He grins widely and slides the ring onto my finger, and then leaps to his feet and takes me in his hard muscled arms. I sink against him, savoring how solid and perfect he feels against me, how right.
He’s mine.
I’m his.
Forever.EpilogueOne Week LaterColtonI feel like a new man as I walk through the front door of our – our – city apartment, which I’ll never just think of as my penthouse again.
Ever since I asked Kat to move in with me, standing there in her ready-to-be-personalized rescue center, the notion that we were a we has settled into me with an assurance that will last a life time.
All my life, I’ve been waiting.
And now the wait is finally over.
The place smells different now that Kat’s moved in, her scent and Rusty’s mark everything gorgeously, the scented candles she likes to burn, the little touches that make Kat who she is. Dog magazines litter the living room table and this evening, as I round the corner to the kitchen, I find that the counters are a battlefield of pots and pans, something baking in the oven.
I turn to find Rusty pawing at my leg happily, the little Jack Russel slash Chihuahua letting his tongue loll out as he scrapes at my suit trouser leg. Scrappy is back at my parents’, but Kat’s still training the Basset Hound.
And doing a damn fine job.
“Hey, little man,” I smile, reaching down to ruffle him behind the ears. “Is Mommy home?”
He tilts his head at me, ears alert.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I grin.
I glance inside the oven, my nose wrinkling when I realize that something’s burning. I turn off the oven and take out the half-charcoaled homemade dog treats, a prickle of anxiety moving down my spine.
Kat’s been making these all week and hasn’t burnt them once …
Well, once, but not since that first time.
Something’s wrong. Or at least different.
I look down at Rusty, an almost conspiratorial smile on his face.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
He’d be going crazy if something happened to Kat, and anyway I checked with the security on my way in and nothing’s amiss.
I walk through the apartment, tossing my suit jacket on the hook in the hallway and then moving into the bedroom.
Kat sits on the edge of the bed, wearing nothing but her bathrobe, open at the middle to show me a tempting sliver of her chest. Her legs poke out, bare and delicious-looking, and suddenly the urge to take her right here, like the fucking beast I am, consumes me.
I don’t think that’ll ever go away, not as long as she’s still Kat, my woman, mine.
She looks at me, hair wet from the shower, eyes wide and focusing on me only after a moment.
“Kat,” I say, moving closer to her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” she mutters, eyes flitting to Rusty as he walks in behind me and looks up at us both. Then her eyes crease and a sunny smile lights up her face. “No, nothing’s wrong. I’m sorry. I’m just shocked. I’ve got no idea how long I’ve been sitting here.”
“Shocked about what?” I ask, though already my voice has changed, gotten deeper, more significant.
I feel my heart in my chest pounding, hammering, let me out, let this joy out.
“Kat …”
“Yes,” she says, reading my look, rising to her feet and moving over to me. “Yes, Colton. Are you happy?”
“You’re pregnant.”
She nods and suddenly I let out a howling roar of victory, jumping around the room like a crazy man, acting nothing at all like the stoic CEO I was earlier today in a meeting with some reality TV stars.
My course takes me back to Kat, smiling widely at me, Rusty leaping around on his hind legs, his tail going as crazy as my pumping fist.
“Yes, yes, yes,” I yell, and then sweep Kat into my arms and kiss her firmly, deeply, take as much of her as she’ll give me—which is a lot, which will always be a lot.
She sinks close to me and I guide my hands down her back, smoothing down over the silk robe and feeling the needy heat of her flesh beneath.
“Colton,” she says, shivering. “Rusty …”
“Then you better take the little man to bed,” I grin. “Because don’t think being pregnant makes me want you any less. Go on.”
I spank her lightly on the ass and she giggles, turning her beaming face to Rusty.
“Are you hungry, boy?” she says. “Dinner and beddie-byes? I promise Mommy’ll come and see you after.”
“It might take a while,” I grin, kneeling down and giving Rusty an all-body massage that makes him almost purr with contentment. “But then we’ll spend the whole evening together. As a family.”
As soon there’ll be one more person.
I close my eyes, feeling like—no, knowing that I’m the luckiest man alive.