My eyes almost escape their sockets. Is this my mom talking? I shoot a weary glance at Vincent. What did he do to her?
He raises his hands in a placating sign, and a smile takes his face. “I did nothing. I barely visited her and told her how I feel about you. How I still feel about you. And I asked her to help me through this.”
Vincent walks to me and reaches a hand out. I take it, eager to feel his warmth. “Help you through what?”
He waves around the bakery without taking his eyes off me. “Finding you. Ordering a cake.”
I snort. “A cake? For what?”
“To celebrate, silly,” Lis taunts, shifting her stance.
“Celebrate what?” And I can’t believe it. It happens in slow motion and too fast at the same time.
Vincent drops to one knee. My heart stumbles a beat. He pulls a velvet box from the pocket of his jeans and opens it.
“I have loved you from the moment I saw you. Your friends witnessed how hard I tried to catch your eye back in school,” he says, and I look up to meet Lis and Chris, both nodding and grinning. “You’re my most favorite person. When my mom had to move, and I offered you to come along, I was going to propose. I went to your parents to ask for their permission. They didn’t give it. They told me you weren’t interested, and ever since I failed to reach you through my letters or phone calls.”
“I have kept them from you, but they happened with remarkable frequency,” my mom adds but I don’t look up to meet her eyes. I’m too busy lost in Vincent’s.
“I thought you had given up on me. You thought I had abandoned you. And even so, when we met last week, we proved nothing shines brighter than when we are together, Hazel.” He smiles, and it’s so beautiful I tear up. “Now that we both know what happened, let me try again. Let me make this right. Will you marry me?”
I burst in the happiest, loudest tears I’ve ever cried.
Vincent’s on his feet right away, cradling me, soothing me. He hugs me and asks if I’m all right. His generosity makes me cry even harder. He has always put me first. Always worried about me first.
“Yes! I want to marry you!” I manage past my lips. “Yes, thousand times yes!”
He guffaws in celebration and takes me in his arms, dipping me and kissing the air out of me. I throw my arms around his neck, bringing him close, closer than I thought possible, and I don’t give one single fuck about the others around us.
Christine clears her throat after a couple of minutes. “Maybe we should... Get the celebratory cake and have a party of our own? Let the two be?”
Lis snorts. “The moment we open the expensive wine I brought, Hazel’s gonna come up to breathe, I’m sure.”
I laugh against Vincent’s lips, and he smiles against mine. He slips the ring around my finger and we pursue the others to eat cake for dinner and cheer in the name of love. We sit and laugh and talk, but we’re never apart. No, his hands never leave mine, his thumb flicking the diamond of my ring around.
And here and there, he leans and breathes an “I love you” into my ear. And I believe him.
More than anything.
VINCENT
THREE YEARS LATER
Filling my lungs with the decadent scent, I dog around the house until I reach the kitchen. The scent of cake swells the place, and it’s first rate to wake up, Sunday morning, to this smell. Sometimes it’s bacon and eggs, sometimes pancakes. The house always smells fantastic.
Nothing that beats the lazy days when Hazel sleeps over and I wake with my face buried in her hair.
Her aroma. I’m still looking forward to the day I’ll be able to bottle it.
As I enter the kitchen, I find her cleaning up the counter that faces the back window. The room is vast, and it has every possible appliance Hazel has ever dreamed of. Here’s her lab. She experiments, tries, creates. She works her magic, develops her recipes.
And I’m the lucky guinea pig. Soon, when our twin boys grow a little older, they’ll be too. For now, they can’t really chew.
Hazel has her back to me, and she swings her hips in time with her scrubbing. It’s hypnotizing. Mouth-watering. Cock-hardening.
She’s in a summer dress, tied around her waist. The flimsy, almost see-through cloth is one of my favorites. In the right angle, I can see her panties — or lack thereof — and the thin material makes it easier for me to find her nipples and pinch them.
I reach her from behind, slamming my hips against hers and caging her against the counter. She gasps in surprise but cocks her hips either way.
“Morning,” I breathe into her hair, my voice already thick with lust.
“Morning,” she hums, shifting so her butt cheeks cradle my erection. “Slept well?”
“Fantastic. As every day I sleep with you.”
She coos and winds her fingers through my hair. I tilt her face up to kiss her, and it’s not a good morning peck. Oh no, I devour her and make my intentions clear-cut.
Hazel, being the perfect woman she is, responds with heat. Her kisses are greedy, as if we hadn’t seen each other... In five years. When I reach around her body to cup her luscious tits, I find her nipples already pebbled.
“You’re so hot, baby,” I mutter into her nape before nibbling at it. “I’m one lucky man to have you.”
She shakes her head, sighing in delight as I flick her nipples through the dress. “Thanks to your persistence. If you hadn’t moved back that time...”
“Hush.” I press my lips against hers and claim her mouth again. “Let’s not talk about those tragic days. I’d rather pretend they never existed.”
Her snicker is disturbed by a gasp when I bend her over the counter. Standing on her tiptoes, she rolls her hips around my erection. “So rough,” she purrs, parting her legs.
“I’m starving,” I shoot back, flipping her dress up. Gloriously, today’s one of the days she decided to go commando. My loin coils at the sight of her pussy lips. “And apparently, you’re too.”
“What do you mean?” She pouts her lower lip, batting her lashes in an attempt of being coy. “I’m not hungry.”
“Hell yes, you are. Hungry for some cock.” I yank my pajama pants down and let my cock spring free, the head patting her already-soaked pussy. “And guess what, princess? You’re going to get it.”
She moves back, teasing my member, covering it with her dripping juices. “Have I been a good girl to deserve it?”
I take a handful of her lush ass and grip it hard. “Walking half-naked around the house like this? No. You’ve been filthy bad. But I can’t spank you or the kids will wake up.”
“Fair enough.” She giggles and covers her mouth with a hand. “Then let’s be quiet.”
Pressing my cock to her entrance, I buck and spear her in one smooth thrust. Her pussy tightens like a vise, and the feeling of being bare inside her is mind-blowing. The first time I fucked her bareback after our time distant from one another, I literally came on the spot. Luckily, I could go for several rounds with her. I would never tire of her.
Fisting her hair, I pump inside her wetness. It takes moments for her moans to rise to the usual naughty pitch they have. She circles her hips and reaches behind her to dip her nails into my flesh. Biting her lower lip, she keeps some of the sounds muffled, and it’s killing me.