Skin Tight (Skin Deep #4) (10 page)

By ten, Ian and I were alone, snuggling on the couch and watching a movie. Halfway through it, Ian kissed the top of my head and said, “Can you believe it’s almost the holidays already?”

I nuzzled his throat and murmured my response against his skin. “I know. It’s crazy. This year has gone by so fast.”

I felt him nod against my head, and then grumbled when he shifted. “Mmm…don’t move,” I ordered him. “I’m comfortable.”

He chuckled softly, but then time stood still and everything fell away as his hand came up in front of my face and I caught sight of the diamond ring dangling from his fingertips.

I sat up in a rush, my hand flying up to cover my mouth even as I gasped, “Oh my God! Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod…”

His face was earnest, his free hand clasping my wrist to keep me close. “Leah…I was going to wait until Christmas to do this, but I just can’t wait anymore. I had a big thing planned, and I know you probably would want your family to see this, but…” He paused, sliding off the couch to kneel in front of me, eliciting another round of ‘
ohmigod
’s’ from me.

He took my hand in his once more, then continued. “I’ve learned a lot about love from you and from your family. I’ve learned that sometimes love is quiet, and sometimes love is loud. Sometimes love is small, and sometimes it’s so huge that it encompasses your every breath, your every move. That love…that’s what I have with you. I couldn’t imagine my life without you, and I never want to. So, Leah Nicole Jensen, will you do me the greatest honor and please be my wife? Will you marry me?”

He looked up at me, his face so serious, but shining with so much love that I could never doubt in a million years the way he really feels about me. Tears spilled over and a sob broke from my lips as I reached for him, crushing my mouth to his in a fervent kiss, even as I whispered, “Yes, YES!” against his lips.

He kissed me back briefly, but broke it to slide the ring on my finger. I looked at it, really taking it in. It was beautiful, a large, solitaire princess cut diamond rimmed with smaller diamonds, and a diamond encrusted, white gold band.

“Ian,” I breathed, “I love you, you know that?” I asked him. It was totally a rhetorical question, and he knew it since he just smiled.

His hand came up and wiped away my tears, and he leaned in and took my lips in a sweet kiss. “So, that’s a yes, right?” he asked.

“No, baby, that’s a HELL YES!” I shouted at him, throwing myself into his arms.

Chapter 15

“Jesus Christ, for the love of everything holy on this fucking planet, stop ringing my fucking doorbell!” an enraged Brandon yelled as he threw open the door. He was bare-chested, wearing a pair of basketball shorts that hung loosely around his hips, and scowling hard enough that, if I didn’t know he adored me, I’d think my time on earth was over.

I was standing on their doorstep, and in his defense, I’d been ringing the doorbell non-stop for the last couple of minutes, even though I have a key, but I’m not currently keen on using it again any time soon. That’s another story. And maybe it didn’t help that it was barely eight in the morning, but I was a woman on a mission. I had news that I needed to share with my best friend, who didn’t answer her phone last night!

“Oh. L-Leah…Hey,” Brandon stuttered, his eyes narrowing in confusion. “Sorry, I-uh, why did…are you…?” He shook his head, completely at a loss for what to say, apparently, his hand moving up to rub the back of his head nervously.

I took pity on him. “Good morning! Sorry, but I really needed to talk to Chloe and she didn’t answer her phone last night.” I gave him my brightest smile and batted my eyelashes at him, making him look at me even more weirdly, but then he turned to the side and motioned me in.

“Why didn’t you use your key?” he asked me.

“Uh, because I knew you guys would still probably be in bed and, given the voracity of your lust for each other, I didn’t want a repeat visual like the other day,” I told him, matter-of-factly.

“Ah. Gotcha,” he said, nodding. “Yup. Totally understandable. Just-uh, yeah. Chloe’s in the kitchen.” He pointed the way unnecessarily, and I slid by him, shaking my head as he shut the door behind me and then disappeared down the hall.

See, a couple weeks ago, I’d been meeting Chloe to pick her up to go out to dinner, but apparently, the love bug had bitten her and Brandon just at that moment and I’d walked into the house to see them…well, how to put this delicately…humping like rabbits hopped up on speed on top of the ottoman in the living room. It’s a little unsettling (if not a little humorous) to lock eyes with your best friend and her lover as he slammed home one last time and they both belted out very loud (and I’m guessing very satisfying) orgasms.

