The Proposal Ch. 02

She crawls into his waiting arms and kisses him lightly on the lips. "That was a good one," she teases. "We're going to have to do that again."

"Woman!" he says in mock sternness. "You are insatiable. Give an old man a break." Despite his words, his lingering kiss offers much promise for later. He kicks and drags with the foot she isn't lying on until he works the sheet to within reach. Pulling the sheet up, he smooths it, covering them to preventing her from getting cold.

"Mmmm," she murmurs, snuggling in even closer and placing her head on his chest so she can listen to the heavy, but slowing, thudding of his heart. She lies there, still and quiet, basking in the afterglow of their lovemaking until she drifts off to sleep.

His eyes closed, he listens to her breathing slowing and deepening as she falls into slumber, himself becoming drowsy as he relaxes. Giselle's peaceful breathing lulls him, and in that moment between sleeping and waking, when the world seems so clear, he wonders why he cares if Todd experiences them making love on the beach. Todd's experience would only be a simulation of the real thing, the woman he shares his bed with every night. Let him have Charlie, for hot as she is—and he allows himself to admit she is damn hot indeed—she is still a mere shadow of Giselle.

"I love you, Giselle," he says quietly before joining his wife, his soulmate, in the darkness of sleep.