“I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet, but you look absolutely gorgeous tonight.”
Goose bumps broke out along my arms at the same time my cheeks heated. “Thank you.”
“How are you feeling? I know it’s been a long day and you didn’t have a chance to take one of your three daily naps.”
He laughed when I smacked him in the arm. “Jerk,” I mumbled without any ire. “To be honest I really just want to get home and get out of this dress. It’s too tight around my boobs and my belly. I feel like if I bend over the wrong way I’m going to bust a seam. And these stupid shoes are pinching my toes.”
His eyes traveled down my neck to the swell of my cleavage, and he let out an appreciative hum that had me biting down on my bottom lip. I hadn’t seen that look directed at me in far too long.
We danced silently for a while, and I was a little amazed at how well he moved to the soft, melodic beat. “You’re a pretty good dancer.”
“I’m full of surprises,” he said with a suspicious smirk.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yep. For instance, I’m about to say something that’s really going to knock your socks off.”
I giggled, sifting my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. “Knock my socks off, huh? Okay, well hit me with it.”
“Okay. Here it goes.” He paused for dramatic affect. “I think you and I should get married.”
My jaw hit the floor. Then I screeched, “Have you lost your mind?”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Daphne
Caleb’s eyes scanned the crowd around us nervously. “No, I haven’t lost my mind, but if you keep shrieking like that, everyone around us is going to think you have.”
I narrowed my eyes in a murderous glare. “Careful, Caleb. I haven’t exactly been in control of my emotions lately. I’m liable to slap the shit out of you if you piss me off.”
He pulled in air through his nose, making a face like he was searching for patience. “Will you just hear me out?”
“No, I won’t. Because it’s a terrible idea.”
“It’s perfectly reasonable,” he grunted angrily.
“I’m not marrying you,” I declared.
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not!”
“You’re already having my baby. We’re already living together. It’s the next logical step.”
“Oh, how romantic!” I exclaimed snottily. “Just the kind of proposal every woman dreams of.”
It was his turn to glare. “Well maybe if you weren’t such a sarcastic pain in my ass, I would have taken the time to put a little more effort into it.”
That did it. My hand was flying through the air before I gave it a single thought. The crack of my palm against his cheek echoed through the ballroom like a gunshot.
I hadn’t even planned to slap him. It just happened. What was it with my friends and me hitting people!
I was sure the look of shock on my face mirrored his perfectly, but I didn’t hang around long enough to find out. Turning on my heels, I stormed off the floor and out of the ballroom.
“Holy shit. Holyshitholyshitholyshit. I can’t believe I just did that,” I muttered to myself as I speed-walked toward the nearest exit.
I let out a startled yelp when a hand clamped down on my arm and spun me around just feet from the door. Caleb looked ready to spit fire. “Oh no you don’t. You aren’t running out on me. Not after that.”
“Look,” I started quickly. “I’m sorry I hit you. I honestly didn’t mean to. I don’t know what came over me—”
“I don’t give a shit about you hitting me. What I want to know is why the fuck you won’t marry me.”
“Don’t you get it?” I cried, throwing my hands in the air. “I told you I love you, Caleb, and I meant it. But I can’t marry you just because you feel obligated! That’s something my mother would do. She’d get pregnant just to trap a man for his paycheck, and I swore I would never, ever turn into my mother. I already screwed the pooch on that one by getting pregnant. I’m not going to make it even worse by tying myself to a man who doesn’t want to be tied to me!”
He stepped closer, crowding me. “Who says I don’t want to be tied to you?”
Crap. I was going to cry again. “Oh please,” I laughed humorlessly. “You haven’t touched me in over a month. You treat me like I’m nothing more than a roommate to you. And I get it. I screwed up. I understand that you can’t forgive me, but—”
“You think I don’t want you?” he asked in bewilderment. “Have you lost your mind? I’ve walked around that goddamn house for the past month with a constant hard-on!”
“Then why won’t you touch me?” I shouted.
“Because I’ve been so fucking scared of doing something that’ll piss you off and make you realize that I’m not good enough for you!”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”
We were officially yelling our argument at the top of our lungs, but neither of us seemed to care.
“It’s not stupid! I know how much you hate it when we fight!”
“I miss our fighting, you idiot! I want you to fight with me! I can’t stand walking around on eggshells for one more fucking second! I miss how we used to be, because at least then we were passionate about each other!”
“Oh, you want passion?”
“Yes!”
We clashed together just like we did in the past, biting and clawing, attacking each other like rabid animals. It was pure, unadulterated bliss.
“God, I’ve missed you,” I panted as yanked at his bow tie.
“Fuck, baby. I’ve missed you too. So fucking much.” He hiked my dress up and lifted me off the ground. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I held on for dear life, licking and nipping at his neck as he moved. The faint sound of a door clicking shut penetrated my senses just before my back hit a wall. I briefly opened my eyes and noticed that Caleb had somehow managed to locate the coat check room for a bit of privacy. Bless him.
“Let’s promise each other that we’ll always fight as long as we get to make up like this.”
