My head fell back on my neck and I tried to do just that. “Lottie.” When she ignored it and continued to descend, I went a step further. “Baby, I’m going to come.”
Moving the hand that wasn’t helping her mouth so that it was around my hip, she dug her nails in and pulled me in to her. The tingle intensified to a full on electric shock and I exploded, coming in pulses in her mouth as I lost the feeling in my arms and legs. Hell, at this stage, I didn’t even have any other parts of my body, they’d all disappeared as it swept through me leaving a panting, shaking wreck behind.
When I couldn’t take anymore, I pulled out of her mouth and stared down at her in shock. The skin of her chest now had goosebumps all over it and her hard nipples were poking through the lace, making me realize how much this had affected her to.
I might not be able to make love to her, but I could give her back what she’d just given me, regardless of the fact it worried her that she was the only one receiving in this relationship.
Pointing behind her, I growled, “Lie out on the bed, now.”
And then I blew her mind, too. Twice.
Chapter Nineteen
Charlotte
Six months later…
Life was good – I hated that expression because it was so weak. My life wasn’t just good, it was so much more than that.
Eric was charged and had been sentenced to fifteen years in prison yesterday. His withdrawals had apparently been the stuff of nightmares, and seeing as how he hadn’t been granted bail, he’d had to go through it in prison. One of the guards who was friends with Connor had told us that he’d seen a lot of men go through it, but not one of them had been as bad as that. Levi’s reasoning was because he was a ‘pussy assed bitch’ and no one had argued with that.
My mom had been granted bail, but they had also given me a restraining order while she was waiting to go to trial, so that wasn’t a big issue. She was definitely going to get a sentence too, seeing as how she’d helped a wanted person kidnap me knowing that he intended to hurt me.
The only shock had been when it came to Kari. While he was being questioned, Eric had explained how she’d approached him outside the bar the night we were in there and had offered to help him kidnap me. Her father was about to be indicted for fraud and embezzlement, so she wanted money to fall back on – Levi’s.
He might have been high as a kite but he’d had the sense to record most of the conversation, including the part where she’d told him to do whatever he wanted with me. My favorite part had been her saying, “Kill the little bitch for all I care.” Hairy assed, man footed cow.
And my father… maybe it was best that I didn’t tackle that subject. This was meant to be a happy day for me, and his disregard was the one thing in the whole debacle that actually hurt me.
When he’d been told what Raquel had been part of, he’d replied with a simple, “Ok.” Eventually, Levi had called him and outlined the plan, including details of my injuries, and he’d just muttered another, “Ok,” and had hung up the phone. I hadn’t heard from him or seen him, and I didn’t want to ever again.
Aside from that, life really was good. Levi’s family, including his cousins and grandparents, were amazing, and I never knew what to expect with them. Forrest Gump’s mama totally got it wrong in her analogy about boxes of chocolates. It was true that you never knew what you were gonna get, but if you dug out the ones that people automatically went for – the run-of-the-mill flavors that were common everywhere – all you were left with were the nuts.
And the Townsends were my nuts. Maybe I needed to reword my analogy, too? Then again, I loved nuts, so being left with a variety of them because everyone preferred the boring, normal ones was perfect for me.
I’d also decided not to stop my bucket list. I was now about to turn twenty-two, and my twenty-first year had definitely been full of life changes, but I didn’t want to quit experiencing things I wouldn’t normally.
Which was why Levi had arranged for me to go bungee jumping at The Sierra Nevada Mountains Bridge, a railway bridge that ran between the mountains next to Lake Tahoe. I’d been pumped until we’d gotten to the area where you jumped off, and then the nerves had set in.
Giving myself a pep talk had worked, and then I’d looked down at the hundred foot drop. Needless to say, I wasn’t ok right now.
Massaging my shoulders, Levi murmured, “You don’t have to do this, Lottie. We can find one of those kids adventure parks, or go to one of those places where you stand in a big tube and they blow a lot of air to lift you up.”
“Ok, Charlotte,” Craig the jump guy yelled. “You’re next.”
With a whimper, I walked over to him and stepped into the harness.
“Do you remember what we went through in the safety briefing?” Darnell, the other bungee guy asked.
Nodding at him, I closed my eyes and thought of my happy place. On the ground. On firm ground with concrete boots on my feet. Not standing roughly one hundred feet above the water with a piece of string around my torso, some elastic around my ankles, and a GoPro being attached to me.
“Step up to the edge, Charlotte,” Craig instructed while Darnell checked all the clasps on the equipment that I’d just been strapped into.
Maybe he should do that before I stepped closer to the drop?
When he was happy, he gave a thumbs up and grinned at me. “Are you ready?”
Fuck no! “Yes.”
“Lottie,” Levi called, making me jump.
Looking over my shoulder, I saw him on one knee holding out a small box with something shining in it.
I’m not sure if it was the nerves of the jump or the shock of what I saw, but I tripped and went flailing off the edge of the bridge, screaming my ass off the whole way.
I was still screaming as I hurtled to my death, when I blinked my eyes open for a brief second and saw a crowd of people waving at me out of the corner of my vision, but my life was about to end and I was going at such a fast pace that I’d never know who was saying goodbye to me.
