Chapter Twenty-Four
One year later
“I think you should walk around naked for the rest of our holiday,” said Peyton, pressing her lips softly against Josie’s chin.
Josie laughed, her head tilting back and her arms tightening around Peyton’s naked body, pulling her even closer. “That’s my line. Besides, isn’t that exactly what we’re here to do?”
“You mean aside from swimming in the bluest water I’ve ever seen, gorging ourselves on food and drinking like we don’t suffer from terrible hangovers?”
“You forgot the sex part. Lots and lots of sex,” said Peyton, then crushed her mouth against Josie’s, tasting the sweetness of her morning breath and the champagne from last night. They were all tongue and teeth and hands snaking along bare skin for a good five minutes.
The longer the kiss went on, the hotter Peyton got.
Her body ached to speed things up, to go for climax number two.
The first one had been nice and slow while the sun rose.
It shone through the double windows, sending a golden glow across the white-washed walls, the bamboo accents, and the sheer curtains swaying in the ocean breeze.
The over water villa where they were spending three of their six days in the Maldives was the most beautiful place Peyton had ever seen.
Sharing it with Josie, the woman who had quite literally hunted her down, forced her out on dates, and convinced her that life was supposed to be as easy as a Sunday morning—filled with moments that made her feel like she was quite literally bursting with happiness—felt like a dream come true.
Josie had shown Peyton that love was a gift and not a price to pay.
She broke the kiss and moved her lips down to the edge of Josie’s jaw, then to her neck, feeling the vibration of Josie’s voice when she spoke.
“If someone had told me two years ago that I’d meet the woman of my dreams and fall head over heels in love with her a whole year later, move in with her after just four months of dating, and then agree on the most expensive holiday to the Maldives; I would have laughed in their face,” muttered Josie.
“It’s worth every cent.” Peyton chuckled. She then pressed her mouth against Josie’s, kissing her once more, before she finally made her way down the bed.
Her hands skidded along Josie’s stomach, her lips pressing down on Josie’s collarbone. She moved to her sternum, and then she flicked the woman’s bare nipple with the tip of her tongue and smiled when Josie moaned loudly, eliciting that fire within her core.
A flame waiting to be doused.
“You really drive me crazy,” mumbled Josie, opening her legs wider before she coiled them around Peyton’s waist, holding her there for a moment. “But in the best way possible.”
“Well, I hope so.”
“I’ve told you I love you, right?”
“Only a million times… today,” said Peyton, inching downward. She connected their bodies as she went, skin against skin as she slid down Josie like they were both made from buttered silk. “So technically, you’ve said it a gazillion times already.”
Josie laughed. “If it takes that much to drill it into your head, then I’m more than happy to keep reminding you.”
“I won’t have it any other way.” When Peyton’s knees landed on the plush, sand-colored rug, she pressed her mouth against Josie’s stomach, just below her navel, and kissed a trail downward, taking her time with each press of her lips.
Remnants of last night’s wine still flowed through her veins, and every movement felt like she was wading through water.
She settled her head in between Josie’s thighs, nudged her legs open just a bit more with her elbows, and then kissed her on the one spot that had Josie shuddering, right at the dip where her thigh met her entrance.
Fingers tangled in Peyton’s hair, digging into her scalp. She found Josie’s right hand and pinned it to the bed, holding it there, and then licked the length of her.
“Oh fuck,” Josie moaned, her head pushing back into the white fluffy pillow, her eyes on the ceiling fan spinning lazily overhead.
Peyton stuck her tongue deeper and then lapped her up like she was a spoonful of honey.
She used her free arm to slide her palm across Josie’s stomach until she reached her breast, swept her thumb across Josie’s hardened nipple, and dug her tongue in deeper.
When the woman began to buck her hips, Peyton let her nipple go and was just about to replace her tongue with two fingers when there was a knock on the front door.
Both Josie and Peyton froze.
“Who’s here?” muttered Peyton, lifting her head up from where she was still hovering between Josie’s thighs and whipping it in the direction of the door. “I thought we were completely alone.”
“The concierge,” said Josie, propping herself up on her elbows, her lovely soft breasts, embracing gravity. She kicked a leg over Peyton’s head, rolled off the bed, and then grabbed the silky robe off the chair. Josie was across the room, fixing her hair before Peyton even had time to stand up.
Peyton wiped the back of her hand against her mouth, shook her head, annoyed, and then ambled across the room. She didn’t bother to get dressed since she very much planned to pick up again where they had left off.
“Put your clothes on,” Josie said, snapping her head back and shooting Peyton a desperate, wide-eyed kind of look. “They’re dropping breakfast off for us.”
Just the mention of food got Peyton scrambling to find the clothes Josie had torn off last night and discarded to the chair propped up against a wall.
