BTW: I Love You (Mills & Boon M&B) (One Hot Fling - Book 1) (29 page)

He chuckled. ‘Feel free to use me all you want, Ms Delisantro.’ Resting his hands on her hips, he pulled her against the proof of his love and desire. ‘In fact, I’m counting on it.’

She rose up, pulled his mouth towards hers.

‘Let’s use each other,’ she whispered, then placed a lavish kiss on his lips.

He angled his head, capturing her mouth to seal the deal.

And her heart did a victory roll before shooting off towards the cosmos.

‘RUBY, thanks so much for the cupcake tower. It’s fabulous. So fresh and funky. Everyone’s talking about it.’ Maddy beamed as she swayed gently from side to side in that unconscious way mothers did, with her newborn baby son sound asleep on her shoulder. ‘I’ve had to give your details to four people already. It’s like a work of art.’

‘But hopefully a lot more edible.’ Ruby grinned back at the woman who had become one of her favourite people. She laid her hand on little Daniel Callum King’s back. She breathed in the sweet scent of talcum powder and milk. The soft bundle wriggled under her palm and her grin softened—the yearning across her chest tightening like a vice.
I want Cal’s baby. I’m ready.
‘So, how’s your little work of art doing?’ she said, pushing the now almost constant longing as far away as she could.

Cal’s hand squeezed her waist as he held her firmly against him. ‘I think you may have a rock god in your future, Mads,’ he said, has low rumble of laughter brushing against Ruby’s hair. ‘Given the amount of singing your son did in the church.’

‘Not funny.’ Maddy giggled. ‘Rye reckons he may have deafened the vicar. And the poor old guy’s hearing wasn’t exactly pitch-perfect to begin with.’

‘He’s got a healthy set of lungs,’ Cal said. ‘All the better to top the charts with one of these days.’

‘You wouldn’t say that if you were the one getting up four times a night,’ Maddy quipped.

‘Well, you know what they say about making your bed and then having to lie in it …’

Ruby listened to brother and sister spar playfully with each other and took some comfort in the fact that their relationship had become so close and relaxed over the last few months. There was none of the distance that she’d seen between them last summer. She and Cal came down to Cornwall frequently now. Rye had started teaching him to surf, and he’d embraced his role as uncle with surprising enthusiasm. Although the first time the two of them had babysat Mia hadn’t exactly been a roaring success—the little dynamo had managed to wind them both round her little finger, and when Maddy and Rye had returned from their dinner date at midnight, she and Cal still hadn’t managed to get her into bed.

But Cal’s words about his new nephew, even in jest, only made her yearning—and her confusion over it—more acute.

‘Why don’t I go and check on the tower, make sure it’s not getting too depleted,’ she said, interrupting the siblings’ banter.

‘You want me to give you a hand with that?’ Cal asked, caressing her hip.

‘No, I won’t be long,’ she said, suddenly eager to be alone and give herself time to think.

With the christening party in full swing, and the fifty or so guests happily enjoying the vintage champagne, Maddy’s home-made canapés, and the glorious spring weather, it took Ruby quite a while to work her way through the crowd and escape to the solitude of the Trewan kitchen.

The decision to bake was probably a little manic but she decided to go with it. Hunting up the necessary ingredients
from Maddy’s well supplied pantry and putting an apron on to protect her posh frock, she began to rustle up a roast vegetable lasagne. Once everyone left, it would just be her and Cal, Rye, Maddy and the children and she doubted anyone had given much thought to supper.

Comfort food would be good for what ailed her.

She was being silly. Ridiculous. Letting the emotion of the day, and the sight of Cal holding his baby nephew that morning as they both made their vows as godparents, get to her in a big way.

This strange mixture of envy and hope and desperation was just a biological urge, one that had been nagging at her for a while and had gotten totally out of hand today. Watching Maddy’s slim figure grow ripe with her child had been hard. But then, two weeks ago, when she and Cal had arrived at the Truro maternity hospital just after Danny’s birth, the yearning had got a billion times worse. She’d had to bite her lip to stop herself from saying anything that night, when they’d been lying in each other arms and he’d been laughing about something Mia had said to him about her new baby brother.

Methodically scrubbing and chopping the vegetables, Ruby forced her mind to focus, so she could look at the situation rationally.

