The Bonus

My eyes fill with tears. He’s good all right.

“Well.” I go up onto my toes to kiss his big lips. “You win.”

“I win?”

“That is the most romantic thing that has ever been said to me.”

“Yet.” He smirks down at me.

“You did tell me you were bringing your A game.”

“Let’s see how I went.” He takes me by the hand and leads me down to the jetty, the picnic blanket has padding under it and there are scattered cushions all around and a giant cane wicker picnic basket. He helps me sit down and kicks off his shoes and sits down beside me, he gets his phone out and scrolls through something. “I made you a playlist.”

“Huh?”

He holds his phone out and shows me the Spotify screen.

A-Game Date Songs for Gracie

I burst out laughing. “Are you serious?”

His eyebrows flick up. “You asked for the cheese, and I am delivering.” He presses play.

“You Were Always on My Mind” from Willie Nelson comes on. “This is track one,” he tells me as he takes two crystal glasses from the picnic basket and fills them with champagne.

“You have a track list?”

“Yes, I’ve ramped them up to the finale.” He passes me my glass and clinks it with his.

“There’s a finale?” I ask.

His eyes twinkle with a certain something as he sips his champagne. “Grand finale.”

Oh my lord…the grand finale is sex. Earth-shattering, bed-breaking sex.

That’s it, I’m done. Let’s skip to the grand finale now, because I’m about to orgasm on the spot.

He digs back into the picnic basket and produces a silver tray of chocolate-covered strawberries, and I laugh out loud. “What else do you have in that basket?”

“All kinds of random shit.” He holds the tray out to me. “Chocolate strawberry, my love?”

“Did you make these?” I tease.

“Yes.” He tips his head back and gulps his wine.

“Are you lying?”

“No comment.”

Oh…I love this man.

“Can we skip straight to the grand finale right now?”

“No.” He digs around in his basket and pulls out a package wrapped in brown paper with a big red ribbon bow. “I made you a present.”

What?

“A present?”

“Open it.” He passes it to me.

I lean in and kiss him; I hold his face in my hands because what the hell…this is the all-time of dates. I smile against his lips, lingering for a long time.

I don’t want this night to ever be over.

“Open it,” he repeats.

I untie the ribbon and slowly begin to peel back the paper.

“Just rip it,” he tells me.

“No, I’m saving the paper.”

“It’s brown paper.” He frowns. “Why would you want to save brown paper?”

“Did you make the paper?”

“Yes,” he lies without hesitation. “I’ll make you some more. Rip it.”

I pull back the paper to reveal a square hardcover book, it’s gold fabric and the title reads:

Y O U

H U N G

T H E

M O O N

Hmm, weird, never took him as the type to buy me a book…but okay. I turn the page.

For Gracie

“Wait…what?” Oh, it’s one of those name books, how cool.

I turn another page.

I want to hear your heartbeat from the inside.

I want to show you mine

“Oh.” I think for a moment. “Wait, I’ve heard that before?” I turn the page.

You loved me at my worst.

Now let me love you at my best.

I’m so confused, what is this book? I turn another page and there’s a picture of an ultrasound on the page printed into the book. Huh?

I concentrate to see that it’s of a baby in the womb, oh wait…there are two babies.

I read the text on the other page.

The Lord knew that I would miss him so much that one baby couldn’t fill the hole that he left

So he gave me two.

My eyes rise to meet his. “Did you make this book?”

He nods.

Oh…

His silhouette blurs.

It’s not possible to miss someone this much.

It was…because I did

Realization sets in, I wrote these notes when I thought I would never see him again. “You found my box?”

“Yes.”

“You read my letters?”

“Every last one.”

I screw up my face in tears. “You made them into a…book?” My voice cracks with emotion, and I turn the page, I can hardly see the words.

From the moment I met her, I knew she was the one.

My heart ached for what I couldn’t have.

So I loved her from afar

Oh…

He leans in and kisses me, his lips lingering over mine. “I love you, Gracie,” he whispers. “I have always loved you.”

