"Yes!" Esme couldn't speak another word. "Yes, Carlisle! Yes, I'll marry you!"

She erupted from the chair and threw her arms around him before he even had time to slip the ring on her finger.

Carlisle melted against her, feeling all of the anxiety he had been feeling for weeks die down with her confirmation. He tightened his arms around her as she brought her lips to his.

He felt a decompressing laugh escape his throat and Esme pulled back, smiling at him.

"You really want to marry me?" she asked.

"I really want to marry you, Esme."

Esme brought her lips back to his and Carlisle eventually took her hand in his, slipping the ring across her third finger on her left hand. He lifted his eyes to meet hers.

"I love you," he said, "I can't live you without you."

Is this really happening? Esme thought, as her wildest and most complete dreams came full circle and complete right in front of her. Dr. Cullen just proposed to me. We're going to get married.

She smiled to herself as she referred to him as Dr. Cullen in her mind. That was, after all, who she knew him as first before finding true love in Carlisle.

Esme would have cried if it were possible. She didn't sob the way she had dryly when she had been stricken with grief, but the emotion overwhelmed her to the point of having no words to speak. She stood there in front of the fireplace with her arms around him, engraining everything about the moment in her mind.

"I love you so much, Carlisle," she finally spoke, letting her words muffle slightly into his collar.

He ran a hand up and down her back and couldn't keep an honest smile from his face. Carlisle had never contemplated the possibility of having a "mate" in his life until he saw her for the first time. The Volturi members all had wives, so to speak, but they didn't interact the way couples in love acted.

Carlisle thought about others he knew, Amun and Kebi, vampire pair from Egypt whom he had gotten to know on his travels. Siobhan and Liam were another couple who's bond was far more human-like in nature than the Volturi members.

At the end of the day, however, Carlisle didn't care about any of the other couples, or the way they interacted. He and Esme were their own, and whether they were alike or completely different than their immortal counterparts, it didn't matter.

She was happy. He was happy. What else was there?

Esme couldn't keep herself from kissing him. She felt so attached to him in every way, and all she could do was smile, giggle and engulf him with a countless number of little, sensual touches.

When the immediate rush of his proposal died down, she looked at him with a big smile. "We have to tell Edward."

Carlisle agreed with a nod. "I think he's got an idea."

She kissed him again. "When can we get married? Let's do it... tomorrow." Esme giggled at her own words, knowing that was virtually impossible.

Carlisle laughed, too, catching a number of different emotions that pulled at him in so many ways. "Let's get to that walk first," he said with a grin.

"The walk down the isle?" she teased.

He snickered and looked down, never removing his arms from the loving nature of how they were placed around her body. "Well, that..." he said without letting his smile fade, "But I was thinking the one about town first."

"So I don't slip up and... eat the priest?" Esme asked, finally finding a small bout of humor in the darker nature of their inner animal.

Carlisle laughed out loud and Esme kissed him again.

"What about tonight?" she asked, "The walk... " Her eyes drifted out the window toward the storm that continued to brew wildly. "I can't imagine there will be many people out in this weather tonight."

"You want to go into town tonight?"

Esme looked him in the eye, finally feeling confident with herself. Her eyes drifted down toward her hand and she admired he ring he had picked out for her, temporarily distracting her from the conversation at hand.

He asked me to marry him, she thought again, outwardly gushing with radiant happiness.

Carlisle smiled and saw the return of confidence return to Esme's body. "I have faith in you."

Esme's arms were locked loosely around the back of his neck and she kept her face an inch away from his. "Thank you."

He sighed, "You want to try?"

The reality was that Esme wanted to stay locked away with him in their house in the middle of the woods. Edward wasn't home; the snowstorm had turned into blizzard-like conditions, a fire was burning in the fireplace and Carlisle had just proposed to her. On the other hand, she knew despite the perfect nature of their surroundings, neither of them would fully take advantage of it in the way they both wanted to.

The next best thing Esme could think of was making a realistic move at her goal. Not only would she prove to herself and to Carlisle that she had overcome the monster, but she would also be one step closer to making their marriage official.

"I'd rather stay here with you," she told him with a smile, glancing toward the fireplace, "But I don't want to... strip you of your values."

Carlisle laughed lightly again and looked down, and then back up. "I suppose another few weeks, or a month won't be too hard to wait."

"Speak for yourself." She began to laugh and closed her eyes as he kissed her again.

He then looked at her with a far more serious expression. "Do you want to go for that walk?"

Esme looked into his eyes and then nodded. "Yes."

"If you feel like we need to come home, don't be ashamed to tell me."

"I won't." She shook her head.

Esme had thought of her more recent weeks. She hadn't come close to a slip-up. The craving for human blood was something she had managed to push out of her mind. While there were times here and there that she relished in the memory of what it tasted like, she managed to get over the craving and get back to neutral.

She looked at him with a smile, and contemplated taking back her wish to leave because she so desperately wanted to be alone with him in the house.

"What?" he asked, seeing her hesitation to proceed with her request.

Esme looked at him again, and took note to the possessive nature his hands took of her waist. "Nothing." She shook her head.

"If you'd rather go out some other time-"

"No, I'm ready now..." She sighed and decided to be honest. "I just am having a hard time leaving the house because..." Her voice trailed off and she looked around the area. "Just being alone in this position with you..."

Carlisle smirked and tilted her chin up so her eyes met his. "We do have eternity, you know." He looked around, finding the surrounding tempting himself, though he was having far less trouble controlling himself than in the recent weeks, "There will be plenty of... opportunities in the near future."

Esme smiled and nodded. Eternity. Wow! After we get married we'll have eternity to be husband and wife. Eternity... that's a very long time to be with the man you love.

"You're right." She looked down at the ring again, and the kissed Carlisle another time. "I love you. You have no idea what you saved me from, Carlisle."

He put a hand on the side of her face and then brushed some of her hair behind her ear, "I love you. I promise I'll take care of you forever, Esme."