Page 18

18

Landry

“I thought there was no midnight madness tonight,” I puzzled, gazing up at the slopes in the distance. They weren’t lit up with neon like when we were here late before.

A few spotlights were on, illuminating the snow, but no one appeared to be skiing.

“There isn’t,” Jason confirmed as he parked the big Tahoe my dad had rented for the trip.

Part of me wondered if Dad chose a Chevrolet because he knew it would make Jay happy, but I didn’t ask out loud because he’d just deny it anyway. He loved to pretend he wasn’t a fan of my boyfriend even though I knew he secretly liked him.

The second the SUV was in park, I turned sideways in the leather seat to look at the man driving. “I don’t understand what we’re doing here, then.”

“I told you. I planned a date.”

“But this place is closed.”

“Not for us.”

Well, consider me intrigued. I palmed the door latch, but Jason tsked. “Stay there. I’ll come around.”

Retracting my hand, I wiggled deeper into the heated seat. “Don’t mind if I do.”

Jason laughed under his breath and jumped out, freezing air and the slam of the door in his wake.

He seemed a little off tonight. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. He appeared almost nervous, but Jason wasn’t really the type to be nervous. And when something was wrong, he usually turned intense in the bedroom. Since we were here in the snow… that didn’t fit either.

My gaze strayed back to the lit-up ski lodge, and I wondered if maybe we were doing something in there.

The passenger door opened, and snow swirled inside, landing on the sleeve of my coat. The sky was dark, but the parking lot had a few lights and the snow was bright white, so that kept everything from being pitch black outside. Jason’s boots crunched the snow, and I inhaled the crisp, cold air.

“I need to ask you something,” he said suddenly, his voice so serious that my heart leaped.

A burst of excitement exploded deep inside me, making everything quake, and I dragged in another deep breath.

Stop it. I scolded myself. It was just because I had wedding on the brain that my heart leaped and my mind went right to that. I mean, seriously, we were in a parking lot. He was hardly about to propose.

I want him to.

No. No. I was just caught up in the romance of the week. Of watching two of my best friends get married. Besides, I meant what I told the girls earlier. Jason was going to hold out forever just to annoy my father.

“Baby?”

My attention snapped up. “Yes?”

His brows slashed over his midnight eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I am. I’m with you,” I told him. “What did you want to ask me?”

He leaned in, his upper body looming over mine. My heartbeat sped up at his closeness. “Do you trust me?”

Rolling my eyes, I pushed him back. “Like you even have to ask.”

“But I am. Asking.”

I tilted my head, affection coursing through me at his steadfast stare. “Of course I trust you, Jay. More than anyone.”

He smiled, a big, dopey smile only I ever got to see. Turning around, he showed me his back. “Hop on.”

The height of the Tahoe made it easy to leap onto his back and wrap my arms around his scarf-wrapped neck.

“Oh,” I said when he cupped his hands beneath my knees and used his foot to close the door. “I need my bag.”

“No, you don’t.”

“But—”

“You don’t need it, baby.”

“Okay.” I relented and settled against him.

The wind was cutting and felt like little needles on my cheeks, so I ducked my face into his neck and hung on. I inhaled a combination of snow and his familiar scent. The wind and his boots crunching the snow were the only sounds as he piggybacked me toward the lodge.

The second he stepped inside, I lifted my head and squinted against the sudden bright light. Loosening my grip, I readied for him to set me down, but he only hefted me higher.

“Jay?”

“Just stay there. We aren’t staying in here.”

Before I could question that, someone came over wearing a lodge uniform and a green beanie. “Mr. Rush?”

“Jason,” he corrected as he nodded.

“We’ve been waiting for you.”

“Really?” I asked over Jay’s shoulder.

The man glanced at me and smiled. “Right this way.”

“Where are we going?” I asked. Jason wouldn’t tell me, but this guy might.

“He’s not going to tell you,” Jason rumbled.

“But what if I’m being kidnapped?”

The man in the uniform stopped and turned with a horrified expression. “Ma’am? Are you here against your will? I thought this?—”

“Landry,” Jason warned, voice deep.

“Oh, I was just kidding!” I told the man. “I promise. I mean, I don’t know why I’m here…” Beneath me, Jason tensed, and I hurried to add, “But this is my boyfriend, and I’d go anywhere with him anytime. Even if I have no idea where that is.”

