Chapter 100

DORIS

I sang, and every song felt effortless.

I went to the ladies' room at the break right before the last set, and when I came back out, there were 400 red roses all throughout the performance area. I knew this was Arthur’s doing. How did he get so many vases of roses into the Salton room in such a short time?

The entire room smelled like a florist shop and looked like Valentine’s Day had come to the performance.

I smiled at Arthur from up on stage and sang every romantic song I could think of.

When we finished the last song, it seemed like the applause from the audience was louder than ever. Maybe all the roses put everybody in a good mood.

Just as I was about to walk off the stage, Arthur came up and stopped me.

“He stood in front of me at the bottom of the stage “This woman is the most amazing woman I have ever seen.”

Then he walked up on stage and stood by my side. “Doris, from the first moment I met you, I knew you were special. You captured my heart and became part of my family. You’re my business partner, my life partner, and I would be honored if you became my wife.”

Arthur got down on one knee and took a black jewelry box out of his pocket. He opened it, and inside was the biggest, most beautiful engagement ring I had ever seen. The diamond was so huge. I couldn’t imagine how anybody could wear it without it weighing down their entire hand.

“I’ve loved you for a long time,” Arthur said. “I’ve been waiting for you to be ready. I hope you’re ready now, but if you’re not, I’ll wait a day or a week or a lifetime. What I want to know is, are you ready to take me as your husband?”

I was too shocked to speak. I knew Arthur was heading towards this eventually, but I had no idea he would ask me tonight. Even with all the roses filling up the entire room, I didn’t imagine he would ask me.

“Doris? Are you just going to leave me here on my knees?”

“Say yes!” A woman yelled from the back of the room.

My voice came out a husky whisper. “Yes,” I said.

“We can’t hear you!” The same woman said.

Arthur slipped the gorgeous ring on my finger and stood up. “She said yes!” He yelled. Then he took me in his arms, gave me a big hug, and swung me around in a circle.

“I love you, little dove. And I always will.”

Arthur gave me a big kiss, bending me over slightly backward with all his enthusiasm. The crowd broke into cheers.

The band behind me played the song "I’m going to the chapel, and I’m going to get married."

Everyone in the audience stood up and clapped even louder.

I felt like it was the happiest moment of my life.

We got back to the penthouse, and I went to check on Mia, but she was not in her room. I looked questioningly at Arthur, and he said, "She’s at Becky’s house. I was hoping that you would say yes, and I wanted us to be able to have an evening alone."

“Confident, are you?”

“Hopeful,” he said. Then he walked to me like a lion stalking its prey. Arthur looked at me like I was the most beautiful and sexy woman in the world.

He lifted me and carried me to the bedroom, undressed me, quickly, and kissed me head to toe until I was quivering with anticipation.

Arthur climbed over me and held himself on top of me, suspended in a push-up position. He lowered his hips slowly until they touched mine but kept his chest and pushed up as he stared down at me.

He teased me by grinding his hips in a slow circle. Then he lowered his face and kissed me right behind my ear.

“Do you love me?” Kiss. “You want me,” Kiss. "Say it, dove.”

I was feeling playful, so I just shook my head.

He reached between us to gently caress his fingers at my thigh until he found my most private spaces. He continued to drive me mad, demanding that I say that I love him, that I was glad that I would be his wife, that I was amazing.

But I kept shaking my head and laughing. Even when he slid home and I was close to ecstasy, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of answering the way he wanted me to.

Arthur pulled his hips back and plunged forward with one hard thrust. “Say it. I love you. Say it.”

“Nope,” I said in a teasing tone. But Arthur was right; I did love him. And Nina was right. I had given my heart, and it has made my life fuller.

Arthur continued to rock into me, kissing the side of my face, my ear, my neck, and demanding that I tell him how much I love him.

“How about you tell me how much you love me?” I said.

He stopped thrusting to stare down at me. “I’ll tell you every day for the rest of our lives, but you never need to hear me say it, Doris. Because you'll know. You'll know deep in every ounce of your being that I love you with all that I am. You’ll never need to hear me say it because you will never for one second doubt how much I love you and how much better you’ve made my life.”

And then there were no more words as Arthur used that rock hard, amazingly handsome body to bring us both to the edge of ecstasy and beyond.

“So, little dove, are you ready to set a wedding date?”

"I was thinking about New Year’s Day. This has been the craziest year of my life. It’s brought heartache and loss, but it’s brought brand-new miraculous things. Not only has Noah come back to me, I met my biological father, I gained a daughter, and most of all, I found a life with you."

I caressed Arthur’s cheek. “I want to start the new year solidifying all the good new year, a new life, and a new me. I’m not the same Doris that I was when I came home early on my birthday and found that Bob was cheating with Andrea. I feel like a whole new person. Somebody with more self-esteem and somebody with the right man at her side.”

“And I am the right man?” Arthur asked.

“You are, my love. Forever and ever, without a doubt, you are. I choose you.”

Epilogue

We decided to have our wedding at a romantic hotel in Niagara Falls. For New Year’s Eve, we had a fantastic celebration in the restaurant that overlooked the gigantic, iconic waterfall.

When Arthur took me back to our luxury suite and poured us full of champagne to ring in the new year and pre-wedding luck, I declined the drink.

I opened my purse and gave Arthur the paper that showed the results. His face was comical with how shocked it was. Arthur looked down at the paper, looked at me, looked at the paper, and kept looking up and down again.

“Am I reading this correctly?”

“If you’re reading it to say, I’m pregnant with twins, then, yes, you’re reading it correctly.”

Arthur swooped me up into his arms and turned me in a big circle.

“Are you happy? I asked.

“This is the best wedding gift you could ever have given me. Everything about you has been a gift.”

“I have a feeling the twins will be a boy and a girl. I wasn’t even sure I could have children, and considering I just got off the pill so recently, I didn’t expect to be pregnant as soon, but… I’m so happy about it.”

"This will be the start of the best year ever,” Arthur said. “I’m going to get those kids everything they want.”

I chuckled. “I hope not.”

“I have a gift for you, too,” Arthur said. “Although it’s nothing like the gift, you just gave me,” he said.

“Lisa agreed at the last minute to sing at the wedding. And she brought a lot of her famous Hollywood friends with her. It will be amazing. I asked her if she could sing one song with them, and she said yes. Mr. Owens released your new single last night and approved me giving an advance copy to Lisa and her friends so they’re going to sync your soon-to-be hit song with you at our wedding.”

Now it was my turn to be shocked.

“That is, if you want to?” Arthur asked.

“Oh, I want to. With you, I want to do everything.”