What should I call him?

Okay I really like this guy I’m dating, His name is Russell but all of his friends call him Rusty. This is where the problem comes in. We were friends for like 2 years before I asked hm out, so I called him Rusty forever. But now that we are a couple I want to kind of steer away from that, you know isolate the two so it’ll be easier for him to think of me as a girlfriend instead of his buddy. My friends do not get it. What should I call him. He’s tall with beautiful blue eyes. He wrestles/hunts and is always doing somehing in ROTC (not to mention he’s a squad leader and on the little flag thingy). He’s not really the cutsey type which I’m fine with because that bugs me, but he makes it obvious what we are. He’s even gone as far as to say “he must have been good this year, because he got just what he wanted, the perfect girl” So that stuff like pooh bear and cuddlekins will not work and probably make me gag just by saying it. But that still leaves me without a nickname…any suggestions?