The man escorting us relaxed. “I think it will be a successful evening, then.”

“Bro.”

The man looked like he’d swallowed a chicken whole and turned to scurry ahead. Jason’s long legs had no problem keeping up.

“Stop scaring him,” I whispered in Jay’s ear.

“Stop telling people I kidnapped you.”

We stopped at a side door that I was pretty sure led outside.

“Here we are,” the man said. “Just right out this door and up the hill there. You will see?—”

“I remember,” Jason said.

“You’ve been here?” I asked.

“Take your time.” The man went on. “Just let us know when you’re done.”

That odd sort of tension was back around Jason, humming just beneath his skin. “Thank you.”

“Good luck,” the man said, pushing open the door to reveal and all-white landscape.

Jason didn’t acknowledge what he said, but I wondered about it. That was until we stepped outside and the door to the lodge closed behind us. My breath caught, not just from the cold but from the sudden feeling of being in a snow globe someone had just shaken up. White was everywhere, so bright against the inky star-filled sky.

Snowflakes gusted around, covering our coats and catching in Jay’s scarf. I lifted my face and stuck out my tongue, trying to catch a few. The instant they landed, it was with a brief spark of cold that instantly dissolved in the heat of my mouth.

“You should try one!” I told Jay as he started up the small hill.

“I’d rather use my tongue for something else.”

I smacked his shoulder. “It’s a crime to not catch snowflakes on your tongue in the winter, Jason Glenn Rush!”

“Ahhh,” he sang, tossing his head back while sticking out his tongue.

He was overly dramatic about it, which was just so rude, but telling him what an itchy sweater he was being completely fled my mind when I saw what was at the top of the hill.

Gasping, I leaned farther over his shoulder to stare at the lighted lift yards away. “Look at that,” I said, pointing.

“You like it?” he asked.

“Is that for us?”

“You think I’d carry you out here for any other reason?”

I patted his shoulder. “I can walk.”

“I like having you in my arms.”

I was so easy for this man. Smiling, I dropped my chin onto his shoulder and hugged him a little tighter as he carried me closer.

“Oh, it’s a gondola,” I said, realizing it was enclosed. White Pine Summit had both styles of lifts: the regular open-air ones and then a few of the enclosed ones called gondolas. There were less of these here on the mountain. All the ones we’d been on before were regular chairlifts. I saw in the brochure at our lodge that the enclosed gondolas offered longer tours of the mountain landscape.

“Are we going on a tour?” I asked.

“Something like that,” he said, lowering so I could stand in the snow. My boots sank a little, making me feel small as Jason somehow still towered over me.

Holding out his hand, he asked, “Will you go for a ride with me?”

Nodding enthusiastically, I surrendered my hand and then gasped when we approached the door. “Oh my gosh, Jay!”

Smiling, his feet kicked up snow as he jogged to the door and swung it open.

My hand flew up to my mouth as I gazed around the interior. “You did this?” I whispered, practically tiptoeing through the snow as if I were afraid I would disturb what was inside.

It was completely decorated.

Warm, glowing string lights were draped around the ceiling and the large window walls. The bench seats were shaped like a U with the only wall without seating being the one with the door.

The entire bench was draped with throw blankets, some of them thick cream-colored knit, some dark-gray fur, and a few red velvet.

Pillows also lined the benches in the same matching color theme, all of them fluffy. The floor of the gondola was lined with a rug that also looked like fur. Tall, battery-operated pillar candles flickered and glowed. Over to one side was a bucket with what looked like a champagne bottle sticking out of the top.

I turned to Jason. “You did this for me?”

“For us.”

I threw myself at him, hugging around his waist and squeezing as tight as I could so he could feel it through his thick coat. “This is the sweetest, most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.”

“Well, there was that time I totaled my Corvette for you, but I guess this is okay too.”

I smacked him in the stomach, and he laughed.

“Wanna go inside?”

“No!” I blurted, and he frowned.

“What?”

I laughed, and the frown turned into a glower.

“I mean, of course I do! But it’s just so warm, perfect, and cozy! I don’t want to mess it up.”

“Get inside, little siren,” he ordered, pointing at the door.

I went but sat on the floor at the doorway and started unlacing my boots.

“You’re going to freeze.”

“You can keep me warm,” I said, smiling.

He muttered a dark curse but helped me pull off my boots, then set them carefully inside. I climbed up, my sock-covered toes digging into the small fur carpet on the floor.

