She wouldn’t do that.

I couldn’t quite convince myself.

Just fucking do it, you pussy.

“Hey, Raine?” I called softly, almost wishing she wouldn’t hear me at all.

“Yes?” She pulled her head out of the closet and looked at me expectantly. When I didn’t answer right away, she narrowed her eyes a little. “What is it?”

“I was just…um…” I looked toward the balcony door and tried to come up with the right words.

“What, Bastian?” Raine dropped a couple items from the closet into her suitcase and came to my side.

I ran my hand over my face.

Just fucking say it.

“I was wondering if…if maybe…shit.”

Raine placed her hand on my arm, and I realized it was shaking as much as my hands.

“Bastian, what’s the matter?”

I closed my eyes again. I could do this. I was sure I could. I just needed my mouth to fucking work for once. I needed to say the right words in the right way, but all I did was babble.

“I just thought maybe with Alex and all and starting a new life in a new place…” I continued to stammer, trying to find something in my head that didn’t make me sound like a total idiot. With another deep breath, I fell back to the only way I’d ever managed to express myself without getting into trouble.

The Bard’s words were far better than my own.

“Might I not then say, 'Now I love you best,'


When I was certain o'er incertainty,


Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?


Love is a babe, then might I not say so,


To give full growth to that which still doth grow?”

I looked to the floor, took a deep breath, and then stared into her eyes. I pulled a little box from my pocket and laid it in my palm before I opened it. The shining, simple solitaire ring in the center of the velvet sparkled in the bursting Miami sun.

“Raine, will you marry me?”

Raine said nothing for the longest fucking time. There was sweat dripping between my shoulder blades, and the gleam from the ring was refracting rainbows all over the walls as my hand continued to shake. I realized I’d totally forgotten to get down on one knee, and mentally smacked myself for fucking up the easiest part of all of this.

I glanced from the ring to Raine’s face. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and my heart stopped. For a brief moment, my world ended as I waited for her to deny me.

“Yes, Bastian,” she whispered as the tears overflowed. “Yes, of course. Of course I’ll marry you.”

A huge breath escaped me, and I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing her and picking her up to hold her to my chest. I buried my face in her hair and tried to pretend all the tears belonged to her alone.

“Thank you,” I whispered against her ear. “Thank you so fucking much, Raine…thank you.”

“Oh, Bastian.” She tightened her arms around my neck and wrapped her legs around my waist. “I love you so much—so, so much!”

“I love you,” I replied, “more than fucking anything.”

I squeezed her to me again, and the shaking in my hands and arms finally stopped as I held her. Figuring I was probably keeping her from breathing, I relaxed my grip and set her down. I reached up and wiped the tears from her face.

“Do I get to put that on?” Raine asked with a smile. She pointed down at the ring still in my hand.

“Shit! Yeah…I forgot.” I grabbed the ring out of the little box and took Raine’s offered hand. With a deep breath, I slid it up and over the ring finger of her left hand.

It looked fucking perfect.

“What are you doing?” Alex asked as he came into the room. He narrowed his eyes at Raine’s outstretched hand. “What’s that?”

“An engagement ring,” Raine said. “Your dad and I are going to be married.”

Alex furrowed his brow and looked back and forth between us.

“Will you be my mom then?” he asked.

Raine smiled.

“If you want me to be.”

Alex considered this for a moment.

“Okay,” he said with a shrug. “Can we have macaroni and cheese for dinner? Lindsay said I had to ask first.”

Raine bit her lip as she stifled a laugh.

“You know that stuff is nasty,” I said.

“It’s good!” Alex insisted.

Raine elbowed me in the ribs.

“Fine,” I said, “but you have to have vegetables with it.”

“Ugh!” Alex looked up at the ceiling and spread his arms out wide. “Why?”

“Because if you don’t, no macaroni.”

“Ugh!” he cried again. “Does it have to be green?”

“Yep,” I replied with a half-smile.

“Not broccoli!”

“Green beans?” Raine suggested.

Alex slumped his shoulders and let out a ridiculously long sigh.

