I snickered. “That’s all day, every day.”
“In addition to making a delicious breakfast while you slept late, I packed us a lunch too.”
“Lunch? I won’t be ready to eat again until dinnertime,” I told him. “The huge breakfast you cooked is enough to last all day.”
“You’ll feel differently by the time we reach our destination.”
It was hard for me to imagine, but he had a lot more experience at hiking than I did, especially in this terrain. By the time we reached the clearing at the top of our climb, I knew exactly why it was Elijah’s favorite place in the world. I was also glad I hadn’t bet him about being hungry because the climb burned away every calorie we consumed. My legs felt like noodles by the time I sat down on the blanket Elijah spread out for us. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I nestled into his side.
“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in all my life,” I said, looking over the deep valley nestled between the base of the ridge we climbed and the mountain range across from us. The tree leaves were various shades of oranges, yellows, and reds everywhere you looked. “It almost looks like the mountain is on fire.”
“Now it’s the most beautiful place on earth.” Elijah’s voice was thick with emotion and pulled my eyes away from nature’s splendor to look into his warm brown eyes. “I didn’t know what this spot was missing until now.” He cleared his throat then offered me the wide smile that never failed to steal my breath. “You make everything you touch more beautiful. I have a confession to make, Freckles. I didn’t just bring you up here to gaze at leaves and eat peanut butter sandwiches.”
“This isn’t where you confess to being a sociopath and push me off the ridge, is it?”
Elijah snorted and grinned. “Not hardly, and maybe you and Milo are watching too many shows on the ID channel.”
“Then you brought me up her for sex?”
“No, but that guess is closer than a hidden desire to push you over the ridge.” Elijah moved away from me, but only so he could sit in front of me and look into my eyes. “I have something very important to ask you, and I wanted to bring my special girl to my special place to ask it.” Elijah swallowed hard and reached for his backpack. I shook all over when he pulled out a ring box and held it up between us. “I had this perfect speech planned, but now that I’m looking in your eyes, I can’t remember what I was going to say.”
“I don’t need prepared speeches,” I said through trembling lips. “I just want to hear what’s in your heart.”
“I love you, Maegan Miracle, with everything I have and everything I will be.” Elijah turned the box around and opened it. I gasped when I saw the vintage ring nestled in the velvet. “This ring belonged to my great-grandmother who was fierce, passionate, and loving just like you are, and I know she’d be honored for you to wear it.”
“Elijah,” I whispered, placing my trembling right hand over my racing heart as tears rolled down my face. I cleared my throat but still couldn’t speak above a whisper when I said, “It’s so beautiful.” Then again, I could’ve been yelling and wouldn’t know it because the pulse pounding in my ears muffled the sound of my voice.
“Maegan Louise Miracle, will you be mine for the rest of our lives? Will you raise a family and grow old with me? Will you be my best friend and the person I always turn to when times get dark, and will you allow me to shelter you from the storms life throws at us in return?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding and sobbing. “This is the happiest day of my life.” My left hand shook when I raised it until Elijah held it gently in his big, strong hand and slid the ring on my finger. “It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.”
“And it fits you perfectly because it was meant for you.” Elijah kissed the knuckle above the ring I would wear until my dying breath.
“They don’t make rings like this anymore,” I said in awe.
“I happen to think you’re a rare gem too.” Elijah brushed the tears off my face, and I leaned into his palm. “Can we seal this engagement with a kiss?”
I pounced on him then, knocking him onto his back so I could straddle his hips. Elijah smiled up at me as I slowly leaned over him. “We will only have one first kiss as a newly engaged couple, so we must do it right.”
Elijah reached up and pushed my hair away from one side of my face then cupped the back of my head and guided me down the rest of the way until my lips hovered just above his. I’d heard and read the phrase about tasting someone’s smile but didn’t fully get it until my smiling mouth met his. Then our lips molded to each other’s in a few chaste pecks before lingering and finally parting to deepen our kiss. His tongue boldly entered my mouth, claiming and possessive while I met him stroke for stroke.
I felt Elijah’s body responding to the urgent desire growing inside mine. Suddenly, we had way too many clothes on for either of our liking. The mountain air wasn’t cold, but it was cool enough I was grateful for the plaid blanket Elijah had packed in his backpack. My hunger for lunch was replaced with the need for Elijah to claim my body as surely as he did my heart. We kissed while we stripped each other bare, our hands and lips touching and kissing every new inch we revealed until there was nothing between us. We’d surely had sex more than a hundred times since we started dating each other nine months prior, but there was no doubt that time, on top of the ridge wrapped up in a blanket cocoon, was different. There was always a possessive tenderness in Elijah’s eyes when he slid his dick inside me, but the look was hotter and fiercer and so fucking delicious it made my toes curl.
I slid my hands into his hair as he began to move inside me with sure, even strokes. The sunlight caught the diamonds on my ring finger and prisms of light danced around my vision, but it was the look in Elijah’s eyes which held me spellbound. His dark, glittery gaze burned in intensity, consuming me and ratcheting up the physical and emotional pleasure inside me until he was all I saw, all I heard, and all I felt.
Elijah gripped my hips tighter and rocked harder in and out of me, nailing the pleasure spot inside me over and over until my toes curled tight enough to break, but even then, I couldn’t look away from him. Our lovemaking was usually peppered with dirty talk and sexy banter, but the only sounds on the ridge besides skin slapping as our bodies came together were our thundering hearts and choppy breaths. I didn’t need Elijah to tell me I was the only girl for him or that my body drove him wild. I felt it.
He lowered his head and captured my lips once more in a passionately fierce kiss when he sensed we were both close to climaxing. Maybe he didn’t want my shouts of joy bouncing off the mountains and echoing through the valley below, giving away our activities to every hiker and park ranger in a twenty-five-mile radius. I dug my fingers in his ass which was my signature move when I wanted him to go harder and faster. I heard the echoing growl of pleasure in his chest and braced myself for the ferocious fucking I wanted.
My orgasm hit me like a fucking tsunami, and Elijah captured my cries with his mouth. I felt his ass tighten beneath my legs seconds before he grunted and spilled inside my body. Afterward, Elijah lowered his forehead to rest on the blanket beside my head to catch his breath while I kissed his shoulder and massaged his scalp with one hand and traced the line of his spine with the other.
“This is the happiest day of my life too, Freckles,” he said, echoing the words I’d said earlier. Elijah raised up and braced himself on his elbows above me. “We talked about marriage and kids, or at least assumed it would happen, but nothing prepared me for the way it feels to see my ring on your finger.”
“Maegan Louise Markham,” I whispered. “I love the sound of that.”
“I’ll be Mr. Maegan Markham,” he replied, drawing a snort from me. “What? Like I don’t know who’s really in charge.”
I giggled. “As much as I’d love to lie here cuddling with you, I think we better get dressed before someone stumbles upon us.”