“Where did you get all of this?” I wondered. “How?”

“I’m a motivated man,” he said, pulling off his own boots and adding them next to mine.

When he was in and the door latched behind us, he hit a small button I hadn’t noticed and unwound his scarf, tossing it aside.

I tugged off my hat and used the reflection in the glass walls to make sure my hair was smoothed out.

Jason wrapped his palm around my elbow. “Sit down before it starts moving.”

“We’re really getting a nighttime tour of the resort?” I asked, sitting down among the blankets and pillows. I tossed a couple around to make room for Jay, and when he was beside me, we covered up with the blankets.

The air inside was still cold, but the wind was blocked by the windows and roof and the lights and candles made everything feel warm. Tucking my legs up beneath me, I sighed, resting my cheek on Jason’s shoulder.

After a moment, he tugged off his coat, and I rubbed my cheek against the cashmere sweater he wore.

The gondola lurched forward, and I gave a light squeal. It glided forward, swaying slightly with the movement and wind as we lifted off the ground.

I wrapped my arms around Jay’s middle, hugging him while keeping my cheek on his shoulder. He shifted, wrapping an arm around me, and I snuggled into his side. Everything outside was dark, the sky black velvet with stars twinkling like glitter. The tall pine trees passed like looming shadows, but it wasn’t scary because the small space Jason created was soft and safe.

Even the bright-white snow seemed to dim almost as if the world around us were black and gray and the only color was us.

“You created a world where it’s just you and me,” I said quietly, hugging him and looking out at the endless sky. “I think it’s my new favorite place to be.”

He was quiet a moment, and then I heard him swallow thickly. Against my cheek, his chest expanded then deflated. Just as I was about to lift my head and ask him what was wrong, he palmed it, keeping it anchored against him.

“That’s what I want,” he said, voice quiet. “I want you and me in a world of our own. I want it more than anything.”

I smiled.

“I don’t want it just tonight, though, Landry,” he said, shifting around. His hand went under the blanket.

I lifted my face. “Jay?”

His fist was wrapped around something when he slid from beneath the blanket and off the bench…

And onto one knee right in front of me.

My heart soared and my stomach dropped, my organs flying off in completely different directions. My lungs just froze, forgetting the need to breathe.

The hope I’d felt and squashed earlier rose so fast and so defiantly that there was absolutely no hope of shoving it back down.

I sat there stunned, mind and body, trying desperately and failing for a logical explanation besides a proposal for this man, this man of my dreams, to be on one knee before me.

“Landry,” Jason said, opening his fist to produce a black velvet box.

All the oxygen my lungs had been hoarding rushed out of me, and I pressed my hand to my lips. My eyes were blurry, and I let loose a shaky breath.

Fuck logic.

“If this isn’t what I think it is right now…” I started, eyes straying to that black box.

“You lured me in, little siren.” His voice was soft but filled the entire gondola, mixing with the flickering candlelight and more lulling than the swaying lift. “Lured me away from the darkest time of my life with those life-saturated eyes and into a life I want to keep.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed with his swallow as he fumbled with the lid of the box. He glanced up, cheeks pink. “I’m a little nervous.”

A tear fell over my lash line and rolled right down my cheek.

The hinges on the box creaked, and my lips rolled in.

His arm extended, the box in his palm pushing closer to me. “I want this life with you. I don’t want anything else. Marry me, Landry. Asking for your life is a big deal, but I’m offering mine to you in return.”

I let out a sob and flung myself off the bench and into his arms. He fell back with a muffled oomph, and his low laughter vibrated his chest. I cried, clutching his shirt, bunching it in my fists.

“You really asked me to marry you,” I wailed.

It was not my finest moment, but how did a girl keep her wits about her when she was being offered forever?

“I told you I would.”

“I thought you’d drag it out to torture my father.”

He laughed. “This isn’t about Emmett. This is about you and me. I’d never torture you, baby. Besides, I’m far too impatient to make you permanently mine.”

I sniffled.

He wrapped his arms around me and didn’t even complain we were squished at weird angles on the floor of this gondola. Good thing he’d put down a rug.

“Your dad gave his blessing.”

I planted my palm in his chest and pushed up. “Really?”

“Those are my bones,” he said, grimacing.

Gasping, I fell backward off him. “I’m sorry.”

“You can make it up to me by saying yes,” he said, flashing a smile.