Cal and her had only been living together for seven months and while their relationship had brought her more joy than she could ever have imagined, it had also brought with it quite a few challenges. They were both headstrong, confident people who weren’t shy about speaking their minds, and they didn’t see eye-to-eye on everything. Far from it. Happily they were also both committed enough to each other to do whatever it took to find the middle ground. Heat bloomed at the memory of how their last argument had ended. One should certainly never underestimate the importance of great make-up sex when it came to navigating the minor bumps in a relationship.

The point was, she wanted to have Cal’s children for the right reasons. She knew what an incredible father he would make. What incredible parents they would make together. They complemented each other, his logical, disciplined approach to life the perfect counterpoint to her passion and enthusiasm.

She sprinkled olive oil over the prepared vegetables, seasoned them and popped the roasting tray into the oven.

But it was still way too soon.

That’s what her head was shouting. Unfortunately, her heart and her biological clock were shouting something entirely different. And she was finding it harder and harder to reconcile the two.

Her heart lifted a little as she began to mix the pasta dough. Would it really be so terrible, just to mention it? In passing? After all, she knew Cal was unlikely to bring it up first. Like most guys it probably hadn’t even occurred to him yet, because he didn’t have a biological clock, ticking or otherwise.

She debated the pros and cons of placing the subject on the table, purely for the purposes of negotiation and discussion. Cal was highly unlikely to say yes straight off. She already knew that. He was a naturally methodical man. So she had to be prepared for Cal to say no, or not yet. And not let it upset her. She had to be prepared to be patient and pragmatic about his answer, before she posed the question. Or she could end up turning into even more of a ticking biological time bomb than she was already.

Unfortunately, patience had never been Ruby’s strong suit and pragmatism wasn’t real big on her list of accomplishments either, unless it had to do with bulk ordering or filing Touch of Frosting’s VAT returns in time. And she didn’t think asking your partner if he would consider having a baby with you quite qualified.

‘That smells incredible.’

Ruby yelped and dropped the sieve, sending a cloud of flour over herself and the counter.

‘Cal, for goodness sake, are you trying to give me a heart attack?’ she said as his arms circled her waist. The heat burned in her cheeks at the realisation that she’d been so deep in thought, she hadn’t even heard him come in. Thank goodness he couldn’t read minds, or she’d have more than the dusting of flour on her posh frock to worry about.

He laughed as he buried his face in her hair, inhaled deeply. ‘You’re a little jumpy aren’t you?’ He cuddled her, and her heart bumped against her ribcage.

God, she loved this man so much. What would she do if he said he never wanted to have children?

‘And while I know I’m going to adore whatever it is you’re cooking,’ he added, his hands settling on her hips as he turned her to face him. ‘Why are you hiding away in here? The party’s not over yet. And it’s not like you to miss out on the company—or the free champagne.’

‘I’m not hiding.’ She braced her hands on the countertop behind her, looked past him out the picture window. ‘I just fancied a little peace and quiet, that’s all. It’s been a pretty hectic day.’

‘You? Peace and quiet?’ he scoffed. ‘I don’t think so.’

Tucking his forefinger under her chin, he brought her gaze to his. He looked amused and curious, and so gorgeous her heartbeat skidded into her throat.

‘Now are you going to tell me what’s been bothering you?’ he asked mildly. ‘Or am I going to have to wheedle it out of you?’

The heat blazed hotter in her cheeks. Had she really been that obvious? ‘Nothing. Nothing’s bothering me. I’m fine.’

‘Forget it, Ruby,’ he said. ‘The gig’s up. You might as well spill it now, or be prepared to be ravaged into submission later.’

She wanted to smile at his teasing. But she just couldn’t. She swallowed. This was it. The moment of truth. And however ready or not ready they were to take this next step, she couldn’t hold back the yearning to at least know where she stood a second longer.

‘I’ve been thinking about children.’ She cleared her throat, the sudden blockage coming from nowhere. ‘About us. And children. And whether we want to have any. Or not.’

Instead of looking stunned, or worse, horrified, his smile barely faltered. ‘I see.’

