by Kimberly Fox
Ethan answers the door in a black housecoat with a coffee mug in his hand. He’s not wearing a shirt underneath and his robe is open just enough that I can see a peek of his chiseled abs underneath. Just one of the many reasons I’m moving out here.
He looks down at me with a furrowed brow. “Sorry, but I didn’t order a stripper.” He tries to close the door but I wedge my foot in it.
“Are you sure?” I ask. “Because I have great tits.”
The door opens back up a crack. “I’m listening,” he says.
“If you come out here and help me unload the truck I might let you see them,” I say.
The door swings open and Ethan is standing there with a huge smile on his sexy face.
“Might, I said.”
He pulls me in and kisses me long and passionate on the lips. “Welcome home,” he says, when he finally pulls away and I’m feeling weak in the knees.
Ethan closes the door behind me and drops his robe. It crumples to the floor and he’s standing there in just his tight gray briefs and a grin on his face. “Should we celebrate now or later?”
“Tempting,” I say, biting my bottom lip as my eyes explore his hard body. “But the truck is double parked so…”
“Okay fine,” he says, walking into his room. He comes back out with an old faded Nirvana t-shirt on and some shorts. “Let’s get you moved in.”
He helps me unload the truck for the next hour. I sold all of my crappy furniture back in Buffalo and only have boxes of clothes, shoes and other crap that I didn’t have the heart to sell or throw out. Ethan takes the heavy stuff like my shoe and book collection and I take all of the light stuff like the throw pillows and lamps.
By the time we get the truck unloaded I’m exhausted. I left Buffalo at two in the morning and drove all night. I always liked driving at night better and it cut out all of the traffic but now I need a nap.
Ethan tucks me in bed and parks the truck in the back alley for me. It doesn’t have to be back for another few hours so I close my eyes and sleep in his bed. No. Our bed. I have to get used to saying that.
I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and am surprised when I wake up to see that I’ve been sleeping for over two hours. I love waking up in this bed. The room is so nice with the high ceilings, enormous windows and the video camera set up in the corner. Fucking Ethan.
It feels weird to think that I’ll be waking up here from now on. It’s been great the past three months. Ethan and I have visited each other almost every weekend and have grown even closer. He sold his bar and is focusing on his tattoo shop only now. I am coming to work as the manager and he’ll be able to focus on what he loves, doing tattoos all day. He even drew me up a heart tattoo for the back of my shoulder but I’m still trying to get over my fear of needles to get it. One day…
After a month of traveling back and forth, Ethan asked me to move in with him and I quickly agreed. I love Chicago and his place was way better than mine anyway.
I crawl out of bed and head into my new living room. “Ahhh,” I say, feeling a tingling warmth in my body. Ethan has been busy setting up my stuff and making me feel like I’m at home. My books on the shelves, my little knick knacks are over the fireplace mantel and on the coffee table. Even my flower pillows are on the couch. It looks strange but also incredible to see my stuff here mixed with his.
I find him in the hallway taking down some of his pictures to make room for mine.
“Wow,” I say laughing. “It looks like my apartment threw up in here.”
“My bachelor pad got married,” he says.
“Who is this?” I ask, taking the picture from his hand. “Ex-boyfriend?” The photo is of a good looking, muscular guy who kind of looks like Ethan but maybe a bit shorter with a cropped haircut. He’s wearing a nice, fitted suit as he grins at the camera.
He furrows his brow and takes the picture from my hands. “That’s my little brother, Chase,” he says, dumping it into the box. “He’s with the seals.”
“Like in Sea World?”
“No. Like in the Navy Seals.”
I take the picture back out of the box. He’s hot. “Is he single?” I ask. “Maybe we could set him up with Cynthia?”
“I don’t think so,” he says, taking the picture from my hands and tossing it back into the box. “He’s a little wild.”
“More than you?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
He takes a picture from my box of a nine-year-old me posing with my new bike. It had colorful streamers coming out the sides of the handlebars. It was awesome.
“He’s not someone you want to hook your friend up with,” he says, hanging my photo on the nail. He steps back and smiles as he looks at it. “He’ll never settle down.”
“The same could have been said about you before you met the right girl.”
“Not him,” he says, pulling out another picture from the box. It’s the family dog, Sparky, who died over ten years ago.
We’ll see…
Ethan brings me into the kitchen and makes me a sandwich for lunch. “I think I’ll like living here,” I say, watching him move around his gorgeous kitchen like a master chef.
“You better,” he says, pointing a spatula at me. “Because I’m getting used to those flowery pillows. It would break my heart to see them go.”
“Then we’ll stay together,” I say, nodding. “For the pillows’ sake.”
We finish lunch and then go outside to return the truck. It’s parked in the back alley behind his townhouse. Once it’s gone I’m officially moved in and am a citizen of Chicago.
Ethan throws me the keys. “Check the back I think you forgot one box.”
“Huh?”
I open the large sliding door and my hands fly to my mouth when I see what’s inside. There’s a little white box sitting in the middle of the vast, empty truck.
“What’s that?” I ask with my heart pounding. My hands are trembling and I have to grab the side of the truck to keep myself up.
“That’s our future in a box,” he says, stepping up beside me. “That’s years of love, happiness, peace, passion, friendship, children, commitment, affection and fun. Go open it.”
I walk over slowly and pick it up. I seem to have forgotten how to breathe because the air keeps getting caught in my throat. I stare at the soft box in my shaking hands and open it slowly. I gasp at the stunning diamond ring inside. I stare at it for a good thirty seconds before I turn around.
Ethan is in the truck behind me, down on one knee.
“Tanya,” he asks. “Will you marry me? Please?”
Happy tears flood my eyes and I run forward and tackle him in a hug. He falls backward with me on top, and I say ‘yes’ a million times as I shower his face with kisses.
“We’re getting married!” he says in disbelief.
“We’re getting married!” I repeat. The words feel weird on my tongue but they also feel so right. “Back to Cancun?”
He smiles. “I’m thinking Belize.”
“Sounds perfect.”
I kiss him again, deep and passionate. It’s time to celebrate properly now. I want to feel my fiancee inside me.
“Now we can celebrate,” I whisper on his lips.
He grins as he gets up and yanks the door of the truck down. It slides closed leaving us in pure darkness. I hear steps coming forward and then feel his soft hands and warm breath on me.
I’m going to like being married to my bad boy.
THE END
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Bonus Chapter 20
Tanya’s lunch with her strict, prudish parents doesn’t go well when she tells them about Ethan. It goes even worse when the three of them walk into her apartment and find a surprise from Ethan: He’s cooking lunch. Naked.
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Tanya and Ethan get married!
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, Chase, has his crosshairs aimed on Cynthia.
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