Shifting around he got back on one knee and held out the box. “I’ll ask again. I’ll ask as many times as I have to. Landry Resch, will you marry me?”

“Yes,” I said, my head nodding so hard I was probably going to have neck pain later. Worth it . “Yes, a thousand times.”

He smiled, relief etched on his face, black eyes glittering as if they, too, had glitter like the sky. Rising from one knee, he sat on the bench and pulled me into his lap. “Don’t you want to see the ring?”

“I’d marry you if you handed me a twist tie.”

“How about a diamond?” he whispered, pushing the box in front of my nose so close I couldn’t ignore it.

I sucked in a breath, and my stomach swooped. “It’s gorgeous,” I whispered, practically breathless. “It almost looks like glass.”

“It’s a quality diamond,” he said, chin on my shoulder. “I made sure.”

“You know I don’t expect something so… extravagant.”

“I know, baby. I fully expected a lecture when I picked this out.”

I spun, looking into his eyes. “You picked this?”

He looked offended. “Who else?”

I giggled.

“Landry.”

“I thought maybe your mom helped.” I mean, the woman knew fashion.

“She recommended the jeweler,” Jason answered. Then almost sardonically, he added, “She also told me when I thought I’d found one big enough to go up a carat.”

Laughing, I turned back to the ring. “Is that why this could probably be seen from Mars?”

“It’s not that flashy,” he muttered.

“What is this, like six carats?”

“Four.”

It was an emerald-cut diamond, according to Jay, four carats. It was so clear it almost looked like glass. Even me, a girl with an untrained eye, could tell how flawless it was. The band was platinum and thin enough to let the diamond take center stage.

It really was too much.

“Do you like it?” he asked, nerves back in his voice.

“Oh, Jay, how could I not?”

“Why haven’t you touched it yet?”

“It’s too beautiful.”

He made a rude sound and grabbed the ring, tossing aside the box.

I dove for it, but he caught my arm gently to tow me back. “Come here, little siren.”

I went, straddling his lap to face him.

He held up his hand, and I surrendered mine. My stomach fluttered when he stared at my hand for long moments and then lifted it to press a kiss against the bare ring finger.

Positioning the ring at the tip of my finger, he said, “Tell me yes again. Tell me yes for forever.”

“Yes.”

He slipped the platinum ring over my knuckle where it fit like it was made just for me.

It sparkled under the overhead fairy lights, and I turned my hand to watch it glitter. It took up my entire finger and was a giant flashing sign that I was taken. Probably exactly what he planned. I couldn’t bring myself to scold him about it, though. It was just so perfect.

“It’s so beautiful, Jason. I really love it so much,” I said, fingering it with my other hand.

“You’ll wear it, then?”

“I won’t ever take it off.”

“Good girl,” he said, leaning in.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and met the kiss with enthusiasm, trying to tell him everything my heart was screaming without saying a word.

My hands pushed into his hair, ruffling the dark strands. When the ring got tangled, I smiled against his eager lips, giggling.

“You trying to yank my hair out? You want me to be bald at our wedding?”

“That’s what you get for buying me such a huge rock,” I said, my lips flirting with his as I spoke.

He growled and rolled, pressing me on the bench and covering me with his large frame. I opened my arms and legs, welcoming him completely as our tongues twisted languidly and the temperature in this little room got a lot more humid.

When he finally pulled back, I had whisker burn on my cheeks, his hair was a wreck, and my lips felt bruised. He moved back to grab the champagne, and the tent in his jeans made me laugh.

“How about you let your fiancée take care of that?” I said, crooking a finger at him.

“Oh, I plan to,” he replied, voice gravelly. “But first, champagne.”

He grabbed the bottle and made short work of popping the top. Some of the bubbly fizzed over and ran over his fingers to drip on the rug.

I stood up as he reached for two glasses, and I caught his hand and brought it over to lick his wet knuckles.

“Your taste in champagne is almost as good as your taste in diamonds.”

He set aside the bottle to lift me off my feet. “Yeah? Well, my taste in women beats them both.”

“I love you, Jay.”

“I love you too, little siren. I don’t care where life takes us as long as we’re together.”

Our lips met again, and his hands found their way beneath my sweater, fingers coasting up my back to fumble with the clasp on my bra. The second it was unhooked, he groaned and dipped beneath it to cup my breast.

I arched into the touch, panting lightly and kissing down his neck.

