Page 133 of Playboy

I shut her up with a kiss. “I look forward to all your what-ifs, dream girl. Just gives me more opportunities to prove you wrong.”

Her unshed tears make her blue eyes brighter than usual. “You do love a challenge.”

I cup her cheek and bring my face close to hers. The air between is charged. Wrought with emotion. “No, I loveyou. The challenges are fun. These adventures and the bucket list, it’s all been fun. Butyou—” I stroke the smooth skin of her cheek with my thumb. “You’re the reason I keep fighting. If it wasn’t with you, I wouldn’t enjoy it. So like I said, with or without this baby, I would have loved you. I just would have had a harder time getting you to give me a chance.”

“I always liked you.” She presses her lips together, gathering her thoughts.

I slide a thumb across the straight line of them, urging her to keep talking to me. When she sighs in defeat, or maybe relief, her warm breath tickles my face. “I didn’t think you’d be like this. I had no idea what I was missing.”

“You are getting smarter,” I tease. “People change. Priorities change.Bucket lists change.”

Like her new additions. The secret ones.

Marriage and a house. A book signing.

One brow arched, she eyes me. “How long have you known?”

“Known what?”

“That I’m Calliope.”

I grin. “Since the bad sex column.”

Hands covering her face, she flops back on the mattress and laughs. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry.”

I lie down beside her and grasp her wrists. “It’s okay, baby. It was like a little peek into what you were thinking for all those months when I had no idea how to get you to open up to me.”

“That’s kind of cheating,” she says, her light tone belying the criticism.

“I’m not above cheating if it means you’re the prize. Besides, someone has to keep you wild.”

She takes a swing at me.

Dodging the attempt, I catch her wrist and kiss the back of her hand. “Not cheating on you. Cheating for you. Like I promised you before, you keep me safe, and I’ll keep you wild.”

“What if I need you to keep me safe too?” she says in that tone that reminds me of just how vulnerable my girl can be. It’s the tone that speaks of all the people who have let her down in the past.

I won’t be one of them.

“You’re safe with me, Hannah. Your heart, your body, and your future.”

She smiles. “Are you going to ask me to marry you one day?”

I nod.

Her eyes dance back and forth between them.

“But not right now,” I tell her. “Today we crossed off one more bucket list item. Book signing. We’ll get to marriage and a house.I promise.”

She rolls into me and hides her face in my chest, groaning in what sounds in mortification.

Yeah, my girl really just asked me to ask her to marry me. While she may be embarrassed, I’m fucking elated.

I’ll do it soon. But today is about her books, and I’m not taking a damn thing away from that.

CALLIOPE’S COLUMN

January

---