Someone To Love

Love?

"Cruise!" I can't stop staring at the beautiful ring he holds between us as we kneel in this frozen version of heaven. Everything in me surges. An explosion of brand new feelings go off inside me like fireworks, so potent and viral, they put excitement and wonder to shame.

Through the eye of this ring is a portal, a bright shiny path to a future with Cruise. It comes with a promise, backed by love, and everything in me sighs with relief because the very thing I decried as a fallacy, materialized in the only person I have ever wanted. And now, he held something tangible for me to have and to hold, from this day on.

"Yes!" It drills from my lungs, loud and capricious - crisp as the air that sings it back to me in an echo.

"Yes?" He looks unsure as if maybe he dreamed it.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" I lunge into him with a swarm of wild kisses, salted with tears. I have never felt so whole, so happy and overwhelmed all at the same time.

"Yes." Cruise closes his eyes a moment. He picks up my left hand and slips the ring on my finger. It glows against my skin. The diamond shimmers in the reserve of light like a star encased in a seam of moonlight. "It was my grandmother's ring. I hope you don't mind."

"God, no. It's beautiful. I'm touched it belonged to her." I shiver into him. "And it fits. That's a miracle."

"You could trade it in, or we could get you something different for the wedding. I just thought it'd look gorgeous on you, and I was right." His gaze never dips from mine.

"I don't want anything different. This is perfect. You're perfect."

Cruise melts a kiss over my lips and runs his hands up the back of my sweater, warm and strong. The same arms that will love me tomorrow and the day after that until eternity unravels like a spool.

My coat acts like a blanket as I pull Cruise down to the snow. His face is alarmingly attractive against the backdrop of a sodden sky, and my stomach melts at the sight of him - at the thought of knowing he'll always be mine. He kneads his hands over my body as if he were a sculptor, working my jeans down, anxious to have me. He dusts his fingers over my belly, slips his hand between my thighs, and his dimples dig in like twin shadows. Cruise watches from above as I writhe from his touch - he supervises with a heated intensity as he sets me on fire from the inside. This erotic bliss, this inflamed burst of ecstasy is the threshold to a new era in our lives. He relaxes over me and pushes in with his hips, slow and sweet, meeting me right there in my fevered delirium.

Cruise makes love to me in a bed of snow with those tender groans that wrench from him with an aching passion. He blesses me with a kiss, soft and careful as his tongue strokes over mine. Cruise satiates me from the inside out with a pull of dizzying affection. I memorize his touch, take in his scent, fill my ears with every errant sound that emanates from his throat. Everything about Cruise makes me greedy for more. He covers me with his body and buries himself inside me in the most intimate way.

This is all I want.

Forever.

The next week, after Gender Relations, Cruise said there is someplace special he wants to take me.

Cruise holds my hand as we walk boldly through campus. I'm still hopped up on our newly engaged status. We've spent every night tangled in one another's arms, locked in the bliss of what the future holds for us.

A parade of bicycles clutter the walkways. They speed by as if this were a busy New York sidewalk - the Tour De France taking place right here at Garrison.

He pauses just shy of a tall brick building. His gaze rides to the top, then to me. There's a mischievous look in his eye that suggests the architectural erection standing in front of us has something to do with his special locale.