Chapter 62
CHAPTER 62
Max
“You weren’t kidding when you said lap of luxury,” she said, standing in the middle of the room once she had finished all her work. It was a huge space that opened up completely to the wild, untouched African bush outside. The enormous bed was set up again the back wall, which was made from chunks of grey granite rocks that sparkled in the light. In front of the bed was a huge, free-standing granite bath, which had a view down to the watering hole. There was a patio beyond the bath, and beyond that a plunge pool. This was one of the oldest private game lodges in South Africa, steeped in history, and it had a nostalgic feel that swept you away. She looked down at the bath.
“You can take a bath, if you want.”
“Will you bath with me?” she asked.
“You seriously thought you needed to ask me that?” I walked over to the enormous bath and turned on the taps.
“I see an ice bucket with champagne over there.” She pointed with a smile and I walked up to it.
“So much better than African Dreams.” I poured us two glasses and then walked them over to her.
“Bubbles?” I asked, looking at the array of bottles they had on the rim of the tub.
“Yes.”
I opened one and poured the liquid in. The bubbles were instant.
“Lavender bath salts?” I picked up a bottle and read off the label.
She chuckled. “The last time I used lavender bath salts was that night.”
“That night?”
“I’ve never used them again. They remind me too much of that.”
“Lavender! That’s what it was.” I smiled at her, the thirteen-year mystery over. “You smelled of something I could never recognize that night. Lavender.”
We both looked down at the bottle and there seemed to be only one thing left to do. I opened the lid and tipped the entire contents in. We smiled at each other once the last of the salts and dried lavender pieces was in the bath.
“There’s still a bath oil.” I pointed at the last bottle.
“Let’s give that a miss, you always feel slimy after bath oil.”
“Okay, baby,” I said.
“Baby,” she repeated, smiling contentedly. There was such a sense of peace and contentment in this moment, making a bath together. It was comfortable and easy, as if this was exactly as it should be, and exactly as it had been for the last thirteen years. We had fallen back into that ease that I’d loved about us.
We locked eyes while undressing. I didn’t even look at her body. Her eyes were what I wanted to look into. We dropped the last of our clothes onto the floor and climbed in. The temperature of the water was perfect and we settled on opposite sides, our legs tangling up into each other’s. I breathed in the smell of lavender while I watched her pick bubbles up in her hands and crush them, small bubble debris falling back into the bath.
“I want this to be us every single night, Ash.” I sat up in the bath and moved closer to her.
“We would go through a lot of lavender bath salts.” She smiled at me. That huge, massive smile that bowled me over every single time.
“This is how it always should’ve been.” I took her hands in mine, and our fingers tangled in and out of each other’s, a playful game. We both watched our hands as if they had a mind of their own.
“What did the ring look like?” she asked, while tracing my ring finger with hers.
“Small, probably wasn’t even a real diamond.”
“I bet I would have loved it.”
My heart pounded in my throat. “Do you want to see it?” I asked, pulling my hands away.
“You threw it in the woods.”
“Seems like my mother fished it out and kept it all these years,” I said.
“And she’s had it this entire time?” Ash asked.
I nodded. “She even remembered where she’d put it, a miracle in itself.” I sat up and moved closer to her in the bath. “I took that as a clear sign.”
“A sign of what?” Ash asked, matching my lean.
“A sign that perhaps I should do now what I should have done all those years ago.”
Ash inhaled sharply and her eyes widened. I smiled at her and then she gave me the best gift she could have in that moment, that vulnerable moment where I’d totally exposed myself to her—she smiled back at me.
“I’d love to see it sometime,” she said.
“What about right now?”
“You have it?”
“I do.” I stood up out of the bath and carefully climbed out. I could feel her eyes on my naked body as I crossed the room and took the ring out of my bag, and then I slipped something out of her bag too. I walked back to the bath, hiding one of the items on the table next to the bath and climbed in.
“Here.” She held her hand out, I opened my fist and the small ring tumbled into it. Her eyes were full of all the emotions that I should have seen all those years ago if I’d actually done this.
She looked down at it. “I love it,” she whispered, a tear slipping down her cheek. “Can I put it on now?” The question was such a loaded one.
“Yes,” I said.
