by King, C. M
I quickly shot him a text back and picked up the ice cream, making sure I got his favourite flavour. As we got nearer I released Ruby off her lead, and she bounded towards him. He took her in his arms, giving her a huge hug, but he remained kneeling on the sand. I looked at him in complete bewilderment, I could see he was clutching onto something in his hand and a look of fear crossed his face as his eyes stared deep into mine.
“Joel?” I asked, feeling slightly anxious. The ice cream was beginning to trickle down my hand but my sole concentration was only on him.
Why did he look so nervous?
“Iz,” he said then drifted off, his eyes dropping down to the sand, mine followed too, and I gasped when my eyes flicked over the words that were written there in front of me. A tear rolled down my cheek, and I dropped down to my knees as Joel shuffled forward, quickly grabbing both hands.
“There are so many ways I could have asked you, and I thought about going all out but that isn’t us. I wanted something simple, something significant to us. I wanted to surprise you, and I know I said I’d wait, but when you know you know. I can’t imagine a single moment without you by my side. You are my life. I need you like I need my last breath. You own my heart, and I’ll never love, want, or need anyone else. You are as good as it gets. I know we’re young, but this feels so right. I want it to be official, to shout it from the rooftops that you are mine. I love you with all my heart and want to spend the rest of my life always with you by my side, through good times and bad. I want to make you smile and never give you a moment of hesitation that you ever made the wrong choice. Iz . . . will you marry me?”
A sob broke free, and I lunged forward into his arms, my body curled tight around his as I clung on to him like my life depended on it.
His fingers softly trailed up and down my back as he soothed me. “Iz, you haven’t given me an answer yet, baby.”
I pulled away to find his eyes searching mine. He already knew my answer, but for his own sake he needed me to confirm it out loud. I cupped his face, staring deep into the beautiful blue that had bewitched me all those years ago. I knew for as long as my heart stayed beating it would only ever be for him. He owned every part of me, and I would never love anyone else.
“Yes,” I whispered in between sobs. “It’s only ever been you. Joel, it will only ever be you.”
His lips crashed against mine, and I gasped at the intensity till he pulled away leaving us both panting. He gripped my hand, removing the ring from the box. It was a sweet, elegant ring. The stone was classically cut and modest in size, but to me it meant the world. I wasn’t someone that wore fancy jewellery, always preferring more simplistic pieces, and it made me smile that he had taken that into consideration. When he slipped it on, I stared at my finger and sighed.
“It’s perfect.”
“Are you sure?” he asked hesitantly.
“I love it with all my heart and everything it represents.” My hand slid up his face, and I pulled him in for a sweet, soft kiss.
“Just you, me and Rubes, Iz,” he whispered between kisses.
That’s all I ever needed.
Ruby began climbing up Joel, and we moved away laughing. He lifted her up and kissed her head. “It’s okay, Rubes, we haven’t forgotten about you, and you did a great job of keeping quiet.”
“And eating the ice cream.” I laughed, looking over to the tiny remains of cornet that was left on the sand.
Joel stood up, pulling me up into a kiss. “Thank you for agreeing to be mine.”
“I was never anyone else’s.”
He placed a gentle kiss on both rings. “When we get home and get Ruby settled, I don’t want to see you wearing anything else but my rings.”
“That can be arranged.” I shot him a wink as we quickly gathered up all of our belongings, Joel more eager than ever. I smiled as we made our way down the beach, tonight would be the icing on the cake.
* * *
“I think you’ve worn me out,” I said laughing as I fell forward landing on Joel’s slick chest. We were both panting hard after spending the last hour celebrating our engagement.
“Errr, I think you may have broken me,” Joel replied and I laughed, swivelling my hips, feeling him stir a little.
“No, I think you’re fine.”
I sat up and trailed my finger along his soft lips, his eyes watching me closely. He took hold of my hand and kissed the rings. I smiled shyly, not able to comprehend that I would soon be Izzy Sinclair.
