“I go up for a basket; you block me and you’re on my team. Every time I try to give Lanie her birthday present, you’re there. You just show up like you have us bugged or something.”
“I swear, Grant, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Their little talk became a bit louder and everyone sort of stopped, backed away and listened.
“Oh please, Dane, at the beach, then on the terrace, and then up on the cliff. Every time.”
“Just give her the present. Who cares? I mean what does it matter where or when or who’s there? I’m not blocking you.”
“Dane, I’ve been trying to ask Lanie to marry me all day and you are most definitely cock blocking me.”
Everyone went completely silent. Grant’s eyes got huge. My eyes got huge. Dane’s eyes got huge.
“Holy shit,” I said in a whisper.
“Holy shit,” Samantha followed.
“Holy shit,” Grant said in a defeated voice.
“Oh crap,” Steve said.
Grant slowly turned around towards me. I just stood there. I couldn’t move. He walked over to me, got down on one knee and reached for my hand. I couldn’t breathe.
“Lanie, I’ve been trying to ask you all day. I can’t imagine my life without you in it. I never want to again. You are my life. You are everything and the only thing I exist for. Would you please do me the honor of spending the rest of our lives together, as my wife?”
I saw Jennifer cover her mouth and Joe pulled her close. In fact, all the couples seemed to gravitate towards each other. Jack was beaming. Holy shit, my dad was beaming! Now I understood their talk on the terrace the other day. I felt tears well up in my eyes. I looked down into the most beautiful face I had ever seen in my entire life. His eyes were like a doorway into his soul and all I could see in their depths was pure love, pure love for me. I felt the same. I wanted to be with this man forever.
“Yes, Grant, yes. I want to be your wife. I want nothing more than to spend my life with you. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“Is there a minister in the house?” Steve called out and Chelsie just shook her head.
“If there was, I’d marry him right here, right now. Right this second.”
Grant reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box. It looked like onyx with a small gold button at the bottom.
“Press right there,” Grant said and he smiled at me. He was still on his knee.
I smiled, and my hand was shaking so badly it took me several attempts to hit the button. Grant grabbed my hand with his to steady me. I gave him a grateful smile. I pushed the button and the top popped open. Nestled inside was the most perfect ring I’d ever seen. A round diamond sat in a high platinum setting. On either side were square-cut, channel-set blue diamonds, which perfectly matched the color of his eyes, Nothing complicated, just simple and perfect, like our love.. He took it out of the box and slipped it onto my finger. I looked from him to the ring to everyone watching us. Grant stood up and pulled me close.
“Lanie. I’m the luckiest man alive. I have you. I love you, Mrs. Bennett-to-be.”
“Grant.” It was all could get out.
I felt a lump form in my throat and knew if I tried to say anything, I would start sobbing. It was fine, because Samantha was sobbing for me. She was such a sucker for romance.
When our lips touched, everyone cheered; even Dane. We stayed for a while longer so everyone could give us hugs and kisses and look at the ring.
“Lanie, we’re so happy you’re going to be our daughter. Our real daughter now.” Jennifer pulled me into a tight hug. So tight I couldn’t catch my breath.
“Jennifer, I can’t breathe.”
“Don’t kill her, Darling, we actually like her.” Joe pulled Jennifer off me and pushed her gently towards Grant. He wrapped his arms around me and whispered into my ear, “Thank you, Lanie, for making Grant so happy. All a parent ever wants is to see their child have everything they want or need. You give him so much happiness and then some. We love you.”
I watched my father shake Grant’s hand. They shared a knowing smile. Then he turned to me.
“Lanie, Honey, I’m so happy for you two. I can’t see you with anyone else. He knows just how to handle you. I feel comfortable with that. Now, I have to give you something from your mom. She told me when this day happened, to let you know she put her wedding dress and stuff away for you. She said you always used to ask for that dress when you were a little girl. She said you don’t have to use it, but it’s yours if you want it.”
“Oh my God. Are you kidding me? I love that dress.” It was all too overwhelming. I finally joined Samantha and started to sob, which made her run over and sob with me. Then I-never-cry Chelsie joined in, too. The three of us just held each other and snot-sobbed like a bunch of five-year-olds.
“I love you guys.”
“We love you.” And we all cried some more. Finally, Grant reached in and pulled me out.
“Love, how about you and I go for that walk? I think I’d like that alone time with you now.” I nodded. It was all I could do. Haley ran over and handed Grant a container. He smiled and tipped a pretend hat. Every one wished us goodnight and congratulations again; knowing full well we wouldn’t be back.
We headed off toward my house. It was like a fairytale. My fairytale. We reached my room and I opened the window to let the night air come in while Grant lit candles. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out two forks. We shut out the lights, stripped down to our skivvies and jumped onto the bed with our cake and lots of giggling.
