Leah Braemel - Private Property

She pulled back to look at him, her eyes wide, almost fearful, held her body still. “What?”

He took a deep breath and leapt into his future. “Will you marry me?”

Jodi stiffened in his arms. “M-marry? Marry you?” The words seemed forced, as if they’d stuck in her throat.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d wanted her to throw her arms about his neck and shout, “Yes, yes, yes! Of course, I’ll marry you.” Instead her hold on him loosened and blank shock filled her eyes. The bright light that he’d hoped would be his future turned out to be a heat-seeking missile racing toward him, its target his heart.

“I still want you to be vice president of Western Operations, whether you say no or not,” he said quickly, wondering if she thought her answer might be tied to the promotion. “Sam and I discussed it already. I just hoped… I want to…” He stumbled on, unable to stop himself from babbling, knowing he was sounding like an idiot. “I love you and want to marry you.”

She laughed, a half-hysterical sound he’d never heard from her before. Her head dropped onto his shoulder as her body rippled. Was she crying? Worse, she was laughing. No. Giggling!

“You…you…you want to m-m-marry me!” Her giggles reached an almost hysterical quality.

He’d bared his soul to her, asked her to marry him and she was giggling? His arms dropped as the missile hit its target and shredded his flesh, his soul. “I didn’t think it was so funny.”

“Oh, M-Mark,” she choked out from behind the fingers she’d pressed over her mouth. “I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at me.”

Sure didn’t feel that way.

“You see, tonight”-her giggles trailed off into a sigh-“tonight, when I was waiting for you in the van? I thought…I thought you were trying to brush me off, to dump me.”

He felt his jaw drop. Dump her? After all he’d gone through to arrange this evening? Would he ever understand how women thought?

“Why?” he finally managed to splutter.

“Because you’ve been so distant lately.” She held up her hand when he started to protest. “It was like you were trying to avoid me. I-I thought maybe you’d gotten tired of me. I thought maybe you thought it was time to move on.”

He scrubbed his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry-I’ve been busy arranging this evening with Sam, and hammering out the details of the merger. I never meant for you to feel like I was ignoring you.”

“I know.” She released a breath and her voice wavered. “No, I didn’t know. I just kept remembering that agreement we made that either of us could walk away at any time, no questions asked.”

He saw pain flicker through her eyes, realized she was remembering how she’d been treated by past lovers. Cursed himself for forgetting that beneath the tough exterior Jodi showed everyone else was a sensitive woman who needed reassurance that she could be herself without fear of rejection. He ran a finger along her jaw, marveling at how others didn’t realize her tough shell was just an act. “I’ve just been distracted. I’m sorry. If I wasn’t interested I would have told you straight out. I wouldn’t have just walked away.”

“I wasn’t sure what you’d do,” she said softly, not realizing how much it hurt him that she might think he could treat her so callously. “I figured you just might not know how to tell me. After all, we did agree that we wouldn’t…you know…”

“Fall in love?” He captured her hand with his, pressed a kiss to her palm. “Jodi, I’ve never felt like this”-he moved her hand to his chest, flattened her palm over his heart-“about any other woman. Ever. I love you. And I want to marry you. Will you marry me, Jodi?”

She looked up at him, her bright blue eyes filled with tears. “Yes. Oh, Mark, of course I’ll marry you.”

He released the breath he’d been holding and enfolded her within the circle of his arms, held tight, realized he was shaking with the fear that had engulfed him that she might say no.

When he nuzzled his nose against the side of her neck, he frowned. He could still smell a trace of cigar-of Sam-in her hair. He silently cursed himself again for letting another man touch her, while thanking Sam for forcing the issue, for forcing him to acknowledge how much he loved the woman in his arms. His grip loosened from about her and he stepped back.

“Come with me.” He held out his hand, waiting until she put her palm into his.

Neither spoke while they walked down the hall. Mark led her up the stairs and to the bathroom they’d used earlier. When she’d brought him there earlier, she’d not wanted to let Sam between them yet. He wondered if she realized he felt the same way now.

He reached into the shower and turned on the water. When he was satisfied with the temperature he turned back to her. He grasped the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head and discovered she wore no bra.

“So beautiful,” he murmured. He cupped her breasts with his palms, bent his head and licked, savored.

Jodi arched, pressing her breasts deeper into his mouth. Her hands rested lightly on his shoulders, her thumbs caressing the sides of his neck. “Thank you for giving me a birthday I’ll never forget.” She chuckled. “It’s not a story we can ever tell our children, but-”

“Children?” Mark breathed. His balls retracted in a painful clench. How had tonight gone from his planned night of debauchery to a discussion about marriage and kids? “You want kids?”

She jerked back, the smile dropping from her face. “Don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah, I want kids,” he quickly assured her while wondering if he did. His eyes dropped to her belly, imagined it swollen with his child. Imagined having a little boy he could play catch with. Maybe a little girl he could carry around on his shoulders. Yeah, he could do that. “Yeah, I want kids.”

Maybe that would stop his younger brother Josй’s ceaseless bragging about how he’d given their parents the first grandchild. Like the twerp had done it himself. His chest swelled as he pictured announcing to his brothers that he’d given their parents the first grandson-no, grandsons!-in the family. “Two. At least two.”

Her smile returned. And with it his world returned to an even keel, although spinning slightly faster than it had been before the evening had started.

“Let’s start with one and see how we do from there, okay?” Jodi wrapped her arms about his neck and pulled him close. “But it may take some practice first.”

“Practice. Yeah, practice is good.” He pressed her against the tile wall. “For instance, I need lots of practice kissing you.”

“Mmm.” She turned her head, captured his lips with hers. What seemed like an hour later, they both came up for air. “What else do we need to practice?”

She caught her breath when she saw the dark embers deep in his eyes flare into wildfire. Why had she thought he didn’t love her? It was there plain in his eyes. It was in his calloused fingers as he cupped her breasts, rolled her nipples between his fingers with a delicious pressure. In his voice, the trace of Spanish accent betraying the depth of his emotion as he spoke, “If we’re going to have children, you’re going to want to breastfeed them, right?”

She moaned as warm breath and warmer lips caressed her, teased her, tasted her. Cool air touched her bare skin when he pushed her jeans to the floor, his tongue never stopping its homage to her breasts. When he shifted, forcing her to arch her back, she dug her fingers into his shoulders and hung on. Hung on to the man she loved. Who loved her.

His clothes abandoned on the floor beside hers, Mark carried her into the shower, held her beneath the pulsing streams of water and began to wash her, his soapy hands lathering her shoulders, her breasts, her belly.