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"We can burn them," he says, and then smirks at me. "But you should know, you're going to need to buy a lot of replacements, Charlotte."
"Theo," I groan. "You can't steal my panties either!"
"Then don't wear them," he growls.
"Fine," I sniff. Two can play this game. "I won't wear them."
He grins.
"I wonder how much the photographers will get for a picture of my butt," I muse, watching his smirk slip and his eyes narrow. "Do you think it'll be more or less than they got for the pictures on the porch?"
"Little one," he growls.
"I don't know," I murmur, ignoring the warning in his voice. "I don't think my butt is nearly as impressive as your…package. But they might disagree, right?"
He flips me onto my back, rising up over me like a possessive, jealous beast. "You're wearing fucking panties, Charlotte," he growls, his face a thundercloud. "And pants. No more dresses. No more skirts. Only pants."
"Bossy," I whisper, smiling like a crazy person. I knew he'd see it my way with the right incentive. He's a smart man.
He growls when I giggle. "You keep playing with fire, I'm going to give you something to choke on, baby doll. And it won't be smoke."
"Goodie for me," I say, and then giggle when he growls my name again.
"You're fucking with me."
"Just a little bit," I say, wrapping my arms around his neck to pull him down to me. "Pictures of my naked butt are definitely worth more than you in your boxers. I have it on good authority that it's a great butt." At least that's what he keeps telling me.
He digs his fingers into my ribs, making me shriek with laughter.
"I give up! I give up!" I cry, batting his hands away.
He smirks at me, his eyes alight with humor and so much love I marvel all over again at how I ever missed it. It's been right there all along, blazing like jewels.
"I love you, my brave little fairy," he whispers.
"I love you too, Theo."
He presses his lips to my forehead and wraps his arms around me, flipping us so we're on our sides, my back against the back of the sofa. I nuzzle my face into his throat, feeling content in a way I never have before. It's a bone-deep sense of belonging. Like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. Right here in his arms.
It's the best place in the world if you ask me.
Epilogue
Theo
Six Years Later
"Wook out!" Gemma cries from the kitchen, her little voice raised in warning. She barely gets the words out before a loud clattering reaches me, as if every pot and pan in the house just landed on the floor.
I shake my head and hurry my steps. Our three-year-old is, without a doubt, her mother's daughter. Like Charlotte, she's loud and messy and a little bit of a disaster. If something can be knocked down, broken, trampled, or otherwise wrecked, Gemma will find a way to do it. It's never on purpose, of course. But like her mama, disaster simply finds her.
"Gemma, you hab to be careful, " her four-year-old brother, Damon, says, making me smile. I should have known they wereworking together on this one. Damon is never too far from his little sister. Where she goes, he follows.
"Sowwie," Gemma giggles. "I gots da Charms."
"Cool," Damon whispers.
I poke my head into the kitchen to find Gemma standing on the counter in her nightgown with a box of Lucky Charms in her hands. Damon's standing beside the cabinet, pots and pans strewn around his feet where Gemma knocked them onto the floor.
