntary little race as I held the little square box that could be anything at all. A necklace. Some earrings. Whatever, it was, it was some type of jewelry.

Kade mostly brought me flowers and little treats to eat. If he flew someplace he thought I’d like, he’d bring me something back. Usually something practical like a t-shirt or something romantic like a scented candle.

“Madison,” he said, shifting me in his lap so he could look into my eyes. “I’ve had this for a while.” He took a deep breath. “And I’ve been waiting for the right time to give it to you.”

My hands shaking, I lifted the lid of the velvet box.

I blinked as I realized that this wasn’t a necklace or earrings.

It was a diamond ring with a rose gold band and with little touches of pink astorite around the edges of the diamond. The little hint of pink matched the bracelet I’d bought in Estes Park. The evening before we first made love.

“Where did you get this?” I asked, looking up at him. Though the stone was similar, it was different from anything I’d ever seen.

“I had it made,” he said. “If you don’t like it…”

I put my fingers over his lips. “I love it,” I said. “It’s perfect.”

“Wait,” he said. “I think I was supposed to ask you first.”

My lips curved into a smile. “Ask me what?”

“When do you want to get married?”

“Kade,” I said. Had he suddenly lost all sense of romanticism?

First he hands me a box. Then he asks me when I want to get married?

He dumped me onto the seat next to him and got on one knee on the floor in front of me.

He took my hands and looked into my eyes. That’s when I knew that he’d done this all backwards on purpose.

“I love you. I always have. I always will.”

Those three simple statements nearly took my breath away in their simplicity.

He kissed the back of my fingers. “Dr. Madison Worthington. Will you marry me?”

I hadn’t thought I could get any happier than I’d been these last three months spending all my free time with Kade. But my eyes were misting over out of sheer joy.

I was so overwhelmed, and this was so unexpected, I could barely catch my breath.

“Yes,” I managed, then threw my arms around him. “Kade.”

He kissed me on the cheek, then his lips found mine.

His tongue slid against mine and I slid forward to sit on his lap.

With his lips still on mine, he picked me up and set me back on the sofa.

Tugging my shirt off over my head, he pressed me back against the soft cushion and kneaded my breasts.

I wasn’t wearing any underwear. None.

It wasn’t something I normally did, but I’d been relaxed and ready for bed for Kade had come in carrying a cord of firewood.

My nipples responded immediately to his touch, sending a fire to my core.

He sat next to me, pulling me with him onto his lap. He’d changed into an old pair of soft sweatpants. And I knew from experience that Kade never wore underwear under his sweats.

His tongue touched the roof of my mouth as he shifted me so that I sat straddled over him.

He was hard beneath me, and I moved against him.

His lips blazed a trail of heat down my chin… my neck… my collar bone… then his lips were on one nipple, then the other.

I leaned my head back and let the sensations flood my system.

Somehow he managed to pull my pajama pants down and his own sweatpants down enough that his cock was rubbing against my clit.

My hands tangled in his soft short hair. He moved his lips back to mine and linked the fingers of one hand with mine. Using his other hand, he guided his hardness to press against my pussy.

I shifted my hips up, wanting more. Wanting all of him.

I needed to spread my legs, but my pajama pants were holding me captive. The sensation of being unable to move was like sweet torture and I expected my pants to rip at any moment with the way I was pressing against them.

I slid down over him, pressing my core against his shaft.

Just as the pressure started to build, he shifted again, laying me flat against the sofa cushions. He pulled my pants off and slung them somewhere.

He seemed to notice for the first time that I wasn’t wearing panties.

“Nice,” he said, against my ear, as his fingers swept over my bare ass.

I smiled against his lips, pleased that he approved.

He shifted himself over me and kissed me again.

“So…” he said.

Why was he talking?

“So… what?” I asked.

He nibbled my earlobe, his breath warm against my skin.

“After we’re married, we can do this all the time.”

“I thought we did,” I said. He wanted more? We did it most every night.

“I can’t get enough of you,” he said as he deftly plunged his cock inside me.

I gasped, like I always did at the way he filled me up and any other thoughts I might have had dissipated.

Holding my hands over my head with one hand, he slowly ran his fingertips across my body with the other. He slowly touched my stomach. My breasts. My lips.

All the while, he moved his hips in little circular motions.

I wrapped my legs around his back as he put a hand between us to rub that sweet spot that sent me into another world.

I moaned against his lips. “Don’t… don’t stop.”

“Never,” he murmured, and he increased the speed of both his hand and his cock until I toppled over the edge.

I gasped as my world exploded into a million pieces, leaving me feeling like my bones were made out of liquid. And that’s when he let go, plunging deep as he took his own release.

We lay there, both riding the waves that shook our bodies inside and out.

He pulled out slowly, turned on his side, grabbed the blanket, and snuggled me back against him.

“What did I do to deserve you?” he asked.

My eyes were already starting to drift closed.

“You must have been very, very good,” I said.

I felt his soft laughter against back.

I snuggled my butt against him.

“Watch it,” he said.

“Ha. You don’t frighten me.”

With his arms wrapped tightly around me, I felt like I was in heaven.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you more,” He whispered back.

I just smiled. I’d let him think that if he wanted to.

Either way, we were both winners.

Kade had been teaching me some of his aviation terminology.

And in my sleepy haze, I realized that Kade Johnson was my magnetic north.

Wherever he went, I would follow.

And I had a very good feeling that he felt the same way about me.

We had always been aligned with each other and we always would be.

Those eight years we’d spent apart were merely a blip on our life’s radar.