There was a painting of a stingray, above it, in water so blue it looked fake.
But Peyton only had to look out her window to see that such cerulean blue water did, in fact, exist.
There was another knock and then a woman called, “Breakfast.”
Josie waited another two seconds until Peyton was decently dressed before she opened the door and took the basket from a petite, smiling woman.
“I didn’t know breakfast was included,” said Peyton, frowning as she watched Josie carrying the open wicker basket filled to the brim. “I thought the whole point of these villas was self-catering.”
“It’s in the fine print,” said Josie hurriedly. “Now come, let’s enjoy some food out on the deck. I’m starving.”
There wasn’t any reason to question Josie’s claim about the fine print since Peyton hadn’t bothered to do any of the planning.
It was all Josie—booking the flights, reserving the over water villas, arranging the activities, and handling everything in between.
The woman had missed her calling as a travel agent.
But then, maybe they never would have met.
It all came down to fate and its lovely but often annoying ability to weave two paths together in the most unexpected ways.
And yes, after everything that had happened, Peyton had no choice but to believe in destiny––Josie wouldn’t let her think otherwise.
Stepping out onto the deck, Peyton savored the warmth of the sun on her face as she plopped into a wooden chair.
Everything about the moment was perfect, down to the serene ripples of blue waters extending until the horizon to the woman she loved more than anything, bending awkwardly over the deck, scanning for fish just as she had done upon their arrival yesterday.
“So, what’s for breakfast?”
“Why don’t you check for us,” said Josie. “I want to take some pics of the water for Kelsey. She’s so jealous we’re here. She says the only place Mark wants to go to is the bushveld and she can’t think of anything worse—all those mosquitoes.”
While Josie walked to the end of the deck, camera in hand to snap a photo, Peyton turned her attention to the breakfast basket.
She unpacked it, setting aside a glass jar of milk, a tub of yogurt, what looked like homemade muesli, a bowl of freshly cut papaya, and two passion fruits.
Rummaging deeper, Peyton’s fingers brushed against something wrapped in cloth.
“What’s this?” she asked, pulling it out and holding it up. If it was a bread roll, then surely there would be two, and surely it wouldn’t be so hard. She dug her fingers into its side and waved it in the air.
Josie glanced back over her shoulder. “I don’t know. Why don’t you have a look?”
Feeling the fluttery wings of curiosity, Peyton unrolled the cloth and then gasped loudly, losing her breath in the process.
It wasn’t a bread roll.
It wasn’t even some weird, unrecognizable food unique to the Maldives.
It was a small, square velvet box that could hold nothing other than an engagement ring.
When Peyton looked up again, Josie was standing in front of her, lowering herself onto one knee. Her cheeks were flushed a bright red. “I was going to propose last night on the beach, but I didn’t know if you were expecting it. Anyway, I wanted it to be a surprise.”
It was a surprise.
Peyton hadn’t expected it, not really. Well, she had hoped it would happen and couldn’t imagine living her life without Josie, but she always assumed that she would be the one to propose. Hence the CAD drawings in her email for an engagement ring she was designing for Josie.
“The moment I saw you sitting in that pub in Manuel Antonio, reading that book, taking up an entire table by yourself, I knew we were meant to be together. Even when you didn’t.” Josie smiled and Peyton felt her heart leap out of her chest, basically giving herself to the woman.
“I’ve always thought we were like magnets––not even an ocean could keep us apart.
” Josie wrapped her hands around Peyton’s, squeezing them lovingly.
“And if my dad was here, he would have said that we are like two stars on an inevitable cosmic dance, bound to meet each other, no matter how huge the universe, or how many light years separate us. I know that he would have loved you, Peyton, because you’re so easy to love.
I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, loving you, and I hope that you’ll make me the happiest person in the world and marry me. ”
Peyton did the only thing she could: she squealed.
Her voice echoed across the calm ocean water.
She then jumped up, nearly hitting Josie in the face with her knee, and crumpled to the floor beside the woman she loved more than anything in the world, nodding her head so fast she was sure it would fall off.
“Yes. Of course, I’ll marry you. A thousand, billion times, yes.” She dropped the ring box in her lap, clapped Josie’s cheeks with her palms, and pulled the woman’s face closer. She was dying to kiss her and to show her just how incredibly happy she was.
It was minutes before Peyton pulled away, slightly, just enough for her lips to move. “You’re not going to leave me at the altar, are you?” she whispered.
It was a joke, one that had become increasingly funnier with time, and she knew Josie’s answer before she had even said the question out loud.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Josie said with a grin, reaching for the ring box. “I am as sure as both fire and fate. Now, let me put this ring on your finger so we can eat before I get back to dousing your blazing fire.”