"Do you want me to call up for breakfast?"
She shakes her head. "I don't eat this early. Do you?"
"No," I tell her. "I usually work out in the morning, and then I eat after I shower."
"How about you work out and then I'll just meet you in the shower?"
I laugh. "I like the sound of that, but you know what I like more?”
"What?" she says, sitting up in bed. I join her, loving the way her naked body looks in the morning. Fuck, she looks beautiful.
"I love that you're here in my bed like this."
"Yeah, I don't think it's fair that you have a robe on," she says. "Here I am naked for you, and you're all dressed."
"I'm not dressed," I say. "It's just a robe. Nothing else."
"Take it off," she says.
Before I do, I take one item out of the pocket.
"What's that?" she says.
"You'll see," I say. I walk over to her side of the bed, completely naked. "I wasn't exactly planning on doing this in the nude."
"Doing what?" she asks.
And now I'm on one knee before her. She rolls over to the edge of the bed. "What are you doing?" she says. "Is this another Kama Sutra move I don't know about?"
"It could be," I say. "It's called ‘on bended knee.’"
She laughs. "I've never heard of that."
"Are you sure?" I say. "Usually, it's how a proposal begins."
"A proposal?" Her eyes widen. Her head shakes. God, she looks sexy in the morning.
"Yeah," I say, offering her a ten-carat diamond ring. "You gave me a Christmas gift last night: your virginity. I thought the least I could do is offer you an engagement ring as a Christmas gift this morning. It was my grandmother's. I've had it in my safe since she passed away. I've been waiting for you."
She closes her eyes. A tear falls down her cheek. "Oh, it's so beautiful. It's too perfect. You're–"
"Marry me?" I ask her. "I told you last night I wanted you to call me husband. I wanted to see how it sounded on your lips."
"And how did it sound?" she asks.
"Sounded fucking divine."
She grins. "It felt pretty good to say, too."
"Did it?" I ask.
She nods. "It felt right."
"How does this sound?" I ask. "Wife. Be my wife."
She sighs as I slide the ring on her finger. "It sounds as perfect as this ring fits."
"So you'll marry me?" I ask.
She nods. "I'll marry you."
"Good," I say. "And let me get back in that bed because I think the traditional thing to do is to fuck after a proposal. Isn't that right?"
She laughs as I pull the sheets over us, drawing my bride-to-be close, knowing that my extra-large candy cane is ready to sink deep into my Christmas gift.
Epilogue
Lucia
One year later…
Last year's Christmas party was one that I will never forget.
It was memorable in every imaginable way. And not just because I gave Cane a Christmas gift that was one of a kind.
When I let my dress fall to the floor in his master suite and I offered him my virginity, I knew it would change things between us forever, but taking that leap of faith meant we got more than love.
We got a baby and a baby carriage too!
And honestly, that is something I mentioned more than a few times on our first night together. I was turned on by the fantasy of him filling my belly with his seed, breeding me… and God, did he ever.
Now I am a mother, and we have a beautiful little boy. Christopher is our Christmas miracle. And now we're starting all sorts of new traditions with him in mind.
I was hoping Fiona and Flynn would be here for Christmas this year, but they have their own life to live, their own family traditions to begin, so for this year’s Christmas party I'm hosting with just my husband and our little boy.
I'm nervous of course, but Cane assures me that I'm going to be great. I’m still trying to figure out what it means to be the wife of a prominent businessman in Las Vegas – not that I don't know what it's like to be around a successful entrepreneur on the Strip, considering I grew up with a father like mine. But being married to one is a whole different scenario.
There's expectations of me that I didn't have when I was 22 and single. Now I'm a wife and a mother and I feel like there are eyes on me everywhere I go. And hosting a massive Christmas party that means a lot to my husband, I want tonight to be perfect.
“Excuse me, Lucia?” Jenna the caterer asks. “Would you like the wait staff to bring the canapes as soon as the first guests arrive or do you want them to wait until more people get here?”
I bite my bottom lip, wanting to make the right decision. I have Christopher sleeping against my chest, and I don't want to wake him. I press my hand to his back, and I speak quietly. “I think if they could be passing them out as soon as people are arriving that would be great. I know I'm always starving as soon as I arrive at these kinds of things,” I tell her with a smile.