I let her body slide down mine until her feet hit the floor. Looping my arms around her waist, I held her to me. “Mia, I know we’ve still got things to work out. I want to keep at it. I don’t want to bury our shit under a rug or pretend we’re perfect. But I want to deal with all of it together. I want us tobetogether, and not just for now, not until we see if things are good. I want you to live with me here, in this house I picked out because I could see you all over it.”
Quinn rested her cheek against my chest. I felt her tears soaking into my shirt, and I could only hope and pray that they were the happy kind. Swallowing hard, I went on, laying everything on the line and going for broke. In the back of my mind, I heard the old Eatonboro High Eagles chant:Go big or go home.
“Mia Quinn.” I dropped to my knees and held both of her hands tightly in mine. “I love you beyond my ability to express it. I’ve loved you for so long that I can’t remember when my heart didn’t beat for you. You are all I need and all I want, and there isn’t anything I won’t do to prove it to you. You said once that I had everything I’d ever dreamed of having. I told you that you were wrong, because nothing I have, nothing I am means a damn thing if you’re not with me. I want you to live here with me, and I want you to be mine. Marry me, Mia. Let me be yours. Be mine for the rest of our lives.”
The next few seconds felt like an eternity. They were the longest of my life, and silence had never sounded so loud.
And then Quinn sank to her knees, freeing her hands from mine and wrapping her arms around my neck. “All I’ve ever wanted is you, Leo. You’ve been my wish since I knew how to dream. I’ll be yours, if you want me. Yes, Leo. My answer is yes.”
There was nothing else I could do in that moment except to kiss her, to kiss my girl so thoroughly that she could feel down to her toes every single bit of joy and exhilaration I was experiencing right now.
When I let her up for air, she leaned her cheek against mine and whispered in my ear. “Can we test out this amazing bed you have right here now, or do you have anything else we need totalkabout first?”
I chuckled. “No, I think I’ve used up all the words I have for the rest of the day. I’m willing to express myself in another way.” I nibbled a line along her jaw and was about to go further when I remembered something. “Oh, shit, I almost forgot. Hold on. Stay here. Don’t move.”
“Okay ...” Quinn frowned as I jumped to my feet and unzipped my duffel bag, still lying on the floor where I’d left it. I riffled through it quickly until I found what I needed.
“Here.” I thrust a handful of dark blue silky material at Quinn. “As promised. Now, of course, you need to keep your end of the bargain.”
She rose to her feet, too, shaking out the cloth, a huge smile spreading over her face as she realized what it was. She held it up against her, stroking her fingers over the number and name.Twenty-two. TAYLOR.
“It’s perfect. Exactly what I want to seal our engagement.”
“I’m glad you agree.” I closed my hand over hers where it clutched the jersey. “I didn’t get you a ring yet, Mia. I wanted us to go together and pick it out. You’re going to be wearing it for the rest of our lives, and I wanted you to have input. We’ll get it tomorrow.”
“I love that idea. But right now, I don’t want to think about tomorrow. I want to focus on right now.” She cocked her head. “Is it okay if I use your bathroom to put this on?”
“Babe, that’sourbathroom now, and sure. I’ll be waiting for you right there.” I pointed to the bed and began tugging at my tie.
Quinn shot me a come-hither glance over her shoulder as she walked toward our bathroom, and I felt my heart speed up. Anticipation was going to kill me ... but what a way to go.
Within a few minutes, I’d shed my suit, hanging it carefully on the hanger in the nearly empty closet. Since I’d moved in here, I’d pictured Quinn’s clothes dominating this space, her shoes on the racks mixed in with mine, the two of us getting dressed together in the mornings, and even more important, gettingundressed at night. There had been nights when I’d been convinced that vision would never happen for real. Yet I’d held on, and here we were. It almost felt too good to be true.
Climbing into bed, I folded my hands behind my head and waited. My usual post-game adrenaline had mixed with my nerves over asking Quinn to marry me, keeping me pumped and alert, but now, relaxing in my bed, floating on the blissful awareness that she’d saidyes, I began to doze and drowse a little. The bedroom was awash in gray light as the sun set, and my eyes were heavy ...
A sound from the bathroom jerked me to alertness, and I half-sat up, a little disoriented until I realized what I’d heard was the door opening. I blinked as my eyes adjusted and then sucked in a breath at the vision before me.
Quinn had taken down her hair so that the dark curls danced over her slim shoulders. My jersey hung on her body, and when she advanced toward me, I could just make out the subtle movement of her boobs beneath the silky nylon. The shirt ended slightly above mid-thigh, leaving her long tan legs bare.
The past and present jumbled for a moment in my mind. I had a sudden flash of memory, the feel of those legs wrapped around my back as I sank down into her, the weight of her breasts in my hands, the taste of her ... it was all so vivid and so immediate that I gave myself a little pinch to make sure she was really here now, and that I wasn’t in the middle of some psychedelic mind trip.
Then she smiled at me and spoke, her voice low and teasing, and I knew this was real. “Are you going to say something, or are you going to just lay there gaping at me? You’re kind of freaking me out. I’m starting to worry that you’re second-guessing the whole forever thing.”
“Babe. Never.” I sat up and crooked my finger. “Come here. I’d go to you, but I seem to have lost the feeling in my legs.”
Quinn took a few steps closer to me, just beyond my reach. “You know, I realized something while I was getting changed.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?” My eyes were glued to her fingers playing with the hem of the jersey.
“I never showed you my piercing when you were in San Francisco. I mean, I know I sent you a picture, but you haven’t seen it ... up close.” She climbed onto the bed alongside my outstretched legs, and as she did, I caught a flash of skin and tan lines. “Personal.” She crawled up until she was sitting next to my hip.
“So ... you wanna see?”
Apparently, the power of speech was the next to go after losing my legs, because all I could do was nod.
Quinn rose up on her knees and lifted the edge of the jersey by inches—or maybe centimeters, I couldn’t be sure. By the time she’d bared herself to the navel, where a silver hoop glinted in the dim light, my mouth had gone dry and I was convinced my dick had never been so hard.
She dropped one hand to her middle, drawing tantalizing circles around the piercing with the tip of her index finger.
