“What are you doing, Austin?” I tell him in a whisper, my heart's racing so fast I wouldn’t be surprised if it simply jumped out of my chest.
“The right thing. The country needs a First Lady like you,” he replies with a whisper of his own and, without waiting for a reply, he goes down on one knee.
“You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me, Ashley. I love you like I’ve never loved anyone or anything… and I need you by my side.” With that, he reaches inside his jacket and brings out a small box. Popping it open with a flick from his thumb, he shows me the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen, something antique and with a discrete diamond cresting the golden band. “Will you marry me?”
“I…” I stammer, not knowing what to say, but then every single thought inside my head falls into alignment. “Yes! Yes, I will!” I tell him, biting down on my lower lip as I feel the sting of tears in my eyes.
Smiling gently, Austin takes the ring out of the box and, grabbing my hand, he places it on my finger. It fits perfectly, almost as if destiny wanted that ring to be mine.
“It’s beautiful, Austin,” I whisper as he stands up in front of me, his eyes on mine.
“It was my grandmother’s. And now it’s yours, Ash,” he tells me, placing one hand on the nape of my neck and leaning in to kiss me.
All around me, the room seems to explode with the flash of cameras and the quick chatter of reporters and onlookers. But I don’t care about any of that, and I barely even register any of it.
Right now, I’m the happiest woman in the world.
30
Ashley
We left the conference room, both our bodies and souls begging for us to surrender to the moment. Ignoring the millions of questions raining down on him, Austin simply grabbed my hand and lead the way out of the room. I walked after him as if I was living a dream, corridor after corridor, hallway after hallway.
Everyone we passed smiled at us, but no one dared say a word. They all knew this moment was one to be shared only by Austin and me. Now, completely lost inside the White House, I halt to a stop and force him to look at me.
“Where are we going?” I ask him, my heart beating fast inside my chest.
“The Oval Office, of course,” he replies in a single breath, and then starts walking again, dragging me after him. The moment we step foot inside the Oval Office he simply closes the door behind us and locks it.
“What about Tracy? She probably needs to talk with you right now?” I ask, but my body doesn’t care about any of that. The only thing my body cares about is the man standing right in front of me.
“Don’t worry. I left her a message telling her to run interference for a couple of hours. This moment is just ours, Ashley. And I want you to know that… That you’re my everything. I don’t know what would be of me if I didn’t have you by my side.”
“I’ll be by your side… Always,” I tell him, looking into his eyes and feeling my heart beat at a happy pace. I’ve never felt this happy, this complete… Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d ever felt like this. And it has nothing to do with the fact that Austin is rich, or that he’s the President. No, I would love him if he was just a struggling musician, or a waiter at a restaurant. I would love him no matter what. “I love you, Austin… I really do.”
“I love you too,” he smiles, taking one step toward me and caressing my cheek with the back of his hand. Leaning in, he brushes his lips against mine, kissing me gently as my eyelids droop.#p#分页标题#e#
We kiss in abandonment, the happiness inside my chest almost too much for me to take. I could cry right now, swear to God I could. This kiss is so perfect, and it seals the love between us in such a way that I could cry a river of joyful tears.
Pulling back from my kiss, he looks into my eyes and smiles, a deep tenderness in the way with which he’s looking at me. For a man as cocky and hard as he is, there are a lot of things that the world doesn’t know about Austin. Such as how tender and gentle how he can, and how he has the biggest Earth out of everyone I know. The moment the voters put him in the White House, they made the best decision of their entire lives.
Breathing softly, his hands go down the side of my body, and he rests his fingers over the dimples on my lower back. Leaning in again, we kiss as I grab his jacket and push him down his arms. We let it fall down to the floor, and my fingers go straight for his shirt, unbuttoning it with a kind of slow patience. When it’s finally open, I untuck it from his pants and brush my fingers over the naked wall of abs on his stomach.