“I love you naked wearing just my rings,” Joel whispered.
“Mmm me too, I could stare at you all day.”
I literally could, not one minute would be wasted.
“Really, what part do you like best?” I swivelled my hips again, and he rolled me over laughing. “Dirty girl.” He chuckled, and I felt him twitch again.
Not again, surely?
“I love every inch of you but for me, it is your eyes. From the moment I looked into them, I was transfixed. They are like pure sapphires, so beautiful. In them, I see the man I love, the man I want to spend forever with. I see your beautiful soul, and I know that even after a lifetime of being together, my heart will always skip a beat in your very presence.”
“Wow,” he whispered, “and I thought you were a cock man.”
“Joel,” I squealed, turning him back over as he chuckled. “Yeah, you know I love that too,” I admitted cheekily, raising an eyebrow. “But there is so much more than that. I love the parts people don’t see, I love your heart.” I kissed the very spot as he took in a breath. My face resting against the precious beat.
“So when do you fancy marrying me, is tomorrow too soon?”
“Erm, kind of,” I replied sarcastically, raising myself up onto my elbows.
“But I want you as my wife now.” He pouted.
“Patience is a virtue,” I said winking. “Besides I haven’t dropped the bombshell yet.”
“What bombshell?” he said, automatically sitting up and taking me with him so we were sat nose to nose.
“Well . . .”
“Just say it, Iz.” His eyes pleaded with mine.
“I . . .” I trailed off unable to speak the words.
“What, Izzy? You’re scaring me.”
My eyes dropped down to his chest, too scared to face the reaction I knew was imminent. “I kind of promised that Elijah could be our wedding planner.”
Joel’s eyes widened in horror. “No way.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“No bloody way.”
“Joel, he offered. I couldn’t exactly say no. I didn’t know you’d propose so soon, I thought in time he’d forget.”
He snorted. “There’s no chance of that.”
“It will be fine.”
“Pffttt, we know the reality of this, have we not been put through enough torture?”
“It will be me that will take the brunt of it. The groom hardly does anything, so think yourself lucky, imagine the drama over the dress. Oh god, please let us elope to Vegas, quick and easy.”
“I could book tickets?” Joel asked, looking hopeful.
“We can’t, it would break his heart.”
“Stuff him, if we want to go then we will.”
I pouted at his response. “But I want a real wedding though, nothing big and glamorous, but not one where we’re married by an Elvis lookalike in the room.”
“You’re right, I guess.” Joel sighed in defeat.
“Thank you, baby.” I kissed him softly, just grateful he was backing down so soon.
“I’m only doing it for you, you know that right? When he starts winding me up, then you owe me sexually.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “What?”
Joel grinned at my reaction. “You have to make it up to me with sexual favours; it’s the only way I’ll make it through.”
“And what about me?” I huffed.
“Oh I’ll more than see to it that you’re satisfied too.”
I ins
tantly smiled at his response. “You know it might not be so bad.”
“Yeah, baby, it’s Elijah, we already know it’s bad.”
I frowned at that exact thought. “True, speaking of which.” I grabbed my mobile and smiled when his name instantly flashed up on the screen. “Hey, Elijah.”
“Izzy, are you okay? I just had a shiver, and it felt like I needed to call you. I have this psychic sense at times and it told me to get in touch.”
“Psychic sense?” I repeated back, while Joel rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Well actually, you were right to call as we may need your services soon.”
“Services?”
“Joel popped the question.” I quickly held the phone away as Elijah proceeded to squeal like a banshee.
“I take it he still wants the job then?”
“Oh my god, when are you back? Oh, there is so much to do! I need to ring Karen at the vintage bridal shop, and the cake, oh my god, the cake! And the bridesmaids and flowers . . .”
I scrunched my nose up already regretting mentioning it. “And so it begins . . .”
Joel quickly spotted my look of horror and grabbed my mobile, throwing it into the drawer beside us, quickly closing it as I sat there in shock.