Truth be told, I’d shrieked and apologized profusely as I stood there, but just couldn’t get my feet to move, completely frozen to the spot in embarrassed, abject horror. And, of course, staying true to my (total family trait, unfortunately) usual weird awkwardness, I’d laughed nervously as we stared at each other and then had quipped, ‘Well, I don’t know about you, but I need a cigarette now. Good form, ol’ chap, good form!’ before I’d turned on my heel (finally unfrozen) and walked back out the door. I’d sat in the car until a fully dressed and absolutely fire-engine-red-faced Chloe had slunk into the passenger seat, not saying a word.

So, yes, a little bit of awkwardness still hangs there when I see Brandon now, but I think it’s more on his part, stemming from the fact that all of his sister-in-laws have seen him naked by this point. Again, in his defense, it was all by accident; trust me, my sisters and I have no desire to go around spying on him naked…although, yes, we all must say that he is definitely one fine specimen of totally hot maleness. And Chloe (and Allie) agrees.

I jumped into the kitchen, a ball of wired, blissfully happy energy, yelling, “CHLOE!”

She jerked, shrieked, and sloshed her cup of coffee down the front of her which earned me a nice death stare.

But that changed very quickly to concern as I danced in front of her, flapping and waving my hand frantically in front of me.

“Um, Leah, are you okay? Do you have to pe-OH MY GOD!” she screamed, cutting herself off mid-sentence as she finally noticed the large rock winking from my finger. “Is that a
ring?
An
ENGAGEMENT RING?!”

She reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling it toward her face almost violently so she could get a good look at it and then caught my eye. When I nodded ‘yes’ to her, she started jumping up and down, screeching and babbling and crying, holding my hand tightly between her boobs, which jerked me back and forth wildly until I gave in and started jumping with her.

We were laughing and crying and still yelling at each other with giddiness when Brandon poked his head around the corner, his lips and eyebrows curled up in a concerned, slightly scared, wholly you-two-are-insane look as he asked, “What the hell is going on in here?”

Chloe dropped my hand but pulled me close into a tight hug, swaying me back and forth as she squealed to Brandon, “We’re getting married!”

He blinked at her in surprise before saying, cautiously, “I know, sunshine. We’ve been planning the wedding, and Leah already said she’d be your maid of honor.” He then glanced at me, silently asking me to translate the situation for him, but before I could say anything, Chloe shoved me backwards, but kept my hand.

“No, you idiot!” she cried, stomping over to him and dragging me along with her. “Ian proposed! Leah’s getting married, too!
We’re
getting married!” By the time she was done with her explanation, she was grinning and bouncing once more, which made me bounce again by default.

Brandon moved into the doorway and leaned against it, grinning as he looked at my ring, then winked at me as he replied, “Oh. Yeah, I know. Congrats!”

I pulled away from Chloe. “Wait, what? How’d you know?” I asked, suspiciously.

“Yeah,” Chloe growled beside me, glaring at Brandon in a way that was the epitome of menacing. “How did you know that?”

Brandon shrugged half-heartedly, looking decidedly less confident. “Ian called me last night?” He made it a question, which didn’t help matters any.

Chloe jumped forward, thankfully releasing my hand before she did, and smacked Brandon’s bare shoulder, making him wince, though I know she didn’t actually hurt him. “You knew last night and you didn’t tell me?” she yelled. “How could you?!”

Brandon back-pedaled quickly. “Okay, so I didn’t know that they were engaged, technically, I just knew he was going to propose, and, come on, we all know there’s no way in hell she’d have said no. He would have tied her up and drug her to the altar regardless, he’s so far gone in love!”

I smiled at his words, glancing back down at my hand to marvel at my ring. “He is, isn’t he?” I mused. “And of course I said yes!”

Chloe looked back at me and her face softened. “I’m so happy for you, Lee.” She turned back to Brandon, scowling once more as she said, “It’s you I’m not so happy with.”

But, naturally, Brandon just shot her a wink, a shit-eating grin, and grabbed her up in his arms before planting a big, smacking kiss on her lips, and everything was right in the world again.

Evidenced clearly by the fact that, as soon as Brandon let her go, Chloe swung back to me, face lit with glee and said, “Hey! Let’s have a double wedding!”

