Devoted (4 page)

I
got a chill when I thought about him having one last fight.
I
was glad it would be his last one, but it nearly killed me sometimes to think
about someone pounding him in his pretty face.
I
remembered what he looked like that night in the bathroom. The first night he
told
me
that he loved me.
I
made myself shake off those thoughts. Today was about fun and exciting new
jobs.

It was the middle of
the week so the lake wasn’t too crowded. We found a nice spot under a tree to
leave our stuff. Braxton had brought his silly little chair with the umbrella
and
I
did my best to refrain from making fun of him.
I
knew he had his biggest fight ever coming up and he
couldn’t have his energy “zapped.”
I
didn’t laugh at
him, but I definitely smiled a lot and he shook his head at me because he knew
what I was amused about.

Braxton started
stripping off his jeans and
I
was glad to see that he
really had worn his suit.

“Are you coming in?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right
there,”
I
told him.
I
pulled off
my T-shirt and shorts as I watched him run down to the water. Just looking at
him made
my
heart swell. It was still surreal to think
that he was
mine
. When
I
got
down to my suit and close to the edge of the water I told him, “Let me ease in,
okay? No splashing or dunking.”

“Sure,” he said with an
evil grin.
I
knew he was lying as I inched in…toe,
foot, calf…That was as far as he let me get, before I could react, he was on
top of me and dunking me under.
I
screamed and he
tickled and dunked me under again.

When
I
came up I said, “This isn’t fair you know.”

“What’s not fair about
it?” he asked.

“You’re a lot stronger
than me and you outweigh me by quite a bit.”

“It’s all muscle,” he
said.

“Of course it is,”
I
told him. “But I wasn’t finished.”

“Sorry, finish.”

“You use your
incredible strength and weight…all muscle of course…to toss me around like a
rag doll. It’s almost like being a bully.”

“So what do you
suggest?”

“Just to make it fair,
you need to go all ragdoll for a minute and let me torture you.”

He laughed. “So just be
submissive?”

“That’s the word I was
looking for,”
I
said with a grin. “Yes, Braxton, to
make it fair you should submit to me.”

I
thought he would protest, but instead he spread his arms and legs and lay back
on the water. Testing him,
I
picked up one hand. His
arm was loose like a noodle and when
I
let it go, it
fell down, splashing into the water.

With a lecherous grin
he said, “Dominate me.”

He had his eyes closed
and he looked tense.
I
think he expected me to dunk
him under, but I just wanted to see if he would trust me enough to “submit,”
and he did. So
I
leaned down and softly pressed my lips
to his. His arms quickly “un-noodled” and he reached up and pulled
me
down onto his chest.

We shared a long, hot
kiss and when we finally broke it Braxton said, “Wow, if I had known submission
was so much fun I would have done it a long time ago.”

“You should have read
Fifty Shades of Grey,”
I
told him.

“Wasn’t that about him
being the dominator? I could get into that,” he said, his grin broadening.

He started chasing
me
and dunked me. He then challenged me to a
race which
he cheated to win.

“I’m hungry,”
I
finally said. “Are you ready to eat?”

“I’m ready,” he said. On
the way out of the water he pulled
me
to him again and
we kissed. God he was sexy.
I
wasn’t an exhibitionist
at all, but I could seriously do him right there right then.

We went back under the
tree where our stuff was and
I
laid out the blanket I
had brought and Braxton helped me set up the food.
I
brought egg-salad sandwiches, chips, pickles, store-bought macaroni salad and
Capri Suns to drink since they fit nicely in the basket. We ate and Braxton
raved about the food
like
I had made him a steak and
lobster dinner. It was another thing
I
loved about
him, he was always so grateful for everything.
I
guess
when you grow up with not much it makes you appreciate things more.

Sitting back on his elbows
he looked around and said, “We’ve come a long way since the first time we were
here.”

I
laughed. “You’ve definitely come a long way and at least you have pants on.”

He laughed
sarcastically. “You know what I mean.”

I
did know and I agreed, “Yeah, you’re right, we’ve come a long way.”

“I wanted you so bad,
but you know what I never thought I’d admit?
I
didn’t
think I’d ever actually get you. All
I
was thinking
about then was sex too. I really had no illusions that you would ever want to
date me.”

I
leaned back next to him. “Why? What made you think you’d never get
me
? You can get any girl you want and you’re usually
arrogant enough to admit that.”

He brushed a piece of
hair out of
my
eyes and replied, “Because you’re
different and I recognized that right away. You’re not someone to
be played with
, you’re a keeper. At first, it was the
biggest reason
I
wanted you, just because I knew you
would be a challenge and I could say I cracked you. But you got under
my
skin, quick. No other girl has ever had the kind of
effect on me that you do.” It was refreshing that he was being so honest.
I
loved talking with him like this.

I
lay my head on his shoulder and admitted, “I feel the same way about you. When
I first met you, I had a lot of preconceived notions, just based on what you
looked like and your reputation.”

“I know about the
reputation, but tell me, what did you think I looked like?”

