CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
SEBASTIAN
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H ow I’m still standing in the same spot I’ve been in for the past ten minutes just watching Emily, I don’t know. I am surprised it took Colt that long to find me.
Then he gives me away.
It doesn’t matter, I’ve already decided.
Emily is mine.
I didn’t really have a plan when I arrived. My feet just walked here. All the way from my penthouse. When I arrived, I wanted to watch her from a distance, and what I saw was a beautiful woman celebrating with my friends. Someone who belonged to me and that I was going to claim.
If she needs time to forgive me or love me, then I’ll wait.
Hell, I’ll do whatever it takes.
Emily turns and our eyes lock, an electrical blast rushes through every cell in my body. I place my glass on the bar, not looking away.
Colt reaches over her head and takes the glass from her hand, then whispers in her ear. Emily simply nods, her eyes remaining connected to mine.
Then she starts walking toward me.
My heart thuds. Mine.
She’s not paying attention to the crowd, just walking, and I swear someone is going to knock her over. I move, and the moment she’s within reach, I pull her into my arms.
Thank fuck.
Cupping her face, I hold her tight. We don’t say anything, both of us just soaking up the feeling of our bodies pressing against one another. I could stay like this forever, but I want more.
I need to kiss her.
I need to fill her.
“Em,” I rasp.
“Just kiss me,” Emily demands, and I slam my mouth down on hers.
Our tongues ravish one another eagerly, like we’ve been starved of one another for a lifetime. We have. For days, she should’ve been in my bed instead of anywhere else.
Mine.
I pull back, glancing at Colt, then spot Mason on the dance floor. Jesus. That’s not good. And I don’t mean his dancing...although, yeah, he doesn’t have a very good rhythm.
When I glance back, the sparkle in Emily’s eyes is flickering.
“Happy birthday.” My voice is rough.
“Thank you.” She tries to move away, but I don’t give her an inch. “I got your flowers.”
“Did you pour the juice down the sink?” I smile, and despite her blush, which is purely a reaction to being up against my body, her smile is sad.
“Why are you here, Sebastian?”
“For you.”
I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m claiming this woman, but I need to get my timing right. Finally.
Emily glances away, and I force her eyes back to me.
“For you, Em. I fucked up.”
“You hurt me.” The pain in her eyes breaks my damn heart. “I was trying to do the right thing. You never gave me the chance to explain.”
“I know. I’m ready to listen. I’m...ready for a lot of things.”
Her hands slide from my arms onto my chest, and my heart roars. Where they belong . I wrap her tighter in my arms.
“I want you to come home.”
“Home?” Emily gasps.
“You belong with me, Em. In our home. In our bed,” I say and realize that while I never truly decided to say any of this, it has always been what I wanted.
Her, I want her.
Tears fill Emily’s eyes. “It wasn’t real.”
“Bullshit. It was real. It is real. It’s just taken me time to accept it.” I slide my thumb over her lips. “Tell me you feel the same, Em.”
I can barely wait for her answer. Around me the world vanishes, and for the first time in my life, nothing else matters except one person.
Just her.
Just us.
My future. Our future.
It’s this moment or never.
“What are you saying?” I see the disbelief on her face and know I need to get the truth out.
The three words I never thought I’d say to a woman slide easily from my lips.
“I love you.” Smiling, I slide my fingers through her hair. “I’m saying I love you.”
Like a bud bursting into full flower, she erupts and throws her arms around me, slamming her mouth down on mine.
I lift her up off her feet, and while I’m not sure if she can breathe, I hold her so fucking tight so the universe knows I will never let her go. No one is taking this woman from me.
“Marry me,” I murmur against her lips.
“No,” Emily replies.
Surprised, I lower her down over my now hard cock. “What?”
“No.” She giggles.
“Rude. But okay. Why?” I demand.
That was not the answer I was expecting.
From any woman.
Ever.
I see Jack smiling in my mind. She’s not Sandy.
