Page 117 of Forever Mine
He smiled. “You’re my boyfriend?” he said, clearly teasing me and enjoying it way too much.
I held out my hand to him, and when he put his in mine, I pulled him to me on the bed so that he was straddling my waist.
I placed my palm over his heart. “You love me?”
“So very much.”
I could feel his chest vibrate beneath my fingers.
“I love you too, Elijah.”
“…for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part…”
“Thank you, Julien.”
I slid my jacket off and pulled out my phone to select some music to play. “Thank me for what, babe?”
“For loving me.”
As Hayley Michelle’s voice sang her cover of “Wild Horses,” my feet ate up the distance between us.
“Loving you is easy.”
I slipped my hands under his suit jacket and pushed it over his shoulders until it fell to the floor behind him. I next unknotted his tie and tugged at it until it slid from under his collar, then I threw it onto the bed. I did the same to the tie I was wearing.
Reaching up to cup one side of his face, I wiped his cheek with my thumb, drying his tears. Elijah shrugged his shoulder and tilted his head to cradle his cheek in my hand. My gray eyes roamed his face, taking in every detail, every nuance, of this gorgeous man.
Wrapping my left arm around his waist, I stepped into his body and started to move us gently from side to side in a slow dance.
“I never knew life could be so wonderful until you came along, Elijah. You make me happy.”
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Elijah’sbeautiful hazel eyes lifted and locked onto mine. “You can’t help who you love.”
I kissed his damp skin. “No, you can’t. Me loving you was destined to happen.”
“Elijah, I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. With all that I am, my heart and my soul and for the rest of my life, I am yours, forever and always.”
“Hey, E?”
“Yeah?” He tilted his face my way when I hesitated to continue.
Steeling my nerves, I used the same words I’d said to him when I finally figured out that he was the person I wanted to be with.
“I’m ready.”
“Ready for what?” he asked a little breathlessly, but I was pretty sure he’d already figured it out.
“I want to tell Jay about us. Tell my parents.”
“Are you…” He swallowed. “Why? What changed your mind?” he stuttered out.
I brushed his pinkie finger with mine. “You. My love for you. How much I want you and need you in my life. How I want to shout from the rooftops that I love Elijah Barnes.”
“I, Elijah Michael Barnes, take you, Julien Jayden Jameson, to be my husband…”
Julien closedthe distance between us. God, I had missed him while in Texas visiting Mom over the summer. He and I had been talking and texting almost every night, but it wasn’t the same as seeing him in the flesh. He looked so good. Beautiful. Breathtaking.
