Eternal (11 page)

“It was perfect,” Cayden said.

Without any further conversation, Cayden pulled
me into the kitchen.

“Maybe I should do something with these,” I
suggested. Hand up, still dripping.

“Here, let me help you.” He took them from my
hand, opened up the lid of the trashcan, and threw my balled up wet panties as
though he were making a hook shot. Cayden smiled his crooked guilty smile.
“Perfect form. Did you see that shot?”

“Hey,” I protested. “Those were comfortable.” I
pouted.

“You don’t need them and no pouting.” He brushed
his fingertip over the surface of my bottom lip.

“I can’t run around without underwear, babe.”

“In my perfect world you can. In fact, I think I
should insist you never wear underwear again.” He grinned, toothy white.
“Except…I really like the satin and lace panty garter thing, so that can be the
exception to the no panties decree. Oh…yeah and maybe those hot pink boy
shorts.”

I giggled. I could not help myself.

He turned and looked at me quiet serious. “Now,
do you like Chinese food?” he asked.

I smiled at how this question came from nowhere.

“Yes.”

“Yes, you agree to my no panties decree, or yes,
you like Chinese food?”

“Yes, babe, I like Chinese food, and I’m still
not sold on the whole no panties thing.”

Cayden picked up the phone. With his free hand,
he reached out and gave my backside a playful little tap.

“You just like watching my ass jiggle,” I said.

“Shit, yeah,” he hooted, wrapping his knuckles
on the counter. Then he proceeded to order the most God-awful amount of food,
saying there would be an extra tip for Jim if the food was delivered in thirty
minutes.

“That was a lot of food,” I commented. Cayden
placed the phone back onto the receiver and winked at me.

“I told you I was famished. You, my love, seem
to work up my appetite.”

“I guess so.”

Cayden opened up the refrigerator, pulled out a two
liter of Coke, unscrewed the lid and drank it straight from the bottle. I eyed
him. He looked at me. “Want a drink?”

“Sure.”

He placed the bottle to my lips and tilted it so
I could take a sip.

“Very sexy,” he commented.

When I was done with my drink, he plucked the
bottle top from my lips and winked at me again. I laughed as he finished off
the rest of the Coke. He was full of himself.

“
Chandler
!”
Cayden called out, pulling me by the hand again.

“What?”
Chandler
said, irritated at the interruption to his game.

“I ordered from The Jade Palace. It will be here
in thirty minutes. Will you take care of it? I need to take a shower.”

“Sure,”
Chandler
yelled out over his shoulder but never broke his gaze from the TV.

Cayden looked at me quite serious. “We have
thirty minutes. Do you think we can be back down here that fast?”

I shrugged. “I guess so. I can be fast at taking
a shower when I need to.” Cayden smiled wickedly. “But if you really need me to
be quick than don’t distract me,” I interjected.

“Well,” he remarked casually. Cayden started
tugging me up the stairs then he gave up. He took me into his arms and flung me
over his right shoulder with ease as though I was a sack of potatoes.
“Extremely nice view.”

I laughed. He bounced me on his shoulder before I
felt his perfect lips on my backside pressing in through the material of his
shirt that cupped the edge of my bum. He carried me into his room then sat me
down feet first. I was still laughing from the silliness of it all.

With a serious face, Cayden instructed me,
“Don’t move.”

“Um…,” I muttered, confused.

From our earlier conversation, I expected a
continuation of a shower scene together, but it seemed there would be no such
scene. Cayden walked over to his dark gray suit coat. It lay strewn across his bed.
He palmed something small that he had taken from his front left pocket.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “I thought we
were going to take a shower?”

He turned around and looked at me for a long
moment from across the room. “Please, come here,” he said quietly.

“Okay.”

I walked over to him. I saw his right hand
firmly tucked behind his back. I observed him get down on one knee. I almost
froze as understanding began to creep in. He took a little blue box from behind
his back and opened the lid. He held the open box up toward me. There nestled
inside the satin was a large lucid shape diamond from Tiffany’s. The ring had
two offset triangular emerald stones on either side of the diamond and more
diamond stones imbedded within the band. It was shimmering beneath the light
brighter than the shimmer of the stars. It had to be more than four karats and
flawless. Immediately, my hands shook.

I looked at Cayden, who was totally calm, as
beautiful as ever in his jeans and his dark blue shirt still unbuttoned. His
tousled hair, the picture of perfection, had one darkened wet strand falling
over the smooth span of his forehead. His eyes were so clear and so blue I
could see forever. Comparatively, I was water logged. My hair was twisted in
long wet dark tangles, and I was standing in a half-dry Julliard T-shirt and
nothing else.

Cayden glanced up from beneath his thick dark
lashes. He stared directly into my eyes. The shadow from his long lashes
splayed elongated lines across his high cheekbones.

“Winter Shae Perri, I am desperately in love
with you. I cannot live without you. You are my heart.” Cayden kissed my hand
before staring back up into my eyes. “Winter, will you please marry me?”

Without any thought of how this moment could be
possible and without a voice I stood there, crying tears that fell to the
floor. I finally moved. Nodded my head up and down to indicate yes. Cayden got
up, smiled a bright wide breathtaking smile, and kissed the tears from the
right side of my cheek then the left side.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Cayden pulled me into his arms. He engulfed me,
held me tight for what seemed like a ceaseless moment. He took my left hand,
slid his ring on my third finger before tightly intertwining his fingers with
mine.

