Hale Maree (17 page)

“
No?” his voice is a husky
caress.

“
Nope. You have to earn
them.”

“
Alright, I’ll play,” he
says. His eyes flash, and my stomach is shot straight through with
a tingle that feels like melting ice crystals. “This sounds like it
could be exciting.”

I hadn’t really thought about him earning
anything, but the thought popped into my head, and it sounded
exciting to me when I said it too.

“
I’ll let you know,” I say.
“But you can have one thing now.”

I pick through the bags and find the first
one. I hand it to him, and Oscar slips the boxed cologne out of the
bag. He smiles, watching me, as he lifts the edge of the box to his
nose.

“
You like this...” he says
and I nod. “ I meant for you to buy things for yourself, not for
me, Hale.”

“
I did buy something for
myself.”

“
Show me,” he says. He opens
the box, removes the cologne, and puts some on, as I find the bag I
want. I slide the nightgown from the bag and hold it up.

“
It’s pretty isn’t it?” I
say.

“
It is. But I’d rather you
wear nothing to bed.”

A blush creeps up from my neck. “Don’t say
things like that.”

“
Why?” he says. “It’s
true.”

“
Because it makes me feel
embarrassed.”

He bites his lip.

“
Ok, then I won’t say it
anymore,” he says. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to be
embarrassed. I meant to let you know what I feel like whenever I
lay down beside you.”

“
That was—embarrassingly
sweet,” I say. I pick up the bag with the tie and hand it to
him.

“
I earned one already?” He
laughs. “This is going to be easy.”

He reaches in, and pulls the tie from the
bag. In the evening light, filtering in from the windows, it takes
me a minute to recognize which present I gave him. It’s not the tie
that I picked out at the store. The clerk must’ve switched it by
accident. The tie Oscar’s holding is a funky olive green with
cream, tie-dyed splatters. Oscar tries to smile as he stumbles for
something nice to say. He holds it up and squints at it.

“
It’s, um...” He rubs it
between his fingers. “It’s nice?”

I break out in giggles, sitting down on the
edge of the bed.

“
It’s hideous!” I
squeal.

“
I didn’t want to say
that.”

“
It is! That’s not the tie I
bought you! I got you one with a really cool design on it! Somebody
mixed it up.”

“
Oh good,” he says. “I was
afraid I’d have to wear it.”

“
No, no,” I laugh. “I
wouldn’t let you if you tried!”

Oscar steps closer to me. “Thank you,” he
says. “For the present.”

“
It’s a present-fail,” I
giggle.

“
You could always give me
another,” he says, but his eyes rove to the nightgown, and the hard
blush creeps into my cheeks again. He lifts his hand to my face,
cupping my cheek and rubbing his thumb on my skin. His tone drops
into that lovely, deep thrum as he says, “I have something for you
too.”

“
What?” I say and Oscar
lifts the tie to eye level.

“
Let me,” he whispers as he
places the soft tie over my eyes. My body goes stiff as he knots
the tie at the back of my head. I can’t see, but I’m aware of
Oscar’s heat leaving me. I hear his footsteps crossing the floor,
the snick of the lock on the bedroom door, and his return
gait.

“
Are you okay?” he
asks.

“
I’m nervous. What are you
going to do?”

“
Just relax and let me,” he
says. His heat dances at my cheek and trails lazily down my jaw.
His tongue moves over my mouth, and I part my lips like a baby
bird, waiting for his kiss.

But his kisses move down my throat and
across my collarbone. He nibbles my shoulder; his tongue slides
over my skin, until he stops to plant a kiss in my elbow. His body
presses against my legs, but then the delicious warmth moves away,
and his mouth moves slowly down my arm to my wrist. He leaves a
kiss in my palm that lights a fire, despite the tingling ice
crystals in my stomach.