“Promise,” I breathed as I pulled at the buttons of his shirt. I needed to feel his skin against mine. Sleeping in the same bed as him night after night and not being able to feel him had been a form of torture.
“And I want you to say you’ll marry me.” I tried pulling my head back, but he fisted my hair and held me in place as he feasted on the upper swells of my breasts. “And not just because you’re having my baby but because you love me, and I love you.”
That black hole in my chest shriveled and shrank until it disappeared altogether. I yanked his hair, pulling his head back until I could look into his eyes. “You love me?” I asked on a whisper, feeling the telltale sting of tears. Goddamn pregnancy hormones.
“I’m so in love with you I can’t see straight, sweetheart. I can’t imagine my life without you in it. I don’t want a fling. I want so many strings attaching you to me that you’ll never untangle them. I want you to marry me.”
“Caleb, I—”
The door to the coat room came crashing open, and all our friends—every single one of them—crowded into the doorway.
“You’re pregnant?” Lola screeched.
I turned bewildered eyes to Caleb. “You told her?”
“No!” Lola shouted. “I had to find out from Sophia!”
My accusatory gaze landed on Fiona. “You told them?”
Her hands went up in surrender. “I didn’t tell anyone anything!”
“She knew before me?” Sophia yelled.
“Who told you?” Caleb asked.
“I found out from Dominic.”
“And I heard from Grayson,” Dominic chimed in.
Caleb skewered Gray with an evil look. “Jesus, man. Can you keep a secret for more than two seconds?”
“Hey.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “You said it yourself, we’re all nosey bastards. Did you really expect anything less?”
/>
Lola butted into the conversation, shoving her new husband out of the way. “So it’s true? You’re really having a baby?”
I nodded tentatively. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys sooner. I’m a terrible frie—”
She and Sophia let out ear-piercing shrieks of delight as they pulled me away from Caleb and wrapped me in a tight hug. Thank god we hadn’t gotten to the stage where some very private parts had come out to play yet. “Oh, who cares that you didn’t tell us sooner! We can give you shit about that later,” Sophia chirped. “You’re having a baby!”
Fiona joined our huddle and the four of us bounced up and down happily until all the movement caused my little bean to revolt.
“Oh. No. Nope. No more of that,” I said, placing a hand on my belly. “She’s not liking that.”
“She?” Fiona cried.
I smiled a bright, beaming smile at my friends before moving to Caleb’s side and wrapping an arm around his waist. He slung one over my shoulders and pulled me even closer. “Yeah,” I answered, happier than I ever thought possible. “We’re having a little girl. We just found out a few days ago.”
I thought my girls were going to burst into tears as Grayson, Dominic, and Deacon offered Caleb pats on the back.
“Oh. And we’re getting married,” Caleb announced casually.
“We didn’t agree to that!” I announced loudly, holding up my hands before the three women had a chance to lose their minds again.
Caleb’s arm around me tightened, drawing my attention to his handsome, smiling face. “Maybe not, but I’ll wear you down eventually.”
I had a sneaking suspicion he was right about that.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Daphne
I don’t think I’d ever been as happy as I was at that very moment. Lying in bed, cuddling with Caleb after making love was the most content I’d ever been. His fingers played with my hair as I rested my head on his chest, listening to his heart beat in a smooth, soothing rhythm that was quickly putting me to sleep.
But there was still one last question I needed answered before I could allow myself to fully revel in my newfound bliss.
“Caleb?”
“Hmm?” he hummed sleepily.
“I know that we’re finally in this really great place with each other, and the last thing I want to do is put a damper on that, but there’s still one thing I need to know.”
“What’s that, baby?”
Propping my hands on his chest, I rested my chin on top of them so I could look into his eyes as I asked, “I know you’ve been sneaking off to have private conversations on the phone with someone. I can’t help but feel like there’s something important you aren’t telling me.”
He inhaled deeply, making his chest rise and fall with a weighty sigh as he stared at the ceiling. Finally, his gaze returned to mine. “Before I tell you what’s been going on, I need you to know that I haven’t kept this from you because I didn’t trust you. I just wanted to prevent any more added stress. You’ve been dealing with so much lately—”
“Just tell me,” I pleaded, sitting up on the bed. I held the sheet around my naked breasts as worry lanced through my chest. “Dragging it out like you’re doing is only making it worse. Rip the Band-Aid off.”
Propping himself against the headboard, he took my hand and started slowly massaging it from the ball of my palm up to my fingertips. “It’s your mom. She’s, well….”
“A raging bitch who’s having an affair with your father? Yeah, I already knew that.”
“It’s more than that. She’s… fuck. Well, she’s blackmailing my dad. Apparently, she recorded them… you know….” His face pinched in disgust.
It took a moment for what he said to register, and when it did I felt like I might be sick. “Ew! Oh god! Oh my god! That’s so gross!” I waved my hands in front of my face frantically, trying to erase the mental picture he’d just drawn for me.
“Yeah. Tell me about it.”
