The Engagement Game

by Hunter, Talia

He didn’t answer until they reached it, and by then she was busy gaping at the way it had been put together. Somebody had spent a lot of time and effort crafting the structure. It faced out to the water and had no door. Inside were fresh-looking leaves laid down just the way Jake had when he’d made their leaf mattress at Lantana. And was that a basket inside?

  “Come on,” Jake said, sitting on the leaf bed with his legs stretched out in front of him. “The sunrise looks good from here.”

  “But whose is this?” She frowned at the way he’d settled into the hut as though he owned it. “You can’t have built this,” she protested. The only time she and Jake had been apart since they’d arrived at Lantana was yesterday when Jake and Hendrix went fishing. But who else could have put together something so beautiful?

  He flipped open the basket and pulled out a thermos and a couple of mugs. “You said you wanted coffee?”

  Carin peered into the basket. There wasn’t just coffee in there, but bagels too. Her favorite. The sight made her stomach rumble. “How did you do this?” she demanded, sitting next to him as Jake poured coffee into a mug. “When did you get time?”

  “Hendrix helped me build it yesterday. As many tiny houses as we’ve built over the last year, you’d think it would be the last job Hendrix would volunteer for. But he wanted to have a go at putting one up by hand, like I did when we were on the TV show. And I figured you could finally get your walk-in wardrobe. Two birds, one stone.” He motioned to the back of the shelter. Sure enough, there was a partition that sectioned a small area off.

  “So you didn’t go fishing?”

  He gave her a mischievous grin. “I needed an excuse to get away for a day. I knew if I said we were going fishing, you wouldn’t go with us.”

  “No more fishing for me.” Though they’d only spent a few days eating fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner, she hadn’t wanted to look at one since, let alone catch one.

  She took a sip of the coffee he handed her. “Mmm. It’s good. But I know you didn’t sneak out of bed this morning to make coffee and take it to the beach, so how did it get here?”

  “I asked Rosa to arrange it. She’s good at that sort of thing.”

  “I spent all day with her yesterday and she didn’t say a word.”

  Carin took another sip of coffee, gazing out over the water to where the sky was lightening. Now this was the way to watch a sunrise. With a soft pillow of leaves under her, a coffee in her hand, and the man she loved by her side. It didn’t get any better than this.

  “Bagel?” he asked. “They’re still hot from the oven. And there’s jam.” He put a bagel on a plate for her and licked a smear of jam off his finger.

  She’d been wrong. Things could get better.

  “What have I done to deserve such a perfect morning?” she asked.

  “You don’t need to do anything. Just keep being you.”

  “I love you, Jake.”

  When he kissed her, his lips were sweet with jam. She leaned into his kiss, wanting more of his mouth and body. Greedy for his hands to touch her the way she loved. He ran one hand into her hair. God, that felt so good. But she needed to touch his skin. Tugging at his shirt, she ran her hand underneath it, over the muscles of his stomach. Touching him was such a powerful addiction. Could she ever get enough of this man?

  She was fumbling with the button of his shorts when he pulled back a little. “You don’t want breakfast?” His voice was rough and his hand was running down her body to her thigh even as he asked the question.

  “Later.” She was breathless with the sudden force of her need. “First you, then the bagels.”

  He moved over her with a groan. “This isn’t exactly what I’d planned. I was going to feed you first, then…”

  She cut him off with another kiss. Whatever the ‘then’ part of the schedule was supposed to have been, she wanted it now.

  He pushed her down so she was lying beneath him on the bed of leaves, and when he tried to undress her, she helped him shove her clothes aside. Though they’d slept together every night for the last year and a half, she was frantic with impatience for him. Maybe it was being in the shelter he’d built for her. Perhaps it was her awareness of how far they’d come since the first time they’d made love in their hand-made shelter on the beach. He’d proven himself trustworthy, and his love had become so necessary, she couldn’t imagine how she’d ever done without it. She’d been insane to have kept Jake in the friendzone so long, when he could make her feel like—

  “Oh, yes. Like that, Jake. Just like that…”

  Perfectly matched, they moved together. He answered her urgency with his own fierce passion, gasping into her ear as he filled her. She wanted to say his name, to tell him how much she loved him, but could only moan and press him closer as he drove her over the edge.

  Afterward, they lay in each other’s arms, talking softly and laughing together. Then they ate bagels and drank coffee until the sun had lifted far enough above the horizon that the sky had become a soft, cloudless blue.

  Finally, Carin put down her empty cup and sighed. “I hate to leave our love nest, but I should really get back to the resort. Rosa might need help with last-minute wedding preparations.”