He places something in my hand and then his
hair brushes the skin and I feel his warmth breath in my lap,
heating the triangle between my legs. He kisses the tops of my
thighs, moving down to my kneecaps. His hands lift my leg, and his
mouth ends at my feet, a kiss on the bottom of each sole that sends
rocket flares screaming into my head. I am about to part my legs,
to lay back and pull him up over me, when he removes the tie from
my eyes.

I blink. He is kneeling at my knees, a hand
on either side of my thighs. I look down at the hard thing in my
hand. A box. A ring box.

“
Will you marry me, Hale?”
he asks. He reaches out and opens the box, as I sit there staring
stupidly at him. Inside, the ring sparkles with unexpected colors.
There is a round diamond in the center with a blue cast to it,
surrounded by a halo of purple sapphires. The filigree band twists
up around the setting. I’ve never seen any piece of jewelry as
beautiful as this.

“
Will you?” Oscar asks
again, removing the ring. He takes my hand, and slips the ring onto
my finger. “Say yes. Please, Hale. Not just because we’re supposed
to, but because you think you might actually be able to fall in
love with me.”

“
Okay,” I
breathe.

“
Is that a yes?” he asks. I
have to be able to try. He’s trying hard enough for both of us and
the more I’m with him, the more trouble I’m having finding reasons
why I should keep fighting it. I can blame the whole arrangement on
necessity, but when he talks to me, or smiles at me, or touches me,
something in me keeps saying
let
him.

“
Yes,” I say, and Oscar
jumps up, pushing me over, so he can climb on top of me, laughing.
Then his mouth is on mine, and our shared laughter is caught in our
kiss, with no means of escape.

#

“
I want Sher to be the first
one to know,” I say, grabbing Oscar’s arm as he tries to pull me
onto my feet. He wants to go downstairs and announce my answer to
Landon, even though Landon already knew about the ring. “Can I have
your phone?”

“
Hmm,” Oscar hums, pulling
the phone from his pocket. He’s standing in front of me, his waist
at eye level. He holds his phone just out of my reach. “I think you
should earn it,” he says.

“
I could trade you, a
present for a present,” I say, but he shakes his head.

“
No trades. Some things you
just have to earn,” he says.

“
Earn how?” I ask, and he
picks up the ugly tie from off the bed.

“
This,” he says. He holds it
up, twisting the ends of the fabric around his hands, waiting for
my decision. I frown, but I don’t argue with him. He smiles as he
slides the tie back over my eyes and around my head, knotting it
carefully in the back, so it doesn’t pull my hair. As he secures
the knot, I smell the cologne I bought him, and feel his breath in
my ear as he whispers, “Relax.”

I don’t bother to tell him I’m caught right
in between. In the darkness that the tie provides, I feel as brave
as I did on the beach, but knowing that beyond the tie, the light
of the room allows him to see everything, I grow tense all over
again.

“
I’m going to take off my
shirt, alright?” he says.

“
Okay,” I say. I hear the
fabric as he pulls it over his head. Then, his hands are on mine,
lifting my fingertips to his chest. He holds my palms against his
skin as he lowers himself to kneel in front of me.

“
Would you like to touch
me?” he asks.

“
Okay,” I gulp. But he
catches my hand before I can move it over his hard
flesh.

“
No, Hale,” he whispers,
leaning close to me. “Would you
like
to touch me?”

I swallow a breath. I open my eyes inside
the tie, but see nothing but the dark. The brave dark. I try to
forget about what can be seen beyond my own eyelashes, as I swallow
again and answer, “Yes.”

He lets go of my hand, and I trail the tips
of my fingers over his skin. I follow the smooth arc of his
collarbone, feel the rise and fall of his breath, and trace his
ribs. He holds still, as I place my palm over his heart and pause
to feel the beat. I work my hands outward from his hard shoulders,
and down his arms, touching the taut muscles. My blood turns to
liquid fire as I grasp his arms and pull him closer. I lean forward
and place my lips against his skin.

