Bullied and the Bitch

Chapter 36: And We Lived Happily Ever After

We get to our destination in mere minutes. I get out and rush to El's side, but I don't need to. El is frozen in her seat, staring at the lobby in open-mouthed surprise. I open her door but still she doesn't get out.

"Ian... where are we?" she asks. I stare at her, then glance behind me, then turn my attention back to her.

"It's the Golden," I point behind me with my thumb, at the huge lobby behind us, the floor clad in red carpet.

"The Golden," she echoes. "The five star hotel?"

"Five star?" I snort. "It's the best hotel in the country."

It is. And it happens to be in our neighborhood, which houses a lot of rich people, so I guess that's why. I'd always wanted to come here after prom, wishing one of my boyfriends would take me. But those cheapskates never did.

El deserves better.

"But... why?" she asks, staring at me with bewilderment. The valet is looking at us expectantly.

"How about we discuss this in our suite?" I ask. She hesitates, but eventually I help her out of the car and the valet leaves to park my silver Porsche in a lot. We check in then travel up the elevator to the Grand Suite I had reserved just for tonight.

Okay, and for tomorrow too. I would be lying if I said I didn't expect El and I to keep going through the night and all the way to tomorrow.

El doesn't speak a single word, just holds on to my arm, looking kind of shifty and uncomfortable. She probably feels out of place. I'd been to the Golden several times, just because I like the spas here and because I wanted to be seen at the Golden.

The suite is everything I imagined. Huge. Practically the size of an apartment room, complete with kitchen and hot tub in the equally as big bathroom.

And the bed... It's bigger than mine. And mine isn't small. It's so beautiful, decked out with a canopy that falls all over the sides of the bed so that it becomes a curtain, shielding us from the rest of the world. And of course, like I requested, it's covered in rose petals, a trail from the front door that ends at the bed. The room is alight with the glow of numerous candles, some of which are scented. Citrus fruits, of course.

"Wow. This almost makes you seem desperate," El comments with a giggle as she looks at the bed.

"I didn't do this just for sex," I say. Which is a half-lie. I was expecting sex. I definitely was. "There's another reason," I say, and get to my knees beside her. Her mouth falls open again, and she stares at me. When I withdraw the velvet box from my pocket, which had been burning a hole in it all night, she covers her mouth with her hand. "Elisabeth Marie Brooke... This... I can't believe I'm doing this. For so long, I didn't think anyone could make me want to settle down. But you do. You make me want to stay all day in bed, just wrapped around you. Nothing else in this world matters as much as you, and I can't think of anyone else I'd rather spend forever with. So, El, will you marry me?"

There's a tense silence left when I finish my speech. I'd written and rehearsed it so many times, and I'm a little nervous at this point about whether she'll like it or not. And she's taking so long to answer I wonder if she's contemplating how to reject me.

"Yes, Ian." Her voice is hoarse and her eyes glisten with tears. "Yes, of course I'll marry you."

I remove the ring from the box and slip it on her finger. I grin as I look at it. Take that, Trent and all you other assholes eying my girlfriend. Now she's officially mine forever. Look at her all you want – but she's got a ring on her finger now and none of you will ever touch her.