I know that. I’ve worked through all my crap about marriage. I want Emily to marry me.
Emily snakes her hand down my chest and plays with my belt buckle.
I grab her fingers. “Why?”
“Well, first, I am not drinking that green crap every morning for the rest of my life.” Her playful eyes lift to mine, and there’s so much lust in them I’m ready to carry her out of this bar.
“And?”
“I want a ring that does not have a security guard. No offense to Josh.”
“I have that covered.” I pull out the gold hair tie she left behind and loop it around her ring finger three times. “Marry me.”
“Okay, well, maybe I overplayed my hand.” Emily chuckles.
“Is that a yes? God woman, don’t leave me hanging.”
“Sebastian.” She cups my face while my heart bangs away like a marching band. “You are the craziest man I have ever met.”
“Emily,” I warn in a sort of playful growl.
“Yes, I will marry you.”
I break out into the biggest smile of my life as I take her hand and kiss the stupid hair tie on her finger.
“I love you,” Emily whispers so quietly I can barely hear her, but I can feel it.
In my heart.
“Let’s go home.”
I T TAKES ME an hour to get her away from all our friends. I meet Lexi and we announce our engagement.
“Bit of a downgrade from the Oppenheimerdiamond, Em,” Colt says. “I would have said no.”
“She did. Twice.” I punch his arm.
“I get to be a bridesmaid.” Lexi does a little dance, and I can tell she’s a wild one.
Mason better be careful.
“When do you want to get married?” I’d asked while with our friends. “Soon? In the fall?”
“The fall is soon!” Emily replied, her mouth gaping.
I shrugged. “Why wait?”
After everyone gave their annoying points of view about that, I dragged her out the door and into my Maserati parked down the road. Holding her hand as we drove home, I threaded my fingers through hers.
“Now I get to make love to you.”
Her blush had my cock turning to granite. And it’s stayed that hard all the way inside.
Now she’s spread naked on our bed.
“God, I’ve missed your pussy.” I moan, stretching out my tongue to slide it all the way through her folds.
She’s soaked.
“Bastian.”
Emily is the only person who can call me that, and I like it.
Plunging a finger inside her, I suck on her clit and then flick it with my tongue. I’m impatient, needing to claim her in the way only a man can. Her nipples roll around my tongue and juices drip down my chin as she shudders and comes.
Then I climb over her and slide inside, our eyes never leaving one another.
This feels different.
We’re committed on a level only two people who love each other can understand. It’s a soul deep love that I’ve never thought possible.
If this breaks, it will break me.
So I better make sure that never happens.
My thrusts speed up and become greedy, the bed shaking as her breasts tease me with their movement. I want all of her at once.
When I come the first time, I flip her over and rub her pussy again, ripping a second orgasm from her.
Then shove back in and tease her asshole with my thumb until she’s screaming.
I didn’t know when I was going to do it.
Tonight, tomorrow, next week. But I stopped on the way home, after ringing the manager in the morning, to pick up my order. Walking out with the small box, I only had hope on my side.
Now, as I hold my real fiancée in my arms, sated and sweaty, I reach and open the drawer.
Pulling out the box, I tug the ring out and slide it onto her finger.
After removing the hair tie.
“Bastian,” Emily gasps softly. Then she twists in my arms, her blue eyes sparkling brighter than the diamond. “You bought this for me?”
“No, I got it for Susan, but she said no.” I tickle her.
She scrambles to sit up, blinded by the ring, and my joke falls flat. Finally, her brain cells connect, and she slaps my chest.
I chuckle.
“Of course it’s for you.” I take her fingers and we both gaze at the glistening round white diamond set in platinum. It’s only eight carats and a little underwhelming after the Oppenheimerdiamond, but I think—
“I love it. It’s perfect.” She preens.
That.
That’s what I thought.
Emily throws herself into my arms, exactly where she belongs.
“I love you, Sebastian Remington.”
I know she does.