His Absolute Proposal: An Illicit Billionaire Love Story (Elise, #3)

by du Lys, Cerys

  "Icewine," Lucent said. "It's for special occasions. I'm glad they kept a bottle in reserve down here."

  "I'm not sure this is a special occasion," I said. "I kind of think it's not a special occasion at all. We sort of crashed your parents dinner and invited ourselves here for an overnight stay. I mean, I suppose that's special in a way, but I'm not sure it's a good sort of special."

  Lucent chuckled, then sipped at his wine. "No, not that, Miss Tanner. This particular occasion is special because of where we are."

  "Um... we're in a room?" I offered as a guess. "It's a secret room. It is a rather nice room, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure it's very special, either. I do like it!" I didn't want to sound ungrateful, but, um... a room? A room was a room, really.

  "Perhaps," Lucent said, a coy grin creasing the corners of his lips. "This particular room has one slight nuance to it that makes it different from most any other room you shall ever have the pleasure of inhabiting, though."

  "I think you're keeping a secret from me again," I said, staring at him and doing my best to pout.

  Lucent snuck close and kissed the pout from my lips, though. Apparently I wasn't allowed to pout; not now and not here.

  "Look up," he said.

  I glanced up, rolling my head back and resting it on the back of the couch. Something glistened and shivered in the light from the ceiling. It looked more than a little strange, to be honest. The light shone from one particular spot directly above us and slightly to the left. My eyes turned towards it, staring at it. It looked almost like a regular ceiling light, but trapped... behind something? And not a full light, either. More like a sliver. A quarter of what it should be, glossy and shimmering. Every so often, it faded from view, blocked out by a moving shadow.

  "The ceiling is weird," I said.

  "Yes. Weird is definitely a word you might use to describe the ceiling," Lucent said.

  I pointed towards the shimmering light. "Can you make it less dim? Brighter? Is there a switch somewhere for that? I can't see very well."

  Lucent almost died. He almost died and apparently it was my fault. He choked on the sip of wine he'd just taken. Choking and sputtering, rolling to the side, he managed to somehow neatly place his glass of wine on the side table, and then...

  He kept choking, but at some point it turned into a roar of laughter. I... um... I panicked, and then I stared at him. That was about all of what I felt right now. Panic and confusion and staring and...

  Lucent swallowed hard, forcing himself to calm down. Tears and redness covered his face, and when he turned to look at me after finally stopping his choked laughter, he grinned wider than I think I'd ever seen him grin before.

  "Well..." he said. From the sound of his voice and the look in his eyes I could tell he was trying not to laugh again.

  "I don't know what you think is so funny," I said, huffy, glaring. "It wasn't a bad question! If you turned the lights up I could see everything better."

  "Possibly true," Lucent said. He slipped closer to me, wrapping his arm around me. Smiling and kissing my cheek, he pointed to the light again. "Unfortunately it's impossible to do as you ask, Miss Tanner. That," he said with emphasis, waving his hand toward the light, "is the moon."

  I blinked and stared at the light. The moon? Um... I was almost certain that wasn't the moon. Or, it shouldn't be the moon. How could it be the moon? We'd definitely gone down. We were underground at the moment, of that I was sure. And the moon was obviously not underground. In fact, I knew quite well that the moon was high up in the sky. Which, here, would make it high above the...

  Oh God.

  "What makes this room special," Lucent said, reading my mind, "is the fact that the ceiling is essentially made up of fifteen billion gallons of water. Note, there's a very thick piece of protective glass between us and the lake, and everything is incredibly secure and safe, so there's no need to worry."

  I heard him, yes, but after his initial words, everything kind of just went in one ear and out the other. I stared up at the ceiling, watching the flickering shimmers. Belatedly, I realized it wasn't just the moon as a light, either. Little glimmers of sparkling starlight flickered here and there, almost imperceptible. What I'd thought were shadows blocking out the light before, were, um...

  I pointed. "Is that a fish?" I asked. "There's fish up there?"

