“Work isn’t my life anymore,” Gage said, looking at her beautiful, tearstained face. “You are. Our children will be. When you told me you were done … right before, you looked so serious, I was certain you were going to tell me you were pregnant. And I was scared, because I didn’t know if I could be a good father. I didn’t know if I could love a child properly, not after how I was raised. I didn’t know if that child could love me. But I knew if I was going to have a child, I wanted it to be with you.”
“Gage …” She put her hand on his cheek. “Our children will love you. And I love you. I can’t help myself. Our parents were screwed up, but we don’t have to be.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Of course, you know that if we get married, I’ll have access to all of your dirty laundry, and my job will only be more difficult, since I’m going to have to hide all of your flaws from the public, when I’m aware of every single one of them.”
He laughed and smoothed his hands down her back, over her bare curves. “You love my flaws.”
She whimpered. “I do. And you love mine.”
“More than I love my own.”
“We can do this, Gage,” she said, her voice trembling. “We can have this.”
“Of course we can, Lily. Love isn’t what your mother had, love isn’t what my parents gave to my sister and me. This is love. What I feel for you. All of the things I’d worked for suddenly meant nothing without you to share them with.”
“That’s exactly how I felt. Everything that I was happy with before was empty if you weren’t there. I always liked empty before I met you, Gage, but now it just feels hollow.”
“Lily, I think we need to sign another contract.”
“Really?”
“I do. One that says we’re going to stay together, for better or for worse, for all of our lives.”
“I would definitely sign that,” she said, smiling through her tears.
“Was that an agreement?”
She kissed him, long and hard, with all of the passion and love they felt coursing between them. “Yes, it was. But I’m not thinking a handshake is how I want to seal the deal.”
“Oh, no,” he said. “I can think of so many better ways to celebrate this union .”
“Show me,” she whispered against his lips.
“For the rest of our lives.”