I reached into my back pocket.
“What are you doing?”
“Proposing. Properly.”
Inside was a bracelet, not a ring. It wasn’t anything someone like Ned could give her. It wasn’t worth more than a house. It wouldn’t sparkle in the sun.
But it meant something, and it was years in the making.
I grasped her wrist.
“I’m going to keep you, Abigail.” I clasped the
bracelet on her wrist and rubbed the material, loving the way it looked on her.
Then I looked up, catching her eyes. “Will you let me?”
She touched the bracelet. “What is all this?”
“Sea glass from the night you kept me. Origami from the first romance I read—the moment I knew I couldn’t lose you. The wine cork from the night we made love. One bead from the bracelet you gave me, the night I broke it and your heart…” There were key pieces from all the moments in our life, totaling fifteen charms. I hadn’t saved them for this purpose. I’d kept them because I’d wanted something to remember the moments by. When I’d been looking for something to propose to her with… it felt right.
Abigail always cared more about found treasures than any expensive piece of jewelry. I’d been finding and keeping our treasures secretly for as long as I could remember.
She touched the F, the bead I’d managed to save the night I nearly wrecked us irrevocably. Silence stretched on and on as she stared at the baubles on her wrist.
I needed something to break the silence.
“Bet you wish I’d given you a burger—”
Abigail jumped at me, and I stumbled back, barely keeping us from falling over. Her legs wrapped around my waist, and I anchored her with my arm.
The cameras flashed behind us.
“You… you saved the bead?” she asked, eyes wide, but before I could answer, she asked another question. “You kept all of this?
“I keep all of you, Abigail. Every laugh you make and every tear you drop. Every bruise I put on your heart. I keep it all. You’re inside me too. You wove yourself inside me before you even knew who I was.”
She crashed her lips to mine, furious, hot, fast. I could barely keep up with them, on my lips, on my neck, on my jaw, back to my lips again.
“Is that a yes?” I asked through her feverous lips.
She chewed her lip, and I fought the urge to bite it myself.
“It’s too late for that, Theo.” She lifted her eyes, using my own words. “We’ve belonged together for years. This…” She lifted the bracelet. “This is just for the world.”
I crashed my mouth against her, kissing her as the world watched, making up for all the times I’d loved in secret. It was furious and gentle, and it wasn’t enough. I wanted to swallow all of her. Her lips, her tongue, her soul.
I broke on a groan. “I need to get inside you right fucking now.”
Thirty-Eight
ABIGAIL
“I’ve always wanted to fuck you on this beach,” Theo said, voice low at my ear. “There were times I wanted to drag you back here and make you pay for finding me, and there were times I wanted to worship you in the sand for saving me.”
My lips parted. “What do you want to do now?”
He grinned. “Both.”