  "Yes," Lucent said, smiling and proud. "This lake is a wonderful fishing spot."

  "I... but how? How is it like this?"

  "It's like this because I wanted it built like this," Lucent said. "The hardest part was figuring out a way to keep the glass on the lake bottom clear of dirt and debris. I have to admit that the solution to that problem took a lot of thought. I think the end result is worth it, though. Don't you agree?"

  "Lucent, we're under a lake," I said, as if maybe he hadn't realized it yet. "We're under a lake and we're laying in a couch, sipping at wine, looking up at the stars and the moon and the water and... and fish! There's fish, Lucent. Look, there's a little fish right there. He's swimming past us right now."

  He chuckled. "Indeed there is."

  "Do the fish know we're here?" I asked. "Do you think it bothers them?"

  Lucent furrowed his brow and pursed his lips. "You know? I've never thought about it before. I'm sure it doesn't. We must be as interesting a spectacle to the fish as they are to us, I imagine."

  "I like that," I said. "I think that's nice."

  Lucent smirked at me, but gladly allowed me my strange thoughts. Yes, perhaps they were strange, but I liked my thoughts because they were my own. I liked that Lucent liked my thoughts because they were mine, too. I liked that he accepted me, no matter how confusing or strange or sometimes difficult I was. I liked that he didn't ever seem annoyed or frustrated with my curious questions, that he just... he answered them, simply. He considered them, even if maybe there wasn't much of a reason to consider them.

  He gave them importance, he took them seriously, because he thought I was important; all of me, everything.

  "I do think this is a special room," I said. "It's beautiful. It's like your butterflies."

  "I suppose it's similar in many ways," he said, smiling. "I hadn't thought about that before."

  "Similar but different," I added. "It's nice. It's like a natural hideaway. I mean... I know that the butterfly garden isn't natural, and this room, um... it's not exactly natural, either. That's just what it reminds me of. It doesn't seem intrusive. It seems nice."

  Lucent's butterfly garden. Or, not his exactly, but he secretly owned the building. We'd... we'd gone there last winter, too. He had a hidden room built into a side area of the gardens, with an office of sorts inside. He said it was for trying to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, somewhere he could go to escape and think and work. I didn't know how anyone could ever work there, though. Every time we'd gone, we... well, we never worked. We cuddled and lay in one of the hammocks and watched the butterflies or pretended to watch a movie on the small TV there.

  I loved Lucent's secret things. That thought suddenly struck me hard, though. How? How could I love those secret things, but then be upset at finding out his other secret things? Yes, they were different, and also he told me about the butterfly garden room, he showed it to me, but... still...

  "I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry about getting so upset before about you keeping some secrets from me. I... Lucent, I do like some of your secrets. I like this secret. I like the butterfly gardens, too. I like your little secret room under your office at Landseer Tower. I bet I'd like the secret tunnels at Jessika and Asher's home if I saw them under different circumstances, too. I don't think it's fair of me to like some of your secrets, but not the other secrets you have."

  "There's nothing to apologize for," he said. "Secrets can be good and bad. Occasionally, secrets can simply be secrets, and neutral or inconsequential. I don't want to keep secrets from you, Miss Tanner. That was never my intent."

  "You would have told me, wouldn't
you? Eventually, I mean? You would have told me about... about your illegal things? Maybe?"

  "I'm uncertain," he said. "It's something I've struggled with. If I'm being honest, I would have preferred you never found out. I'm unsure if I would have told you."

  "I understand that it can be hard," I said. "I know it can be a struggle and it can be difficult to say. It's like saying 'I love you,' you know? It's supposed to be hard, not easy. It's hard because it means something. It means a lot. You need it to be important, and important things aren't always the easiest."

  "I believe that's true," he said.

  "I think you would have told me eventually," I said. "I know you say you wouldn't, and I guess now we won't ever really know for sure, but I think you would have. Sometime. You would have because it's important. And, yes, maybe it's kind of a bad secret in a lot of ways, but I think maybe sometimes the bad secrets are the most important ones."

