It doesn’t take as long as I want it to, though. “Now what?” I ask.
“We know what finally worked last night,” she shrugs.
I roll my eyes. “We’re not getting drunk and high. It’s noon.”
“Fine. How about lunch first?”
“Okay,” I laugh. “Lunch. But still not getting drunk and high today.”
“We’ll see,” she smirks and cocks an eyebrow.
After some sunshine and a swim, I bake a black forest cake that smells amazing. As usual, Lil hangs out in the kitchen with me, playing music and dancing around. I love baking with some good music blaring. We’re both licking spatulas of extra frosting from the bowl when Luca and Dad get home.
I drop the spatula and run in their direction. Luca barely has time to prepare before I’m jumping into his arms, but he catches me effortlessly. My arms loop around his neck, my legs around his waist, and I bury my face in the crook of his neck while his arms wrap around my hips. I breathe him into my lungs, feeling better in milliseconds. Dad chuckles as he walks past us.
“Miss me?” I can hear the grin that I can’t see on Luca’s face.
“Nope, not at all.” One of his hands moves to squeeze my asscheek, making me squeal. I rub against his cock a little bit in retaliation.
He groans. “Fuck,” he whispers into my hair.
I smirk and lower my feet to the floor. He holds up a bag. “I got you chocolate bars.”
“What?” I take the bag from him and find it full of my favorite kind. “You’re fucking amazing.” I grab his hand and drag him with me to Lil’s closet. I put the candy in a drawer, and turn to find Luca glancing around nervously. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, baby.” But he’s totally lying. I thread my fingers through his and lead him to my room, then close and lock the door behind us.
I rarely come in here. Sometimes, I wish I could be like a normal fucking person and sleep in my own goddamned room by myself. But I push that aside right now to focus on Luca.
“Why are we in your room?”
I shrug a shoulder. “You looked like you wanted privacy.”
He leans down to kiss me. “How do you know me so well?”
“I just do.”
He still looks nervous, but it’s a calmer nervous. Then he does something I don’t expect at all and drops to one knee while pulling a small black box out of his back pocket. When he opens it, I gasp at the ring inside.
It’s pink. The stones, the metal, it’s all pink. The large stone in the middle and all the tiny stones around it are light pink. There are more pink stones on the fuchsia band and raised setting.
Holy fucking shit.It’s the most beautiful ring in existence.
“You made me believe in love when I was sure it was bullshit. You made me smile when I didn’t know how to anymore. You made me laugh when I hadn’t made that sound in years. You filled my gloomy world with light. I want your light forever, Ariana. Please, baby, marry me?”
Shit, I need to pinch someone because this is definitely adream. A giant of a man, who is still covered in Disney Band-Aids and is afraid of frogs, is kneeling at my feet with a pink ring begging me to be his wife? His brow is slightly wrinkled, and his eyes are hard to read. Like there’s warring emotions behind them.Oh my god, he’s afraid I’ll say no.
I drop to my knees and take his face in my hands.
“You’re my light, too. You bring me out of the darkness when I get lost in the shadows. I didn’t think I would find someone who accepts me for me, Luca. All the things that are a pain in the ass about me, you roll with them. You replaced my chocolate bars when I got high and ate them all. You don’t make me feel weird about sleeping in Lil’s bed, you just crawl in next to me. And sure, you harass me about gross shit like water and salads, but you just roll your eyes when I don’t listen. You don’t actually try to change me. And you bought me a pink ring, Beefcake! Pink! Of course, I’ll marry you.”
His lips crash into mine. My tongue strokes his, earning a deep moan from him. His empty hand grips my hip so hard I’m sure I’ll have fingertip-shaped bruises, and god, that makes me wetter than I already was. I nip at his bottom lip as he pulls away. His eyes are dark with arousal, but he takes my left hand and slips the ring onto my finger. It fits like it was made for me.
“As soon as I saw it, I knew this was your ring.”
“It’s fucking perfect.” I can’t stop staring at it. I’m one hundred percent sure there’s a tracker already in it, or if not, there will be soon. I’m also one hundred percent sure that I’ll never take it off. Even if it’s the thing that gets me caught with the Maserati one day, I won’t regret keeping it on.
“I have to go back and pick up our wedding bands tomorrow. They’re engraving them tonight.”
