Hell And Back(81)

“Yeah,” I tell him while one of my hands snakes around his neck and the other one strokes his cheek. He hasn’t shaved in two days, so his stubble is long. I lean in, placing a kiss on his lips.

His beard pricks my lips like little needles. “You really need to shave. It’s starting to get dangerous to kiss you.” I rub his beard with one finger.

“You know you love my beard,” he says as he kisses my neck. The sensation of his beard along my skin is rough and tingly, a sensation I’ve come to love a bit more each time I feel it.

“Hmmm, really?”

“Remember the last time I ate your pussy? Your thighs had a lovely razor burn, and every time you saw those marks, you jumped my bones,” he reminds me, and he isn’t lying. The thought of being marked by him was a huge turn on.

“It’s not my fault. You made me into this.” I laugh at him.

He places me on my feet, and I look at him in confusion. “I thought we were going to have a repeat of the performance.” I’m almost whining like Lilah does when she doesn’t get her way.

“Wait here,” he tells me before walking over to the closet and pulling out his duffle bag.

I can’t see what he’s doing, but he comes back with a smile on his face. He pushes me until I’m sitting on the bed and then kneels in front of me.

“My sweet, Bella,” he begins. My heart starts beating just a bit faster, not sure what he is going to say. Did seeing Kendall make him change his mind? What if he doesn’t love me? That thought alone has tears forming in my eyes.

“Did you know I watched you that first night you went outside to watch the stars with Lilah?” I shake my head no, because I had no idea, I thought I was invisible.

“I watched you from my house, darkness all around me, all around you, but even then I knew I was watching an angel.”

He grabs both my hands in his. “I kept thinking I had to meet you. I kept wondering who you were. Then you opened the door the next morning.” He laughs at the memory. “I only saw your head. The rest of you was hidden behind the door. I remember thinking you really did look like an angel.”

“You were very pushy,” I add in, thinking back to those first days.

“You were a pain in my ass, even then. I came home and you were doing the one thing I asked you not to do. I remember thinking, of course I’m going to fall for someone who would bust my balls. And I sure did.”

I glare at him. “I don’t bust your balls, Jackson.”

“I fell in love with you while I made sand castles with your daughter. I fell in love with your daughter the minute she asked me to save her from monsters.” His voice is rough, husky. “From that moment, I vowed to always do what I could do to protect and care for you both.” He reaches into his pocket and takes out a black box.

He raises one leg off the floor. “Bella Cartwright, I never want to know what a tomorrow will be like without you in it. I never want to wake up in a bed without you in it. I don’t want to go through this life without you by my side. I want to love you. I want to cherish you. I want to honor you. I want to grow old with you sitting next to me in that swing watching stars.”

A tear rolls down my face, which he wipes away.

“Marry me?”

I look at this man with the crystal blue eyes, who has personally chased off every single one of my demons. The man who showed me what it was like to love and to be loved. The man who shows me tomorrow will be better than today.

“I used to watch your house after that first day, too, just to get a little glimpse of you,” I tell him shyly.

“Before I even knew you existed, though, I used to dream of a man with blue eyes who would chase away the bad that was in my life,” I tell him. “I fell in love with you as you built sand castles with my daughter. I fell in love with you when you told her you would build it so high no monsters could get her.”

I lean in to kiss him, because I can’t not kiss him. “If I say yes, does this mean you’ll actually move all of your stuff over here?” I ask him with a sly smile.

“Angel, I’m already moved in. You just didn’t realize it,” he jokes, and looking around, I actually see all of his stuff is here. Even his television. “Well then, I guess we have no choice.”

“You got that one right. You’re stuck with me,” he says while slipping the ring on my finger.

Tears of joy run down my face as I look at the ring that will show the world I am his. Knowing everyone who sees it will know I’m his, but more importantly, they’ll know he’s mine.

I kiss him with everything I have and wind up knocking him down to the floor.