“So, which layer do you want to start with?”
“I think I’d like to start with …
Chapter 34
Why Are You Crying?
“… mousse and work our way backwards.” I giggled.
Grant smiled, grabbed me and pulled me over to him.
“Hi, Pretty.” He kissed my nose. “Can you believe this is happening? All of this … after knowing each other our whole lives, you’re actually going to be my wife. Lanie, I love you so much.”
“Grant, I wouldn’t want things to be any other way. I’m so happy.” And then my eyes filled up with tears and I started to cry again.
“Why are you crying?” he asked, bewildered.
“Because I’m so happy.” I sobbed.
“What do you do when you’re sad?”
“I cry harder.” Which just made me cry harder.
“Are you sad now?” He seemed confused.
“No, I’m still happy.”
“I’m confused.”
I kept thinking back to my dream about losing him. To lose him now would be impossibly hard. I wouldn’t be able to handle it. How could I tell him about my stupid fears when he had just showed me how much I truly meant to him?
“I’m afraid of losing you,” I blurted out.
“Lanie.” He laughed softly. “That ring on your finger … this man right here in front of you … this all means forever. Do you understand? I’m never going to leave you. I couldn’t survive without you. Not now that I’ve had you this way.” He gestured between us.
I felt my heart start to beat a bit faster, and all I wanted to do was make love to him. I needed to make sure this was all really happening, that he was real. I wanted to feel him completely. I wrapped my fingers into his hair and roughly pulled him to me. I ran my tongue slowly over his lips. I tugged on his bottom lip with my teeth. I held his face right next to mine.
“I want you. I need you. All of you.”
Grant growled and pushed the container full of our sex life off the bed quickly followed by the two forks.
“I want to fuck you, not fork you.” I couldn’t help but giggle.
But this was my game, and I wanted to be in control. I grabbed his shoulders and pushed him down onto his back. I crawled over and straddled him.
“Baby, I’m so going to show you how much I love you … and this ring.” I held it up so I could admire it again.
Grant put hi
s hands up in surrender. Sure, what guy wouldn’t surrender at this point? I ran my hands down his chest slowly, using my fingernails to graze his skin. He reached up to touch my breasts and I pushed his hands back down.
“This is all for you.” I put my ring on the nightstand and reached in to grab a bottle of baby oil.
“Shouldn’t that be olive oil? I mean, given our fascination with food and all,” he quipped.
“If you want me to stop and run downstairs to get it, sure.” My sarcasm was apparent.
“No, thank you. I’ve changed my mind,” he said with a sultry smile.
“That’s what I thought. Now shut it. I’m busy and you’re distracting me.”
“My apologies. I certainly don’t want you to be distracted.”
I grabbed the baby oil and just squeezed the bottle so it poured a large puddle over his chest. I smiled evilly. I put both my hands into it and began to spread it out all over. I wanted to touch every single part of his body. Call it marking my territory, but I wanted to be the only one who knew every bit of him.
I let my fingers roam all over him, his pecs, his abs, that awesome part on the side of his hip, the path that led down to my happy place. Oh yes. His body was remarkable in every sense of the word. The muscles flexed and relaxed as I ran over his sensitive spots. I leaned my face in so I could watch what I was doing closely and let my breath caress his skin. He shuddered slightly.
I moved up to his neck and his shoulders and then up and down his arms. I rubbed, touched and soaked the feel of him into my hands. If I were blind, I would know it was him no matter where I touched. His breathing became deeper and slower and he closed his eyes and hummed softly for a moment. I reached his fingers and kissed the one that would someday hold his wedding band.
“This is my finger. Don’t ever forget that. I might tattoo your wedding ring on it.”
“Lanie, they are all your fingers. I’ve used every one of them on you. Tattoo away.” He smiled and kept his eyes closed.
I moved back to his hips and passed over where I knew he wanted my handy work. I heard a frustrated moan, which made me smile all the more. I massaged his extremely muscular legs right down to his cute toes. Yes, this man even had hot toes. Who would’ve thought it? I imagined all the women who would kill to touch this amazing creature this way. Too bad, he was all mine.
“Flip over,” I commanded.
“Um, you’re not done with the front. You missed a part.” Again he smiled.
“Oh I can see it. It’s standing at attention.”
“He wants your attention.”
“He’ll have to wait. I’m saving the best for last. Wait, why are we referring to him as he? Does he have a name?”
“He’ll be whoever you want him to be.”
“I only want you. But let me think. How about we call him Cannoli?”
“You want to call my manhood Cannoli?”
“Why not, perfect mouth-sized sweet crème-filled treat. And we can call your boys donuts.”