“I love you.” I smile against his lips. “Oh…man. You’re good.”

He chuckles. “How am I doing? Is this A game enough?”

“This is breaking the scoreboard.”

He laughs and holds up a finger. “Ahh…but there’s more.”

“More?” I smile as I wipe my tears.

He texts something on his phone. “Unfortunately, I can’t fit this part of our date into the magic picnic basket.”

The back door of my house opens and a trail of people in white chefs’ uniforms walk out carrying things.

Oh crap…was my house clean?

“What in the world?”

Two men put down a small round table and two chairs on the jetty, another man sets it with a white tablecloth and lights a candelabra in the center.

Then a stream of people carry out plates of food.

“What is this?” I gasp.

“Well…” He shrugs. “I couldn’t take you to your favorite Italian restaurant in New York…so I ordered in.”

“This is Becco?” My eyes widen. “You flew in Becco?”

His eyes glow with tenderness. “I wanted you to have your favorite food.”

I choke up again. “Honestly, you could feed me stale bread tonight and it would be fabulous.”

I see a trace of a smile cross the waiter’s face as he puts the meal down in front of me. “Your entrée,” he says, he takes the champagne and refills our glasses.

“Thank you.” I smile.

“You may leave us,” Gabriel says softly.

The waiter nods and disappears back into my house.

Gabriel listens to the song that is now playing. “Ah, yes, track seven,” he says. “We are right on schedule, Gracie.”

The Ed Sheeran song, “I See Fire”.

I imagine Gabriel picking the songs and making an agenda to go with it, and I smile as I listen. “This date is actually stupid.”

“I was hoping for a bit better than stupid.” He throws his head back and laughs out loud, and it’s deep and velvety, it makes my stomach dance with butterflies.

“How did you even think of all this?”

“It’s you.” He sips his champagne.

“Me?”

“You magnify everything.”

“What do you mean?” I frown.

“The way you make me feel, the good, the bad and the…” He shrugs. “You make me want to be better than I am. More romantic than I am.” He tips his head as if searching for the right wording. “Just more.”

I smile softly over at him…oh, how I love this man.

It’s like every dream I had for the two of us has come to fruition. He’s not the monster he is to the world, there’s this deep, loving soul inside of him. I never imagined it all those years before, he felt it too.

I feel validated, I feel heard and seen…cherished.

Loved.

My eyes well with tears, overcome with emotion.

“Eat your dinner, crybaby.” He smirks as he reaches over and begins to cut up my food. “We are three songs behind schedule.”

I giggle as I wipe my eyes. “Sorry, boss.”

Three hours later.

We’ve talked and laughed; we’ve eaten and drunk champagne. We’ve lain on the rug and stared up at the moon and gazed at the stars as they twinkled their magic down on us.

“It’s been the perfect night.” I smile over to my handsome date.

“We should dance.” He stands and holds his hand out for me.

I take my time getting up.

“We are on a tight schedule, hurry up.”

I giggle and stand. “This schedule of yours.” He takes me into his arms and the song “Turning Page”, by Sleeping At Last comes on.

“Oh, this song,” I whisper up at him. “This is…so dreamy…”

Like the perfect scene from the perfect movie, we dance under the moon by the lake.

I’m over here falling in love with him all over again…even more if that’s physically possible.

“Gracie,” he whispers.

“Yes.” I smile up at him.

“It would be a privilege to call you mine…forever.”

My heart stops as my eyes search his.

“Marry me.” He kisses me softly and my feet float from the floor. “I know it’s soon, but I cannot wait one day longer for us to be one.”

The emotion between us is strong and so perfect.

“What do you say?” he murmurs into my ear.

“Yes.” I smile through tears as I throw my arms around his neck. “Oh my god, yes.”

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ring, a diamond solitaire…

It’s huge.

My eyes widen. “What in the…”

He picks up my hand that’s still in plaster and chuckles.

“Oh no. What?” I frown.

“The ring is not going to fit, sweetheart, your hand is still too swollen.”

“Oh my god, jam it on there.” I snatch the ring off him and try to squash it on, it only goes to the top knuckle.