“Fine,” he muttered as he turned and ran off to the kitchen, yelling at Lindsay. “Dad said yes!”

Raine was shaking with silent laughter.

“He’s a lot like you,” she said.

“I don’t eat that shit.”

“I mean the way he acts when he doesn’t get what he wants.”

“It’s a good thing you said yes, then.” I smiled and pressed my lips to hers.

* * *

Raine curled up beside me and kissed my shoulder as she trailed her fingers across my chest and down my abs, and my cock responded. Her eyes glanced up at me, and her tongue darted over her lips.

“Got something for me?” she asked with a sly smile before her hand dropped lower. She stroked slowly down my shaft to my balls and then made her way back up again. I turned my head and brought her face to mine, kissing her deeply as she kept running the tips of her fingers over my dick. I moaned into her mouth, and her tongue traced over my lips.

She pulled back, released my cock, and swung one leg over my hips. Placing her hands on my chest, she rubbed herself up and down my cock slowly.

“Oh fuck, baby,” I groaned. “You’re driving me crazy.”

“Good,” she replied. “That’s exactly what I wanted.”

“Anything you want,” I said. “It’s yours. Just keep doing that.”

“Is that all you want?” she asked with a sly smile. “You are easy to please.”

“Tease,” I mumbled. I tilted my hips up and ground against her.

“I don’t think you can call me that when I’m naked and on top of you,” she said.

“I can when I’m not buried inside that quivering vagina of yours.”

“Quivering vagina?” Raine started laughing, and I grinned up at her like the love-struck idiot I was.

“You know,” I said, “the one hiding in your moist triangle of curls.”

“Way to set the mood!” She rolled her eyes at me.

“Set the mood for my purple helmeted warrior? He’s just dying to fight his way through your underbrush.”

“That’s it,” she said as she started to get off of me.

I grabbed her wrists and held her in place. She laughed as she struggled, and I pulled her down to me and tickled her sides, which just made her laugh harder.

“Shhh,” I whispered, “you’ll wake Alex.”

She covered her mouth with one hand as she tried to gain a bit of control.

“Where do you come up with that stuff?” she asked.

“I used to watch a lot of porn,” I admitted. “Oh, and I got Penthouse—you know, for the articles.”

More eye-rolling. I responded by pulling her back down on my cock. Raine groaned and moved her hips in time with mine. I found her throat with my mouth and tongue, tasting her flesh as my hand came up to cup her breast and pull at the nipple.

“Oh, God…Bastian…”

“Shh…”

She bit down on her lip and closed her eyes. I couldn’t wait any longer, so I sat up and rolled her on her back. Stroking down her side, I stopped at her thigh and lifted it up over my hip before I slid into her.

Our sounds were rhythmic, like ocean surf rolling over smooth sands after a summer storm. We moved slowly, purposefully, completely calm in our love for each other. Raine’s head tilted back and her mouth opened slightly. I counted every breath she took, timing them with my own.

With an increased pace, I moved inside of her. Raine twisted her legs around mine and gripped my arms tightly. She lifted her hips as her face contorted, and she gritted her teeth to keep from crying out loud. The sight was more than I could stand, and I followed her lead with a blissful groan.

My heart continued to race as I held myself deep inside of her and tried to make mental contact with any part of my body. It all seemed to be in some sort of post orgasmic shock, though, and kept insisting my legs were no longer attached to the rest of me.

With a final shudder, I kissed her lightly on the temple and rolled onto my back, exhausted. My leg throbbed, which it often did after overuse, but I ignored it. It was my final tournament injury—the last scar to leave its mark on my body and soul.

“I love you,” Raine said softly as she curled up against me and planted kisses on my shoulder.

I turned my head to look at her. Her hair was a mess all over her head and around her shoulders, and her makeup was smeared under her eyes. There were splotchy red marks all over her face from our tryst—the most beautiful sight in the world.

She was my drink—the only one I would ever want again.

I touched the tip of my finger to her cheek and stroked slowly downward.

“And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!”