Bound for Nirvana: (The Bound Trilogy Book 3) (24 page)

Ethan reciprocated, his hand cupping my sex as his thumb moved in delicate circles over the hyper-sensitive knot of my clit, his finger sliding inside my clenching passage. I moaned my pleasure into the silent night as he increased the pressure against my inside wall of nerves, my muscles grabbing greedily to his expert finger, the pressure and speed of my hand increasing as I worked him at a responding tempo.

“I need to be inside you,” he growled, his hands swiftly shifting to my hips as he raised me off his lap, one hand moving to his cock to guide it toward my opening. I placed my hands on his shoulders to steady myself and slowly lowered to his waiting erection.

Ethan entered me slowly, the tip of his penis gently penetrating the opening of my sex and sliding inside me, until we were joined entirely as one. He stilled, both of us adjusting to the invasion of my snug space, my body encapsulating his, his body stretching and filling mine to a delicious overwhelming degree.

Folding my arms around him, I clasped him to me, the combined heat of our inflamed desire a stark antithesis to the chill of the night. I began to move against him at a gentle, leisurely pace, his hands moving to my buttocks to gain control of the momentum, and soon we were moving concurrently. His taut length slipped in and out of me, massaging my bundle of nerves, the pressure inside me soaring to dizzying heights.

“Christ, you feel so good.” He looked up at me, his expression pained with passion. “Too fucking good.”

Before I could calculate, he’d withdrawn and dropped to his knees, dragging the throw from the rear seat to cover the burden boards and laid me down on top of it. Grasping my hips, he tilted my pelvis for easy access then plunged back into me, the impetus a driving force of energy causing the boat to rock precariously. The sudden sway did not deter him as he gripped me tighter and hammered into me, each unapologetic thrust sending me hurtling helplessly toward climax. I gasped as it hit me, the sweet, sublime sensation tearing through every contracting muscle and capillary. Ethan raced on, riding me to his own empyreal oblivion. He screamed his release, the cry of complete ecstasy ringing out across the lake and woods and beyond.

Eyes as dark as bullets gazed down at me, his chest heaving with exertion as he gulped in the night air like a starving man. “I love you so fucking much, Angel.” His words buckled under the encumbrance of his elated bliss, his eyes glistening with unshed emotion.

Flooding with sudden concern, I reached up to cup his face. “And I love you, E.” I brought him to me to shower his face in tender, reassuring kisses.

Tugging the throw with him to cover us, he shifted to settle us on our sides, our legs entwining as he softened inside me. “Do you really? I mean really love me?”

Shocked by the question, I pulled back just enough to take in his expression. He was sated from our lovemaking, that much I was certain of, but something indecipherable lingered in his eyes. “Ethan, you shouldn’t need to ask that question, but I’ll answer anyway. Yes. Yes, I love you, more than any words could ever begin to describe.”

I expected the tautness around his eyes and the bunched muscles of his jaw to relax with the assurance, but instead he looked gravely worried. He opened his mouth to speak, but as though the words wouldn’t form he closed it again, screwing his eyes shut with seeming frustration.

“What is it, E? You’re scaring me.” My heart was thundering in my chest now. I wasn’t certain I could take anymore surprise revelations. “Ethan!”

He nodded, more to himself than to me, like he was acquiescing to something within. “I’ll never love or need anyone else in my life the way I do you, Angel. You know that, don’t you?”

I nodded frantically. “Yes.”

“And what we’ve learned today just proves more than ever that we are meant to be. Like no matter where we’d ended up, we’d have found each other again, eventually?”

“Yes, I’m certain of that.”

Cupping my face, he breathed deeply, his breath hot on my face, our noses almost touching. “Then marry me, Angel.”

Chapter Eleven

Staring into the deep blue ocean that was Ethan’s eyes, I wondered how long it would be before I woke to find that this whole exquisite, moonlit encounter had been just another dream.

But I didn’t wake, and it wasn’t a dream.

Ethan searched my eyes, attempting to interpret my faraway gaze. Then as though he felt he needed to substantiate his proposal, he said, “I want more than anything in the world to call you my wife, baby. I know what you said about having never considered marriage, about never imagining yourself as a bride, but I want you to consider it now. It doesn’t have to be a big wedding. Hell, we can fly to Vegas, just the two of us, if that’s what you want. I’m not bothered about the wedding. It’s a marriage I want. I want to be married—to you.”