His breathing escalates. He moves a hand
beneath my chin, gently lifting it to reveal my lips. The pressure
of his mouth against mine becomes more urgent, his tongue moving
inside my cheek as his hands move down to my waist. He grips my
shirt, and I put my hand on top of his to stop him. He reaches up
with the opposite hand, cupping the back of my head and drawing me
even closer to him.

“
It’s okay,” he murmurs, as
his mouth closes over mine again. He strips me of my shirt gently,
the same way he did on the beach. But this time, he groans, laying
me back on the bed, and I’m reminded that he can see everything I
can’t. I try to grasp the covers of the bed and yank them free to
cover myself, but Oscar grabs my wrist. “No, Hale, please,” he
says.

I close my eyes behind the tie again and,
just like at the beach, I concentrate on letting myself go. I focus
on the way his hair feels, the temperature of his skin, and how he
moves his mouth so that one second it feels like a massage, and the
next, it sucks at my skin in a way that makes me writhe. When I do,
Oscar nips at me with a chuckle.

And then his fingers are on the top button
of my shorts. He unzips them and begins to peel them down.

“
Wait, Oscar,” I say, and he
pauses, exhaling into my belly button.

“
I just want to see you,” he
whispers. “That’s all.”

I try to sit up, but Oscar’s hand spans out
against my belly.

“
What’s making you nervous?”
he asks. “Is it because you can’t see what I’m going to
do?”

“
No, it’s because I don’t
know...” I can’t finish. Ugh. I hate that he asks these questions
and expects me to answer out loud. I open and close my eyes under
the comfortable darkness of the tie. “I don’t know if I look
right.”

I squeeze my knees together against his
chest and feel the rumble in his sternum as he laughs. He bends and
plants a kiss on each of my thighs, which sets off atomic
explosions all through me.

“
Why would you think that?”
he asks. His words vibrate through my kneecaps.

“
I don’t know,” I say,
grateful to be staring into the darkness of the tie, rather than
his eyes. “It’s not like I’ve ever compared it. But you probably
will.”

“
Just let me look,” he says,
spreading more kisses over my skin as he slides his arms along the
sides of my thighs. He grasps the waistband of my shorts and eases
them down, along with my panties, and finally slips both off my
ankles.

“
I want to stop,” I say. My
legs, still hanging off the bed, begin to shake.

“
We will,” he whispers. “I
promise. Right after you show me.”

His hands are on my knees, moving them
apart. I feel the coolness of the air, suddenly close against my
skin, which is the very opposite of the warmth his reassuring kiss
leaves on my legs. Spread before him, I hear his satisfied
groan.

“
You’re beautiful, Hale,” he
says. His breath fans across my exposed body. “You’re absolutely
perfect.”

“
I want to stop,” I repeat,
and the quiver from my legs is reflected in my throat.

“
Alright,” Oscar says.
“That’s all I wanted.”

He guides my feet back through the legs of
my panties and shorts, and slides them up toward my knees. I pull
them the rest of the way, as Oscar climbs onto the bed beside me.
Once my shorts are buttoned, he slips his fingers under the tie and
slides it up, over my forehead.

I squint at his gentle smile. He wraps his
arms around me, pulling me against his bare chest and tucking my
head beneath his chin. I am grateful to nestle there, out of the
direct line of his intense gaze.

“
Thank you,” he mumbles into
my hair, as he rubs my back. “Thank you for trusting me,
Hale.”

I glance down at the ring on my finger, and
think of how much more he’s expecting me to trust him, very, very
soon.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

OSCAR FINALLY LEAVES ME ALONE to talk on the
phone. Probably because he knows I’m still feeling kind of
embarrassed, and that I really need to confide in my best friend.
He lay with me a while, until things started feeling back-to-normal
again, but I know the only thing that will make it feel totally
okay for me is to talk to her.

“
Sher?” I say into the
phone.

“
How’s it going, Miss
Fiancé?” she says, when she answers. “Is Ocker
listening?”

“
No,” I curl up on the
poufy, circular chair near the window. “He’s downstairs, with his
friends.”

“
So what’s new?”