Epilogue #3
Maybe it’s Rey and Mark’s upcoming wedding that’s made me think about marriage this much. Or just the extreme certainty that I want to spend the rest of my life with Linnea.
I’ve officially lived with her for four months now and I’m waiting for my offer on the twin house next door to be accepted—such a painful process, even with the best of solicitors.
Whatever the reason, I yearn to make her my wife. To be her husband. The kind that she deserves.
As Mo drives me down the street to our house, the box feels like it weighs more than it needs to.
I should broach the subject at least. Then I’ll know for sure how she feels about it.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the past year’s events, and monthly sessions with Dr Carter, it’s that talking about it is always the better option.
“See you next week, Mo, say hi to the missus,” I tell my driver and he returns the sentiment.
He seems a lot happier after I changed my habits to working fewer evenings and no weekends.
Yan, my new managing director for The Orion and Millefleuré is doing well.
They’re an excellent addition to the team, and I can actually relax, knowing my staff and my clients are in their capable hands.
When I step into the hallway of the home I love so much, I immediately sense something is different. There’s a new smell, but I can’t place it.
“Linnea?” I call out.
“Up here!” she responds from the first floor, but her voice is faint, and I make my way up the stairs. “One minute, don’t come in yet!” she singsongs from behind the closed library door.
I do as she says and wait outside while I hear her shuffling around in there. What is that new scent? It’s something sweet … beeswax?
The doorknob turns and Linnea’s face appears in the crack.
“Come in,” she says, grinning widely, her cheeks lightly flushed. She opens the door fully, revealing what she’d been shuffling around with.
The first thing I notice is the dark green velvet four-seater, plush and inviting. The single reading chair she had here before is gone. The room is lit with dozens of LED candles, flickering in the darkening space as dusk settles quickly outside.
What is she…? I look at her. She’s still grinning next to me.
“Do you like it?” she asks. “It’s the same style as your favourite chair in the Diamond Lounge. I saw it a couple of months ago at an antique market and had it reupholstered and polished. It just arrived today.”
Furniture polish. That’s the beeswax smell.
“It’s perfect,” I say.
“It’s family-sized.”
My eyes cut back to hers. What?
She laughs. “I’m not pregnant, but maybe one day we’ll read here together, all of us, if we end up having little ones.”
My smile breaks free and I close the distance between us, wrapping her in my arms, but before I can kiss her she says, “And there’s a surprise there for you. Umm, I’m a bit nervous about it.”
“Where?”
She unwraps my arms from her waist and steps to the couch, where there’s a small box sitting on the cushion. I didn’t see that before. Adrenaline hits my gut and propels me forward to her as she perches on the edge of the couch.
“I was thinking that maybe you’d be careful, because—”
I’m on my knees in front of her before she can finish her sentence.
“Linnea.”
“Aiden, I don’t have a fancy speech, it’s not my forte… Just please tell me you will marry me.”
I laugh and bury my face in her lap, and she threads her fingers into my hair.
“I want to marry the hell out of you,” I say, my voice muffled in the skirt of her dress.
“That’s beautiful,” she laughs.
I pull back and cup her face. “I have something for you too. You’re right, I was being careful. I’ve been ready to put a ring on your finger since last year but thought I’d make sure you were here with me.”
“I very much am,” Linnea says, picking up the box from the couch, placing it on her lap in front of me.
“Wait, let’s do it together,” I say, retrieving the small box from my inner pocket.
“Aiden,” she breathes.
We open the lids towards each other at the same time, and I keep my eyes on her face. I took a chance that she’d not want something massive and showy, so I had one made in rose gold with intricate leaf patterns hand-carved around the band, with a flush-set round diamond in the middle.
“Oh my god,” she whispers, picking the ring out of the box, looking at it.
“This is … like if I was a ring.” I grin at her, proud of myself for making the right choice.
She allows me to slide it onto her slender finger, and finally I turn my attention to the larger ring on its velvet pillow on Linnea’s lap. It’s a black matte band.
“I really wanted you to wear a ring, hah. I’m being possessive.” Linnea fidgets with it. “You don’t have to, if you don’t like it.”
“I love it, Linnea,” I say as I nudge her to put it on my finger. “I’d tattoo it on if I had to, I want everyone to know I’m yours.”
I cup her face again, now with the band that says she wants to spend the rest of her life with me too, and I finally press my lips against hers.
She hums into the kiss and I shuffle on my knees in between her legs.
I wrap one arm around her back and pull her flush to me, her dress rides up, and she lets out a little gasp as my groin lines up with her warm centre.
“I love you so much,” she murmurs against my lips, arching against me as I grow harder in my trousers. “But we can’t break this treasure of a couch.”
I lift her off the velvet four-seater so I can keep kissing her while carrying her to the bedroom, or elsewhere, just somewhere so I can have sex with my fiancée immediately.
“Fuck me against the wall, Aiden, I need you right now.”
Not needing to be told twice, I press her against the wall and undo my trousers while she wraps her legs around me, our kisses are frantic and sloppy, but it’s so hot.
I groan as I get my erection out, stroking it once before I shift her underwear to the side and slide my fingers through her wet pussy.
She tilts her head back against the wall, gasping, exposing her beautiful neck and I nibble my way down to her collarbone.
Before I can ask if she’s ready for me, she arches against me.
“Please, Aiden. Please. Just get in there.”
I groan into her shoulder as I enter her tight pussy, feeling the velvety warmth wrap around my shaft. We’re done with condoms, we agreed, and I love the way she feels against the sensitive skin of my cock.
Holding her arse with one arm and her torso with the other I work inside her, thrusting and grinding the way I’ve learned she loves the most. Filling her while rubbing myself against her clit. My legs burn but the ache is nothing compared to the pleasure from being inside her like this.
I lean my forehead on hers, breathing with her. Panting, inhaling her moans as they escalate.
“I’m close,” she whimpers. “Keep grinding like that, just like this.”
Watching her face, I do as she says, pumping and rubbing until she’s slack-jawed, eyes rolling back into her head and her pussy clenches around my cock.
She clamps her legs down around me as I lose control of my rhythm, thrusting hard into her, receiving louder and louder cries in response.
I empty myself inside her, groaning loudly into her neck, before I let the weight of both of us take over and we sink to the floor.
“I’m so fucking happy, Aiden. You make me so unbelievably happy,” Linnea murmurs into my ear, arms still wrapped tightly around my neck.
“Me too,” I say, pulling back to see her face. I brush a hair out of her eyelashes. “You are my world, Linnea.”