I cried out when he pinched my already sensitive nipple, and he gave it another squeeze. I swayed on my feet when he sat me down, and he steadied me with one hand while undoing his jeans with the other. I reached for my sweater and tugged it and my loose bra over my head, tossing it aside.

His jeans landed with my shirt, and then his sweater joined. I pulled my jeans down and kicked them off. It was warmer than before, but standing there naked was a lot different than fully clothed.

My aroused body tightened, and cold nipped at my skin, somehow making me more needy. Jason’s dick was flushed and hard, standing off his body with impatience. His nipples were hard, but it was the sleeve of ink covering his arm that always drew my attention first.

“Such an ink slut,” he mused as I trailed over the black designs.

I stepped forward and kissed his bicep, dragging my tongue along the art and then pressing a kiss to the siren on his shoulder. His hips shifted, throbbing cock nudging my hip.

I rocked into it, nipping at his arm again. His fingers grabbed my hair and pulled my head back. Our stares collided, and then he was devouring me, kissing away any thought I might have.

My hand trailed down his abs, over his hip, and to his shaft, wrapping around it. He thrust into my palm and moaned, and I gave him a tight squeeze.

Abruptly, he pulled back and pushed me against the glass door. I hissed at the temperature of the glass against my lust-heated skin.

“You can take it, can’t you, little siren?” he purred in my ear as he pressed me a little harder against the glass. “You can take the cold of the glass and the heat of my body as I claim you right here for the entire mountain to see.”

I gasped, opening my eyes to force my focus out across the mountaintop. It was dark with pockets of light here and there, but we were definitely alone.

“Landry?”

“Yes, Jay. Right here. Right now,” I said, my breath creating a cloud on the glass.

“Put your hands up on the glass where I can see them. Let me look at my ring taking over your hand.”

God, he was so dominating.

God, it made my knees so weak.

I laid my palms against the glass, and he growled in satisfaction, leaning over to kiss the ring on my finger.

His hands were warm against my skin, and he used his feet to push mine wider. I spread my legs, and he laid a palm in the middle of my back, pressing slightly. I bent, leaving my hands on display, and his swollen head nudged my entrance.

I rocked back on him with a moan, and he pushed in. My eyes rolled back in my head as he pulled out and thrust in again, the grip on my hips firm.

“There you go.” He panted. “Fucking perfect.”

The space was limited and the gondola was already swaying, so I stayed as I was, bent at the waist, offering my body for whatever he wanted.

He went at me with a voracious appetite, the proof I needed that he was keyed up for this proposal, and I slammed back, meeting his thrust. His hips stuttered and he ground against me, his pelvis rubbing my ass.

“ Fuck, baby, ” he swore as I felt him pulse inside me.

“Mark me, Jay,” I goaded, wiggling on him. “Mark your fiancée.”

He groaned and slammed into me, his thighs shaking as a deep rumble ripped out of him. I felt him empty inside me, my body spasming around his to drink him deeper, and his orgasm went on and on as aftershocks rocked us both. When he was spent, he kept ahold of my hips and dragged me back, sitting on the bench and keeping me in his lap. I sat reverse cowgirl, and he reached around me to spread my thighs, at the same time thrusting his still-hard cock inside me. I groaned, head falling back on his shoulder.

One hand covered my breast and the other went between my legs to my sensitive, swollen clit. He touched it, and I started to tremble. His lips latched on to my neck and sucked while he pumped shallowly into my body, rolling my clit between two fingers.

“J-j-jay.” I gasped, wrapping my fingers around his wrist.

“Give it to me, little siren.”

I splintered apart, arching off his body as he continued to play me like an expert. I shook and leaked all over him until I was a trembling, sated mess in his lap.

He was completely soft by the time he pulled his hands from my center, and I sighed, rolling my face into his neck.

“This was perfect,” I whispered.

“I just want you to be happy.”

“As long as I have you, I will be,” I murmured, holding out my arm so we could both look at the diamond winking on my finger.

I shivered, the chilly air much colder now that my veins weren’t on fire with desire.

Jason patted my hip. “Get dressed, baby. I’ll pour some champagne.”

“Think we’ll still get to see some of the tour?” I asked, peering out the windows as I dressed.

A glass of bubbly appeared under my nose. “If we missed it, I’ll just tell them to send us around again.”

It was the perfect night. The most perfect proposal.

I was a lucky girl.