My tongue felt bloated, oppressively leaden in my mouth as my mute state persisted, but I was becoming steadily aware of the bubbling, sort of popping sensation fizzing in my belly. It wasn’t a dull feeling of dread or disappointment, neither was it lamentable, nor grieved, nor fearful. No, it was more like…

“Baby, did you hear me?”

…Euphoria. I nodded—a vague inclination of my head, before a single word fluttered past my lips on a whisper. “Yes.”

“Is that yes, you heard me, or… yes, you’ll marry me?”

Suddenly, I roused, the fog clearing as I felt a smile slide blissfully across my face, and I felt as strong and as certain of what I was about to do as I’d ever felt in my entire life. “Yes, Ethan Wilde. I
will
marry you.”

The loud whoop of joy hooted from Ethan’s lips, echoing into the solitude of the night, before he grabbed my face, melding his lips to mine as I giggled.

“She said yes!” He shouted the words aloud, a deafening, reverberating boom.

“E, shush. You’ll wake the whole town.”

“I don’t care if I wake the entire world.” He shifted, grappling for his clothes, the boat rocking unsteadily again with the movement.

“What are you doing fidgeting? If you don’t stop wriggling around, this boat’s going to capsize for sure.”

“I’m going to tell Mom and Dad. Come on, get dressed.”

“Ethan.” I tugged at this arm. “It’s the middle of the night, baby. Let’s just chill here for a while, we can cuddle up under the night sky, fall asleep, maybe.”

For a moment, he looked like the boy in the pictures I’d studied earlier. His blue eyes sparkled with joy, a tiny dimple forming at the corner of his mouth from his crooked, mischievous smile. He was relaxed and playful and… A sudden vivid memory ignited, flashing briefly before my eyes—a young Ethan pretending to slay an imaginary dragon with a plastic sword, his chest wrapped in aluminum foil, slashes of red paint down his arms to simulate bloody battle wounds. I tried to cling tightly to it, to store it in my memory bank, but it was gone from the clutches of my mind almost as soon as it had materialized. I smiled, thrilled by the momentary glimpse of my childhood with him. Maybe now the box was unlocked, my memories would slowly start to return.

“Cinderella has just agreed to be my princess and you want me to sleep on it?” Ethan interrupted my thoughts.

“Yes.” I tugged at his arm again. “We can share our news later, after we’ve given the sun time to get up and dressed. Let’s just bask in our own private joy, for now.”

Tilting his head to the side, he gazed down at me warmly. “Fair enough, Cinders. But first we need to see if it fits.”

“See if what fits?”

“The metaphorical glass slipper, of course.” He reached into the pocket of his lounge pants before discarding them to the side again. In his hand was a small black velvet box. He placed it in the middle of his outstretched palm and flipped the lid. “Except this isn’t a slipper, and it definitely isn’t made of glass.”

The box contained a ring, a delicate platinum band supporting the largest, most beautiful, square-cut diamond solitaire I’d ever seen. The moonlight reflected off the flawless gem, the bright streaks of luminous light so dazzling they created an asterism, illuminating the palm of his hand so it looked as though he were offering me a handful of stars.

“Oh my God,” I breathed as Ethan took the ring from the box and reached for my hand. I faltered for a moment.
Okay, so this is where I wake up.
But even the sharp sting of my nails biting into the palm of my hand didn’t rouse me. This was all real. My gaze flickered to his face, a subtle smile playing on his lips. “How did you…? When…?”

“Never mind that. Are you going to make me ask again?”

I shook my head and tentatively held out my left hand, watching as it trembled uncontrollably. Ethan looked me in the eye as he slid the ring into place. “Thank you,” he whispered, bowing to kiss my ring-bound finger. I frowned in confusion. “For saying yes,” he clarified.

“Thank you—for asking.” I gazed down at the dazzling gem. “It’s beyond beautiful. And a perfect fit. How did you manage that, Mr. Wilde?”

“Oh, you know me, soon-to-be Mrs. Wilde; a man of contrivance and precision. Only the best will do for my future wife.”

His words ran through me like soft, melted caramel, sweet and creamy and delectably moreish.
Mrs. Wilde. Future wife
. Complete and utter indulgence.

“I love you,” I murmured.

“And I you. Come here.” Lying down, he pulled me into his arms, swaddling our nakedness in the fur throw until we were entirely cocooned inside its warmth.

“All this talk of marriage recently—it was because you had this planned all along?”

“Hmm hmmm.”

“My lack of enthusiasm must have been disheartening.” I chastised myself inwardly as I recalled our prior conversations.