  "You have the hard drive now," Lucent said, kissing my cheek softly, then moving, kissing, closer... the corner of my lips, then my lips directly. "I don't want to keep secrets from you, Miss Tanner."

  "I know," I said, kissing him back. We lay like that, lounging beneath the lake and the moon and the stars. The shadows of the fish, mixed with starlight and moonlight, flickered and shimmered above us, dimmed darkness and opalescence, somehow quickly ephemeral but infinitely forever at the same time.

  "I love you," Lucent said. "I promise you, I would do anything for you. I swear it."

  I smiled and cupped his cheeks in my hands. "I know," I said. "I would do anything for you, too. I promise. I don't want to force you to tell me your secrets, though. I don't want you to do it because you feel guilty. I want you to do it because you want to, even if it's difficult and hard and maybe sometimes it seems impossible. I love you, too."

  "How about," he said, pausing to give me a soft kiss, "once we arrive in Aruba we can look at the contents of the hard drive together. As little or as much as you like. I'll explain whatever you want. Unfortunately there's a lot of dreary contractual agreements and business documents, but there's a story behind each and every one of them."

  "A secret story," I added. "Like the hidden tunnels beneath the Landseer mansion."

  "Yes." Lucent came closer to me, cuddling and squeezing me tight. "That's true. There is that. Some may not be as intriguing as others. There's a story behind everything, though."

  "I like your stories," I said. "I like knowing more about you. I like learning about how you think. I think that's fun. I think it's fun to think about, too."

  "I feel the same way about you, Elise," Lucent said. "You're so different from anyone I've ever met before. I wish I'd met you sooner. I wish I had the courage to..."

  "Shh," I said, smiling and covering his lips with my fingers. "I know that story, too, but I want you to tell it to me again sometime."

  "It's quite a strange story," he said, kissing the tip of my fingers.

  "Maybe we can write it into a book?" I said. "I'm writing a book about when we were in the library, so maybe we could make that into a book, too?"

  "Perhaps, but then everyone will think I'm insane, obsessive, overly impulsive, potentially a stalker, rude, creepy, and an atrocious human being."

  "No," I said. "We'll use a thesaurus. We'll use different words. You're mad, but with love. Passionate. Demanding, yes, but only because you know exactly what you want. You're kind and considerate and watchful. And, yes, perhaps you're a little different, and some might call you strange, but you're generous and careful and thoughtful first and foremost."

  "That's quite a thesaurus you have there," Lucent said.

  "Yes," I said, grinning at him. "But now I need a synonym for 'I love you.'"

  "Hm..." Lucent smiled at me, contemplative. "I think I know a good one."

  "Oh?"

  "Yes," he said. Clearing his throat, he added... he added... he...

  I choked back a sound of surprise, because... um... uh...

  "What did you say?" I asked.

  "I haven't prepared for this," Lucent said. "I apologize for that, but I'm not sorry for anything else. I haven't prepared and generally I would have preferred doing this with more detailed planning, but I don't care anymore, Miss Tanner."

  "I... Lucent. I..."

  "Elise, I love you," he said. "I want to be with you forever. I feel like I should have asked you months ago, but I was afraid it might seem like it was too soon. I didn't want to frighten you. I was scared of scaring you away. I'm always scared. I don't want to lose you."

  He stared at me and repeated what he'd said before, what had me choked up in surprise.

  "Will you marry me?" he asked.

  What could I say? What should I say? What would anyone say?

  Except it wasn't about that. It wasn't about saying anything. No thoughts. No answers to questions. His words didn't even seem like a question to me, to be honest. They were a fact, an odd formality. Because there wasn't any answer I could give him that could truly state how important he was to me.

  "Yes," was all I could say to answer his question, and yet "Yes" didn't seem like it would ever be enough.

  "Yes, I will," I said, whispering. "Lucent, yes. Yes, of course. I love you. I love you so much."

