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 wordsMarry Mecarved 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 highas 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.
