His Absolute Proposal: An Illicit Billionaire Love Story (Elise, #3) (24 page)

"You have the hard drive now," Lucent said, kissing my cheek softly, then moving, kissing, closer... the corner of my lips, then my lips directly.  "I don't want to keep secrets from you, Miss Tanner."

"I know," I said, kissing him back.  We lay like that, lounging beneath the lake and the moon and the stars.  The shadows of the fish, mixed with starlight and moonlight, flickered and shimmered above us, dimmed darkness and opalescence, somehow quickly ephemeral but infinitely forever at the same time.

"I love you," Lucent said.  "I promise you, I would do anything for you.  I swear it."

I smiled and cupped his cheeks in my hands.  "I know," I said.  "I would do anything for you, too.  I promise.  I don't want to force you to tell me your secrets, though.  I don't want you to do it because you feel guilty.  I want you to do it because you want to, even if it's difficult and hard and maybe sometimes it seems impossible.  I love you, too."

"How about," he said, pausing to give me a soft kiss, "once we arrive in Aruba we can look at the contents of the hard drive together.  As little or as much as you like.  I'll explain whatever you want.  Unfortunately there's a lot of dreary contractual agreements and business documents, but there's a story behind each and every one of them."

"A secret story," I added.  "Like the hidden tunnels beneath the Landseer mansion."

"Yes."  Lucent came closer to me, cuddling and squeezing me tight.  "That's true.  There is that.  Some may not be as intriguing as others.  There's a story behind everything, though."

"I like your stories," I said.  "I like knowing more about you.  I like learning about how you think.  I think that's fun.  I think it's fun to think about, too."

"I feel the same way about you, Elise," Lucent said.  "You're so different from anyone I've ever met before.  I wish I'd met you sooner.  I wish I had the courage to..."

"Shh," I said, smiling and covering his lips with my fingers.  "I know that story, too, but I want you to tell it to me again sometime."

"It's quite a strange story," he said, kissing the tip of my fingers.

"Maybe we can write it into a book?" I said.  "I'm writing a book about when we were in the library, so maybe we could make that into a book, too?"

"Perhaps, but then everyone will think I'm insane, obsessive, overly impulsive, potentially a stalker, rude, creepy, and an atrocious human being."

"No," I said.  "We'll use a thesaurus.  We'll use different words.  You're mad, but with love.  Passionate.  Demanding, yes, but only because you know exactly what you want.  You're kind and considerate and watchful.  And, yes, perhaps you're a little different, and some might call you strange, but you're generous and careful and thoughtful first and foremost."

"That's quite a thesaurus you have there," Lucent said.

"Yes," I said, grinning at him.  "But now I need a synonym for 'I love you.'"

"Hm..."  Lucent smiled at me, contemplative.  "I think I know a good one."

"Oh?"

"Yes," he said.  Clearing his throat, he added... he added... he...

I choked back a sound of surprise, because... um... uh...

"What did you say?" I asked.

"I haven't prepared for this," Lucent said.  "I apologize for that, but I'm not sorry for anything else.  I haven't prepared and generally I would have preferred doing this with more detailed planning, but I don't care anymore, Miss Tanner."

"I... Lucent.  I..."

"Elise, I love you," he said.  "I want to be with you forever.  I feel like I should have asked you months ago, but I was afraid it might seem like it was too soon.  I didn't want to frighten you.  I was scared of scaring you away.  I'm always scared.  I don't want to lose you."

He stared at me and repeated what he'd said before, what had me choked up in surprise.

"Will you marry me?" he asked.

What could I say?  What should I say?  What would anyone say?

Except it wasn't about that.  It wasn't about saying anything.  No thoughts.  No answers to questions.  His words didn't even seem like a question to me, to be honest.  They were a fact, an odd formality.  Because there wasn't any answer I could give him that could truly state how important he was to me.

"Yes," was all I could say to answer his question, and yet "Yes" didn't seem like it would ever be enough.

"Yes, I will," I said, whispering.  "Lucent, yes.  Yes, of course.  I love you.  I love you so much."

