“Why not add having a baby to my bingo card this year?” I gave a half-shrug, taking his hand and holding it in both of mine. “I’ve already ticked off marrying you and … and falling in love with you.” I glanced up at him from under my lashes.
Henry’s lips parted, pink staining his cheeks. I trailed my fingertips over the colour. “I love making you blush.”
His smile pressed his cheek into my palm. “And … you love me?”
“I love you, Henry.” The words—the truth—felt so easy to say. Henry’s eyes sparkled.
“Say it again.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Why? Are you going deaf?”
He chuckled, leaning closer, brushing my nose with his. “No. I just want to savour it.”
I pressed closer, closing the last tiny gap between our mouths. “I love you,” I whispered against his lips.
Henry moaned, brushing his mouth against mine, but not deepening our kiss. His hands clutched my face, holding onto me like I was something precious, something that needed to be protected.
No one could ever care for me the way he did.
“You are everything I never realised I needed, Catnip …” His words ghosted against my cheek as his lips moved towards my ear. “And everything I always wanted but never thought I’d be lucky enough to find.”
My eyes filled … again … and through a thick throat, I giggled, “Well, way to run up me on the love declaration.”
“Run up you?” Henry’s confused face was one of my most favourite things in the world. Understanding slowly dawned on his features. “I think you mean ‘one-up you’.”
I sighed. “Lucky I’ll have you to politely correct me on English phrasing for the rest of my life, isn’t it?”
“Lucky for both of us.” His forehead met mine. “And I don’t think I did … one-up you, I mean. Hearing you say those three words … no flowery prose could beat it. I just … I often worry I won’t say the right thing when it comes to emotions. But with you, I feel like I could write a whole book on how much I love you.”
“Well, I would read it. Or even better, I’d let you read it to me.” I trailed a line of kisses over his jaw. “So … we’re having a baby …”
He leaned back with a sigh. “I think you should give it a few days to sink in before you decide. It’s … life changing, Catnip.”
But his hand strayed down my body, resting on my abdomen, filling me with heat … the sort that warmed me from the inside until I felt like I was glowing enough to light an entire Sydney suburb.
“How do you feel about all of this?” I asked. “Doyouwant a baby with me? We should decide this together.”
“It’s just so … soon. And it’s not like we’ve had a traditional sort of relationship.” He ran a hand through those glossy black curls. “And … what if they turn out like me?”
My chest ached for this beautiful man who somehow saw himself as less when he was so much more.
“So, I guess they’d be intelligent, sweet, caring and selfless … and hot as fuck.”
Henry choked on a laugh. “I’m not sure it’s appropriate to describe a baby as ‘hot as fuck’, Ri.”
“Eww, I meant when they grow up, of course. Hubby, there is not one thing about you that wouldn’t fill me with joy if you passed it on to our child. And if that’s the only reason you’re on the fence about this …”
“Catnip …” Something in his tone had a grin tilting my lips up.
“Hubby …”
“If this is truly what you want … then I would love to have a baby with you.”
BREAKING NEWS: TICKLE TYCOON TAKES A STEP DOWN
Atlas Prideaux has tendered his official resignation from his CEO position at Tickle.
The statement, released late this afternoon, cited Prideaux’s desire to pursue avenues outside of the tech sphere. The announcement has pundits speculating on what could have gone down between the two Tickle heads behind closed doors and whether Prideaux’s infamous strip-club stoush with the heads of SynAPPsee had anything to do with the move.
