The Engagement

She flows through the dancing bodies as if she has walked this world with me from the beginning. Her blue satin gown hugs everywhere it should, it fits as if it was threaded by fucking angels, or maybe the person wearing it is the one who is heaven sent. There really is no other explanation for the way the sheer sight of her makes me want to drop to my knees in front of her and worship the miracle of her existence. Her brown hair is pinned up, except for two pieces left out to frame her face. Her heels are lifting her legs in a way that catches the air in my throat, heels that of course aren’t too high, she won’t allow shoes that make her taller than me, she hates that.

I watch as she comes to a stop in front of Logan. She says something to him, but I can’t make out what over the hum of chatting dancers between us. My hand, on instinct, finds the small navy box in my pocket that holds the weight of my entire heart in it. A heart that hasn’t belonged to me since the moment she nearly sat on me on the plane.

My eyes flick back to my good friend and my head of security. He is doing his best to stay stoic with Samantha, but I know him well enough to see the fractures in his face. Whatever she is saying to him, she is winning. She knows him well enough to know it too. She crosses her arms and stomps her foot. He looks at me, eyes silently begging for my help as she grabs his hand and tries to pull him toward the other dancers. I shake my head, smile at him and mouth “Not a chance.” I know better than to get in the way of her wanting to do anything. I would be inclined to set alight any other man who so much as glanced toward her, but this? My girl and my best friend? I learned very quickly that they have something special of their own. Something beautiful. They went through the absolute worst of something together, they don’t talk about it much, but I know that they both came out of it different. Two strangers went into her home that day, two people forever connected in a way I will never understand walked out.

He gives up, glaring daggers at me but his smile is sure and true. She forces him to spin her, and he shakes his head at her but no longer fights the smile touching his lips. He dips her and the sound of her giggle carries straight to me. I grip the little box so tight I worry I might accidentally break it. This right here, the person she is, the way she treats my staff, my friends, my family. The way our mothers have regular dinners with her, not just her own mother because she insist mine doesn’t miss out. The way she had only known my father for a month when he fell ill yet she was the one who insisted on making him home-cooked meals and sitting with him for hours every day just to chat when everyone else had decided they needed a break from being in the hospital or couldn’t step away from work. She’s not real, she is too pure, too good.

The music from the orchestra threads through the sound of our closest friends and family’s chatter. Every one of them thinks they are here to celebrate our one year anniversary, and technically they are. I just hope it’s the first of many more and I’m not about to make the biggest mistake of my life by doing this too soon.

I decide I have had enough of just watching her, I know it’s ridiculous, I am standing meters away, I can see her, yet I miss her.

“I’m going to take my date back, if that’s okay with you.” I mutter playfully to Logan as I wrap my hand around Sam’s waist.

“It took you long enough, I’m supposed to be working, for you, I might add.”

“Consider that your break well spent then.” Sam chimes in with the sweetest fucking smile and it signals straight to my hand that once again squeezes the box.

“You are impossible.” Logan teases Sam with yet another head shake.

“You keep pretending we aren’t friends and I will make sure I get you in the divorce.” She shoves a finger at him, my mouth dries, Logan’s eyes widen. She stays relaxed, as if she didn’t just blow the floor out from under my feet.

Logan clears his throat “Right, well, on that note. I’m going back to work.” He is gone before I can ever try to use him for help.

I try for distraction instead, for me, for her, or I’m stalling, I don’t know anymore, I just know that right now, I need to touch her, move with her, be with her. Not in the way I want but this will do fine, for now, as a substitute.  “Dance with me, my siren.”

“Yes, sir.” Her words are whisper soft as she looks up at me through fluttering eyelashes. Her words do exactly what she is hoping, and it takes a few too many deep breaths and some very boring thoughts to get myself right again. She leans her head against my chest and moves with me. The room around us, and everyone else in it, disappears into somewhere in the background. All that is left is her, the way her touch feels more grounding than anything I have ever felt before, and her smell, impossibly soft, like vanilla, fresh linen in the sun and something I have never been able to name, something sweet and uniquely her.The sheer presence of her wraps around me in a way that feels like home.

I can’t wait any longer, I don’t want to. I stop moving and step back, she looks at me, green eyes shining under the soft lighting that fills the space, lips, pulled ever so slightly into a confused frown.