Ethan pulled me tighter, my head nestling into the crook of his neck as we both stared up at the sky. “You just needed to warm to the idea. I knew you’d flinch at the initial suggestion, just like you did with the ice. But I knew it wouldn’t take long for the concept to sweeten.”

The ice!
The erotic memory evoked an instant response, my toes curling, my sex quivering. “Sweeten? Oh, I see. And how long have you been sugarcoating this idea?”

“I’ve been drip feeding it for a while. I thought I’d blown it actually, when Sloane forced me into being too heavy handed. I was afraid feigning our engagement would make you think I’d made an assumption. And we all know that to assume is the…”

“… mother of all fuck ups,” we said in unison.

“So, why now, why tonight?”

“I wanted my parents to meet you first, before I introduced you as my fiancée. I didn’t want my father keeling over again. And then today’s revelations—well not that I had any doubt whatsoever—but today just confirmed to me that my heart belongs solely to you. It always has done. Marrying you just cements us.”

“And what if I’d said no?” I teased, watching as he pulled his lips into a dubious pout. “You never even considered it did you?”

“Of course not. You don’t love someone the way I love you without knowing what is best for them—knowing what they need, what they want, before they even realize themselves.”

I nudged back to look at him. “I knew that. It’s exactly the reason I know what you want and need, right now.”

“Oh? And what’s that?” he said with that self-assured, sexy smirk of his.

“This.” Without hesitation, I reached out to grasp his cock in my fist, my eyes growing wide with shock on discovering it was pumped, swollen, rigid, and ready.

Ethan rolled on top of me, his erection nudging at my entrance. “Mmm. Good job we’re on the same page then, baby.” He leaned in and crushed his lips to mine. “You’re a dirty, dirty girl, future Mrs. Wilde.”

When I awoke, the birds were singing their morning chorus, the scent of an imminent fall drifting in on a gentle breeze. I heaved in a cleansing breath, the cold air crisp and rejuvenating. Despite the frantic activity, it had been the best night’s sleep I’d had in a long time. Memories of the previous twenty four hours came flooding back, and my heart swelled with blissful happiness. I tugged my arm free of the throw and gazed at the beautiful diamond adorning my hand. Here in the morning light it was even more impressive; I hated to even contemplate how much it had cost.

“When can we do it?” Ethan’s sexy morning voice startled me from my musings.

“Is there no satisfying you, Wilde? Are you not content with keeping me up half the night?”

He rolled his eyes. “I meant get married.”

“Oh. Well, I guess we better have breakfast first. Maybe even tell your family?”

He quirked a brow. “Sarcasm does not suit you, baby. C’mon.” He scrambled for our clothes. “If I wait any longer to spread the news, I’m literally going to combust.”

The boat had drifted so only a few pulls of the oars had us mooring back up to the jetty. By the time we reached the house, we were both in hysterics, amused by the idea of us bounding through the woods and across the lawn, me in Ethan’s arms wearing next to nothing, but wrapped in a huge furry throw.

“Me Tarzan, you Jane,” Ethan bellowed as he burst through the door into the kitchen.

“Oh dear God, you’re here. They’re here!” Veronica said first to us and then presumably to Richard as he came barging into the kitchen.

“Where in God’s name have you been? Your mother’s been beside herself with worry,” Richard proclaimed looking from one of our smiling faces to the other.

“Sorry,” Ethan laughed as he lowered me to the floor. “We were at the lake. I didn’t think you’d be up yet.”

“Not up yet?” Veronica gaped in bewilderment. “It’s almost nine-thirty. Maria has breakfast ready.”

“Nine-thirty? Christ, I can’t remember the last time I slept so late.”

“You slept at the lake? What on Earth—?” Veronica shook her head in dismay.

“We had a moonlight adventure, took the boat out. We must have fallen asleep,” Ethan explained, squeezing my hand in acknowledgement of our clandestine escapade. I flushed at the memory of our naked frolicking under the light of the moon.

Veronica and Richard looked incredulous. “Well, it looks like there hasn’t been much change in the years you’ve been apart. Moonlight adventure, indeed. You’re not six anymore, you’re both a little old for playing games, don’t you think?” Veronica looked at her husband as if seeking his support on the matter. “It reminds me of the time we searched for a whole hour to find them skulking in the attic. Do you remember? They said they couldn’t come when they were called because the wicked witch had pulled all the stuffing out of Ethan’s body, and Angel was doing her Dorothy act trying to put him back together again.”