“I'm here for you no matter what you decide to do,” I say. “I believe you and I know that Mr. Elliott wanted you to have it, but if he doesn't want his sons to inherit then he should have put that in his will. I agree with you, it doesn't look good.”
He nods and looks somewhere far in the distance.
“What about his wife? Their mom?”
“She's not their mom. His current wife is his second wife and I didn't get the sense that she really got along with the sons.”
I nod, realizing how complicated it is to have a lot of assets in a big family and grown children fighting for their share.
“You know that your decision here can just be about the truth. You have something bigger to hide and this agreement and legal battle can really expose you. You don't want people after you with an ax to grind.”
“Of course not,” he says calmly. “That's precisely why I didn’t press charges against Tim and why I didn't want to call the police at all. I had to think about the bigger picture. I have to think about... us.”
“Us? What about us?”
“Our future. That is if you…”
“Of course,” I say, letting a wide smile spread over my face. “I wasn't sure if you had thought about things like that.”
“I have, many times. I was actually thinking about proposing to you the last time we were together.”
The words feel like a gust of wind pushing me back.
“Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you,” he says nonchalantly.
“No, not at all,” I say quickly. “I just had… no idea.”
“I know that the thing to do when you're thinking about proposing to someone is to just pop the question, but we haven't known each other long and our relationship is not under the most normal circumstances. So, I just want to ask you straight up.”
“What?” I ask.
I lick my lips and feel how dry they are, my mouth is a complete desert.
“I just want to know whether you ever thought or think that you would, maybe, in the future want to marry me?” His question is convoluted and imprecise, very much unlike him.
“Of course,” I nod my head vigorously.
“Of course?”
“Yes. I don't know if you're really asking me right now or asking me about what might happen in the future, but the answer is yes to both.”
“I love you, Isabelle.”
“I love you too,” I say, pressing my lips to his.
I open my mouth and his tongue finds its way inside. I feel the prickle of his two day old beard with my fingertips as I slide them into his hair.
I want to ask him to clarify. I want to know if that was a proposal or if I should expect one sometime soon, but the harder that he kisses me, the harder it is to pull away and to make words resemble any sort of thoughts.
Our bodies find each other and immediately everything starts to make sense again. He runs his fingers up my spine and buries his hands deep in my hair.
He twirls it around his hand and pulls slightly, sending shivers down my arms. I lose myself in that moment where pleasure borders on pain.
I kiss him harder. So hard that our teeth collide. He pulls away from me and I laugh.
He laughs along with me.
The thing is that it could ruin the moment, but it doesn't. Once our eyes meet something shifts and this time when I reach over to kiss him, it's more delicate and soft.
I run my fingers along his chiseled jaw and toss his strands of hair away from his eyes. He closes his eyes and presses his lips to my ear lobes, purring softly.
“I love you,” he whispers and I whisper back to him.
His hands run up to grip my arms and suddenly I become keenly aware of how big I am.
When I look into his eyes, I see nothing but admiration and his lust for me, equating the way that I feel for him.
I press my body closer to him and he runs his mouth down my neck and then over my clavicle. He toys with me as I tilt my head back and enjoy the moment.
His hands find my breasts and I tilt my body away from him, giving him as much leeway as possible.
Tugging at my shirt, he unbuttons it and pulls it over my head. I reach over to take off his but he does it for me. I let my hands run up and down his hard abs, watching them tense and relax with each breath.
He looks up at me, looking almost shy, perhaps uncertain of exactly how attractive he is.
Somehow, when our eyes are locked on each other's, the world just makes sense. Whatever trepidations or uncertainties I have, they also leave.
Tyler takes my hand and pulls me close. Our lips touch again and so do our bodies. We are skin to skin and I've never felt safer or more turned on. I unbuckle his pants and let them drop to the floor. He pulls off mine. In the meantime, we keep our lips touching or as connected as possible.
He lifts me up and carries me over to the bed. I wrap my legs tightly around him and continue to kiss his mouth.
When he plops down, he slides right inside, taking me by surprise. A very nice surprise.
With my arms thrown back, he drapes his strong body over mine. He continues to kiss my mouth and my neck as he thrusts himself deeper inside of me, practically splitting me open.
The familiar, warming sensation starts to build at my core and quickly spreads everywhere. He catches me completely by surprise and I ride the wave until my legs cramp up and I have to curl my toes to make it go away.
“I love you. I love you,” I say over and over again.
“I love you, too,” he whispers.
7
Isabelle
Wrapped in the afterglow of what just happened, I pull the sheet up to cover my breasts and then turn to face him.
He props up his head with his arm and twirls a few strands of my hair around his finger.
“If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?” I ask.
“Right here,” he says, leaning over and giving me a kiss.
“No, I mean, me too. Except I was just wondering if you'd preferred to be somewhere a little bit less rainy and gloomy?”
“It could be raining buckets and there could be a -50° wind chill, but as long as you're there, I'm happy.”
I roll my eyes and laugh. Clearly, I'm not getting through.
“Yes, me too, of course,” I say. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were, say, on this boat but somewhere in California or Hawaii or the Florida Keys or the Caribbean?”
“Because it never rains in Hawaii, the Caribbean, or the Florida Keys?” he asks, his tone drenched in sarcasm.
“Not cold rain,” I point out. “You don't need your jacket.”
“Yes, I guess. Is that what you want?”
“I'm not the biggest fan of Pennsylvania winters or the fall or the spring for that matter. I heard that the summers here were nicer, but the other nine months? It's a lot of gloomy days.”
“Are you talking about a trip or something more permanent?” Tyler asks.
I think about that for a moment.
“Well, in a dream world, it would be nice to make that permanent. Somewhere warm, tropical, beautiful.”
“Pacific Northwest has a lot of beauty,” Tyler says. “I’d like to show it to you sometime.”
“Yes, of course. I'm not saying that it doesn't. I love the fact that it's evergreen here year-round. There’re so many trees and it's actually quite wild for how many people live here and all the water.”