Courtney Cole - Before We Fall

“Why did your foundation choose this particular project, Dominic?” one of the reporters calls out.

Dominic smiles. Jake waves to the cameras off to the side and everyone laughs.

“We chose this project because there was a need. There are good kids here, and all they need is a chance. Sometimes, bad things happen, unfair things… and all we can do is handle it the best we can. Most of the time, with a little help, we come through it just fine. A smart person once told me, ‘Before we fall, we fly.’ We just wanted to help these kids fly.”

Everyone applauds, and I’m so proud of Dominic I could burst.

We head into the reception where we chat with the boys, eat, and drink punch. I’m utterly filled with happiness when we finally walk out to our car.

“Are you sure you don’t mind that we named the foundation after Emma?” Dom asks as we climb inside. I stare at him.

“You know me better than that. I think it was the only thing to do. She never had a chance to live her dream. We’ve got to give other kids the chance to live theirs.”

Dominic fires the engine up, then turns to me. “You know what I love? How you always say we . You never say I . Or you . It’s always we .”

I shrug. “That’s how I think. In my head, we’re a team. We’re always going to be we , Dom. Get used to it.”

He kisses me, long and thoroughly. When he pulls away, I’m breathless.

“I have a surprise for you,” he announces. “You’re going to love it. I hope.”

“Oh, I love surprises,” I tell him, even though he knows that already. “Don’t give me any hints. I want to be really surprised.”

I have to admit, I’m completely stumped as we drive toward the country, out of the city. But then we approach Palos Park, his childhood home.

“We’re going to Castle Kinkaide?” I ask in confusion. He smirks, but doesn’t answer.

When we pull up to his parents’ house, there’s a red, yellow, and black hot air balloon set up on their lawn. It’s huge and majestic as it billows against the sky.

“Your chariot, my lady,” Dom bows low.

I roll my eyes. “Lord. Is this what I’ve got to look forward to all during filming? I know you like to get into character, but you realize that you’re not really a knight, right?”

Dom’s been rehearsing for a sixteenth-century period movie, and it’s made life interesting, to say the least. I fully intend to see him in a suit of armor around the house soon.

He shakes his head. “Can you just go with it?”

I giggle. “Fine. Yes, my squire. I’d love a ride in your fine chariot.”

“Squire?” Dom’s the one rolling his eyes now. “Try sir . I’m a knight, Jace.”

But he takes my hand and helps me into the balloon, introducing me to the pilot. Within minutes, we’re floating up and above Palos Park, above Chicago. The city is amazing from up here, with the evening sun reflecting off all of the glass.

“It’s breathtaking.” I breathe, looking down. “Thank you, Dom. But what’s the occasion?”

Dominic turns to me, his dark gaze serious. It’s a gaze that causes butterflies to flutter in my chest.

“Jacey, before I met you, I thought all I deserved was the darkness in life. The dark corners, the taboo, the unspeakable. But you’ve given me a new start. A fresh life. A new outlook. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’ll be forever grateful that you saw potential in me. That you saw what no one else did. You looked past the asshole, past the actor, past the name. You saw me. I love you for that. I love you for always grounding me, always reminding me of what’s important. I love you for always being my breath of fresh air, the challenge to my question.”

He pauses and my heart pounds in my chest.

Is he…? Is this…?

And then Dominic bends down, on one knee.

It is.

OHMYGOD.

“My lady,” he begins, in an exaggerated English accent, the one he’s been working on for a week. “I have but one question to ask of you. One favor that I wish for you to bestow, if but only you desire.”

I stare at him, laughter in my eyes and the utmost of happiness in my heart.

“Yes, good knight. Anything you wish to ask.”

Dom looks at me, his eyes smoldering, and he drops the accent.

“Will you marry me? Yes or no?”

He holds out a ring, a gorgeous princess cut diamond, and I feel like swooning. It’s the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen, held by the sexiest man in the world.

I look up at him, losing myself in his dark, dark eyes.

“Yes.”

He breathes in sharply. “Yes? You’re sure you want me? You know all of my monsters, Jace. You want me anyway?”

I nod, choking up. “I want you because of your monsters,” I tell him. “They’ve made you who you are, and I can’t imagine loving you any more than I do. I’ll want you every day of my life. That’s a promise.”

Dominic smiles a gentle smile as he slips the ring onto my finger and pulls me into his side. He kisses me slowly and gently before he wraps his arm around my shoulders, and we watch the city passing beneath us.

As we watch it, I think of everything that’s happened… to both of us. We’re both messed up in our own ways, but we’re both overcoming it. It’s a process, but we’re doing it. Everything that’s happened has made us stronger, individually and together.

Looking up at Dominic, I brush my fingers along his cheek.

“Are you happy? Yes or no?”

Dominic looks down at me and I see a million promises in his eyes, a million forevers.

“Hell, yes.”

I smile.

That’s all I needed to hear.

Jacey

I race through the tropical flowers, through the plants, and over the twisted path that leads to our little rented cottage off of the most beautiful beach in Hawaii. It’s the perfect place for a honeymoon, a true garden of Eden.

“Are you coming?” I call over my shoulder to my husband.

My husband .

The words ring through my head, and even though they sound foreign, they don’t feel that way. Dominic and Jacey Kinkaide. Bound together forever. By love and by lust and by everything in between . That’s what Duncan announced earlier at our ceremony on the beach. He’d gotten his license to perform marriages specifically for this occasion.

Dominic catches up to me and scoops me into his arms.

“You thought you’d walk over the threshold yourself?” he asks impishly. “Not gonna happen.”

“But this isn’t our house,” I start to say. But then I drop it. If the man wants to carry me, he can carry me. He scoops me up into his arms and carries me to the bed, a four-poster-covered-in-filmy-gauze bed.

Sitting me down, he peels me out of my dress, kissing every inch of me as he does. When he’s done, by the time I stand in front of him naked, I’m dying for him.

“I need you,” I tell him simply. “Fill me up, Dominic. Make me yours.”

He smiles, the smile I love, the private one… the one just for me. “You’ve always been mine,” he whispers. “You just didn’t know it.”

He pushes me back onto the bed and kisses me again, his tongue so hot and wet and perfect against mine.

“And I’ve always been yours,” he adds. “ I just didn’t know it. But I know it now, and that’s the important thing.”

He straddles me, bending over me, owning me.

He knows just what to do to make my body sing, to crest me toward the precipice of orgasm as he slides his fingers in all the right places.

Emotion wells up in me, overwhelming and hot. Love, lust, and everything in between.