Found by Love (22 page)

"I sure will and thank you very much. Goodnight. I'll let you know tomorrow how the conversation went. Goodbye."

"Goodbye dear and I can't wait."

I heard her giggling as I hung up. Sometimes she seems more like girlfriend from college instead of my potential mother in law. Last week I was afraid of her and this week I feel like I could tell her anything.

I walk back into the bathroom to see if the tub had filled up and it seemed to be deep enough. I couldn't believe how big the tub was when I first saw it but could definitely picture myself taking a bath in it and lighting some candles and relaxing with a glass of wine and listening to some music. Awwww... Relaxation, oh how I've missed it!

I heard my phone chirp with a text and went to see if Amelia had texted me Jason's number and sure enough. There it was in black and white. A name I never in a million years thought would ever show up on my phone. I pick the candles up off of the night stand and light them and put them around the tub and grab the wine bottle that I had chilling and grab a wine glass and sit it to the side so that I'll have everything ready for when I get off the phone.

Oh poor Jason. He has no idea what he's stepped in to but he is sure going to find out in the next few minutes. I chuckled to myself because he's going to get a taste of the grown up Claudia and not the poor little misconceived Claudia that he left pregnant and broken hearted.

I was very disappointed when my call to Jason went straight to voicemail and I was a bit taken back when I heard his voice and his greeting of "Doctor Jason Anderson, please leave me a brief message and I MAY get back to you. You may now speak and I MAY listen." What a douche bag! I decided to leave a message because I just couldn't help myself.

"Mr. Anderson. Oh I'm so sorry. I meant DOCTOR Anderson. This is Olivia Porter, Attorney at law OLIVIA PORTER and I DO NOT wish for you to call me back. NOT THAT IT IS ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS, but I am on holiday for... Well... FOREVER in regards to you and I am not able to be retained by you. EVER which means NEVER and if you do not quit trying to reach me at my office through my secretary I will press charges against you. Please look under the yellow pages for ANOTHER divorce attorney as there are plenty of others that are capable of handling your divorce. Oh and please give your future ex-wife my congratulations and if she is in need of an attorney I would GLADLY represent her. TA TA!"

There! That should get him off my ass! I amaze myself sometimes at how much of a bitch I can actually be and I had forgotten not only how good I am at it but how much I had missed it. I pull my playlist out and add one of my favorite songs to the top of the list to get my relaxation therapy started.

I tossed my clothes in the hamper and poured myself a glass of wine and stepped into the very hot bubble bath and pushed play on the iPod and grinned as Meredith Brooks "Bitch" starts playing. Yes! All is right in the world.

"Sing it Meredith while I revel in my own bitchiness and bask in the candle light and sip on this wine. You know you wrote this song just for me girlfriend."

"Oh did she now?" I jumped and about dropped my glass of wine but managed to stop myself from drowning and not spilling my glass. I looked over and Caleb was leaning nonchalantly against the door frame in his boxers.

"Caleb! Don't you know not to mess with a woman when she's listening to her theme song???"

"Oh baby... I can't think of a better theme song to describe you." I arched my brows at him. "My favorite description of you is "lover" and "mother" though." He flashed a grin and I grinned back at him.

"Nice save but I really was relishing in what a bitch I can be. Is Grayson asleep?"

"Yes. He didn't make it 20 minutes into Superman 3. I didn't think he was ever going to fall asleep but was hoping he would so that I could join you in the tub but I think you are enjoying yourself too much so I will take a rain check." He walks over to the sink and starts brushing his teeth and winks at me. "You do look rather.... Delicious."

Oh man. How does he do that to me? I was one second away from telling him that yes I did want to enjoy my bath alone but the way he said delicious with that smoldering look in his eyes in the candle light had me changing my mind. I lean over to pour me another glass of wine and look into the mirror at him.

"Get naked and grab another glass would ya? I could really use a foot rub. You know what they do to me." He stopped brushing his teeth and rinsed his mouth and held a finger at me and walked out of the room. When he came back naked in all his glory he was the one that looked delicious.

"So... Now that we are officially a couple and this is the first foot rub that I'll be giving you since we became a couple... What exactly do my foot rubs do to you?" He stepped into the tub before I had a chance to warn him of how hot the water was and he tried not to yell. "Oh my GOD! This water is so hot!!! Are you kidding me???!! I'm gonna have third degree burns! Owww!"

"Oh you big baby! It's not that hot! It would be better if you just sat down and got your body acclimated to it instead of standing there looking like an idiot." The childish look on his face has me cracking up and reaching for my glass of wine while he inched his way down into the tub. Another glass of wine and couple of songs later he was starting to get used to it and was able to move and talk. I couldn't help but laugh at his situation.

"I'm so glad that you can laugh at my expense. No wonder you never get sick! Any chance of any kind of germ getting on you disintegrates as soon as the water touches you. You will never and I repeat NEVER give our children baths."

"Oh don't be so dramatic and I really don't want any more kids. Grayson is enough for me. Isn't he enough for you?" I'm perfectly content with not having any more kids. If I need a baby fix I'll go visit Olivia and the twins. I moved my feet into his lap as a hint to start rubbing my feet and he's not going for it. "What?"

"What? You ask me what? Hmmm... Let's see. You just tell me that you don't want any more kids and that you're perfectly fine with just Grayson. Okay. I love Grayson as if he were my own. Okay. He's my son too and I would kill anyone for that kid. I'm in love with the guy but seriously?? You're totally pulling a Cash on me here. You do realize that right?" I pulled my feet away but he grabbed them and held on to my legs so that I couldn't move.

"Let go of my legs Caleb and how in the hell am I pulling a CASH?!" He starts rubbing my feet but not in a sensual way like he always used to and the way he's rubbing them is like he's mad at me.

