Chapter 27

After the awards, Nick and Gwen went back to their hotel suite.  They had picked up a copy of the Globe on their way back.  Gwen sat on the edge of the bed staring at the first of many pictures of them on the beach making love.  Nick had dealt with his share of rumors and stories in the tabloids but he had never had anything this personal discussed and displayed in the media.  The fact that the media had turned this special moment between two people in love into something cheap upset them both to no end.  Nick was so furious that he punched the wall.  Gwen jumped and put her head in her hands as she began to cry.

Nick rushed over to her and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead, "Shhh doll, it will be OK."

"I would really like to think that," Gwen said between tears, "but I feel like they turned a beautiful, intimate moment that moved us both to tears into something dirty and wrong."

"I know it feels like that, but it wasn't dirty and it wasn't wrong.  I love you and I know you love me, there was nothing wrong with you showing me that."

"Then why do I feel like this?  I feel like it is wrong for me to want to be with you."

"Don't cry baby," he said as he lifted her tear-stained face to his, "Let me show you that it isn't wrong."

No sooner than Nick had finished those words, he began to lean towards her and kiss her cheeks and face softly.  He put his hands on either side of her face and looked into her eyes, "I love you Gwendolyn."

Passion took over with his words as he put all that was in him into a kiss.  This kiss changed Gwen's tears of sadness into tears of love, she returned his passion with the same kiss as he laid her down on the bed beneath him.  As they broke the kiss, they slowly pulled back their lips and their eyes locked.  Holding her gaze Nick said, "I want to be with you."

"I want to be with you too Nick."

"I don't think you know what I mean," Nick said as he got up and walked across the room to his luggage.

Gwen was confused. "Nick, I don't understand I -"

"Let me finish," he said as he walked back over to her, "I want to be with you tonight, and every other night...and morning."  Standing right in front of her he opened his hand and revealed a platinum princess cut diamond ring.  "I know I promised to take this slow but I can't," he said as he kneeled in front of her, "I bought this after our first weekend together because I knew we belonged together.  I can't hold off and pretend that like I am fine with things the way they are because I don't feel like a whole person without you.  I want to spend the rest of my life with you - I want you to call me your husband.  I have never wanted or needed anything they way I do you.  I love you with everything that I have and that I am.  I want you to be my wife, the mother of our children, and next to me every morning for the rest of my life.  Will you marry me?"

Gwen stared at Nick with the shock of what he had just confessed apparent on her face.  She slowly stood up and ran out of the suite.  Nick threw himself on the bed in front of him and began to sob loudly.

Chapter 28
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