“I love your body,” she replies and grabs the soap, lathers up a wash cloth, and begins cleaning me up. “I love your chest and arms. The muscles are defined perfectly.” She glides her hands over me. “Your abs are perfect. Hard, but not airbrushed.”

I bark out a laugh, and then swallow thickly when she moves down to my semi-hard cock.

“And this is just… perfect for me. It fits,” she says simply.

“Fits where?” I ask.

“My mouth, my pussy, my hand.” She smiles up at me sweetly, then slips behind me. “And your ass makes my mouth water.”

“You’re welcome to bite my ass anytime.”

So she does, hard. I glance back at her, and she just smiles innocently while she washes my ass cheeks, then up my back, and finally I can’t take it anymore, I turn the tables on her, stealing the cloth from her and begin running it all over her body.

“You make me crazy,” I murmur. “Your breasts are the perfect size, and so responsive to my fingers and mouth.” At my words, they pucker, making me smile. “I love your firm body. Your height. Your strength.”

Her body is all soapy now, and she’s watching me with humor-filled eyes. “I love your pussy, baby. Sliding inside you is the closest I’ll ever get to heaven.”

I move out of the way of the water so she can rinse, and she reaches down and clenches my cock in her hand, immediately bringing me right back to attention.

“It seems you’ve caught your breath,” she says.

“This shower isn’t conducive to me fucking the hell out of you,” I growl, turning off the water and lead her to the vanity. I cage her in and kiss the hell out of her, then spin her around, bend her over and push inside her. “I love how tall you are,” I growl, my eyes closing as her warmth surrounds me.

She leans on the mirror and pushes back against me. “Fuck me hard,” she demands.

I slap her ass, on both sides, then grip her hair in my hand and pull.

Hard.

She gasps, but her face in the mirror is pure bliss.

“I’ve wanted to pull your hair like this since the first time I saw you,” I say, my voice rough. Her head is tilted up, exposing her long neck, and I lean forward to bite, then suck on it, making her moan. I know she loves it when I go for the neck.

She reaches down and rubs her clit vigorously, and quickly pushes back against me and comes spectacularly.

She squeezes me so hard, I can’t help but follow her over. I try not to rest my weight on her as I come, leaning my hands on the counter on either side of her.

“I’m sticky again,” she says with a grin.

“The first priority on our list is renovating this bathroom,” I say as I pass her a towel. “We need a better shower, and a bigger vanity. I think we almost broke that one.”

“We do?” she asks, one brow cocked.

“Yes. We.” I toss my towel on the floor and take her face in my hands, touching her gently now. “Stay here, with me.”

Her eyes widen. “For good?”

“For good.” I nod and smile, enormous butterflies suddenly trying to beat their way out of my gut. “I don’t want to sleep away from you. I want you to help me renovate this house. It’s your house, Callie. I didn’t know it when I bought it, but it is.”

“I love this house,” she whispers.

“I don’t want to ever be without you again,” I whisper. “I need you. Be with me.” I kiss her forehead. “Marry me.”

“Marry you?” She’s completely shocked.

“Marry me. You are it for me, Callie. You are everything I’ve ever wanted, and I’ll be yours until I take my last breath.”

She’s watching me with those wide eyes, and finally, she blinks and says, “I’ll marry you under two conditions.”

I narrow my eyes. “Name them.”

“One, I want a bench in our shower. It’ll make things very interesting in there.”

I pretend like I’m thinking it over, weighing my options. “I think I can do that. What’s the next condition?”

She swallows hard, but squares her shoulders, never afraid to ask for what she wants. God, I love that about her. “I want to make one of the bedrooms a nursery.”

“Are you—?”

“No.” She shakes her head and smiles. “But I want babies with you, Declan.”

I pull her to me and kiss her softly but thoroughly. “I can definitely live with that.”

***

“’Bout time you got here,” Charly says as Callie and I walk into Mama’s house. Everyone is here for dinner, just the way Mama likes it.

Speaking of Mama, I need to find her. “I’ll be back.” I kiss Callie’s hand as she nods and sits with Charly and Kate to discuss shoes.

I love that she loves my family and they love her too. Family is important to all of us.

“Hello, sweet boy,” Mama says and tips her cheek up for me to kiss it.

“Hi, Mama. I need to talk to you.”

She looks up into my eyes, then hands the spoon she’s stirring something with to Beau. “Mind this for me, Beau.”

“Sure thing,” he replies and smiles at me.

Mama leads me out the back door to the back yard. “What’s up?”

“Remember when you told me, long ago, that I could have Nannan’s ring when it was time for me to propose?”

Her eyes immediately fill. “Oh, baby. I love her for you.”

“I love her for me too,” I reply and nod. “And I’m keeping her.”

“I hope you word it differently than that when you ask her,” she says with a laugh, reminding me how I asked Callie out in the first place.

“I’ve already asked, and she said yes.”

“I’m so happy for you, son.” She pats my cheek, the way she did when I was small. “She fits you.”

“She does.”

“I’ll fetch the ring from the safe,” she says as we walk back inside.

***

Dinner is loud and chaotic, which is pretty usual for our clan. There’s always lots to say, and it seems we all want to say it at once.

“I’m telling you,” Savannah says to Charly. “You should go.”

“Go where?” I ask.

“So there’s this guy, Simon Danbury.”

“Sounds British,” Beau says, interrupting her.

“He is,” she replies and wiggles her eyebrows. It’s fun to see Van’s sense of humor returning. She’s healing, and that makes my heart happy. “He has the sexy accent to match. Anyway, he’s a motivational speaker, and I think that Charly should go to one of his workshops.”

“Why me?” Charly asks with a frown.

“Because I can’t go, and I want to know what it’s all about,” Van replies, as if it’s the most reasonable request in the world. “It’ll be fun. You might learn something.”

“I don’t think so,” Charly replies. “I have a business to run.”

“You’re no fun,” Van grumbles.

“I’m learning stuff in school,” Sam says.

“What kind of stuff?” Eli asks him.

“About bugs and stuff.” Sam shrugs, as if it’s no big deal. “And there’s this girl, Amanda, that says she likes me.”

“You’re nine,” Gabby says, panic lacing her voice. “No girl talk until you’re at least thirty.”

“Right.” Sam shakes his head. “I didn’t say I liked her back. Plus, she keeps throwing these stupid notes at me, then running away.”

“What do the notes say?” Rhys asks, obviously enjoying his wife’s discomfort.

“Stupid stuff, like, Do you like me? Check yes for yes and no for no. As if I can’t figure out what to check.”

“What did you check?” Van asks.

“I didn’t check anything.” Sam shakes his head. “My best friend Louie likes her, and I don’t poach on another guy’s girl.”

“Where did you hear that?” Gabby demands, glaring at her husband, as we all laugh.

“Dad says not to poach on another guy’s girl,” Sam says and Rhys nods.

“I did. It’s good advice.” He looks at the rest of us guys for back up, and we all nod.

“Good advice,” Beau agrees. “So you didn’t say anything to her? You just left her hanging?”

“I told her I’d take it under advisement, but that as of right now, I’m not accepting any applications for a girlfriend because I don’t like girls very much.”

“He’s going to make an excellent CEO one day,” Beau says proudly as the rest of us laugh.