Once I was sure I wouldn’t gag, I managed to ask, “How much is she asking for? I hate the thought of giving her money, but I can’t help but feel like I’m responsible in some way. If it’s a reasonable amount, I can pay—”
The fierce, serious scowl he gave me not only shut me up but sent a shiver down my spine. “First of all, you’re not responsible for any of this, you hear me? Secondly, even if she were demanding money, you’re crazy if you think I’d let you give her one goddamn cent of what you earned. The time for that woman to disrupt your life in any way is officially over. I won’t allow it. I take care of what’s mine, and you and our baby are just that. Mine.”
I pushed down the warm fuzzies his declaration stirred in my belly and focused on something he said. “What do you mean, even if she were demanding money? That’s what blackmailers typically ask for, isn’t it?” He raked a hand through his hair and focused on a point over my shoulder, unable to meet my eyes. “Caleb? What aren’t you telling me?”
It took way too long for him to answer me, and when he finally did my blood turned to ice. “She doesn’t just want a payoff. If he doesn’t divorce my mom and marry her, she’s going to leak the video to the press.”
If you listened closely enough, you could almost hear my brain explode. “That fucking bitch!” I shrieked. “That evil, manipulative fucking bitch!”
His hands shot out, wrapping around my waist and lifting me like I weighed nothing at all. Depositing me on his lap so my thighs straddled his, he banded his arms around me, making it impossible for me to move. “Calm down, baby. This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you. You can’t get worked up over this. Not only because she’s not worth it, but because it’s not good for our baby. I’m taking care of it, baby. You can trust me. You’ve got nothing to worry about other than growing our little girl in here.”
He placed his hand on my belly over the sheet. The gentle, sincere touch worked wonders in calming my fury. I closed my eyes, deep breathed, and counted to ten before speaking again. “I don’t understand why you have to take care of this in the first place. I understand they’re your parents, but this is your dad’s mess. Why do you have to help clean it up?”
With a face like granite, he replied, “It’s what I always do. He cheats and she calls me in a drunken stupor and expects that I can somehow convince him to stop.”
I placed my hand on his cheek, hating the hurt and frustration I could see in his eyes. “You know it’s not your place to take care of stuff like that, right? She should have been protecting you from it, not depending on you to fix her broken marriage.”
He pulled my hand from his face and laced his fingers through mine, studied my small hand wrapped in his large one. “Logically, I know that. And when she called that night I left you, I told her I wasn’t going to clean up his mess this time. She called me selfish, said I was ruining her life.
“Honey, I’m so sorry,” I whispered, my heart breaking for him.
“Been that way my whole life,” he said with a pained shrug.
I couldn’t imagine Caleb as a little boy, having that kind of guilt piled on his shoulders. It wasn’t fair, and I secretly hated his parents for doing that to him. I wanted to take away his sadness, but I didn’t know how.
“So that’s what you guys fought about before you came back here?”
His head bobbed in a short nod. “The funny thing is I meant it when I told her I wasn’t going to fix it this time. I’d just gotten you back. I was finally happy, and I didn’t want their bullshit tainting that. Then I thought about you finding out. I didn’t want their shit to touch you, so I hired a private investigator to try and dig up some dirt on your mom that we could use as leverage to try and get her to back down. That’s what all those calls were about.”
Oh, you sweet, naïve man. “You aren’t going to find anything,” I informed him hesitantly. “My mom specializes in covering her tracks.”
A snort burst past his lips. “Yeah, no shit. Tell me something I don’t already kno
w. Only thing he was able to find on her was that she’s flat-ass broke. Obviously that’s why she targeted my old man, but I can’t exactly use her bad credit against her.”
“The only reason I caught her and Stefan together was because she wanted me to. He was taking too long cutting me loose, so she decided to take the situation into her own hands.”
“Jesus Christ,” he hissed furiously. “No offense, baby, but your mother’s a fucking piece of shit.”
I took no offense to that. In fact, I couldn’t help but laugh at his declaration. “Seems like we both got the short end of the stick when it comes to the people who brought us into this world, huh?”
With a look of pure love, he stroked my midsection again. “We’re never going to make our girl feel even an ounce of what we felt when we were growing up.”
God, I love this man. “Nope. She’s not going to know anything but happiness and love. But in order to give her that, we need to cut this one last cancer out of our lives.”
His brow furrowed in confusion and worry. “What are you talking about?”
I knew he was going to hate what I was about to say. He’d do everything he could to talk me out of it. But the truth was, there wasn’t anyone on the face of the earth who knew my mom and her games better than me.
“Okay, I know you aren’t going to like this, but I need you to trust me.”
“What? No. Absolutely not. Whatever you’re thinking, just forget it. My guy’s on it. You aren’t getting involved.”
I placed a finger over his lips to silence his objection. “Honey.” For some reason that one word took all the fight out of him and made his face go all soft and sexy. I’d have to remember that for later. “I don’t really know much about how healthy relationships work. I’m basically just taking ours one day at a time, remembering everything I saw my mom do and doing the exact opposite. But the one thing I’ve learned by watching Lola and Grayson together is that when two people love each other the way we do, it’s our job to take care of each other. You told me that you take care of what’s yours. Well, so do I, and you’re mine, Caleb.
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