Caleb turned and found Wolf and his men watching them with big smiles on their faces.
“You missed them telling us we’re free to go and to come back tomorrow with our lawyers to sign our statements.”
“Are you ready?” he asked Rose as he helped her to her feet.
“With you by my side?” She slipped her hand into his and kept pace with him as they headed toward the door. “Always.”
“Then let us go. I'm ready to go home.” He leaned down and whispered the rest in her ear. “Not to mention a nice big bed to curl up in for a lifetime with you.”
“Happily ever after is a freaking awesome house to live in,” Wolf said sagely. “Don’t fuck it up, Hunt.”
“Never,” Caleb vowed. “I finally persuaded her to take a chance on me. She mine, and I’m hers. Forever.
EPILOGUE
“Which one is your favorite?” Rose carefully placed the fourth brush on the lid of the paint tin and stepped back to see the area she’d painted in better light. The little town of Garnet Peak, close to Nemesis Ranch, at the foothills of the Crazy Mountains, wasn’t exactly Paris or Rome. But it was, she could admit to herself, rapidly becoming home. She bit back the bark of laughter when Caleb squinted at the paint samples with a perplexed expression on his face.
He wrapped his arms around her and stooped to rest his chin on her shoulder. “They’re all white.”
She sighed softly, leaning into his touch. Damn, the man was spoiling her sinfully with a new life, a new studio. Her camera was back, and all the love she’d ever wanted. What more could a girl need?
His mouth kissed the sensitive skin under her ear. A full-body shiver overtook her despite the warmth of the afternoon sun beating in the windows.
“You’ll have to pick,” he murmured against her ear. “Because the only white I’d have a preference for is if you were wearing it walking down the aisle to promise me forever. Otherwise, they are all just a color. Pick your favorite one.”
She rolled her eyes and turned in his arms, loving how his eyes darkened when she smiled up at him. “We might want to give the big white wedding as miss and do a fast hop to Vegas before I’m too big to fit into that white dress you mentioned,” she teased.
“Huh?”
Confusion made his eyes narrow. “Have I finally managed to be the one in this relationship who can keep a secret?” she asked.
His fingers stroked her sides. “Well, that’s a first. Because usually your girl posse tell their men, who tell me what to do so I don’t fuck up.”
“True.” But they’d all somehow kept that he’d bought the studio for her as a surprise secret from her last month. She wasn’t even mad about it, even if she got teary-eyed every single time she remembered how nervous he’d been as he’d unlocked the door for her. “You didn’t understand what I said, did you?”
He shook his head. “Nope. You lost me the second your boobs distracted me in that top, when I looked at them instead of confusing myself with four types of white paint that all look the same.”
She grinned up at him. “So tell me something, babe?—”
“Something,” he interjected quickly before she could continue.
She gave him a light smack on the chest, loving this playful side of him which was slowly emerging from under the grumpy exterior he showed almost everyone else but her.
He smirked and tapped her nose with one finger. “Okay, okay, I’m listening.”
She debated on if she should repeat what she’d said before, but decided a different tactic might be better. “You know how you mentioned that you’d like a family someday?”
“Yeah.” He eyed her carefully as if he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Why did you change your mind?”
She let out her breath, not sure if she wanted to throttle him for being dense or kiss the stuffing out of him for being so freaking adorable. “No, no, nothing like that. But you remember that conversation, right?”
“Yeah, of course.” He leered at her. “I remember you had three orgasms by the time you let me sleep. You wore me right out.”
“I didn’t hear you complaining at the time,” she muttered and stepped back so she could see his face. “So, how does July sound?”
“For more orgasms?” He was being deliberately dense. She was sure of it. “I’m game. But, baby girl, there’d better be more before that. It’s a hell of a long way to July. Just saying.”
“No, you idiot.” Exasperated, she planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “For the starting the family thing.”
