AN: College has set off to a mentally-exhausting pace, which is why posts have been scarce.

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He came back and she again noticed a small, velvet box in his hand. "Harm." she drawled, motioning towards the small box.

He smiled at her. "That's not the present. Just something that I thought you'd need."

With that he sank to his knee and opened the box for her to see the diamond ring inside. Jen gasped at the beautiful ring and extended a shaking hand, tears falling. He took her left hand in his and slowly pushed the ring on her ring finger with his right hand. Then he kissed her hand, her ring and finally her lips.

"I love you and you made me happy beyond reason by agreeing to become my wife."

A sob tore out of Jen's chest and she launched herself at him, taking his lips with desperate urgency.

It was the first time he had said the words out loud.

Even though she knew how he felt, from his actions and certainly from his letter, the emotions his declaration evoked overwhelmed her. She let his lips go only to mutter "I love you too" and then claimed them again passionately.

Stopping before they would be making their way into his bedroom to make love was the hardest thing they'd done in their lives, but knew it had to be done. They were still bound by regs and making love was definitely forbidden.

They wound up on Harm's couch again, this time with Jen on her back and Harm on top of her, both panting heavily and gazing into each other's eyes, pupils dilated so much that their eyes looked almost black.

"We have to stop." Harm whispered, still gazing intently into her eyes.

"I know." she whispered back just as softly.

"We'll definitely resume on our wedding night. We just have to wait until then."

A goofy smile spread on her lips as she repeated. "Our wedding night." and quickly took his lips again.

They untangled themselves from each other slowly and sat up, being careful not to look into the other's eyes, lest they start ripping their clothes off.

"So, what do we do now?" she said, once she'd gathered her composure.

"We wait until your enlistment is up and then get married and start our life together."

They looked at each other and said in unison: "It's gonna be hell.", referring to the waiting period, and laughed.

Jen stood up, dusted off her clothes and quickly pecked Harm on the lips. "See you later, Baby."

Then she shashayed out of his apartment, swaying her hips seductively.

Harm stared after her, taking in her breathtaking figure and tried to swallow, discovering his throat was completely dry. "Oh yeah, it's definitely gonna be hell."

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Jen closed her apartment door after her and leaned back against it. She touched her lips, still burning from Harm's kisses and a smile of complete happiness graced her beautiful face.

The coming weeks would be hard, but the reward would most definitely be well worth it.

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