Epilogue #2
I rolled my eyes at my own blubbering. We’re good together? Surely, I could do better.
“What I mean is, you and I, we’re special.
What we have is special, uh, to me.” I rubbed my palms on my jeans, looking everywhere but at him.
“Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it’s been five years since I wanted to kick your ass.
Well, sometimes I still do, but only because I love you so much.
You, you manage to hit all my buttons, even the red ones that piss me off. But … Fuck.”
Once again, I paced away, and this time, there was a crowd staring. Jesus, did the owners tell everyone what was going to happen?
Children ran around screaming, but some stopped and cocked their heads. A few guys tugged their girlfriends closer, or maybe it was their wives, who knew. One woman held her fingertips to her mouth and teared up. Christ, was I so transparent?
And how the fuck had Cal not figured out what was happening here, what I was trying to do? We’d talked about getting married before. We’d even exchanged ring sizes because this was fucking inevitable.
“Fuck,” I whispered again and spun on my heels to face him once more, to finish this. “What I’m saying is I only want to get pissed at—”
Cal knelt in front of me, a ring box open and stretched toward me. I swayed where I stood, and his chin shivered.
“I waited for the right day, the right time, but then I realized, all that mattered was that you said yes. Will you marry me, Princess?”
I blinked, sobering immediately as all the tension and panic bled out of me to be replaced with frustration. “Are you kidding me?”
Cal glanced left and right. “Um …”
“No.” I shook my head.
“No?”
“Noooo!” I shouted and literally stomped my foot.
Cal jumped to his feet. “Why the hell not? You fuckin’ love me, Jackass, and no one else is gonna love you better than me.” He stuck his thumb to his chest as he leaned forward, anger and fear darkening his pale eyes.
I jerked a step away and pointed at the special pumpkin with both hands. “Because I’m asking you, Dipshit.”
Cal blinked at the words Marry Me carved into the pumpkin, then at me. “What?” he mouthed.
I plunged my hand into my coat pocket for the ring box I’d been carrying. It got caught on the lining several times, and when I finally wrestled it free, it popped out of my hand. We lunged for it as one, knocking heads and cursing so loudly laughter surrounded us.
“Jesus, why is your head so fuckin’ hard?” Cal griped.
“Can’t be any harder than yours, you stubborn ass.”
I rubbed the ache on my forehead with the palm of my hand as I winced and tried not to throw up, yet again.
Warm hands cupped my jaw and my heart. “Let me see,” Cal said in a gentle tone.
I lowered my hand, and Cal studied my head for only a moment, then smiled into my eyes. “You’ll be fine.”
I shook my head. “No, I won’t. Not until you say you’ll marry me.”
He rubbed my nose with his. “Only if you say you’ll marry me.”
This close, his face was mostly a blur, but tears finished the job.
The bright blue of his eyes merged into everything.
As high as the heavens and as deep as the oceans, his eyes were my world, and I wanted to stare into them forever.
I wanted to see them every morning and dream of them every night.
Until my last day, I wanted to show him how amazing he was and how he was the only thing I needed.
The breath in my lungs and the blood in my veins weren’t keeping me alive.
He was. Cal’s existence shot electricity into my life, into my body, and made my heart beat, made my brain function.
And where the hell were those words five minutes ago? Had I really said he pissed me off as part of my proposal?
A laugh bubbled up from somewhere, and as I nodded, eyes so blurry I could barely make out his smiling face as he nodded too, I croaked a joyful “yes” at the same time Cal did.
Cal huffed, then muttered, “Thank fuck.”
There, among the cheers and laughter, we kissed for the first time as an engaged couple. And just before the kiss could turn a bit too illicit for this public location, I pulled free.
“Can we go home now?” I whispered. He’d said yes. The pain in my chest and stomach was gone, and the ache in my head was nothing compared to the building arousal heating me from the inside out.
“We should probably buy a few pumpkins,” Cal said through a snicker.
A few turned into ten. Cal demanded we give the ugly ones a home, and I had to buy the carved one and then get another one for Ty because he hated pumpkins.
Cal kept my hand in his on our return trip, alternating between kissing my fingers, sucking on them, and giving me filthy glances when traffic allowed.
We couldn’t get inside fast enough.
I was stripping out of my coat and unbuttoning my jeans even as Cal unlocked the door, and then I shoved past him.
“In a hurry?” he laughed as I tripped over the shoes I’d just kicked off in my haste to get to him inside with me.
“What do you think?”
Still chuckling, I caught him off guard and forced him back against the closed door, plastering my mouth to his in a kiss that told him everything.
Cal gripped my head in his hands as I fisted the material around his waist. Our jaws worked in a whirlwind of lips and teeth. One of us moaned. The vibrations of it dropped low to tickle my balls.
“God, I want you so naked,” I whispered against his lips.
“You first.” Cal pulled away and yanked at my sweater. I lifted my arms, and he tossed the material when it was free.
Growling as I tugged at Cal’s clothes, the asshole only grinned and acted as if he would fight me off, as if naked wasn’t the goal.
Cal lunged for my neck, nipping and sucking when we were both shirtless.
“Oh, shiiiit,” I breathed when he pinched one of my nipples.
Cal chuckled, the sound messing with my lungs and igniting this fight we’d never outgrown. I grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved, not moving him far since he was as solid as I was. He bumped into the little table where we kept our keys and wallets, still laughing.
He tossed me toward an end table. The picture frames wobbled and fell. The trinkets clinked. I bared my teeth at him, arching him backward.
“You won’t win,” Cal said with a snap of his jaws toward my throat.
I darted away quickly, then hooked my arm around his knee and flipped him onto the sofa. “Says who?”
The muscles under his tan skin flexed as he fought me off, his two arms multiplying with some evil magic until he had us reversed. Cal fumbled with my pants, too intent on trying to nip at my pecs, and I took the opening. Our positions switched once again.
Both of us growled yet still smiled and laughed.
Between wrestling each other for the top position, we somehow managed to get our clothes off and end up in the bedroom.
With a triumphant snarl, I threw Cal, face down, onto our bed and followed him, slapping his arms over his head, locking them in place.
I bit the back of his neck as I rubbed myself off against his body heat.
When my cock slotted between his cheeks, Cal lifted his hips in invitation.
Moaning and cursing, I stroked myself using his firm glutes to tease us both.
Abruptly, Cal laughed. “Get off me.”
Naturally, I did everything but get off him. I let my weight press him into the mattress as I roved over his sides and arms with my eager hands, kissing his spine, then slid my fingers into his hair.
“Mmm, I love you, Mr. Princess Winters,” Cal hummed.
I tickled his side until he squirmed, rolling to his back beneath me. “I think you mean Mr. Princess Rutledge-Winters.”
Cal huffed. “No one’s gonna say that mouthful.”
“Oh, someone needs a mouthful?”
Our tickle match evolved into wrestling once again, and this time, Cal came out on top. His eyes sparkled, showing me a future I couldn’t believe would be mine.
He pecked my lips with his, then scratched our stubbled cheeks together. “Fine. Princess Rutledge-Winters isn’t so bad.”
With his head next to mine, I kissed his temple, then whispered, “You’ll always be worth fighting for.” With another kiss, I added, “And with.”
Cal chuckled as he bit my ear. “Shh,” he whispered back. “There’s nothin’ to talk about.”