“Joel.”
“Iz, I can guarantee he won’t notice.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Elijah would be gabbing away for England, without drawing breath.
“Now do you want to make this day more memorable?” Joel asked, raising his eyebrows in such a teasing way every part of me clenched in delight.
“Do you even need to ask?”
That’s my girl. Try to keep it down though we have other people in the room.”
I laughed as he rolled me onto my back. “I love you, Joel,” I breathed.
“I love you more.”
In that moment there were no other words needed.
I Treasure Your Heart
C.M. King
Chapter One
Graduation.
It was finally here, everything I had worked hard for in the last three years had come to an end. There was a mixture of emotion; sadness over friends I had become so fond of would be no longer a part of my day to day to life. College that had been my routine was now becoming part of my past. The thought of what lay ahead scared me, finally being sent out into the big bad world. What if I never got a job offer? We were told the grim reality of auditioning leading to nothing and only the small percentage would go on to achieve great things with their lives. But I was optimistic, I had to be. Going into this I knew the chances of success would be slim, but I hadn’t worked hard the last three years for it to be all for nothing. Elijah was his usual over optimistic self. I couldn’t fault him in his self-belief, though I wished I were so self-assured about it all. But this was about our achievements, we deserved to have this day to mark all the back breaking work we’d put in to reach our goal, and I was determined to enjoy every moment. My dad had flown in to sit stage front and see me presented with my graduation certificate. My mother and Mike would be there too, along with Joel, of course, dressed up in a shirt and tie. He knew what that did to me, but I guessed he wouldn’t be too against the mauling that I would give him after the ceremony.
We had come a long way over the last year, despite Joel asking me to marry him, in the end, we hadn’t jumped in straight away, but that wasn’t because Joel didn’t want to. After telling both my parents I received different reactions, my mother had gone ballistic ranting about how I was far too young, that I should experience the world before tying myself down to another man. That really didn’t go down well with me, in fact we didn’t talk for over a week. I was just too angry she would question my love for Joel, but she carefully explained her reaction and I got to see that she was just doing her job as a mother trying not to let their child rush into something so huge. In the end, I relented that I’d wait a year and have a long engagement, which did not go down well with either Joel or Elijah.
Joel took it hard, like a form of rejection of using my mother as an excuse. That part hurt. After all we’d been through, he still didn’t get how much I wanted to be with him. I guess his past was always set to make an unwelcome arrival when doubt filled his head, and he went to that dark place once again. Years of being told he was worthless by his dad and growing up without his mother were always going to leave a lasting impression, and no matter how many times I reassured him of my love for him, there were times my words just weren’t enough. He had sulked for a couple of days, pushing me away, he even went on a drunken spree, which was usually his coping mechanism when things got too much to handle. Mike had found him passed out at the football grounds where they played every Sunday. He was beyond intoxicated and, we had second thoughts to take him to the hospital, but in the end, we relented. I spent the whole night sitting in a chair watching his every movement as he slowly slept. My heart ached for him to be feeling this low to use drink once again as a way to escape his problems. But there was a part of me that was angry that despite how far we’d come he’d still resorted to this tried and tested solution rather than being an adult, sitting down and telling me how he felt.
The next day he woke with a humdinger of a hangover but I didn’t pander to him, I was too pissed to start and fuss over him. Once I saw he was up and about, I left him to it. That evening I had arrived back to a complete and different Joel. When I walked in, he’d surprised me by cooking my favourite meal. My jaw almost hit the floor at the transformation after I had left him looking less than human earlier on in the morning. He served the food, and we fell into a silence just concentrating on what was in front of us. After finishing dessert, I had made my excuses and left to go to bed but he stopped me mid-step, wrapping his arms around me, whispering words of forgiveness that I knew truly came from the heart. He had hurt me bad and owning up to that admission had be the one reason I had relented so quick. I wanted my Joel back, the fun loving, big hearted beautiful guy that stole my heart. He showed me over and over how much he was sorry in the best way he knew how, and I was only too happy to let him. Those past few days we reconnected and became even stronger. After reinforcing into him that drink was not the answer, I told him I would not put up with that kind of behaviour and that when he experienced those dark moments to come to me, to seek solace through me. I didn’t ever want to see him in that state ever again.