I
laughed. “You are so full of yourself,”
I
said,
jokingly. “I thought you were gorgeous, of the drop-dead gorgeous variety.”

“That was as true as
the reputation,” he said with a laugh.
I
pushed his
shoulder away playfully and he said, “Well, if we’re admitting things, I have
to admit that I had some preconceived notions about you too.”

“Like what?”
I
asked him.

“Like…you’re so
ridiculously gorgeous that I was totally convinced you were like one of those ‘mean
girls’ I went to school with. I didn’t think you would give a guy like me the
time of day because I could never make your social registry.”

“Social registry,”
I
said with a laugh. “You were right about one thing though,
I am kind of mean.”

“I agree…” he said.
I
snickered and hit him in the shoulder. He wrapped
me
up in his arms and kissed me, hard. God,
I
loved spending the day with him like this. He held
me
back and said, “I love you,
Emmi
.”

I
still wasn’t used to saying it, but I could feel it. ”I love you too, Braxton.”

We finished our lunch
and the cheesecake puffs
I
’d brought for dessert and
then I lay out on the blanket, moaning from being so full.

“I have news I’ve been
dying to tell you, but I kind of wanted to savor it a little bit too.”

“The way you savored
those cheesecake puffs?” he asked with a grin.
I
shot
him a scowl and he said, “So what is it you want to tell me?” He sat up
straight and gave
me
his full attention. Another thing
I
loved about him was that he could capture a moment
in his eyes and make it seem like there was nothing else in the world that
mattered.

“Well, I went into the
newspaper office yesterday to drop off my photos and Sarah was waiting to talk
to me.”

“Uh oh,” he said.

“That’s what I thought,
but it wasn’t an uh-oh at all. She was nice and she even apologized for her
behavior toward me lately.”

“Well, that’s good,” he
said. “I hated thinking she was treating you badly because of something I did
to her.”

“Yeah, it is good, and
I never blamed you. But it gets better. She’s going to graduate after fall
semester is over. She was tasked with appointing her replacement and she picked
me.”

“To
be the head editor of photography?”

“Yes!”
I
squealed again.
I
guess it was
just a squealing kind of announcement.

“
Emmi
,
that’s awesome! I mean it’s seriously an amazing post for a freshman to be the
head of any department.”

“I know!”
I
was truly content with my life for the first time in a
long time and happier than I had ever been.

CHAPTER
SIX

BRAXTON

Emmi
and
I
had a great time at the lake. The next day we
were both back to school and then
I
had another
session with Sam so I wasn’t going to see her much. I was
really
glad
we spent that time together.
I
missed her
almost every minute we were apart from each other.

I
was coming out of my advanced business class when I saw Zoe. That reminded
me
that I had one more thing I needed to do before I could
propose to
Emmi
.

“Hey,
Zoe!”

“Hey,
Braxton!
What’s up?” Zoe was with one of her
sorority sisters.

“Are you rushing to
another class or do you have a few minutes?”

“I’m finished for the
day, what’s up?”
I
glanced at her friend who gave me a
forced smile.

“Maybe we could go get
a coffee? I’d kind of like to talk to you in private for a few minutes.”

Zoe looked at her
friend. “Do you mind?”

“No,” her friend said.
“I have another class in ten minutes anyways. I’ll see you later at home.”

“Okay, thanks,
Clarissa.”

 
“So what’s going on?” Zoe asked
me
on the way to the Student Center. “Is
Emmi
okay?”

“
Emmi
is perfect,”
I
told her.

She raised an eyebrow
but refrained from asking any more questions until we got our coffees and sat
down. “So what’s going on?” she asked as soon as her butt hit the chair.

I
took a deep breath and said, “I’m planning on asking
Emmi
to marry me. I wanted to make sure you’re okay with that.”

She gave
me
a suspicious look and drew her brows together in the
middle and said, “And if I’m not okay with it?”

I
felt a tickle of apprehension building in my chest.
I
hadn’t thought this through…yet again. “Um, well, maybe you could tell me why
and I could try and fix or change whatever the problem is.”

She laughed and said,
“That was a really good answer.
Emmi
loves you and
for whatever reason, you make her happy, so I’m happy for her and for you
both.”

I
breathed a sigh of relief.
I
knew how convincing girls’
best friends could be. Then
I
really thought about
what she said. “You can’t see what she sees in me?”

She laughed and said,
“You would pick up on that part. What difference does it make, really?”

“It doesn’t,” I told
her, “but it would be nice to think my fiancée’s best friend thinks I’m good
enough for her.”

Zoe turned serious and
said, “Of course I think you’re good enough for her, or I would have told you
straight up that you’re not.
I
just like to give you a
hard time and you have such a fragile ego, you make it easy.
I
’m
super impressed with the way you turned your life around for
Emmi
.
I
think the fact that you
were willing to do that is proof in itself of how much you love her. I don’t
wish either of you anything but the best.”

“Thank you, Zoe.
I
’m glad. I was really worried that you wouldn’t approve.”