Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“Always,” she answers. “I’ll always be your kitten, and you can be my bad boy.” She tells me like it’s a fact.
“Boy? No, kitten. I’m a bad man.” It’s the truth, and I wish she’d just accept it, but I don’t think she ever will.
Her eyes go soft and fill with sadness.
“You aren’t a bad man.” She shakes her head, and it breaks my heart. I wish I’d never burdened her with my shit. None of that matters; it’s in the past where it belongs. And my sweet love is my future. It’s all for her.
“Bad boy?” I ask her. She’s gotta be fucking kidding me.
“It’s a genre of romance,” she explains.
Jesus Christ.
“Call me whatever you want, kitten, when we’re home. But please don’t call me your romantic bad boy in front of another human being ever.” That has her eyes filling with laughter and a silent giggle shaking her shoulders. That’s my girl.
I finger the ring in my pocket nervously. I just got it back from the jeweller. I had it custom designed for her to match her owl earrings. It took a little convincing, but now that she doesn’t fear losing them, she never wears anything else. I thought rubies in her engagement ring would be a nice touch. It’s the entire reason I wanted to play today. I need her to do this for me. We need this.
“You know you love it,” she teases me. As she says the words I slip the ring on her finger. She pulls back with a gasp and stares down at the diamond. She covers her mouth with her other hand.
“Marry me, Catherine.” I tell her simply. I want everyone everywhere to instantly know she’s mine. Always.
She nods her head as tears slip down her cheeks. She rises from her chair and wraps her arms around my neck as she says, “Yes, Anthony.”
“I love you, Catherine,” I whisper as I lean down for a kiss.
“I love you too, Anthony.”
Epilogue
CATHERINE
I type away and continue hitting the keys even though I hear him coming. I just have to get this thought out before I forget. I was hit with a wave of inspiration for this scene, and I don’t want to lose it. I’ve been writing steadily ever since we moved into the new house. My office has a huge window, just like it did at our old place. Well, this one’s even bigger, but the feeling is the same.
He walks up behind me at the back of my desk and rests his hands on my shoulders, but other than that, he doesn’t interrupt. It only takes a minute for me to finish my thought and when I do, I’m quick to look up at him and give him a small smile. I reach my hand behind his neck and pull him down to me for a kiss.
“Mmm.” He hums against my lips. “What is my naughty girl up to?” I blush at his low tone and rest my head against his chest.
“I wanted to write our story.” I feel him stiffen behind me, but I keep going and decide to spill it all. “All of our stories.”
“Kitten,” Anthony says in an admonishing tone.
“No, no. It’s fiction. Under a pen name. No one will ever know.” I look up at him searching for approval. I love romance novels, and I just have to write all these love stories I’ve heard. The whole family is filled with fairytales, albeit dirty smutty fairytales, that have to be told. I’ve never felt compelled so much in my life to write them down. Ours will be last, because in my completely unbiased opinion, it’s the best.
He smirks at me and places a hand on the nape of my neck, massaging slightly. “Can I read them?”
“If you want to.” I wouldn’t be shocked if he did. He reads over my work from time to time. I used to think he was making sure that I wasn’t trying to put clues or hints out there for someone to come rescue me from him. As if. But then he started doing things in bed that were incredibly familiar from my blogs and columns.
“Well, I definitely want to read ours. I wanna know what my kitten was thinking when I brought her home.” He smiles warmly at me with love in his eyes before leaning down to give me a sweet kiss. My chest warms with his affection.
“I have a question I need to know… for the story.” I don’t know what he’ll answer. But I really do want to know.
“Why didn’t you have me call you master?” I ask him.
It takes him a moment to answer. “I knew from the second I saw you that I would be just as much a slave to you as you would ever be to me. If not more.” Tears prick my eyes. I fucking love his answer. “Doesn’t matter what you call me, babe,” he says as he tips my chin up, so I have to look at him, “You’ll always be my kitten.”