“Alexander, what’s wrong?”

I don’t speak, not yet. Instead, I lower onto one knee and grasp her left hand. Realisation steals her breath, catching it somewhere in her throat.

“Breathe baby.” I whisper.

“I’m not sure if I can.” She responds, her voice hoarse.

“Me either, but if I’m going to make it through this, I would prefer if neither of us has passed out.”

The realisation of what has happened becomes apparent to the rest of the room. Everyone falls silent and everyone’s eyes fall to us. The sound of my mother already crying makes me want to roll my eyes, but I already know Sam’s mum is going to have her phone out taking a video and if I roll my eyes, there is a whack over the back of the head coming my way. The photographer starts going mad, filling the mostly quiet space with almost constant camera shutters.

“Shit. Now, do it now!” Logan calls out over everyone. The orchestra changes the song they are playing, swapping instead to the one I requested, a cover of her favourite song in the whole world, Waiting for Superman by Daughtry. The singer covering the song does so much better than expected, so good in fact that she gasps, says “No way.” And for a moment seems to forget that I am right in front of her as she stretches to look towards the singer. “Oh, never mind.” She says quickly when she realises, I just made the mistake of crushing her hopes.

Great, that doesn’t add an extra layer of pressure to get this right. I pull the ring box from my pocket and grip it like a vice, scared that at any moment, it’s going to disappear, with her, because she’s not ready. I take a deep breath and gather my thoughts the best I can.

“Samantha Locket.” I begin, I find those eyes, the ones that hold me firmly in place every time they catch mine, as soon as I do, the fear, the panic, it’s all gone. Tears well the edges of her eyes and she’s already softly nodding. “I have loved you, every minute since you fell into my life. You are the calm on my roughest days and the light on my darkest. You bring life to every room you walk into without even trying. You have shown me that no amount of success, money or steel tower will ever compare to the feeling of lazy Sunday mornings with you over a cup of coffee. There is nothing more I want in this life than to spend every single day knowing those lazy Sundays are something I get to look forward to for the rest of forever. I want to know that no matter where I am in the world, or what I’m doing, it will always be back to you, back to my home. Because that’s what you are to me. Will you do me the incredible honour, of agreeing to marry me?”

Sam’s tears break over the edge of her eyeline as she eagerly nods her head. “Yes!” she exclaims excitedly. “Yes Alexander, of course I will marry you.” My shoulders drop with relief at the greatest words I have ever heard come from her mouth. I get to my feet and open the box. Nestled inside the velvet box sits the ring I'd spent three months searching for. Eighteen-carat white gold curves around a round brilliant diamond, flanked by two smaller stones that catch the light like they were made just for her. Her body slams into mine before I can even process what she’s doing. We both nearly hit the ground as the sound of her laugh rips my thoughts from me. I laugh with her, holding her as tightly as her frame will allow.

“Baby.” I murmur against her ear. She pulls back, confusion replacing her laugh. I hold the waiting open box between us. “I think you’ve forgotten something.”

“Oh, right.” She giggles again. I rise to my feet before offering her my hand. She slips her fingers into mine and lets me gently guide her up.

I take my heart from the box and slide it onto her waiting finger, where it has always belonged, with her.

The crowd around us erupts into a mix of cheers and cries as she slams herself against me, wrapping her arms so tight around my neck I’m afraid she might break something.

“I love you, Alex.” She murmurs. I don’t get a chance to respond before her lips are on mine, hungry and greedy and mine.

I drag my tired feet upstairs toward my bedroom. My tie already unfastened, shoes in hand and the need to see my girl stronger than ever. I hate that I had to leave her at our own party, I hate even more that I had to leave while she was in the middle of playfully chewing Logan out for keeping such a big secret from her. Of course, he knew I was going to ask. He knew six months in that I wanted to when I quietly confessed it to him. We had been heading to Sydney for a meeting I had. I felt like I had left my heart sleepily laying in bed as the sun had just barely broken over the horizon. He was smart enough to convince me to wait at least a few more months.

I make it to the top of my stairs and start shedding more layers. I drop my shoes by the bedroom door, as I step into the lamp lit bedroom, I drape my jacket and tie over the back of the chair.

I finally look towards the bed and freeze mid step. My mouth dries immediately, and the rest of my body wastes no time responding to the sight in front of me. For a second I’m not convinced she’s real.

