Million Dollar Baby

23. The Bubble Is Popped

BPOV

I stood there at my window looking down at Justin. He was half-naked, no shirt, no shoes...just a pair of soaked jeans that were plastered to his scrumptious form. His hair was plastered to his forehead, his long lashes batting raindrops away...his tongue darting out to capture one of the perfect beads that hung from his bottom lip precariously. And he was looking up at me like I was the second coming, even though I knew I looked like death warmed over.

"Marry me."

His words drifted up to me, cutting through the unforgiving wind that threatened to pummel him until he was left beaten and battered.

My heart leapt from its cage as if someone had used the defibrillation paddles on me. My knees went weak as the floor beneath my feet seemed to fall away. My grip tightened on the windowsill as I tried to keep my balance.

Tried and failed.

I teetered forward, nearly falling from the opened window, but caught myself on the branch before me just in time.

"Bella!" Justin called up to me, fear evident in his hoarse voice.

I had to get to him, jump into his arms and wrap myself around him. Taking the stairs would've taken too long, and hell, it was just too damned traditional for us. Since I was already hanging half-way inside my room, half-way onto the branch before me...I figured, fuck it; if he could weather the storm to get to me, then I could do the same. He was worth it.

I crawled out onto the limb, icy raindrops pricking my bare skin and soaking through Justin's white shirt that I had stolen away with me.

"Get back in that fucking window, Bella, before you break your goddamn neck!" Justin ordered, but since when did I ever listen to him?

I'd made it off one branch and down to another, with just one more to go before I could jump down to him. And that's when the super-klutz in me decided to wake up. Yeah, there I was trying to make some sort of grand gesture, and that psycho bitch decided to rear her ugly, deformed head.

"Oh, shit!" I called out just as I lost my footing and fell face-forward.

I closed my eyes to block out the image of my face smacking into the ground, envisioning that little blue bird squished like an M&M the entire time. Imagine my surprise when my body met a wall of flesh instead. Justin had broken my fall with his body, but the impact sent us both tumbling onto the ground.

A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance as I propped myself up and looked down at him, still amazed that he was there in the first place. No words passed between us as we lay there in the mud, just looking at each other. His gaze was intent on mine as I searched his eyes to see if I could find an ounce of regret from his unexpected proposal.

I saw none.

What I did see was a longing that matched mine, a certainty that dispelled any doubt, truth that mirrored my own. I loved that man, and he loved me...and it was just fucking right.

The muscles in his jaw tensed as he reached up and cupped my face in his hands. Then he exhaled a breath slowly, and swept a wet lock of hair from my forehead. "I don't ever want to be away from you again. I just...can't do it," he said, his voice broken, shaken.

I felt the same way, but the words were lodged in my throat, engulfed by a myriad of fathomless emotions. So, since my verbal communication was shit for working, I did my best to convey my feelings through other means.

I claimed his mouth with my own in a passionate kiss, my tongue pushing through his parted lips to taste him. And, Jesus, but he was delectable. I was lost to him. Everything else in the world ceased to exist; the unrelenting storm, the fact that it was three o'clock in the morning and the neighborhood dogs were sounding off like car alarms. All of it...just ceased to exist.