He paused a moment and took a deep breath, feeling his world shift. Everything was changing. He slipped the box into his pocket.
Donovan walked down the hall and returned to the living room, where Jocelyn was waiting on the sofa, all smiles, looking flushed and beautiful, like an angel from heaven. He slowly made his way to her and knelt at her feet.
His heart was pounding against his ribs. He’d never been so nervous about anything in his life.
He took her hands in his and labored to keep his voice steady and controlled. “You’re the one, Jocelyn. I know it as clearly as I know my own soul. You’re the one I want to spend my life with, the one I want to grow old with, and I promise I will make you happy forever, and I will never, ever leave you, if only you’ll say yes.”
Her eyes were sparkling. She began to smile. “Yes to what?”
“Yes to marrying me. I didn’t propose properly last time. This time, I’m doing it right.” He reached into his pocket, withdrew the box and opened it before her. The diamond ring glittered magically. “This was my mother’s. She left it to me in her will. She said it signified everlasting love, and that it would represent her love for me even after she was gone, and that she hoped I would pass it on to my own children. It means a lot to me. Will you wear it, and give it to our child some day?”
Jocelyn covered her mouth with trembling fingers and stared down at the one-and-a-half carat, pear-shaped diamond. “It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen, Donovan.” She took it out of the box and tried it on. “It fits perfectly.”
Donovan got up off his knees to sit beside her again. He touched her cheek lovingly. “Meant to be, I guess.”
She began to nod. “I think you’re right. I feel good about this. I feel really good about it.”
He exhaled a long sigh of contentment, then kissed her again, tenderly and passionately, stroking her hair and her shoulders and glorying in the feel of her body next to his. “I feel good, too. I’ll always feel good with you in my life, Jocelyn. I hope you don’t want a long engagement.”
She smiled seductively. “I’ll marry you tomorrow if you can get the time off.”
A swell of arousal moved through him at the beguiling expression on her face and the sexy, silky sound of her voice. “Tomorrow might be a little difficult. How about the day after?”
“What’s so important tomorrow?” she asked, laying teasing little kisses on his chin and neck. The feel of her wet lips on his skin sent a message to his nether regions, and he began to rise to this tantalizing occasion.
“Tomorrow I’m helping you move in here,” he replied. “That is, if you want to live here.”
“Of course I do.” Her voice became serious. “It was your parents’ place, Donovan, and look what they created while they lived here.” She touched her warm palm to his cheek. “We have a lot to look forward to, don’t we? But for now, I only want one thing.”
“And what’s that?”
Her eyes glimmered with desire. She pulled off her shirt to reveal a red, lace teddy. “I want you to carry me to your bedroom, so I can thank you for bringing out the woman in me.”
His hunger for his new fiancée intensified. He rubbed his nose up against hers. “We’ll get there faster if we run.”
She laughed and leaped off the sofa. “As long as you promise to go slow when we get there.”
Desire burned through his body at the idea of making love to her slowly, for the rest of the day and long into the night, in the bedroom that would become theirs together, forever. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8625-6
SLEEPING WITH THE PLAYBOY
Copyright © 2003 by Julianne MacLean
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