12. Chapter 12 There Can Only Be One Answer #3
"Gabriel! I need—" I don't know what.
But something. I'm right there, but I can't go over. My first climax came out of nowhere, but now my body teeters on the edge of an abyss I want to dive into. But it's just out of reach.
"You need what I give you." What he gives me is not what I expect though. Because it's not giving. It's taking away.
He pulls out of me. Completely.
Shouting my frustration, I still don't fight him when he flips me over, shifts me up the bed and maneuvers me so I'm on my knees, my butt in the air, my forehead resting on my forearms, my wrists still bound.
His grip so tight on my hips, it's probably going to leave marks, he pushes back inside me in one long inexorable thrust. I'm so wet for him, he doesn't have to rock and retreat once.
I'm not sure he would if my body resisted him.
There's a feral intensity in him right now that calls to an answering primitive need in me.
One of his hands comes around so he can rub my clitoris with his middle finger and my thoughts splinter into nothingness as ecstasy finally explodes through me with enough power to send the world to black.
When I come to full consciousness again, I'm floating in a scented bath with Gabriel holding me.
"Back with me?" he asks, so attuned to me he knows the moment I'm fully aware again.
"I was always with you," I slur, still pleasure drunk, and not at all sure that's the truth.
I do not remember Gabriel leaving to run the bath, much less carrying me in here.
"But now you are also aware of your surroundings."
"Mmm," I agree.
He cups the warm water in his hands and pours it over my shoulders and chest. "We did not use a condom."
"No, we didn't."
"There is only one path forward for us, jawharat qalbi."
My heart starts pounding in my chest. "You're talking about marriage, aren't you?"
Gabriel lifts my left hand and only then do I notice the stunning ring on my finger. A five carat square cut tourmaline, the exact shade of my eyes, rests in a setting of marquise cut emeralds stylized to look like leaves amidst delicate gold vines.
"It's beautiful," I breathe.
"For a woman with a soul more beautiful than any piece of jewelry could be."
"I love that you see me the way you do," I say softly, my heart screaming in denial as I go to do what I need to and pull that gorgeous ring off my finger. "But I'm here to see if I can fit into your world and so far, we've only confirmed our incredible sexual chemistry in bed."
Gabriel's big hand curls around mine, preventing me from removing the ring. "Leave it on. I will show you how well you fit into this world, how very much you belong here."
"But—"
Gabriel moves, cutting off what I was about to say. And before I realize what's happening, I find myself facing him in the spa sized tub, both of us kneeling in the hot water.
He grasps my hands in his, his eyes meeting mine with breath stealing intensity.
"Will you align your future with mine, Juliana?
Allow me the privilege of sharing this life with you.
Marry me and be the mother of my children.
Add the spice of joy that has been missing in my life, though I did not know it. "
There are no words of love, but each one falls on my heart with renewal like a spring rain on a fallow bed of flowers just waiting to bloom again.
I open my mouth to answer but he continues before I can say anything. "I promise you my fidelity, my protection, my affection and my respect for the rest of my days."
Not the rest of my days, but the rest of his. He's saying I'm it for him. For the rest of his life. My newly woken heart demands I can give only one answer.
"If the next two weeks go as we—"
"No." He shakes his head vehemently. "You missed me when I returned home.
You, who have never traveled outside of the United States, came on your own to be with me in our future home.
You may already carry my child. There is only one path forward," he reiterates.
"If you are honest with yourself, you will acknowledge this. "
He's right. I don't need two weeks to figure out if I want to spend the rest of my life with this man. I chose to go without a condom again because he is the one I want to build the family I never thought to have with.
And most importantly, no matter how impossible it should be, I love him with my whole tender, just out of hibernation heart.
"Yes, Gabriel. I'll marry you." Then I give my own vow, the one that encompasses all the promises he made. "I love you."
It doesn't matter that it's too fast, or that he is a prince and I am not even a member of the nobility of any country. I don't care that he's leagues beyond me in sophistication. Where it matters, we match.
I want him. I trust him. I love him.
His dark eyes flare with triumph and something that looks like joy.
"Your love is a gift I will always treasure," he promises.
Then I learn just how sexy a bath with my new fiancé can be.
Later, filled with a contentment I have never known, I finally take the nap Gabriel said I needed.