  He grinned and kissed me softly. I thought we should do more. Do more kissing? Yes, perhaps that, but more more, too. I didn't know exactly what, just... more. But we did. We did it. We were doing it. It seemed like we were. We cuddled close and I rested my head on his chest. We stared up at the moon and the stars and the fish and the lake. The glassy reflections of life and space shimmered and shined above us, perfect and surreal.

  We sipped at our wine. We kissed. Sweet vanilla and wild orchids laced our breath, remnants from the icewine in our chilled glasses. I nuzzled my cheek against his, feeling the slight scruff from his unshaven face. Not too much, just a couple of days worth of growth, but it tickled and pricked at my skin. I laughed and giggled and squirmed in his arms, and Lucent held me tight and close and set me free.

  But I came back. I always came back. I didn't want to leave him. I would never leave him.

  Secrets. Ours. This was our secret now, wasn't it? No one else knew.

  Will you marry me?

  Yes.

  I didn't want that to be a secret for long, though. I wanted to tell everyone. I wanted to tell the world.

  We lay in each other's arms, glancing up at the night sky beneath the lake, cuddling and huddled close. I opened my mouth to yawn, and as soon as I closed it Lucent kissed me quick. I smiled and kissed him back. Our eyes closed; either separately or both pairs at the same time, it didn't matter.

  "I love you," I murmured, before a deep feeling of rest overcame me. My words were a whisper, partially a dream, but even still they were the most real words I'd ever said.

  "I love you, too," Lucent mumbled back. I felt his heartbeat in his chest and his soft, steady breathing.

  We fell asleep in each other's arms beneath the stars, in a room hidden under a lake, secluded and special.

  The most special part of it all was that we fell asleep together. I wanted us to fall asleep like this every day afterwards for the entire rest of our lives.

  A Note from Cerys

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  ~*~

  A little more than halfway through!

  To be honest, this story kind of got away from me in a lot of ways, but I'm happy with how it's gone so far. I originally intended for it to be quite a bit shorter and finished a lot earlier, but sometimes these things sort of get away from me and take on a life of their own.

  Basically, if I went with the lengths that I was originally aiming for, there'd only be about two and a half books total, sort of. I w
as planning for about five, but much shorter than they actually turned out. The same with the Jessika's Love Story series, too.

  Honestly, I'm glad this happened, though. It's taken longer to have everything finished, but I'm a lot more excited for the story and it's given me time to consider some things that I hadn't really thought about at first. It's also given me some ideas for future stories I'd like to do that are kind of similar to this.

  For those wondering, everything is going well, though. I know it can kind of be frustrating having to wait for more books sometimes, so if you're reading this and waiting for the fourth book, I'm sorry! It will be out soon, I promise! If the fourth book just so happens to be out already, well...

  Go check it out, haha. A lot of crazy and exciting stuff is going to happen in that one, and I think you'll enjoy it a lot.

  These are my favorite sorts of stories, too. I like things that are fun to imagine, even if maybe they're a little different and crazy sometimes. I enjoy the idea of "What if?" and I hope you're enjoying it, too. We've come this far together, so I definitely don't want to disappoint you now, you know?

  Anyways, there'll be more of Elise and Lucent soon, and it's going to be pretty fast-paced and action-packed. A slow burn and build up is good sometimes, but eventually you just have to go all out and see what happens, right? I think this will be like that, and I think you'll really like it.

  Thank you for reading His Absolute Proposal, too! If you enjoyed it, I hope you'll consider leaving a review for the book! It means a lot to me, and it helps out a ton, too. I try to read all of my reviews to see what you liked about the books so I can try and write more of that in future books. It's fun to see what everyone thinks sometimes, too. We can all have such different ideas and opinions, which is great and I think that's really interesting and exciting, as well.

  Thanks again for reading, and keep an eye out for more soon!

  Sample (Sequel)

  Please enjoy this sample from His Absolute Escape, the sequel to this story and the fourth book in the Elise's Love Story series by Cerys du Lys