Fucking go on.

“Wear it on your other hand until the swelling goes down.”

I roll my eyes, only I could break my wrist so bad that my engagement ring won’t go on…what are the chances?

He slides it onto my right hand and then kisses my fingertips.

“Can we go to bed now for the finale?” I giggle up at him.

“That was the finale.” He smiles. “That’s as romantic as I can do for tonight.”

“It is?”

“Now I need to fuck you like I really, really, really hate you.” He grabs my face and kisses me aggressively, and I laugh into him.

About time…

Romantic Gabriel is perfect…but dirty Mr. Ferrara is a god.

With our lips locked, he walks me into my bedroom backward, my dress is over my head, my bra is thrown to the side and he throws me back onto the bed.

“Open those pretty legs, you’re about to get it,” he says as he rips his T-shirt off over his head. His broad chest comes into view, his rippled abdomen, and his bronze olive skin. His dark hair is hanging in curls over his forehead, and the way he is looking at me…

Never have I seen a more beautiful man.

He unzips his jeans and slides them and his boxers down his legs and kicks them off.

My eyes drop down his body, his cock is hard and engorged with thick veins coursing down the length of it.

Good god.

I open my legs, drunk on his testosterone.

He goes to the bathroom and returns with a bottle of lube. “What are you doing?”

He puts it on his fingers and smears it through the lips of my sex. “The only thing touching you tonight is my cock.”

Fuck.

Arousal screams through my body as he climbs over me. I put my hands on his thick quad muscles as they cradle inside my open legs. His teeth graze my skin and his hot breath sends shivers up my spine.

Holding himself up on his elbow, he slides the tip of his engorged cock through the lips of my sex, rubbing the lube into me as he stares down at me. I know why he wants it like this, where he’s hardly touched me.

He wants me to struggle to take him.

Not a chance…I’m going to eat him alive.

He pushes forward, and I feel the burn of the stretch, I whimper and he takes my lips in his. The kiss as aggressive as the claim he’s taking down below.

“Open those fucking legs,” he growls.

I can hardly breathe. I open a little farther and he surges forward. In to the hilt.

My body ripples around him as it struggles with his size.

And then he kisses me, soft and with tenderness. “I love you,” he murmurs as his eyes search mine. “I’ve waited so long for this night.”

Tears escape and run into my ears. “And I love you.”

He surges forward and I whimper, but it falls on deaf ears because he lifts my legs up over his shoulders and slams in deep.

I feel him sink into my bones as he takes his claim on my body.

No longer mine…but his.

Arousal so deep and primal that I can taste it.

He begins to ride me, deep, punishing pumps where the bed hits the wall and my toes curl…I can’t hold it.

He’s too much, too…inside every inch of me.

I cry out as I come hard, shuddering and shaking as I moan out of control.

His pumps get harder, quicker, he’s no longer in control, the need to finish and come inside of me has taken him over.

He tips his head back and moans as he comes deep inside my body. We pant as we hold each other…and I am ruined forever.

But I’m not ruined, I’ve been saved.

My dream came true.

The morning sun peeks through the curtains, and I sneak out of bed and make my way downstairs in desperate need of a coffee. I walk into my kitchen and there’s a huge bunch of red roses in a vase.

What in the world? Wasn’t last night enough?

“My god.” I open the card.

For the love of my life

For all of my life.

Gabriel.

I read it and smile as my heart literally flutters in my chest.

Could he be any more romantic?

“Mr. Ferrara, you are nothing like I imagined, but everything I had hoped for,” I whisper dreamily to myself.

“Really?” Big hands snake around me from behind, and I feel him smile into my neck as he kisses me. “You are everything I imagined and even more than I dared to wish for.” He turns me to face him and he looks down at me all serious. “I didn’t give you your engagement bonus yet, Miss Porter.”

I smile as he takes me back to where it all began.

I love this man.

“I thought you only gave bonuses in the office, sir.”

He lifts and sits me on the kitchen table and pushes me back across it. “For you, I’ll make an exception.”