Page 119 of Forever Mine
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
I hadn’t told him when I’d be returning. We hadn’t spoken much at all. He’d send me messages, but the only time I replied back was the one I sent with the photo of the picnic table.
“Every day.”
Every day?
It was then I noticed my side of the room. Pictures of the two of us were tacked onto the wall along with paper printouts saying, “Thinking of you. Missing you. Loving you always. Forever Yours.” The bed I knew I had made the morning before I was attacked was unkempt. Had he been sleeping there? More flowers of various varieties sat in vases on my desk. Red roses. White lilies. Purple tulips. Strings of fairy lights hung down from the ceiling above my bed. All of it overwhelmed me in the best possible way.
“Dance with me,” he said.
Sunrises. Flowers. Love notes. Julien waiting for me in my room. And now dancing. Every time I thought I had him figured out, he revealed another facet of himself.
“We don’t have any music.”
He lifted my hand to his chest and placed it right over his heart. I could feel the solid thump of it beating.
“This is our music. It plays only for you.”
Jesus, this beautiful man and the beautiful things that came out of his beautiful mouth.
With his hand covering mine on his chest, we slow danced cheek to cheek to the beat of his heart.
“Actions speak louder than words, and I am going to show you every damn second of every damn minute of every goddamn day how much I love you.”
“Julien, 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.”
“Elijah?”
Still chuckling, I asked, “Yeah?”
“I am so completely, absolutely, insanely in love with you.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, not expecting the sweet declaration.
“Ditto times infinity.”
Julien’s brilliant smile made my heart skip a beat.
“One last thing,” he said.
I brought the phone closer. “What’s that?”
“One day I’m going to ask you to marry me.”
And there go the tears.
“Not if I ask you first.”
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“Every partof you is so damn gorgeous, Elijah. Your heart. Your mind. Your body. You take my breath away.”
His praise was my addiction. I craved that validation. I knew my self-worth but hearing him say things like that brought me immense joy. It satisfied an empty part of me caused by a mother’s absence for most of my life.
“My beautiful Julien.”
His quiet steps brought him closer, and that ache grew stronger. Our hands reached for one another at the same time. Being pressed against him was heaven. Being kissed by him, a rapture.
