Healed (2 page)

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop worrying about it. Test taking just isn’t my thing. At least next year I’ll only have to worry about writing my thesis.”

“Yeah, I think I’d rather take a test than write a paper that long. Besides, you only have one set of finals left this year.

“Yeah, I don’t even want to think about that right now.”

Her body shuddered. Reaching down, I tilted her chin up until her eyes were focused on mine. “Well then, it’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about that then.”

She took a deep, calming breath. “Yeah. What I would like to do is sleep for a week straight.

A large yawn slipped past her lips. I knew she was exhausted. I also knew that there was no way that she’d admit it if it meant missing the game. I decided to not even bring it up. With Emily, sometimes it was better to leave well alone.

She sat up and looked at me with a mischievous smile. Who the hell knew what was going through her mind, I was just happy to see that she was able to clear her head.

Just as quickly as she sat up, she was on her feet, taking steps backward, away from me. Smiling sweetly, she turned and walked toward the swings. Emily climbed on the swing and using her legs, pushed herself as high as she could go. So she was taking my advice to the extreme. Not that I really cared, seeing the beautiful smile on her face and hearing the laughter pealing from her lips was more than worth it.

Glancing at my phone, I saw there wasn’t much time before we’d have to leave and head on over to Lauren’s game. Time was up. No more chickening out. It was now or never.

Taking a deep breath, I stood up and reached into my pocket to pull out the box. My hands were shaking, and even with the cool spring day I could feel the sweat starting to bead on my brow.

The short walk to the swing seemed to take forever. With an almost childlike giddiness, she continued to swing back and forth. Steering clear of the path of her feet, I stepped in front of her and slowly lowered myself to one knee. Catching sight of me, Emily dropped her feet and dragged them across the ground, causing her to stop almost immediately, her eyes widening as she stared, not moving a muscle.

Opening the ring box, I held it out to her. “From the moment I met you, nothing has ever been the same. A date where I was only looking for a little fun turned into so much more. You’ve had me on this roller coaster of life with you, and I’ve learned I never want to get off. The only thing I want to do is spend the rest of my life waking up to you. So, Emily Halliday, will you marry me?”

She sat frozen in her seat for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever. My mouth was dry as I waited to hear her answer. In a flash, she was out of the swing and jumping on top of me.

“Yes!” she screamed, wrapping her arms around my neck. Her lips pressed to mine and it felt as if a fire raced straight through my body. Pulling her closer, I continued to devour her until her mouth opened and my tongue was able to caress hers. The kiss continued, drawing each other closer. Caressing hands, roaming fingers, my body was straining toward hers. I wanted her and I wanted her now.
Damn game!
There was no way we could miss it. Slowly I pulled out of the kiss, knowing we couldn’t take it any further right now, and I needed my body to calm down.

“I love you so much, Em.” Taking her left hand in mine, I pulled the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger.

“It’s perfect! How did you know it would fit?”

“Angie helped me find one of your rings to size it up against.” Angie Powers was Emily’s best friend. They were roommates for a few years, right up until Angie moved in with her fiancée, Caleb, last summer. Caleb and I had known each other since freshman year. We met during that first summer when we all came early for practice. Caleb and I both played offensive positions. He was a wide receiver, while I was a running back. He was hard to get to know at first, always keeping to himself, but ever since he met Angie all of that began to change.

When I picked out the ring, all I could think about was wanting to wake up next to Emily for the rest of my life. Shit, she was the first woman I could remember—besides my mother and my sister—who I cared about more than myself. Everything I did was for, or because of Emily. Her blue eyes sparkled, like the diamond I’d just placed on her finger as she looked at me and smiled.

“I love you, Emily.”

Leaning in, she placed a soft kiss on my lips. “I love you too.”

There was a light breeze as we sat there in the grass, Emily eventually moved to sit on my lap. “How long have you been planning this?”

“A few months.” I chuckled thinking about all of the times I’d almost gotten up the nerve to ask her.

“Does anyone else know you did this today?”

“Josh and Angie knew I was going to ask, they just didn’t know when.”

“Can we wait and tell everyone at dinner tonight? I want to see their faces when we’re all together.”

Cupping the sides of her face with my hands, I pulled her face closer to mine. The feel of her sitting on my lap was more than I could take. “Anything you want, babe.” And once again, I covered her mouth with mine for another mind-numbing kiss.

In the back of my brain I knew at some point, even as exquisite as the taste of her lips was, the kiss would have to end, preferably before I ended up in extreme discomfort for the rest of the night. Pulling out of the kiss, I looked down at the gorgeous flush on her cheeks. “Baby, we have two choices, either we can keep this up and go back to my place so I can have my way with you, or we need to call it quits for now so we can make it to Lauren’s game. If it’s the latter I’ll need a moment because I’d rather not have a hard-on for the rest of the night. I’ll take advantage of you later.” I smirked at her.

Giving a quick shove to my shoulder, she rolled her eyes at me. “We are not missing the game so you can get some.”

She stood up and took a step toward the blanket. Before she had a chance to go any farther, I grabbed her hand and spun her around to face me. Wrapping my other arm around her waist, I brought her hips into direct contact with mine, knowing she could feel how hard I was for her. “You can bet your ass we’ll be doing that when we get home.”

She reached down and cupped my balls through the fabric of my jeans. “Sometimes I wonder if your brain is located here, instead of in your head.”

“Maybe it is, but it’s only for you.”

“It better be.” With a quick peck to my cheek, she stepped out of my reach and began to clean up our lunch. Only somewhat reluctantly did I help her. I really wanted to take her back to my place, but seeing her excited about telling everyone, I couldn’t deny her. Not that there was much I could deny her anyway. I’d have forever with her. We could celebrate in private later.

