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Amanda loved being with him like this. The two of them together, quiet in the aftermath of the pleasure they gave each other. His skin pressed to hers, feeling his heartbeat slow as she traced idle patterns on his chest with her fingertips. After eighteen months together, the heat between them was as strong as ever. The desperate urgency of the first few months of their physical relationship had metamorphosed into a steady warmth, always simmering just below the surface, requiring very little to be fanned into flame.
She nuzzled his neck, breathing in his familiar scent, and rested her head against his shoulder with a contented sigh. Just a few more minutes, she thought. As much as she loved being naked with him, it was unwise to spend an entire night that way, at least not with the girls in the apartment. You never knew when an anxious three-year-old might try to climb into the bed with them after having a bad dream, or an almost-seven-year-old might appear at the doorway wanting a glass of water. Carisi’s voice interrupted her train of thought.
“Manda.”
“Hmmm?” He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, so she lifted her head to look at him. The expression on his face made the breath catch in her throat. Dominick Carisi Jr had looked at Amanda Rollins many, many times over the last eight years, but he had never looked at her like this. She thought – she hoped – she knew what it meant. She had felt it coming; there had been something about him, in the late spring and early summer. Something that had made him almost … fidgety. Then, a single bullet had shattered, at least for a while, any plans either of them might have been making. But now … she waited for him to continue.
He took a deep breath. “Will you marry me?”
Amanda felt the smile begin deep inside her before it started spreading over her face. She, who had never thought of herself as a bride, as being married, didn’t even have to think twice before she gave him her answer. Unlike the first time she had been proposed to – ill-timed and unwelcome – there was no other answer she wanted to give. “Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really,” she told him, cupping his cheek with her hand and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. “Did you think I might say no?”
“Well, I kind of hoped you wouldn’t, but I wasn’t sure.”
“Carisi, there is no universe in which I would not say ‘yes’ to you asking me to marry you.”
His smile matched hers. “Okay, then. I guess we’re getting married, huh?”
“Guess we are.” She dipped her head to kiss him again, a long, leisurely meeting of mouths, lips and tongues. She drew back to look into his eyes, their clear blue a reflection of her own. “I love you. I know I don’t tell you often enough, but I do. So much.”
“I know.” He reached up to lay the fingers of one hand against her cheek. “I do like to hear you say it, though. And I love you.” He pulled her head down to his until their lips met again, kissing her gently, reverently; his hands framing her face, showing her with his touch just how much she meant to him. “I had it all planned, you know,” he told her, fingers gently sifting through her hair. “The proposal. I was going to make you dinner, light candles, the whole bit. But I just … asking you now seemed … right.”
“It was perfect.” Somehow, he always did know exactly what to say to her, and how to say it. She shifted so she was lying fully on top of him, breasts pressed to his chest, loving the contrast between his slightly hair-roughened skin and her own. “So, Counselor, what do two people who have just got engaged do?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure they celebrate.” He grinned up at her, the happiness on his face mirroring her own.
“Hmm. That sounds logical. How might they do that?”
He ran his hands down the length of her back, brought them to rest on her bottom, and gently kneaded the soft flesh. Lifting his head from the pillow, he began to press kisses to her throat. “Let me show you.”
****
Some time later (in fact, rather a long time later) they were lying in each other’s arms again, skin cooling, heartbeats returning to normal. It occurred to Amanda that they really should at least make a token attempt at putting some clothes on, but she was too sated to move right then. She was getting married. Not only that, but she was getting married to Carisi. People who didn’t know their background thought it was a bit strange when she referred to him by his last name. She called him Sonny when she felt he needed reassurance. Dominick was saved for the times when she really wanted to make sure he knew that she was being serious; when she really wanted him to listen to what she was saying. But they both knew that when she called him Carisi, she was calling him her partner, the one person who had her back no matter what, who understood her better than anyone.
Carisi shifted out from under her so they were lying on their sides, face-to-face. He propped himself on his elbow, resting his head on his hand. His other hand stroked her hip. “I have a ring for you, by the way.”
“You do?”
“Of course I do.” He feigned offence. “Did you think I would propose to you without one?”
“Well, I don’t know,” she teased. “You did just propose and I don’t see a ring, so …”
“Geez, fine.” He rolled his eyes in mock-outrage, then smiled at her again, unable to even pretend to be annoyed for more than a second. “I asked Ma to keep it for me. I didn’t want to leave it at my place, since I’m hardly ever there anymore, or hide it somewhere here and run the risk of you or the girls finding it.”
“Okay, I believe you; you have a ring for me.” She ran her fingers along his jaw, loving the joy she saw on his face; joy that was there because of her. She still felt like she’d won the lottery when he looked at her like that. “Do you think your mom will want us to have a big church wedding?”
Carisi sighed. “Probably.”
“And what do you want?” she asked cautiously.
He sighed again, and looked away from her briefly. “I used to think I’d want the big church wedding, but now … I don’t know.” His eyes returned to hers. “What do you want?”
“Well, given that I never thought I’d get married, I’ve never really thought about what kind of wedding I’d want. I guess I’d like something simple. Something just for us. Would Serafina be really upset if we didn’t have a church wedding?”
“Yeah, pretty sure she would.” Carisi winced at the thought. “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.” Then a contemplative look crossed his face. “You know, now I think about it, getting married is kind of like a crime.”
Amanda blinked. “How so?”
“Well, you need motive, and opportunity.”
“Hmmm. I guess we definitely have the motive.” She paused to nip at his lips with her own, slipping her fingers into his hair as she deepened the kiss. “That’s some pretty strong motive right there, Counselor.”
He laughed. “Exactly. And I’m sure we could find an opportunity pretty quickly if we kept things simple. As for an officiant, judges are able to perform marriage ceremonies in New York. So really, the only other thing we’d need would be … witnesses.”
Amanda’s jaw dropped as she finally caught on to his meaning. “Wait, you’re suggesting we get married at the courthouse?”
“Yes. If … if you like the idea?”
“I love the idea!” She kissed him again, lingering to show him just how much she loved it. How much she loved him. “We could ask Liv, Fin and Velasco to act as our witnesses.”
“That’s just what I was thinking. I could ask one of the judges to officiate for us … Judge McNamara, perhaps.”
“And then have a small reception at a restaurant after? With some of the people from the precinct and the DA’s office.” She looked at him, suddenly uncertain. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
He smiled, and reached out to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Yes. You are exactly what I want, Amanda Rollins. Getting married to you is what I want. Everything else is just … details.”
“Okay.” She smiled back at him. “But maybe … maybe we could have a second ceremony, in a church, so your mom and anyone else you’d like to be there could come? If you wanted to.”
“I think Ma would love that. I can already picture her starting to make plans. Be warned, though – she might try to get you to wear one of those frou-frou layer cake-type dresses.” He grinned, and looked at her speculatively, as though he was trying to imagine her in such a garment.
Amanda couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled out of her. “Carisi, you know I would do anything for you, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to draw the line at a frou-frou layer cake dress.”