‘So what do you say? Are you in favour of the idea?’ She tried to be brusque, businesslike. Not easy with her heart now pummelling her larynx. ‘You know, in principal, that is. We only have to make a decision in principal at this point. Obviously we don’t have to start trying straight away. I’m only twenty-eight, we’ve got a few years yet before we have to worry about …’ Her voice trailed off.

She was babbling. She sounded like a nincompoop.

‘Well, say something,’ she said, starting to get a little annoyed by the dimples deepening in his cheeks. ‘Why are you smiling like that? It’s not supposed to be …’

‘It sounds like a wonderful idea,’ he interrupted. His hands gripped her sides as he pressed her back against the countertop. ‘How about we get started right now?’

She braced her arms against his chest, her temper kicking in. ‘This isn’t a joke, Cal. I’m serious.’

‘I know you are,’ he said, the grin widening. ‘So am I.’

‘But …?’ Her mouth dropped open. ‘You are?’

That couldn’t be right. She’d been agonising over asking him for weeks now, months even. He never made a decision without judging every piece of advice, weighing each iota of relevant information carefully. It had taken him a week to choose a new TV. It was one of the things she loved about
him. He couldn’t possibly have made up his mind in three seconds flat.

‘But aren’t you going to think about it first?’ she murmured, still reeling.

He shrugged, his palms warm on her back. ‘What’s there to think about? You’d make an amazing mother. And I’m sure I can manage to make a halfway decent Dad if I set my mind to it. We’ll probably make mistakes, all parents do. But that’s all part of the adventure.’

‘But, I …’ She couldn’t speak. Excitement and love and total shock combining to make her tongue numb.

‘Ruby, I love you. I adore just being around you. The last seven months have been the best of my life. Even though you still can’t follow instructions worth a damn,’ he teased. ‘When I come home at night and you’re there, I have to kick myself, because I can’t believe how lucky I am to have you. We make a great pair. I’d never have considered having children with anyone else. But with you, it makes sense.’

Tears welled in her eyes. They made sense. That was it. And here she’d been tying herself in knots about the question, when the answer had always been there, right in front of her.

He brushed the tear away with his thumb. ‘I’m hoping those are happy tears.’

She gave his arm a little punch, laughed. ‘You know they are.’

‘Good, because there is one small hitch in your plan.’

‘What’s that?’

‘As you know I’m a logical, boringly conventional guy. I like to do things in their proper order. And what we have here is definitely a cart-before-horse situation.’

Ruby blinked and sniffed. ‘What?’ He’d totally lost her again, but she was willing to give him the chance to explain, because the wave of euphoria inside her was kind of hard to contain.

‘Before we have a baby, or babies. I want my ring on your finger. And your signature on a marriage certificate.’

‘You do?’ She hadn’t actually thought she could be any happier, but now she was.

‘I definitely do,’ he said, gathering her close.

He slanted a kiss across her lips.

As always the passion ignited between them instantly. But before she could get completely carried away, Ruby struggled back and held him at arm’s length.

‘Not so fast, Westmore. If that’s your idea of a proposal, it’s pathetic.’

He chuckled, hauling her up to seat her on the countertop and step between her thighs. ‘I guess I’m going to have to work on it,’ he murmured, a wicked glint in his eyes. ‘But the good news is,’ he said, sliding his palms under her dress and making her thighs quiver. ‘Even if we hit the jackpot tonight, I still have a few months to practice.’

‘I’ve got a better idea,’ she said, sending him a saucy grin as she leaned close, tasting her own chocolate cupcakes and desire on his breath. ‘Why don’t I save you the trouble?’ Running her palms over broad shoulders, she gazed deep into his emerald eyes. ‘Callum Westmore, will you marry me and give me your babies?’

Lifting her in his arms, his hands caressing her bottom as she wrapped her legs round his waist, he swung her round in a circle, kissed her full on the lips, and then laughed.

‘Damn it, woman. I thought you’d never ask.’

As it turned out, it took them three months to hit the jackpot, by which time Cal had already got Ruby’s signature on their marriage certificate. So the following Spring, when the proud parents celebrated the birth of Max Ryan Westmore with a cupcake and champagne picnic on Hampstead Heath,
everyone was happy. Except Ruby, who—despite the addition of another six pounds that she would also have to lose at a later date—was ecstatic.