Elijah was far angrier, acting like a complete child that all of his plans he’d been busy putting into action had now ground to a complete halt. But after many days of slowly trying to win him back round, I relented and let him discuss plans for the future wedding. I kept it to a minimum telling him our final year was my priority, then we could go all out with the wedding.
My leg had finally got back to full strength after the accident. It had not been as straight forward as first thought. It had taken a lot of hard work and physio to slowly bring it back up to how it was. I had low days where I just got so emotional over the fact I had been the one to put myself in that position, to gamble my future over a moment of madness. Joel had taken the brunt at times as I selfishly blamed him for his part, and he apologised over and over. Then I would have the guilt trip from hell and spend my time telling him that none of this was his fault. It felt like we were going around in circles at times, but we finally broke the cycle. Joel and Elijah were the ones I leaned on the most and became my support system to get me through that traumatic period.
Mike surprised me most of all by changing his philandering ways and finally settling down with a frank but sweet blonde-haired, pixie-like girl called Kara. We were all in complete shock when he announced it to us all, but I was finally proud that he was hanging up his player shoes and becoming the brother I always wanted him to be. I think losing Joel as a sparring partner had taken some of the shine for going out and after a near miss being wrongly accused of impregnating one of his many skank ladies had shaken him up at the prospect of being a dad. Thankfully, the girl in question came clean, assuri
ng him that he’d only been brought into the whole mess by wanting to teach her ex-boyfriend a lesson. He was the dad and quickly stepped up to his ways, just happy to see Mike out of the picture. So after a long lecture from both my parents, my dad did his rant about being so reckless via Skype, much to our surprise he stopped going out and getting hammered. Within a month he brought home Kara and they had been together ever since.
My relationship with Mike was still a little strained. I think there would always be something there despite our best attempts to move on. He and Joel had fallen back effortlessly into their friend role. Joel didn’t have any grievance over Mike and just wanted things to go back to normal. They hung out, went to football and played Xbox, but Mike made Joel swear to never mention me in any kind of sexual capacity. He was my brother and could not bear to hear anything about me in that way. I had to agree I was happy for him and Kara, but I did not need to hear anything like that coming from her lips either.
As promised all three of us had visited Australia, I’d never travelled that far before and the plane ride was a complete killer. Joel tried his best to keep me sane and if it hadn’t been from my Kindle, I would never have made it through. But the grueling journey was worth the wait. During our month stay, we were shown the delights of Sydney, taking photographs of every single landmark to add to the digital frame when we got home. My dad took great pleasure in showing us around, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was our first port of call followed by the Sydney Opera House. I stood in complete amazement and awe at a sight I had seen so many times on TV now before me; it was an experience I never thought I’d get to do. Over the next few weeks, my dad took time off to show us the rest of Sydney and all it had to offer. The weather was just perfect, and I especially enjoyed watching Joel in his shorts, those legs of his always had me drooling. I finally got my wish to hold a koala, which was absolutely adorable till it grabbed my hair causing me to shriek and all hell to break loose. Joel quickly took control so I was able to admire it from arm’s length. I was slowly beginning to get some colour in my skin, though Joel still mocked me calling me Casper, I cursed him from having the kind of skin that tanned so easily. He would show off his body to perfection at night, and I would stare in awe at the bronzed god lying beside me. We were given the bedroom farthest away, but we still had to try to keep it to a bare minimum out of respect for my dad. Joel, at one point, shoved the pillow over my face during one amazing orgasm, he apologized afterwards but I was just glad he spared me my blushes the next day.