What I meant was that it never occurred to me that you would ever even think about marrying me.”“I do not hop in bed with every Tom, Dick or Harry... who comes along, Jack,” she said heavily.“Yes, I know that,” he assured her. “But I sort of ... took advantage of you ... you know, that first time.”“Jack,” she sighed. “I’ve wanted to do that with you for months.”“You have?” He looked stunned.“Yes, but I was too shy to do anything about it.”“But ... that means,” he said softly, “that you really are. ”, I admitted. “I love you too, baby.”, she said, kissing me softly. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONESince Christmas was coming up, I figured it was the perfect time to ask Lexie to marry me. She was an amazing woman and my best friend. I wanted to spend my life with her and give her everything that I was able to. It was right before Thanksgiving when I stopped by her parent’s home one evening. She was working nights, so it gave me the perfect time to. We didn't have a lot of hope that this map would be of much value, but it was worth a try and didn't cost the squad members anything but a little RAM in their onboard computer.The squad quickly found that the map was, indeed, useless, so they were back to trying to find their way by sheer guesswork. The only clue they had that they were making any progress was that they would occasionally meet a machine gun pillbox which they had to take out. These pillboxes did no damage to the humans, but. I felt warm from the closeness, but more than that, the sight of her breasts and body conveyed an emotion that I struggle to describe. Words caught in my throat, yet I felt wonderful. I felt like king of the world. I could have done anything at that moment. But what I wanted to do most was bask in the sensual fog that seemed to include just the two of us in the corner of the room. Perhaps the dim light was part of it, closing out everything else in the world. I felt like I was actually part of.