***

It had taken some doing, but I’d finally extracted myself from Chloe’s clutches and non-stop wedding plans that had suddenly doubled. I’d convinced her that she deserved to have her own special day separate from mine, and therefore, she reluctantly agreed to ditch the double wedding idea, but she was adamant that we start planning mine ASAP. Now that, I didn’t mind.

Before I left their house, Brandon had stopped me, leaning close to say, “You know, I’m really happy for you guys. I knew Ian before you guys met, but I’ve gotten to know him a lot better since he literally swept you off your feet. He’s a good guy, treats you good. You deserve that. I’m really happy for you, little sister,” he’d said fondly, wrapping me in his arms in a tight hug. “I thank whoever’s listening every day for bringing your sister and Allie into our shop, because it gave me and Luke the family that we’d never really had.” He’d paused, then whispered, “Love you, Leah.”

I’d hugged him even tighter and whispered back, “Love you, too, Brandon,” and couldn’t help the tears that had gathered in my eyes. But then I was laughing when I’d looked up to see Chloe standing there with her hands clasped to her heart, tears pouring down her face, and she’d said, “Damn you, bitches, for making me cry!”

After leaving there, I made my way over to my parents’ house to continue making my rounds, since I’d made a lot of calls last night to let my family know that Ian had proposed, and every single person was overjoyed at the news, but I had to promise that I’d visit all of them today so they could get the deets and see the ring.

Although, I’d been the one surprised when I called my parents to find them absolutely
un
surprised—but that was only because Ian had actually gone to see them and asked permission to marry me. I’d also found out that (again, surprisingly from my parents) that Ian had called Brandon to tell him what he was doing and to ask him to be his best man. Brandon (and Ian, for that matter) had left out that little detail, too, so I could only laugh as I imagined Chloe slapping Brandon for keeping that from her, as well.

The visit to my parents’ place was pretty quick, mainly because Ian had already showed my mom the ring, and she’d previously oohed and ahhed over it—but that doesn’t mean she didn’t fuss appropriately over me—cause she totally did. Dad smiled as he grunted, so I took that to mean he was happy. I love my parents…

My brother, Calland, was next on the list, mainly because I had to pass his place on the way to Jenna’s. He was his usual self, especially since the first words out of his mouth were, “He knock you up?” He’s an ass, but he did redeem himself by showing his very seldom seen softer side and giving me a hug before he told me that he was very happy for me.

Jenna reacted much the same way Chloe did, but on a quieter scale because she’d just gotten the baby down for a nap. Noah hugged me, and the kids smiled, but weddings, to them, are no big deal.

Emma reacted much the same way as Chloe, but it was twice as bad coming from her because it wasn’t just Emma there. Allie had made sure that she was waiting for me, too, since Emma had called and told her I was coming. I got double-timed, both of them jumping around me, hugging me, and screeching non-stop until Jackson and Luke had to make them quit because they startled the little ones.

All of the guys had given me big hugs and their own little speeches like Brandon had done, making me tear up once more, I finally headed back home to Ian, who’d still been sleeping when I left. He knew where I was, though, because he’d called me when he woke up, chuckling in my ear when I told him what I was doing.

He was standing in the doorway when I pulled in, smiling at me. I closed the garage door behind me and walked directly into his arms, my hands sliding up his chest to lock around the back of his neck, pulling his head down to me.

I met his lips with mine in a lingering, searching kiss, moaning against his mouth as he moved his hands down to my hips, lifting me so that I straddled his waist. We held the kiss for a long moment before I broke it, dropping my legs down with one last peck. He set me down gently on my feet, moving back into the house so I could follow.

“Well? Did you go show off your bling-bling?” he asked, smirking.

“First off, never use that word again…” I started, shaking my head and my finger at him. “And second, of course I did!”

I tossed my keys down on the counter with my purse and my phone and then turned back to him. “So. What are we gonna do today?” I asked, sweetly.

“It’s Sunday, we have nowhere else to be today, right?” he asked.

“Nope,” I replied, popping the ‘p’ exaggeratedly and grinning.

“Then what the fuck you standing around here for?” he growled, stepping toward me, his intent gleaming in his eyes.

“Run, Leah,” he murmured, inching toward me once more.

“Why?” I asked smartly. “You gonna chase me?” I shot him a heated look, my tongue darting out to lick my lips, curling up into a sassy grin when he tracked every movement, his eyes darkening.

Right then, I knew exactly what my day was going to consist of…

So I ran.

And sweet God in heaven did he catch me...again and again and again.