He grinned and kissed me softly.  I thought we should do more.  Do more kissing?  Yes, perhaps that, but more
more
, too.  I didn't know exactly what, just... more.  But we did.  We did it.  We were doing it.  It seemed like we were.  We cuddled close and I rested my head on his chest.  We stared up at the moon and the stars and the fish and the lake.  The glassy reflections of life and space shimmered and shined above us, perfect and surreal.

We sipped at our wine.  We kissed.  Sweet vanilla and wild orchids laced our breath, remnants from the icewine in our chilled glasses.  I nuzzled my cheek against his, feeling the slight scruff from his unshaven face.  Not too much, just a couple of days worth of growth, but it tickled and pricked at my skin.  I laughed and giggled and squirmed in his arms, and Lucent held me tight and close and set me free.

But I came back.  I always came back.  I didn't want to leave him.  I would never leave him.

Secrets.  Ours.  This was our secret now, wasn't it?  No one else knew.

Will you marry me?

Yes.

I didn't want that to be a secret for long, though.  I wanted to tell everyone.  I wanted to tell the world.

We lay in each other's arms, glancing up at the night sky beneath the lake, cuddling and huddled close.  I opened my mouth to yawn, and as soon as I closed it Lucent kissed me quick.  I smiled and kissed him back.  Our eyes closed; either separately or both pairs at the same time, it didn't matter.

"I love you," I murmured, before a deep feeling of rest overcame me.  My words were a whisper, partially a dream, but even still they were the most real words I'd ever said.

"I love you, too," Lucent mumbled back.  I felt his heartbeat in his chest and his soft, steady breathing.

We fell asleep in each other's arms beneath the stars, in a room hidden under a lake, secluded and special.

The most special part of it all was that we fell asleep together.  I wanted us to fall asleep like this every day afterwards for the entire rest of our lives.

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~*~

A
little more than halfway through!

To be honest, this story kind of got away from me in a lot of ways, but I'm happy with how it's gone so far. I originally intended for it to be quite a bit shorter and finished a lot earlier, but sometimes these things sort of get away from me and take on a life of their own.

Basically, if I went with the lengths that I was originally aiming for, there'd only be about two and a half books total, sort of. I was planning for about five, but much shorter than they actually turned out. The same with the Jessika's Love Story series, too.

Honestly, I'm glad this happened, though. It's taken longer to have everything finished, but I'm a lot more excited for the story and it's given me time to consider some things that I hadn't really thought about at first. It's also given me some ideas for future stories I'd like to do that are kind of similar to this.

For those wondering, everything is going well, though. I know it can kind of be frustrating having to wait for more books sometimes, so if you're reading this and waiting for the fourth book, I'm sorry! It will be out soon, I promise! If the fourth book just so happens to be out already, well...

Go check it out, haha. A lot of crazy and exciting stuff is going to happen in that one, and I think you'll enjoy it a lot.

These are my favorite sorts of stories, too. I like things that are fun to imagine, even if maybe they're a little different and crazy sometimes. I enjoy the idea of "What if?" and I hope you're enjoying it, too. We've come this far together, so I definitely don't want to disappoint you now, you know?

Anyways, there'll be more of Elise and Lucent soon, and it's going to be pretty fast-paced and action-packed. A slow burn and build up is good sometimes, but eventually you just have to go all out and see what happens, right? I think this will be like that, and I think you'll really like it.

Thank you for reading His Absolute Proposal, too! If you enjoyed it, I hope you'll consider leaving a review for the book! It means a lot to me, and it helps out a ton, too. I try to read all of my reviews to see what you liked about the books so I can try and write more of that in future books. It's fun to see what everyone thinks sometimes, too. We can all have such different ideas and opinions, which is great and I think that's really interesting and exciting, as well.

Thanks again for reading, and keep an eye out for more soon!

