Igniting the Wild Sparks (50 page)

I circle my index finger
around my name on his tattoo. “Please. I need to hear it.”

Finn’s eyes widen and he swallows. In just above a whisper, he once more confesses, “I want to be your husband.”

My heart races at his words. “Is that the truth?”

He nods. “I swear to you.” I avidly kiss him and he heavily groans as he voraciously kisses me
in response. Sparks regains his spirit, and finding my way back into his hair, we begin to rock together again in a harmonious, breathless rhythm. When his lips lift from mine, he says, “You feel so good all over me. You’re so soft, so gorgeous, so loving, so forgiving and so
mine.
I’ve fallen even more in love with you, Becks.”

His words
spark me and I whimper, “You’re getting me close.”

He keeps a rigorous pace, “I want to share it with you. Love me the way only
you
can. Surrender to me, sweetheart.” The
sweetheart
does it.

“Oh, Finnigan! I love you, baby!” I pull on his hair and wail as he causes me to explode. I make my moans noisier as I guaranteed him loud sex. I just hope we don’t get kicked out of here.

His delight is evident, too, and he yells over me, “That’s it, baby! Give it to me!”

I hold onto him as the ripples wrack both of us. “Oh, Sparks,” I
breathily drone.

As I bask in my euphoria, he nears the finish line himself and he pants
harder. “Becks, that felt unbelievable. Now, feel how much I love you.” He moves his hand to my hip, holding me steady as he glides faster to reach his climax. He then jubilantly shouts, “Holy fuck, Hadley!” Closing his eyes, Finn stridently grunts, shoving deep into me, and gasping. I screech, but it’s from pain. He doesn’t notice, though, and I don’t want him to know I’m hurting.

He opens his eyes and we gaze at each other while we catch our breaths. I kiss him and
suddenly feeling nervous again, I whisper, “I’ve fallen more for you, too.”

He just doesn’t know exactly how much I have yet.

While I’m in the bathroom, I wipe a cold washcloth over my face to cool me and to clean off the smudged makeup. I set the washcloth down and lift up my dress to take it off, Finn having already unzipped me. Before I look away as I stand naked in the mirror, I notice my bruise is a faint purple with yellow around it. It looks like it’s healing, but I’m still having nagging pain from it, especially when Sparks and I make love. I lightly push on it and it feels tender near the bottom. Hopefully, it won’t hurt soon.

Skipping a bra, I pull on a sweatshirt, underwear and jeans, feeling better than I did wearing that slutty dress. Although my hair is messed up from having loud, hot sex, I leave it
braided for now since it’ll take too long to remove them. It’s a good thing the beach will be dark. Digging into a zippered pocket in my toiletry bag, I pull out the black velvet box and shove it into my jeans pocket, hiding the bulge with my sweatshirt.

When it’s Sparks’ turn in the
bathroom, I gaze out the suite’s window, concentrating on calming thoughts. Right. I’m actually going to propose to Finn Wilder, Richmond’s resident, eternal bachelor. My heart, still sprinting from our lovemaking, is now pounding in fear of the unknown.

When he’s ready, I pick up my phone and the key cards, handing him one in case I lose mine.
Closing the door, Sparks unexpectedly pins me against it, swooping down to kiss me. Stepping back, he sweetly smiles at me, drapes his arm around my shoulders and we walk to the elevators.

It’s a clear night and the moon is a small sliver, so the stars are twinkling brightly. The beach still has some stragglers since it’s a Saturday night.
Sparks drops his arm from me and entwines our fingers, giving them a small squeeze. When I look up, we catch each other’s gaze and smile. His hair is sexy, sticking up in every direction that I pulled it.

We reach a quieter section, not far from our hotel, but far enough that people around
won’t hear or notice us, unlike how they probably did earlier in our room. Yikes.

I stop
to take my sneakers off and he does the same without question. At least there are no snakes here. I think. Sparks watches as I roll up my pant legs like Rod and I did at the creek. Tossing my shoes into the dry sand, I walk to the water to try soothing my buzzing nerves. I hop into the cool, wet sand and dance in the shallow, tide rolling in. Sparks gingerly follows me and I grab his hand, twirling around under it, making myself giggle and for him to indulgently chuckle. I inform Sparks, “You are a good dancer, by the way.”

He raises a dubious eyebrow and scoffs
, “That’s one thing I am not.”

“Oh, but you are, Mr. Wilder.” He shakes his head and looks down at the sand, quietly laughing at my assertion.
As he stands there, I stretch out his arm and then pirouette to him, rolling up his arm and into his chest. I laugh and when I look up at him, he gives me a kiss. Grinning, I say, “Thank you again for saving me from Shane. Twice.”

His eyes dart above my head and he mutters, “I was
more
than glad to.”

“Why?”

He snaps, “He was leering at you all night. I wanted to break his fucking nose.”

I gasp in disbelief. “Finn!”

He tightens his arm around me. “Becks, trust me. I was watching him for a while.”

“I thought you were watching me?”

“I was watching you and
whoever
was watching you,” he meanders.

“That’s crazy. He’s my trainer.”

“He wants to be more than your trainer. If he looked at you the way he did and we weren’t at your best friend’s wedding, I would’ve punched him.” The look in Finn’s eyes is resolute and determined. Is he really that serious?

“You can’t punch someone out for just looking at me.”

“He wasn’t
just looking
at you, Becks. I virtually read his damn thoughts. He wants
my
girlfriend and there’s no way in hell he’s getting you.”