“There you are.” Sam gets up from where she was sitting on the bed and crosses the room toward me. completely naked besides her heels and her newest piece of jewellery.

“My siren.” I breathe, it’s all I manage, no other words exist in my brain right now.

“I missed you.” Her words are silk against my skin as she speaks against my neck. She kisses me ever so gently as she gets to work unbuttoning my shirt.

“I missed you too.” I murmur and place my hands on her hips. I absentmindedly look towards the bed where a vibrator I hadn’t noticed lays, there is a slight glisten, evidence of its recent use.

“Fuck.” I say and dig my nails into her hips, pressing her warmth against me.

“Don’t worry, I made sure to send you a video.”

“You what?” I laugh, disbelief leaving me floored.

“I knew you would be upset that worked called you away. I wanted to cheer you up.”

“You’re trying to kill me.”

“Maybe.” She shrugs and the laugh that follows catches my voice in my throat.

Need buckles me. I scoop her up and carry her to the bed, in sheer moments she has taken me from bone tired to starving with need. I lay her down on the bed, wanting so desperately to just stay here, locking every part of her like this to memory. My body won’t allow it, neither will hers. Need fills her darkened gaze, and her breaths are short pants filled with anticipation.

“What do you want Siren?” I ask, removing my belt and unbuttoning my trousers.

“Everything. I just agreed to tie myself to you forever, I want to feel that.”

My mouth is on her in an instant, my hands holding her knees apart as my tongue works her already swollen clit. I alternate, sucking, nipping, licking, stopping only to plunge my tongue into her and get more of a taste of her arousal.

“Alex.” Her voice cracks with a moan and it’s music to my ears.

She shoves my head away, but I don’t fight her, I know its because she has decided it’s her turn. I stand and she makes quick work of crawling across the bed before running her tongue along my length. She pulls me into her mouth, adjusting her jaw around me. then, with a glance up through her lashes she gives me a nod. That’s all the permission I need. I hold her head to support it and move my hips, carefully at first, until we both find our rhythm. Then I pick up the pace, driving my cock down her throat. She grips the base with her hand, working it and taking control after, she has decided she is done with gagging. She slows the pace but keeps her grip tight.

“Fuck, Sam.” I hardly recognise my own voice.

She eases off, finishing up by flicking her tongue along the tip, taking my precum.

“Show me how you fucked yourself.” I demand.

A mischievous smile crosses her lips, and curiosity holds me in a chokehold. I take a few steps back to the armchair that faces the bed. My eyes stay glued to her as she picks up the cock shaped vibrator, turns it on and lays down. she pulls her knees up slightly instead of letting them fall to the side. She works the vibrator over her clit for a few beats. My hand finds my cock without thought and starts stoking the length of it. She moves it down so fucking slowly. She plunges the vibrator in. But immediately takes it back out. She pulls her knees up a little higher. No fucking way. She moves the vibrator down, presses it against the entrance of her arse before ever so slowly pushing it into herself. Her ring catches in the lights as her hand grips the vibrator. The sight is something out of this planet. Her body stretches and accepts it beautifully. She works it in and out of herself, slowly, aa her own pace, I match her with my hand. The air fills with the sound of our collective moans. She reaches her other hand down and works circles around her clit. She whimpers and the sound rips into my chest and exposes a whole new layer of need. I get up from the couch, rip the vibrator from her hands and toss it to the side. “You are trying to kill me.” I accuse before driving into her. She wraps her legs around me and throws her head back. Every thrust is rewarded with the sound of her moans. She returns her hand to her clit. So quickly her pleasure builds around me, the pulsing starts around my cock and her moans grow louder.

“Alexander.” She cries out as her pleasure hits its climax. I follow her over the edge, her name a broken version of itself as I speak it through gritted teeth.

I pull out from my favourite place, turn the vibrator off that now sounds far too loud in the quiet space and move it to the bedside table. She lies, panting with a satisfied smile. I remove her shoes for her before lying beside her and giving her my arm so she can shift into her favourite place against my chest.

“Sleep now, nearly Mrs Truette.” I murmur against her hair as I trace lazy circles along her back.

“I love you.” Her words are tired and broken. It settles on my chest that she has promised to let me hear those words for the rest of forever.