  Jake pushed her hair away from her face so he could nuzzle her ear. “Your sister is the most organized person I’ve ever met.”

  His breath tickled. Carin laughed and hunched her shoulder. “Still. If we disappear for too long, she’ll think something’s up.” She shot a sideways glance at him. “Come to think of it, building this shelter must have taken a lot of work. Did you put it up just so we could have a secluded breakfast on the beach?”

  Jake extracted himself from the shelter and stretched in the morning sun. “I wanted our morning to be special.”

  “Why?” She laughed, thinking of the elaborate way Dalton had asked Rosa to marry him. “Don’t tell me you’re planning to propose?” As soon as the words left her lips, the idea seemed a lot less crazy than it had in her head. She swallowed, her heart suddenly skipping. “Oh my god, this isn’t a proposal, is it?”

  He turned to face her, one eyebrow cocked. “If this were a proposal, you’d know. I’d make it very clear.”

  “Oh.” She let her breath out. “Okay.” She’d only been joking anyway, hadn’t she? So it made no sense to be disappointed. But still, she felt deflated. She scrambled out of the shelter and onto to her feet and stretched the way he had.

  “For example,” said Jake. “This is what my proposal would look like.” He dropped onto one knee in the sand and tugged something out of his pocket. Could it be a jewellery box? Holy mother of mayhem, it was.

  He opened it, holding it out to her. The ring inside was gorgeous.

  “Carin Serena Carlton, I love you,” Jake said, his face serious. “I used to be afraid I might hurt you. But the last eighteen months have been the best of my life, and now I know I don’t need to worry. I’m nothing like my father, and there’ll never be anyone for me but you. Now and forever.”

  Carin’s heart was thumping hard. She found her hands were over her mouth, though she couldn’t remember lifting them.

  Jake took a deep breath. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wi—?”

  “Yes.” Carin bent and flung her arms around him with such force that they both hit the sand. More of a tackle than a hug. But Jake’s lips found hers, and that was all that mattered.

  “I love you, Jake,” she mumbled into their kiss. “You make me feel like I can do anything. I can’t wait to marry you.”

  “For better or worse. Richer or poorer?” he asked.

  “All that stuff.”

  “Good, because I think we might have lost the ring in the sand.”

  “Oh no. Crap, we’ll never find it. Wait, here it is.” Laughing, she put it on and held out her hand to admire it. “It’s perfect. I can’t wait to show the kids at the hospital. And Jacquie, too. I’ll have to drop around to see her, because she’ll be mad with me if she misses o
ut.”

  “How is Jacquie?” He stood, dusting sand off his clothes, and helped her to her feet.

  “Great. Her hair has grown and she has the most beautiful ringlets. She’s back at school and doing well. And she’s going to be over the moon when she hears my news. The Queen of Tulasia managed to reform the Duke of Dastardly. Who’d have thought?”

  “You’re going to need a new villain.”

  She grinned. “In fact, I’ve been working on a whole lot of new stories. Now that I’m so busy telling them all day, I can’t stick to the same old ones anymore.”

  “You should still wear that costume with the lacy bits there.” He motioned to her chest. “The one with the ties that pull it in tight around your waist. Oh, and your Wonder Woman costume. You don’t wear that enough. I think you should write more Wonder Woman stories.”

  “From now on, I’ll only wear costumes that go with my ring.” She held it out to catch the light. “I never want to take it off.”

  “With our families here for the wedding, we can announce the news to everyone at once.”

  “It wouldn’t be fair to Rosa to take the focus off her and Dalton. Let’s wait until the day after their wedding to tell everyone we’re engaged. Most of them are sticking around for a while, anyway.”

  “Okay.” He gave her a smile that was full of love. “I’ve waited most of my life for this moment. A few more days will be easy.” He held out his hand. “Better let me hold onto the ring in the meantime.”

  She stepped back, shaking her head wildly. “No way. I mean, not yet. I’ll give it back when we get to the resort.” Grinning, she put her other hand in his to walk back to the trees with him.

  “Hendrix knows I was going to ask you,” said Jake as they made their way down the path that led back to the Lantana resort. “But he won’t tell anyone if I ask him not to.”

  “You think we can find someone for Hendrix to fall in love with?” Carin asked.

  Jake shrugged. “I think my brother may be a lost cause.”

  “I might have to see about that.” She widened her eyes at the look he shot her. “What? Is it bad that I want everyone to be as happy as I am?”

  He put his arm around her. “I’d expect nothing less.”

  Carin leaned her head against his shoulder and they strolled back to the resort, side by side.

  Thanks For Reading!

  Is there anything better than hot love on a tropical island?

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  Copyright © 2018 by Talia Hunter

  All rights reserved.

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