"You know exactly what I mean by that comment because that's the same thing that he said to Olivia and no…. I'm not letting go of them. You wanted a foot rub and honey you're gonna get one." He must have realized what he was doing so he loosened his hold on me and grabbed a bar of soap and started lathering my foot up and started massaging them the way he used to. I relaxed my body and relished in the feel of his hands on me. I notice that he's still angry by the look on his face and I know that it's more hurt than anger so I give in.

"Can we table this discussion for another time? I'm not saying no but I'm not saying yes. Will that make you feel better?"

The sudden change in his body language alone made my heart jump a little faster and the smile on his face made me pull my legs back and lean up and lay on his chest. He pulled my hair behind my neck and pulled my chin up to place a kiss on my lips and I savored the taste of mint from his toothpaste and wine and went weak in the knees.

"I love and hate what you do to me Nerd Boy." I felt the vibration against my chest when he laughed.

"Oh yeah? What way would that be? The way that I make you tremble at just the touch of my hand like this?" He ran his hand slowly down the middle of my back that gave me such a chill that I shivered and jumped as he cupped water into his hand to run down my back to warm me up. "Or is it the way that I can handle any debate with you? That I'm the only one you willingly give in to even though you hate it but you hate that you finally trust someone enough to realize that I only have your best interest at heart?"

He totally gets me and that's exactly what I love and hate about him. I relax against his body and all of the tears that I had been holding in for the last two days start to fall. He wraps me in his arms and sinks lower into the water as if to form an invisible warm blanket over me as a way to comfort me.

We stayed that way for a few minutes and as weird as it was to have a mini breakdown in the bathtub he didn't make it seem weird at all. He washed me from head to toe and quickly did the same to himself and picked me up out of the tub and gently dried me with the towels and carried me to bed and tucked me in like a child. He crawled into bed with me after putting his boxers on and pulled me close to him. I put my head on his chest and threw my arm over his stomach and listened to his heart beat and knowing that it beat only for me made me smile.

"I love you so much Caleb it hurts and if you want 10 kids I'll give them to you as long as you never leave me. That's my only condition." I turn my head and press my lips against his chest, right above his heart and look up at him to wait for his response. He gently rolls me over and gets on top of me and softly kisses my lips and each cheek and then my forehead and back to my lips with a lingering kiss that I felt all the way to my core.

"I swear Cru... I will tattoo your name everywhere on my body to prove to you that I will NEVER leave you. All I have ever wanted is for you to let me love you the way you deserved and to be loved in return by you. I could die a happy man right now by what you just said to me because I know how hard it was for you to say it." I nodded at him and buried my face in his neck and whispered in his ear.

"I meant every word of it to and if you don't make love to me right now to shut me up I'll never forgive you Nerd Boy." I heard him inhale his breath.

"Oh it'll be my pleasure Cruella, my lover, my life, and soon to be, my wife!"

He claimed me passionately with his lips and I pulled him closer to me wanting to feel as one with him. I lowered his boxers with my hands and kicked them off with my feet and raised my legs up in anticipation of what was to come.

When he entered me I cried out his name and a waterfall of tears fell down my cheeks. I didn't fight them or try to wipe them away because I knew that with his declaration of love the last wall that I had up protecting my heart had finally crumbled away and I finally completely trusted him to not hurt me. He looked into my eyes and stopped with a worried look on his face and put his hands on each side of my face.

"Oh baby... Shhh... Please don't cry. Am I hurting you?"

"Please don't stop." I started bucking my hips against him and he slowly continued. "I finally feel it Caleb. I feel the love that you have for me and you have my heart... ALL of it and I am so happy that you finally got through to me and never gave up and continued to fight for us."

He looked into my eyes and I saw a pool of tears forming in then and I knew... Right then and there that this was it. No matter what happened with Grayson, no matter where we had to live to keep him or fight for him that we were one in this journey and what he said next would change our lives forever.

"Marry me Cruella! This is not a discussion I want to table. I never imagined I'd ask you in this way, with me inside of you but if you don't answer me right now I think I'll die." He grazed his teeth down my neck and whispered into my ear. "Marry me Cru... I promise I'll make you happy and you'll only cry happy tears for the rest of your life."

"Of course Nerd Boy! What took you so long?!” I flipped him over and started rocking on top of him with him still inside of me and pulled his hands up over my heart. He rose up and kissed me hard as I moaned against his lips and rolled me back over and continued making love to me. He started increasing his speed until we both finished at the same time and we held each other close and cried tears of joy and spent our night continually loving on one another and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing from a distance. I reached for my phone on the night stand with my eyes still closed and it wasn't where I usually leave it at night. I raise up and open my eyes and the sunlight streaming through the blinds has me putting my hands over my eyes at how bright it is outside.

"Who do you have listed as "douche bag" in your phone Baby? Whoever it is has been calling you on and off for the last hour and they woke me up. I almost answered if to chew them out but for all I know it could have been someone that really didn't do anything wrong but the way you hold grudges I couldn't be for sure."

"Oh that's so NOT funny!! Hmmm.. Douche bag... Douche bag... It's. Oh my GOD! That bastard is actually calling me back after the voicemail I left him?!" I jumped up out of bed to grab my phone from him. "Give me my phone so that I can call him back and tell him off WORSE than I did in the voicemail!" He raised my phone up over his head to where I couldn't reach it.

"I will as long as you tell me who the douche bag is. This is someone you talked to recently?" I could tell that his mind was hard at work by the cute little scrunch of his brow.

"Yep! It was none other than DOCTOR Jason Anderson himself!" The venom in his eyes made me back up away from him when I uttered his name.