As the water rushed up at me, I closed my eyes and felt a second of heartbreak that I’d never get to marry Levi and wear the ring he’d picked for me.
Just as I was taking my last breath, I hit the end of the elastic and string – or the very safe and professional harnesses, but I wouldn’t look at them like that until at least a week later – and my internal organs felt like they’d shifted into my breasts. Then I was shooting back up again, then falling, continuing on like that until I finally stopped completely.
That was the first time I fully opened my eyes all the way and saw how far away from the water I was. Facing it, it didn’t seem like that far, but when I saw the photos afterwards there had been a distance of at least ten feet.
Hearing cheering to my right, I turned my head and saw all the Townsends – all of them – standing cheering and clapping. Well, aside from Levi who had somehow joined them and was standing next to his parents, Elijah, and his grandmother, all of them looking like they were about to drop dead.
The GoPro thankfully recorded everything I’d missed, including the expression on my face when I saw Levi and tripped off the edge, so I got to see it. Some of the family had also recorded or photographed it as well, so I had those to add to it, too.
Which was just as well – because I was never doing it again. Ever!
The one part I wanted to relive a million times over, though, was Levi scooping me up when I got closer to him and putting the ring on my finger without saying a word.
Regardless of the fact that I was still shaky, I burst out laughing. “Is that your idea of a proposal?”
Scowling up at the bridge and then back down at me, he shook his head seriously. “A proposal involves asking if you’re marrying me, and that means you can say no, so I’m not asking. You will marry me, and you’re never doing anything that fucking stupid again.”
* * *
Wanna know why he was as shaken as he was by it all? Well, I’d found out l
ater on that Levi had set it up, thinking he’d be able to propose and that I wouldn’t jump. He knew how afraid of heights I was, but wanted me to have the opportunity to attempt it, regardless. He just hadn’t counted on me actually going over the edge. Darnell and Craig had been in on it, too, but the proposal was the real reason why the whole family were there that day.
Levi’s plan was to get me ready, and then for him to do what he’d done and me to fall into his arms. Nowhere in there did I end up over the edge, so it was just as well they had strapped me into the harness.
As I’d tripped over the edge, there was a clear video of all them trying to catch me and missing by an inch. There was also a nice close up of Levi’s horrified expression as I continued falling. It felt like it had all been over in a matter of seconds, but the fall had lasted long enough for him to get all the way to his family, see that I was ok, and almost throw up in the bushes.
At least we had the best videos and photos to show our kids and grandkids – if we ever had them – of the day he proposed. That reasoning would come in handy once the shock wore off, but I was totally getting myself concrete boots.
* * *
Ironically, three months later, he asked me to marry him again. This time we were on vacation at Guadalupe Island in Mexico, cage diving with sharks, and this adventure had been my surprise for him.
We’d flown into San Diego and met our ship which had then brought us here, and now we were in a cage looking out into the dark blue depths of the water around us. I’d expected it to be crystal clear, but it was like being in a weird clear, yet murky, blue soup, and we couldn’t see what was in the distance ahead or below the cage.
It was eerie, and I wasn’t sure that us watching 47 Meters Down and The Meg last week had been a good idea. Levi had wanted to have a shark day, though, and I hadn’t wanted to give away what the surprise was, so I hadn’t had a choice.
Let me just say that if you could smell fear in water – mine would be enough to knock you out right now.
Wait, sharks could, though, couldn’t they?
A tap on my shoulder almost made me shit my pants, and when I turned to look at Levi he was holding up a board with:
No heights this time.
Will you marry me?
Followed by the words yes and no with boxes beside them.
Just as I reached out to tick yes, the expression on his face turned to one of horror as he stared behind me, and then something hit the cage.
Turning around as fast as I could, I saw the open mouth of a Great White only feet away from my face and screamed. Well, I would have screamed if I hadn’t had the vital scuba breathing regulator mouthpiece in my mouth. Still, I gave it my best shot, and bubbles exploded around it as the shark ran his teeth down the bar of the cage.
Ironically, there were also GoPros in the cage with us, recording the moment for us to relieve again, and again. They also recorded the explosion of bubbles from the front and behind. Yes, behind. The video showed Levi reacting much the same way that I did, except from the opposite end of his body.
At least we survived another memorable proposal, and the video footage to show for it.
Epilogue
Levi was still trying to give me the proposal of my dreams up until last night, one where nothing went wrong. He’d tried so many ways to make it work, but nothing had gone right.
Now, we had a long list of proposals to fall back on when we told the story of how he proposed, but I wasn’t going to stop at just telling one of the stories.
We’d gone back to see one of the football teams who’d been playing during that fateful game, but one of the guys on the cameras had recognized us, and as his proposal flashed up on the screen, it had cut to me looking like I was jacking him off as I dried his crotch.
Then, a couple of weeks after the football game, he’d organized a ride on Night Rider and his Dad’s horse, but something had spooked it and Levi had fallen and broken his tailbone. Jer’s horse’s name was Senegal Heat, but they called him SH and swore it stood for Shit Head. Now I could see why.