“He won’t.
I don’t even like him that much, but he said he wants to be friends.”

He bleakly laughs and rolls his eyes. “Yeah.
Friends
. Sure. And high altitudes scare the shit out of me.”

I roll my eyes
at him in return. “He wanted to be friends since our best friends were getting married. That’s all. I don’t want him. Just like I don’t want Rod. We’re
only
friends.”

“I can see you and Rodwell being friends more than you and that asshole.”
This is not the mood I wanted before asking him to marry me.

“Don’t worry about Shane. The wedding is over and I only have to see him at the gym
; although, he doesn’t want to see me until I have a checkup.”

“Why?”

“He thinks I’ve lost weight. That’s the point of going to the gym, isn’t it?”

“I’ve noticed it, too, Becks.”
His gaze drops to my body, and his hands explore my waist and hips, evaluating me.

Sighing, I
grab his hand again and twirl away from him, dancing back into the water, and pulling him with me.

“Roll up your jeans,” I
instruct, kicking into the surf.

“I’m good.”

“What? You’re paranoid a Finnatic will see you and think you’re not cool?”

He laughs and his white teeth gleam even in the dim glow of the overhead lighting behind us, which also casts a blonde halo
in his mystical hair. “Yeah. Something like that.” He follows me into the ankle-deep, sudsy water.

“Come on,
Jiminy,” I taunt.

He yanks on my hand, halting me. “
Oh. You think you’re funny?”

Not able to look at him without giggling, I look ahead and say, “I am.” Suddenly, Sparks scoops me up out of the water
, making me loudly squeal. I tightly put my arms around his neck and pray he isn’t going to throw me in. I might lose the ring and the water is too cold. Instead, he dips in and gives me a long, persistent kiss, nearly compelling me to forget about my plan and for us to go back to our room, instead. His hair brushes against my forehead in the cool, ocean breeze. Reaching up, I bury my hand into his hair and deepen our kiss, his light goatee scraping against my skin, which is still sensitive from his earlier enthusiastic kisses. I needed this. It’s calming my nerves for the moment. I drop my hand and slip it into his sweatshirt to pull out his necklace. Holding onto his key, I feel his smile in our kiss.

Sparks whispers on my lips
, “I love you to the stars, Becks.”

I dreamily smile
against his lips. “I love you beyond, Sparks.” We give each other one more kiss and then he sets me down. When he does, the nerves return worse than before, and I shake like Morgan did before the ceremony, so I take a couple deep breaths as I had instructed her to do. From behind me, Finn is oblivious to the chaos going on within me. He encircles his arms around me and kisses the side of my head as we gaze out into the watery darkness.

I take another deep breath and say, “You’re my soulmate.”

His chuckle vibrates through my back. “I am,” he states, stealing my earlier reply. Even though it’s a game for us, I don’t laugh this time.

“Always?”

“Always.”

“How
much
do you love me?”

He quietly says against my temple, “I just showed you…and told you, Becks, when we made love. And don’t you dare say I only
fucked
you. You know it was more than that, baby. It always is. I felt our love between us, didn’t you?”

I nod against his head, his beard scratching me. He says, “
I also came here to surprise you because I knew how much you wanted me by your side.” He’s making my speech easier than I thought.

I say,
“We’re a couple and I do want you by my side forever.” He doesn’t reply, but he finds my hand and holds it in his. I swallow to open my closing throat before I turn around. He lets go of me, thinking we’re going to walk somewhere else, but I only walk out of the water to dry sand, feeling so sick. I don’t even know how to do this. When I look back at him, he’s regarding me suspiciously. I suppose I am acting somewhat cagey. Okay, a lot.

I clear my throat and decide to go with the obvious. “We’ve been together for three years.”

He arches a dark eyebrow and tentatively says, “Yeah…”

“I know how you feel about…things, but you also know how
I
feel.” He instantly peers at the ground, starting to look uncomfortable and possibly, on the edge of alarm, which was expected.

I have to keep going.

Lifting my sweatshirt, I take out the black box, almost dropping it as I open it. At the sound of the creaking lid, Finn looks up. The silver edges of the ring gleam around the black center. I glance around us and say, “Honestly, I don’t know how to do this.” I fall to my knee in the sand and that’s when his eyes and body freeze.

Shit.

I have to get through this fast before I lose him completely. “I love you, Finnigan Robert Wilder. Always. With every single beat of my heart. I want you to be forever mine and
only
mine. Just as I’m
only
yours. Please tell me you’ll take this gigantic leap of faith with me and truly mean it. This is it, Sparks. I won’t ask you again. My only want is for you to be my husband and for me to be your wife.” Breathing deeply, I take my own leap of faith. “Finnigan, I’m giving you the ultimate dare. Will you
really
marry me?”

My proposal echoes that of the ring’s inscription:

I dare you to marry me.

I watch as his eyes go through every emotion I think exists, except for the one I’m looking for. Hopefully, it’s still in there somewhere. The only other overt move his body makes is his jaw alternating between tightening and slackening. I don’t even see him breathing.

“Sparks?” He doesn’t respond, which is scaring me. Still on my knee holding the box out, I quietly ask, “Aren’t you going to say anything?” His intent stare bores into me, yet I have no idea what’s going through his head. Does he want to bolt like Morgan wanted to earlier? Does he want to jump up and down as he squeals like a girl? Does he want me to get up and stop embarrassing
him
for a change? The only answer I’m getting is the sound of the ocean. It had sounded soothing. Now, it sounds condescending.