“Well, the food names are certainly appropriate.” He flipped over for me.
Before I oiled him all up, I brushed my hair softly along his back. Then I had the brilliant idea of rubbing my nipples against his skin, ‘cause I was starting to get hot and bothered just touching him. Any woman would be. His soft little moans and groans of pleasure were driving me insane. I covered his back in oil and nibbled up and down the side of his neck while letting my girls press and rub against him. I worked my way down and grabbed his fine ass. Holy God, it was a fine ass. Then I leaned down and bit it.
“Did you just bite my ass?” He sounded surprised and he clenched his hot little cheeks.
“Yes, and if you don’t shut up, I’m going to smack it, too.”
“Oh, Lanie, I’m a very bad boy. I deserved to be punished.”
I let him have it. I gave him one hard smack. He jumped slightly and then reached back to rub it.
“Remind me never to really get you mad enough to actually spank me if that was only for fun.”
“Oh Baby, let me rub it for you.” I grabbed the oil and covered his ass with it, smooshed my breasts against it and began to massage with them. He growled and somehow managed to roll over. Now my breasts were smushing into his extremely hard dick.
“You’re cheating.”
“You said you were going back there, I’m just helping.”
I grabbed my breasts, pressed them to either side of him and he began to thrust between them.
“Fuck, Lanie. Every part of you feels so good.”
“Ditto.”
This was great and all, but the ache between my legs for this man was increasing. I needed some touching. He was irresistible. I’m not sure how to explain it, but when I looked up at him and saw the look on his face, his absolutely drop dead gorgeous face and beautiful eyes, I just melted.
“Hold that thought. I need some loving now.”
I turned myself around and now was kneeling over him facing his feet. My very wet sex was now right in his face, just begging to be licked and kissed. I didn’t need to say a word before his hot mouth was on me. He just dove right in.
“Yes, Baby, just like that.” My voice was breathy and ragged. I was going to go back to what I had been doing, but saw this as the perfect opportunity to dine together. I took him in my mouth and earnestly began to suck. All I could hear was muffled groans, but they felt amazing. I felt myself edging close to an awesome orgasm and he was harder than a rock. I pulled myself away from him. I heard him groan.
“Don’t worry. I’m not finished with you yet.”
“Oh goody!”
I straddled him and slid him inside me. He felt so good I immediately burst into my orgasm.
“Oh my God. Fuck, Grant.”
“Damn, I’m good!” he exclaimed with a huge stupid grin on his face.
“Oh yeah? Feel this!” And I went to town on him. I pounded myself on top of him. Our bodies were slick with oil, and I slid my hips easily up and down him. It only took seconds and he was quivering underneath me.
“Damn, you’re good, too!”
I settled myself next to him on the bed and looked him in the eyes. “Grant, I promise to never let that end between us. Every night I’ll make sure you’re satisfied in every way possible.”
“I’m so damn lucky.”
“And I’m so damn hungry, so how about some of that sex cake?”
He laughed and reached over the bed to grab our cake and forks, and we spent the next hour forking each other before falling into deep sleep.
* * *
Grant and I spent the next few days with our families in complete and utter bliss. I was on cloud nine pretty much all the time. But today was a little different. Our parents’ trip had come to a close. We all gathered as Pierre pulled up to take them back to the airport.
“Lanie, Grant. I’m going to miss you both so much. I can’t say this wasn’t the most uneventful trip. I’m leaving with a huge smile on my face and Samantha’s cell phone number so we can plan the wedding.” Jennifer grabbed us into a huge hug.
“Mom, I can’t breathe,” Grant choked out.
“Neither can I,” I gasped with him.
“How can such a tiny woman be so strong?” I heard him croak out.
“I can hear you. You’re both talking right into my ears.” Jennifer released her death grip on us and showered us with kisses. Joe grabbed me into a hug, shook Grant’s hand and then pulled him into yet another group hug. We said our goodbyes to Jeff and Haley, and then I turned to my father.
Grant walked up behind me and put his hand out to him.
“Well, Grant, I guess I finally know what to call you now. You take care of my little girl. You hear me?”
“You know I will, Jack. I promise.” He started to raise his right hand and I swatted it back down.
“Dad.”
“Lanie, I sure am going to miss you. I guess next time I see you it’ll be for the big wedding day. I’m really looking for
ward to seeing your mom’s dress on you.”
“Daddy, thank you. That means so much to me. I’m going to miss you, too.” I threw my arms around him and felt tears welling up in my eyes.
“Don’t you dare cry, Lanie. Grant, you make her stop.”
“I don’t know where that switch is yet, Jack. But don’t worry, I’m working on it.”
The Cliff Page 27