The list was endless, and each one had ended as badly as the one before it.
“Why are you giving her so many chances to say no?” Archer had asked as we’d waited the night he’d fallen off SH, next to Levi’s hospital bed for Parker to come back with the results of the x-ray.
Slightly out of it with the painkillers he’d been given, he’d slurred, “I want to give her all of her dreams.”
And that’s when he’d given me the proposal of my dreams without even realizing it. He’d still continued trying, though, but I had all that I ever needed and more.
Levi
It was done, she was legally all mine. Her signature was on the piece of paper and I’d gone over everything ten times to make sure nothing had been missed out. Even filing the paperwork for the marriage license, I’d checked it over, woken up at two in the morning to check it again, and had fallen back to sleep with it in my hand in case it disappeared.
But it had all gone without a hitch, and now she was mine for the rest of my life. Her and her sexy thigh socks – which she still wore to bed during the winter. Admittedly, I’d bought her at least five pairs of the things in September to make sure she had enough, but the whole Charlotte and sexy thigh socks package was all mine.
I hadn’t realized that breaking my ass would mean waking up to the happiest Charlotte I’d ever seen, but apparently the words I’d slurred out had been all that she’d needed.
Technically, the first time I’d proposed had been all she’d needed, but I’d kept doing it because I was desperate to not have a failed one for her to remember. Not that you could forget the others, especially because of all the damn videos and photos we now had of all of it. Fucking technology.
Walking past where my sister was reluctantly dancing with Parker, I frowned when I saw how closely he was holding her.
“Yo,” I barked, wedging my arms between them and pushing him away slightly. “Leave space for Jesus, man.”
I was insanely happy, but the glare he was shooting at me just added to it.
Now to find my wife.
* * *
Charlotte
One year later…
“Bop, bop, bop!”
Putting my milkshake down on the table, I turned and glared at Ariana. “Stop poking my vagina.”
“I’m not poking your vagina, I’m poking the baby’s foot.”
Shooting a pleading look at Bonnie and Dahlia, I sighed when they just shrugged at me.
“I’m thirty-nine weeks pregnant and at the last appointment with my OB-GYN, she said his head was in the ‘good to go’ position. So that wouldn’t be his foot even if it wasn’t my vagina. Which,” I added, leaning closer to her face, “it is.”
Looking horrified, she cried, “Oh my god, what if I got him in the eye?”
“They just do a scan up your cooter at the eye doctor,” Dahlia told her seriously, pulling out her phone. “Here, I’ll make an appointment.”
Seeing how flustered I was getting, Bonnie plucked it out of her hand. “Let’s not wind up the pregnant woman, ladies. She might explode all over us.”
“Explode?” Ariana gasped.
“I won’t explode, and you weren’t poking him in the eye,” I reassured her, but couldn’t help adding, “because you were poking my vagina.”
Unfortunately, as I was saying those last six words, the McDonalds we were sitting in went unnaturally quiet, so everyone heard them and turned to look at us.
“I wanna watch,” a big guy in a red cap yelled, scooting around in his chair so he didn’t miss the show.
“Me too,” another voice shouted, which was soon followed by three more.
Feeling indigestion weaseling its way back into my day, I threw my garbage on my tray and stood up. One by one, the eyes of the men who’d called out to us dropped to the large bulge of my stomach - which was impossible to miss so I didn’t take any offense at them doing this, especiall
y seeing as how there was a leg sticking out of it at that moment.
“Mommy,” a little boy whimpered, launching himself at the woman beside her. “She’s got an alien in her belly.” Giving me a sympathetic smile, she whispered something to him that just made it worse. “I’m not eating here then, I don’t want an alien in my belly.”
Shaking his head, red cap turned back to his meal, but said loudly over his shoulder, “Just to say, I’d still watch.”
“You’re a sick man,” Bonnie growled at him. “I’ll give you a tip: get yourself a woman, treat her like a queen, and then you won’t need the big vat of lube you’ve got waiting for you at home.”
Looking her up and down, he shrugged. “I’d give you more than the tip. You’d get the whole foot long.”
Wrinkling her nose, she muttered, “Gross,” at the same time that I started gagging.
“Wrong restaurant, phlegm wad,” Dahlia called, shaking her head and pointing at the golden arches outside the window.
Feeling the pain in my stomach building, I shot Ariana a begging look and started walking slowly toward the front door of the restaurant.
Just as I got to the door, there was a gush of water between my legs and I had to grab onto the handle to stop myself falling to the floor with the pain.
“We’ve got to go,” I whimpered, trying to pull the door toward me to open it. “I’m not having my baby in here. I’m having him in a sterile bed, in a sterile hospital, with my husband beside me, where there's drugs!” The last word came out on a shriek as I tried my hardest to get the damn door to open, but it just wasn’t budging. “Oh god, he’s gonna be called Mac, isn’t he?”
Pushing the door beside the one I was still pulling on, Ariana suggested, “Or you could call him nugget?”
Going For Gold: Providence Gold Series Book Four Page 19