Bound to You

Chapter 45

It was such a relief to be home. Everything was falling apart, but when we walked into the apartment, and you shut the door behind me, I felt like I could handle it. If the world was falling down around us, you were my shield from it.

I sighed and immediately started tugging off my clothes.

In the kitchen, you put a kettle on for tea and watched me. "What are you doing?"

I stopped when I was in my underwear, and collapsed on the couch, throwing my arm over my eyes. "I can't stand wearing those clothes that he touched. I still feel like he's all over me."

I heard something clatter in the kitchen, and I pulled my arm away from my eyes to see you rushing over to me. You didn't stop until you were on your knees beside the couch.

"I'm sorry," you said, taking my face in your hands. "I'm sorry that we did this; I'm sorry I let him be alone with you in that kitchen; I'm sorry I didn't get there sooner."

I was already shaking my head. "It's not your fault he was an asshole. At least it's over now. No more secrets."

Your smile was like sunshine. "No more secrets." You leaned forward and kissed me, and for just a second, I could almost pretend that the rest of it hadn't happened, that the world only existed here in this apartment, everything else swept into oblivion.

I wrapped my hand around the back of your neck, ready to let you sweep me away too, when you pulled back.

"Wait," you said, trying to catch your breath. "Wait here for just one second, okay?"

I didn't exactly agree, but you ran off anyway, and I lay back on the couch, closing my eyes. I heard you rustling around in the bedroom and then your footsteps coming back into the room. And then I felt a strange weight on my stomach, and when I opened my eyes, there was a ring box sitting there.

I sat up fast, and the box fell into my lap. I reached for it but couldn't bring myself to open it. You were standing beside me, smiling down at me, your eyes all lit up.

"Is this--?" I started to ask, but you dropped down onto one knee, and that pretty much answered that question. "Oh my God, John."

You breathed out a laugh and reached out to take my hand. "I know these circumstance aren't ideal. I know it's been the evening from Hell, and this isn't how I planned this. But your father not knowing about us was my last obstacle. I bought that ring in Paris, and now that there's nothing standing in my way, I couldn't wait for you have it."

My hands trembled as I held the box in my palm. "John," was all I could say, coming out like a breath.

I couldn't believe you were doing this here. I was half naked, and your nose was broken, and I'd just been assaulted, and so had you.

And yet, this was us. Always finding each other in the midst of everything else.

Your eyes shone as you ran your finger along my bottom lip. "Lena, I love you. I love you like I never knew I could love someone. I want to spent the rest of my life protecting you and fighting for you and getting exiled for you. I want to take every punch your father has to throw at me if it means I can have you. I want you forever. Will you marry me?"

I was already crying. Full on tears streaming down my face. Because I'd been imagining this moment for years. I'd imagined getting to spend my life with you, planning a wedding, having babies. But even now, when we were sharing a home and had been faithful to each other for this long, even though we'd survived so much together, it had still only felt like a fantasy.

But here you were, reaching out and taking the ring box from me, and opening it to reveal a very simple, solitaire diamond that was just so us.

I was too busy choking on my tears to say yes, so I just nodded.

You grinned and pulled my mouth down to yours. My tears mixed with yours in our mouth, and when you finally pulled back, we were a big wet mess. You laughed and pressed the ring on my finger, and it looked so beautiful sitting there.

"I love you," I gasped and threw myself at you. You twisted us on the carpet, until you were on top of me, kissing my mouth and my cheeks and my neck and the top swells of my breasts. You pulled back for a second, ran your finger along the lace of my bra.

"Want to take a shower?"

I nodded. I wanted to wash this night off of me.

Under the spray of the hot water, you ran soap all over my body, shampoo through my hair, rinsed me clean under your attentive hands. And when we were both clean, you lifted me against the tile wall. I sighed when you pressed your open mouth to my neck, slid your tongue down to my nipples, tugged at me until I gasped.

And then you lowered me onto your waiting cock. It was always a shock to me how fast you could get hard, zero to sixty in less than the time it took to get my clothes off.

"Oh God," I said against your mouth, a whimper more than anything else.

"You okay?" you asked, holding still.

No. I wasn't okay. I was making love to my fiance. Making love to you, my favorite person in the world, the man I'd wanted as my own since I was fifteen, and here we were, cementing it.

"Don't stop," I gasped, and you did something I couldn't remember you ever doing: you fucked me slow. Inch by inch you lifted me in your strong arms and let me sink back onto you, by the third long, slow thrust, I was ready to die. My clit was throbbing like a beacon between us, and you reached down to press your fingers to it hard, and I saw stars.

When my ears stopped ringing, I realized you were speaking to me, your mouth pressed to my chest. "Just us," you were saying. "It's just us, you and me, forever. I love you, Lena. I love you. I want you forever."

I sobbed. "I'm yours forever," I said, and you kept on, constant like the ocean, slowly thrusting inside me, until like a flashbang, I came, hard, digging my nails into your skin and screaming until it felt like there was nothing left inside me. You had completely emptied me out.

You pressed your mouth to mine as you came, groaning against my tongue, and I knew that no matter what happened, I wanted to spend the rest of my life right here with you.