P
lease enjoy this sample from His Absolute Escape, the sequel to this story and the fourth book in the
Elise's Love Story
series by Cerys du Lys

~*~

H
ave you ever stopped and thought that everything in your life was perfect?  Maybe not exactly perfect, but that it was going well, especially after a lot of difficult times before then, and when you suddenly stopped to think about it, you realized just how well it was going?  And then at that exact moment of realization, when you knew for a fact that things had been difficult, but now they've been going well for awhile, that's when it happens.

That—that precise and exact moment—is when your life is thrown into chaos again.

That was sort of what happened to Lucent and I, except I wasn't even awake at the time.  I was sleeping, dreaming of something, happy and comfortable, laying on an overlarge couch, with Lucent's arms wrapped around me, the both of us slumbering beneath a thick glass ceiling in a room hidden beneath a lake.  The stars and the moon twinkled and shined above us, vague and ephemeral through the glass and the water.  Everything
seemed
perfect, and if I were awake to realize it, that's exactly what I would have said.

Unfortunately I would have been wrong.  Very, very wrong...

I
awake to a start and a screech, someone screaming at us from somewhere.  The voice was electronic and harsh, like the sound of someone speaking through an old telephone system, a slight crackle of electricity mixing with the frantic sounds of someone shouting, someone telling us to wake up, someone...

Lucent's mother.  And his father.  Mostly her, but a mix of him, too.  Quick, sharp and jagged, hushed but magnified by the intercom system.  I hadn't seen it before, but it must exist, because they were speaking to us through it now, and...

"Lucent, Elise," Angela said.  "There's something wrong.  We don't know what's going on.  There's police cars outside, though.  They're flashing their lights, surrounding the house.  I'm not sure why.  It's a little past midnight and your father's going to go to the door in a second, Lucent.  Just... this doesn't look good.  Oh, no, not good at all.  I don't know what to do.  John, what do we do?"

"We go to the door," Lucent's father said.  "And while we do that, they both get the fuck out of here.  I'm not letting them in without a warrant, but I don't know why they'd have five squad cars in our driveway if they didn't have one."

I clung to Lucent, gripping his shirt tight in my fingers.  We were both sitting straight up now, staring towards the wall where the intercom voices were coming from.  Lucent seemed altogether far more calm than I thought he ought to be, but what did I know?  Maybe he dealt with this all the time?  Maybe he...

A loud thud of a knock sounded through through the intercom, and we could hear the real knock coming down the secret hallway leading towards this hidden room beneath the lake, too.  It sounded muffled through the hallway, which I thought made some sense.  Maybe we were safe in here?  With the door closed, we could hide, right?  We could keep safe, we could...

"We need to leave," Lucent said, speaking quickly.

He slid away from me and slipped off the side of the couch, moving to stand.  I followed him, but with much less poise and sophistication.  My knees trembled and I couldn't stop my body from shaking.  I had to clamp my jaw shut to keep my teeth from chattering.  This was... this was... oh God, what were we going to do?

I asked.  I asked him that exact question.  "Lucent, what do we do?"

"We leave," he said, as if this made any sense.

"Where?  How are we going to get out without someone seeing us?  Can't we stay hidden in here until they leave and then we can—"

He cut me off with a shake of his head.  "No.  Unlikely.  If they went through all of this trouble, they may have brought a canine unit to track us.  Hopefully not, but it's a distinct possibility."

"Dogs?  I don't know how we're going to escape from dogs, Lucent."

Really?  I hadn't even considered it, but this was growing more and more serious with each passing second, wasn't it?  Except, it had been serious before.  I just... I hadn't thought about it.  I guess I'd never fully realized exactly what I was doing or what we were dealing with.  Yes, I understood it on a conceptual level, but the reality of our situaton and the idea of it were two entirely different and separate things.

Realistically, people didn't find themselves on the run from the police for serious crimes they didn't commit.  Realistically, people didn't suddenly learn that their boyfriend, husband, soulmate was dealing with illegalities, some of which included money laundering, bribery, human trafficking, and more.  Granted, the human trafficking part was um... I mean, they went back to their country after, so did that count?  Well, yes, because they'd come here illegally in the first place, and then what they did here was more illegal, still, so it definitely counted.