Teach me to trust

63. Own me

"Dessert menu?"

"Yes please"

I smile at the waiter before he carries away our empty plates, leaning back and finishing my glass of wine, smiling at Nate over the rim.

"Enjoy your food?" he asks, finishing his own glass and I nod at him, rubbing my almost full stomach and taking the dessert menu from the waiter when he brings it over and glancing quickly over the options.

"What do you say to sharing something?" I ask, looking up and realising Nate hasn't even picked his menu up, "Don't you want a dessert?" I ask and he smirks at me and leans back in his seat.

"I'm looking at my dessert. You decide what you want"

"You're incorrigible" I tell him, telling the waiter what I want and leaning across to fill Nate's glass, rolling my eyes when I see his eyes fall to the neckline of my dress, pupils dilating at the sight of my cleavage.

"You better eat this dessert fast cause as much as I love you in that dress, I want you out of it as soon as possible" he picks up his glass, "You can't blame me either. You started this earlier on the beach, I'm just ready to finish it"

I shake my head at him, sending him a look of false disapproval and try not to let on to him how much I actually enjoy his words.

I stand from the table and take my phone from my bag, opening my camera to take pictures of the scenery we're surrounded by, swearing to take as many pictures as I can on this holiday so I can look back.

I switch to video mode, taking a video of the beach around us, moving slowly to capture the sound of the waves and the music before turning to capture our table, but falter when I don't see Nate sat down, but instead see him knelt before me.

I lower my phone slowly, my breath catching in my throat at the nervous look on his face and the shine in his eyes as he looks up at me, before he takes a deep breath,

"Emily" he begins, "From the minute I laid my eyes on you, I knew you had a place in my heart. Even though we didn't actually speak to each other for months, I just knew you were going to own a part of me and now I know my instincts were right. You own my entire being, my heart and my soul belong to you, and I would never want it any other way"

He catches his breath and mine leaves me in a shaky huff,

"I don't know what I ever did in this life to deserve you, or to deserve a love like this but I spend every day being grateful for it. I spent those months before you knew me just waiting for you to be ready, and even after then I think I would've waited a lifetime. There is nobody else that I would rather be with, spend my time with, or spend my every waking moment thinking about and I want to do it for the rest of my life"

He clears his throat,

"So, what I really want to say to you now is, will you do me the incredible honour, of allowing me to love you for the rest our lives?"

I gasp for air as my eyes fill with tears, watching him open the box in his hands and the beautiful ring that sits in the box,

"Are you sure?" I gasp out, laughing through my tears when his eyebrows raise and his eyes open wide,

"Am I sure?" he laughs out, "What kind of question is that?"

I laugh again, nodding my head frantically and wiping my tears,

"Of course. Of course, I will, absolutely" he barks out a laugh and jumps to his feet, wrapping me in his arms and squeezing me tighter than I thought possible,

"I love you so much" he mumbles into my mouth before he kisses me, leaning me back and holding me up against him. I lace my arms around his neck and kiss him back with fervour, tasting him on my tongue and I know I will always remember exactly how he tasted in this moment.