After putting everything back into the car, we made it to the game with time to spare. It was fun to watch Emily doing everything in her power to hide the ring on her finger.

“You know you could always put it in the box for now and put it back on when we get to the restaurant,” I whispered in her ear.

She turned to look at me and I knew that I’d definitely said the wrong thing. “I’m never taking this ring off.
Ever
.”

Even with the tone of her voice, I had to smile. To be honest, I didn’t want to see that ring come off of her finger either. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and tucked her into my chest. “I love the sound of that.”

“Glad you think that now, because if you suggest something like that again I might need to kick your ass.”

Wrapping my arm around her, I pulled her closer still, and placed a brief kiss upon her temple. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

She smiled and we spent the rest of the game tucked into our own little world. I tried to pay attention, but my mind was elsewhere, imagining many days and nights where Emily and I would find ourselves, arms around each other, just enjoying the other’s company.

I wanted the game to be over. The sooner we got to the restaurant, the better. I couldn’t wait for everyone to know that Emily was going to be mine forever.

With Lauren striking out most of the batters, the game ended pretty quickly and we were finally on our way to Max’s. We managed to get a table in the back to ourselves, so hopefully we wouldn’t drive the other patrons crazy. The place had dark wooden paneled walls that matched the bar that took up most of one side of the room. Everyone quickly order drinks while we waited for Lauren and Josh to show up. By the time they arrived, my nerves had gotten the better of me. It wasn’t as bad as when I proposed, but I just wasn’t sure when would be the right time, at least, until the food came and the conversation seemed to take a natural break.

Standing up, I reached down and took Emily’s hand in mine, pulling her up to stand next to me. “Guys, I have . . . no,
we
have something to tell you.” This was beyond exciting, and I sucked in a deep breath, savoring the moment. “Emily—”

“We’re getting married!” Emily squealed, effectively cutting me off. I knew she couldn’t contain her excitement, flashing everyone the ring.

Cheers and clapping surrounded us as our friends came over to offer their congratulations. It felt amazing to have the support of our friends, especially when I knew a lot of people would think us too young to be thinking about marriage. Caleb had asked Angie to marry him only a few months ago, but that was different. With everything they’d gone through, Caleb and Angie already seemed older than us.

I knew I didn’t seem like the type of guy to settle down, but everything changed when I met Emily.

The rest of the evening past in a blur, my desire to get Emily home only increasing with every second. I loved spending time with our friends, but the idea of being able to call her mine made me want so much more from her tonight. When things finally started to wind down after dinner, there was talk about going somewhere else for a drink. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Josh and Lauren staring at each other, a faint tint of a blush covering her cheeks, and I knew that they wanted out of there as badly as I did.

“Em?”

She turned to face me. “Yeah?”

“Are you ready to go?” I whispered.

Her eyes darkened and her tongue slipped out to moisten her lips. I’d say she was ready. “Very much so.”

Standing, I reached out my hand for hers. “Hey, guys, we’re going to get going,” I said. Emily stood up next to me, and with handshakes and hugs we said good-night to our friends. We were less than one step away from the table when I heard Josh say they were leaving as well.

Damn sneaky bastard. I’d been waiting for the right time, and then he just jumps on the bandwagon.

Turning around, I mouthed, “Copycat,” at him, earning me a smirk. His eyes drifted down to Lauren and back up to me. Yeah, we had the same thing in mind.

“Your place or mine?” I asked Emily once we were in the car.

“Yours,” she said without hesitation. It was pretty obvious as we left that Nick wasn't coming home anytime soon. Nick Thompson had been my best friend since freshman year. Just like Caleb and Josh, I met Nick at summer practice for football, and while we spent a lot of time busting each other’s balls, our friendship was almost instantaneous. At the beginning of Junior year, we decided that we were tired of living on campus and agreed to get an apartment together. Both of our parents were cool with it, saying they would give us the money they were saving on room and board to cover our rent and food so that we wouldn’t have to work. Holding down a job would be almost impossible during football season.

The drive back from the restaurant didn’t take long and even knowing Emily didn’t expect me to, I got out of the car and ran around the front to open her door for her. To me it didn’t matter that she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. I liked to see the smile she tried to hide every time I helped her out. As practice for the day she would be my wife, the minute she stepped out of the car and shut the door, I swung her up into my arms. The smell of jasmine and vanilla surrounded me. The scent was uniquely Emily. Nothing would ever smell as wonderful as her.

“What are you doing?” She tried to act annoyed, but I could see right through it, the sparkle in her eyes giving her away.

Leaning down I pressed a light kiss on her nose. “Practicing for the day I can carry my wife over the threshold.” When we reached the door to the apartment, I used the hand under her knees to unlock the door. Luckily I’d had the presence of mind to have the keys ready.

The door swung open and I stepped over the threshold, holding Emily tight to me. Lowering her legs, I let her body slide down mine, enjoying the feel of her against me. Her body awakened all of my senses, my body slowly reaching for hers. The moment she placed her hands on my chest to look up at me, desire surged through me. Just the sight of my ring on her finger was enough to have me capturing her mouth, slipping my tongue between her teeth.

Everything about her called to me, and I knew as much as I tasted her, it would never be enough.

Emily

ANDREW’S HANDS MOVED
up and down my back, creating sensation everywhere, especially when they slipped under my shirt and lightly caressed my skin. His mouth continued to devour mine in a way that made me unable to think about anything but the feel of him against me. His tongue danced with mine as if we were making memories with our mouths alone. Slowly he pulled back, watching me.