A Hot Holiday Collection

Chapter 9

9

KATIE

C radled in Sawyer’s arms as he leaned against the wall, I stared down at the ring on my finger in awe. “I can’t believe we’re engaged. You went from a friend I texted with to my secret admirer turned boyfriend to my fiancé all in less than twenty-four hours.”

“You better believe it,” Sawyer growled, tightening his hold on me. “I’m going to slide my wedding band onto your finger by this summer, so you’ll be able to add husband to that list.”

My eyes were wide as my head jerked back so I could meet his gaze. “Is that all the time you’re going to give my mom and me to plan a wedding?”

“That depends.”

I didn’t trust the sexy grin he flashed me. “On what?”

“Is there any chance you want to elope over spring break?” he asked.

“It’s super tempting, but no.” I heaved a deep sigh. “I don’t even know how I’ll manage to juggle my classes and everything it’ll take for us to get married this summer. It would be a whole lot easier to run off with just the two of us, but I’ve been dreaming about my wedding day since I was a little girl. I want it all—the white dress, flowers, music, our family, and great food.”

“Then that’s exactly what you’ll get,” he promised. “I’m sure my mom and sisters would be thrilled to pitch in with the planning, and they have plenty of experience after their weddings.”

“Oh, my gosh! I haven’t even met them yet.” I buried my face in his chest and mumbled, “Are they going to be happy about our engagement? Or will they think you’re being too impulsive and try to talk you out of marrying a stranger?”

Sawyer chuckled and shook his head, seemingly unconcerned by the possibility that his family would be against us marrying. “I don’t give a damn what anyone has to say about us being together. Nothing is going to change the fact that you’re mine.”

Leaning back, I poked my finger against his chest. “Is that your way of telling me that they’re going to hate me?”

“Not even a little bit, baby.” He cupped my cheeks with his palms and tilted my chin up to claim my mouth in a deep kiss. When he lifted his head, I was a little dazed and much calmer. “I’m willing to bet it’ll be the opposite. My parents and sisters are probably going to wonder how I managed to land a woman as fantastic as you.”

“Aw, do you really think so?” I twined my arms around his neck.

“I know so.” He dropped a quick kiss on the tip of my nose. “You’ll see when you meet them.”

“When are we going to be able to manage that?” I asked, a wrinkle popping up in the middle of my forehead. “How often are we even going to be able to see each other between my classes, your work, and how far apart we live from each other?”

“All the fucking time,” he assured, brushing his lips against my brow to smooth it. “One of the great things about being one of the bosses is that I’m in charge of my schedule. I’ll keep my weekends open so you can spend them with me at my apartment or here. During the week, I’ll be sure to knock off early enough to make the drive to your campus so I can spend my nights with you.”

I loved that he’d already come up with a plan for how we’d make it through the rest of my semester. But my nose scrunched as I thought about the nights we’d spend at my sorority house. “My room is super small. It’s going to be extra cramped when you’re there with me.”

“Being in tight quarters sometimes has its advantages.” He cupped my butt and squeezed. “It certainly worked well for us on Friday night.”

“Good point.” My lips curved as I remembered how awesome it had felt to wake up with Sawyer’s body wrapped around mine on my small bed. “And there are only a few more months until graduation, so it’s not like we’ll have to deal with my tiny room for long.”

He brushed my hair off my shoulder and cupped the back of my head with his palm. “I’ll have this place ready for us to move in by then. The lease is up on my apartment in mid-June, so the timelines are pretty damn perfect.”

I had the man of my dreams, and he was giving me the home I’d always wanted. The only thing missing was a job. And babies. “I guess between my studies and planning the wedding, I’ll start submitting my résumé to places around here. I’d planned on staying with my parents for a little while after graduation, so I’ve been looking at potential employers back home. I hope you don’t mind if I pick your brain during my search. You can steer me away from any bad companies since you’re probably familiar with most of the people who’d be hiring an interior designer.”

He flashed me a cocky grin. “I can do better than that, baby.”

“If you’re going to tell me that you know of the perfect job for me”—scooting back, I stroked my hand down his chest and six-pack abs to cup his dick—“then I’m going to have to figure out a way to properly show my gratitude.”

He punched his hips up, pressing his hardening length into my palm. “I sure as fuck do.”

“You do?” I gasped, my grip on him tightening as I moved my hand up and down his shaft.

He wrapped his fingers around my wrist, holding me in place even though his dick was growing harder. “I want you to come work for me.”

“I guess it makes sense for you to stop my hand job if we’re going to talk about you potentially becoming my boss,” I muttered, releasing him as I tried to scoot off his lap.

He didn’t let me go far, his arms banding around me to pull me close, and his hard-on nestled between my thighs. “If you want to be an independent contractor so I’m not technically your boss, that’s fine by me. Either way, I want your talent on my projects.”

I loved how confident he sounded about my abilities, but I had doubts about his plan. “I’m not sure I’m ready for that. I need some real-world experience first. Then if I mess stuff up, it’ll be on someone else’s dime.”

“You’re not going to mess shit up.” He circled one hand in the air and asked, “You already know exactly how this room should be decorated, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I admitted softly, closing my eyes as I pictured how it would look when I was done.

“And it’s going to be beautiful, right?”

I knew what he was getting at, but that didn’t mean I would cave to his demands on this. “It’s different. This is going to be our home. I can do whatever I want with the place because I don’t need to consider anyone else’s vision. I can go hog wild without worrying about resale value because we’re going to make this our home. We won’t even think about selling.”

“You’re going to counter every argument I come up with for why you should skip the job search to work with me, aren’t you?” he grumbled.

I nodded. “Yup, this is important to me.”

“Fine,” he sighed. “I’ll help you find a position with someone trustworthy. You can give them two years of your brilliance, and then you’ll take everything you learned and put it to good use for me.”

Since two years seemed like a good compromise to me, I did a little victory dance on his lap before puckering my lips. “We should kiss to seal the deal.”

He shook his head. “Not so fast, baby. There’s one small caveat.”

“Okay,” I drawled, narrowing my eyes. “What is it?”

“Remember when we were texting about our siblings and how we both want to have a bigger family than we grew up with?” he asked.

“Uh-huh.”

His hand moved between our bodies to cup my belly. “If you get pregnant before the two years are up, you’re going to come work with me sooner. I’m going to want to experience it all with you, every step of the way. And the easiest way to do that is if we’re working side by side.”

“I want that, too.” I brushed my lips over his. “So you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Wrapping my legs around his waist, he growled, “If we’re going to seal this deal with a kiss, we can do a fuck of a lot better than that.”

He was right…we sealed it with mind-blowing orgasms instead.