“Mm-hmm,” I purred in agreement.
“Today was a hell of a day, baby. What do you want to do tomorrow?” Tane asked as he glided his palm down my back.
“Let’s go to New York,” I suggested, tilting my head to smile at him. “I think it would be good to be close to your family for a little bit, and maybe I can talk to your mom and sisters about the small fashion show they want to help me do.”
His brow wrinkled. “I thought you had your heart set on doing something during Fashion Week?”
“That was before I fell in love with you and dreamed about having babies with blond hair and dark eyes just like their daddy.” I pressed my lips against his and added, “I still want to see my designs on the runway in New York, but it doesn’t have to be a big thing anymore.”
He cupped my cheeks with my palms and stared into my eyes. “Are you trying to tell me that you love me, baby?”
“Yeah,” I answered with a shy smile.
“I love you, too.”
It was great to hear the words, but I already knew because everything Tane had done since the moment we met had shown me how he felt. And I had no doubt that he’d do the same for the rest of our lives.
Epilogue
Tane
2 months later
“Calliope, my love! You were spectacular!”
A growl rumbled in my throat, and I yanked my mate into my side just as Salazar Humphries reached for her. I didn’t give a flying fuck that the man didn’t go for women; I was territorial over mine.
My mate threw me a glare, but it lacked any real anger since she loved it when I got territorial over her. I grinned in response, making her roll her eyes before she turned back to Salazar with a beaming smile. “I hope I made you proud.”
Salazar was Calliope’s investor and besides me and my family, her biggest cheerleader. He was a legend in the fashion world. Tabara was a costume designer for Broadway, and she’d known him for years. When my mother and sisters found out about Calliope’s dream, they made it their mission in life to make it happen. The goal had been to find an investor to sponsor a show at a small-scale fashion house. However, when Trinity saw Calliope’s designs, she’d demanded that Tabara take them straight to Salazar. He’d been blown away, and the next thing we knew, he’d managed to snag her a coveted spot in New York Fashion Week. With the tight timeline, he’d hired an army to help her get ready, and her night had finally arrived.
It had gone off without a hitch, and the smile on her face made all the time I’d had to give up in the past couple of months completely worth it. She was incredible, and I couldn’t have been prouder to be her man.
“You more than delivered, little one! My office phone is already ringing off the hook with potential buyers!” Salazar bounced on his feet and clapped his hands. His boyish excitement made a stark contrast with the older man’s distinguished looks and five-thousand-dollar tailored suit. I turned my head into Calliope’s sunshine hair to muffle my chuckle and earned myself a pinch in the ribs. “We should get started planning for September. You’re going to have to move here of course. I’ll get my assistant to start looking for a house—”
“Salazar,” Calliope cut him off with a tinkling laugh. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Besides, this was a dream come true. For a long time, it was my only dream. Well, the only dream I thought I had any chance of making come true.”
Salazar’s expression fell, clearly sensing by Calliope’s tone that he wouldn’t be happy with what she had to say next.
“But now I want so many other things, and while I intend to keep designing, I think we’ll table another fashion show for long into the future.”
“How long?” Salazar asked with a suspicious gleam in his ice-blue eyes.
Calliope giggled and shook her head, wagging her finger at him. “Stop whatever shenanigans you’re planning right now. I’ll let you know when, or if, I’m ever ready again, okay? Right now, I want to focus on”—she paused and looked up at me through her lashes, pink spots blooming on her cheeks—“having a family.”
I was immediately in pain…from the grin stretching impossibly wide across my face and the steel pipe that instantly formed in my pants. Fuck yeah! Slazar glared at me, to which I gave him a wink before kissing my mate on her temple.
“This isn’t over, my brilliant girl,” he sighed. “I’ll win eventually.” I suppressed a snort, reminding myself that he didn’t understand my Calliope like I did, or how important family was to us.
He gave her an air-kiss on each cheek from a foot away since I wouldn’t let him get any closer. Then he promised to call and spun on his heel to stroll across the room to another one of his pet projects.