She slipped it onto her finger slowly, and it slid down as if it was meant to be there, as if it was always meant to be there. And in that moment, I don’t think it was possible to love her more.
“It fits.”
“I secretly measured your finger one night while you were sleeping, and it seems that hasn’t changed.”
She looked up at me, and managed a small whisper. “There are a lot of things that haven’t changed.”
“Well, there’s something that has changed, hopefully.” I held out my closed fist. There was still one more thing I had in my hand.
“What’s that?” Ash asked.
I climbed back into the warm bath and laid the small box on the lip of it. Ash looked at it curiously.
“What is it?” She reached for it and I stopped her, taking her hand in mine and then pulling her onto my lap. I took her face in my hands, locking eyes with her. Those eyes that I could fall into forever.
“Ash . . .” I started, and smiled at her. I wasn’t that nervous boy anymore, and this time I was going to do it properly. “I think you should marry me.”
Her face cracked into a smile. “You do, do you?”
“I seriously, seriously do. And . . .” I took her hand and looked down at the ring on it. “I want you to wear this forever, but with one change.” I looked over at the box on the lip of the bath. She followed my gaze and then climbed off my lap and moved towards it. “Turns out those aren’t real diamonds and I thought you deserved some.”
She opened the box and then burst out laughing.
“What?” I asked, very taken aback by her sudden outburst.
“Cheese!” She laughed even louder, but then quickly tried to cut it off. “Sorry, sorry, I don’t mean to laugh.” She continued to laugh, though. “It’s just . . . I had this thought a while ago that if ever anyone had to get me a personalized ring—” She burst out laughing again, unable to speak once more.
“This is not how I imagined this moment going.”
“Sorry, sorry.” She shook her head and took a deep breath. “I was thinking that I would want a yellow diamond cheese ring.” She laughed again.
“That’s not cheese. That’s a sunflower,” I said, and her laughter ground to an abrupt halt. She looked down at the diamonds that I’d bought. I hadn’t had time to have them set yet; I thought she could choose her setting anyway.
“A sunflower?” Her eyes filled with tears and I pulled her onto my lap again, taking her face in my hands.
“It’s always been you, Ash. Always. Will you marry me?” I asked the question that was thirteen years too late, but right on time.
A small tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek. I wiped it away quickly.
“It was always you too,” she said.
I pulled her in for a kiss. Long and slow.
“Is that a yes, then?” I whispered against her lips.
“Yes,” she said, and buried her face in my shoulder. We wrapped our arms round each other and held on, as if we had both just come home and were finally, after all these years, right in the place we were supposed to be.
“So . . .” I said into her neck, “shall I leave you for a moment so you can message your friends about this?”
She pulled away and looked at me indignantly. “What makes you think I want to message my friends?”
I rolled my eyes at her.
“I don’t, for the record, want to message them.”
“Really?” I raised my brows at her.
“No, I’m not thinking about messaging my friends with the news that I just got engaged at all. Not at all.”
I laughed. “That sounded very, very unconvincing.”
“I don’t want to message them,” she insisted, but her eyes drifted over to the bed, where her bag was. “I mean, what kind of person would want to message their friends right when she’s getting proposed to, naked, in the bath. That would just be—”
“Just admit it, Ash. You want it soooo badly.”
She shook her head and then pursed her lips together.
“You do.”
She shook her head again, but a smile was working its way onto her lips. “Okay, okay! I want to fucking message them. Okay!”
I burst out laughing. “Go do it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Here.” I reached for her phone—I’d anticipated this—and placed it on the side table next to the bath.
“You brought my phone?”
“I had a feeling you were going to want it.” She smiled at me as I climbed out the bath. “Tell you what, why don’t you message them while I go and make myself ready.”
“Ready for what?” she asked.
I reached down and gripped my cock in my hand, her eyes immediately going there. “Ready for you. I’ll be lying on the bed, waiting.” I turned and walked off towards the bed. I heard a splashing sound behind me and turned back.
“My friends can wait,” Ash said, running up to me and pushing me down on the bed. She climbed on top of me and looked down at me.
I looked up at her, pushing the strands of wet hair out of her face. “Fuck, this sight is never going to get old.”