“You have made me the happiest man in the universe.
I love you.”

Before I could say anything in return, Cayden
kissed me in earnest. My head was spinning when the kiss ended. Cayden placed
one hand to my waist and began to move, to dance. I followed his lead, dancing
with him in the middle of his bedroom. I had to smile. It did surprise me, plus
we had no music.

“Cayden,” I whispered into his ear.

“Yes?”

“You do realize we are dancing without any
music?”

“Oh there is music, just listen to my heart. You
are the beating of it,” he whispered back.

A few minutes passed, Cayden and me in each
other’s arms dancing to the sound, the beating of his heart.

“We need to find
Chandler
,” he said.

“We do? Why?” I asked, becoming aware of the
pout was beginning to form around my lips.

Cayden picked up my left hand and kissed it.
“First, I need to tell him the news. Second, I really am starving and the food
should be here.” He laughed his low even laugh. “And third, I thought after we
eat we could continue our dance only outside, on the rooftop, underneath the
stars.”

“The love scene,” I said.

“It was a really great scene only….”

“Only what?”

He smiled an impish grin. “Only I believe it
could have been better written.”

“Really? And what would have made it better?” I
asked, curious.

“You dressed exactly in this shirt,” he replied
as he pulled at the bottom of his T-shirt crinkled up on my body.

“Well, as wonderful as my current fashion
statement is,” I mused. “I better put some shorts on if we are going downstairs
to eat. I doubt it is proper etiquette to be eating dinner with my aspirations
hanging out.”

“Baby, I love that aspiration,” he teased and
grabbed my backside securely within his two large hands and squeezed.

When we finally made our way back downstairs, I
was still wearing the T-shirt per Cayden’s request. However, we had come to a
compromise so I was also wearing shorts. He was whispering naughty things in my
ear making me blush when we walked hand and hand into the dining room.
Chandler
was unloading
all the square red and white cartons from The Jade Palace onto the formal
dining room table. The smell of spice and sweetness filled the room.

 
Chandler
pulled out three
sets of chopsticks. “Here.” Handing two sets to his brother.

“I can’t use chopsticks,” I admitted.

“I can. I am quite the expert. I won’t let you starve,”
Cayden replied.

Chandler
glanced at Cayden. “Hey, I thought you were going to take a
shower?”

Cayden shrugged in reply.

“Still wearing your fashion statement I see,”
Chandler
said to me.

Cayden held up my left hand and moved my fingers
with his. “She said yes.”

Chandler
looked at the ring, stared oddly at it before he looked at me
almost pained. I think he was stunned, but it was hard to tell because he may
have been pissed.
Chandler
pulled his gaze from my face then stared at Cayden for a long time. “I’m unsure
of what to say.”

Cayden and I took our seats at the table.

“You could say congratulations, Cayden and
Winter. Is that not standard?” Cayden snapped.

“But how?”
Chandler
stopped talking. He sat down quietly, still staring at his brother.

“I asked Winter to please marry me, and she said
yes, that’s how.”

Cayden was obviously becoming more than
irritated.
Chandler
clarified himself. “I mean, how can it work?”

“I love her, and she loves me. That’s how it can
work,” Cayden replied rather peevish.
Chandler
huffed. Cayden’s eyes narrowed. “You are really pissing me off,
Chandler
.”

Chandler seemed to lose his cool saying,
“Cayden, you are terrified of someone hurting her if people find out you two
are together, and she is terrified of the same, someone hurting you.”

Cayden looked at me then back toward his
brother. “Did you tell her?”

Chandler
glanced down at the table for a moment. “I had, too.” A strange
look crossed over his face. “I told her about Cheryl Lynn and the threat last
year.”

Cayden’s fist hit the table. The boxes from The
Jade Palace bounced.

“You do not need to scare her,
Chandler
!”

“Cayden, please,” I said.

“Plus,”
Chandler
continued his husky voice getting louder. “Winter is worried about your career
and your image. You are worried about her privacy and the invasion of it. We
are all sneaking around like idiots now. How are we going to explain that ring?
It’s not inconspicuous!”

Chandler
’s fist hit the table in return.

“Stop,” I whispered.

Cayden stared into my eyes for a long moment. “We
will make this work.”

“Your brother is right,” I said in a low tone,
diverting my eyes.

Cayden picked up my chin, forcing me to look at
him. “No. We are right together. Nothing matters here but you and me,
everything else is secondary.”

“If someone would hurt you because of me,” I
whispered but found it was hard to even say the words to Cayden. “If someone
would send you death threats or try to harm you, I would die.” I cried. “I
can’t lose you. I would never live through it, Cayden.”

“Winter stop, don’t cry,” Cayden said. He placed
his forehead to mine.

“I am sorry,”
Chandler
said. “Cayden is right. We will find
a way to make this work.”

“Those people today, your fans. They were able
to touch you. What if someone wanted to hurt you, what if they had a weapon?” I
whispered.

“Winter, no one is going to hurt me, I promise.”

“There are some things you can’t promise,
Cayden, because you can’t control them.”

“Winter, I will be fine.”

“But you think someone may hurt me? Threaten me
like they threatened Cheryl Lynn. Does that scare you more than the invasion of
my privacy?”