Epilogue
“Are you ready?” Arianna asked, then stopped when she saw the pensive look in her husband’s eyes. “What’s wrong?” she asked, coming around to his side of the massive desk in his office.
Rhys tossed the paper down onto his desk, pushing it under a file folder as he quickly masked his disgust. “Nothing, dear. Are you all packed?”
“Yes. I’m packed, the kids are packed. You’re not.”
He leaned back in his leather chair, waving his hand to bring her around his desk. “My assistant is packing for me. I will be ready on time.” Without hesitation, she cuddled her adorable bottom onto his lap.
Placing her hands on his broad, muscular shoulders, she looked at him carefully. “Fine. You’ll be ready. Now tell me what you’re trying to hide from me.”
He ran a hand up her thigh but she knew what he was up to. After ten years of marriage, she had his tricks figured out.
Grabbing his hand, she interlaced her fingers with his. “No, you’re not distracting me. If you won’t tell me what’s going on, then I’m going to read that paper behind me on your desk and find out on my own.”
He smiled. “You think you can get away with that before I pin you down?” he challenged. He saw the tinge of pink on her cheeks and the sparkle of excitement in her eyes. Perfect, he thought!
“I think I can make a good go of it,” she whispered, leaning forward ever so slightly. Two could play at his game, she thought, distracting him with the low cut of her blouse. He fell for it, his eyes moving lower to survey the dark shadow between her breasts.
“You’re cheating.”
She smiled, a seductive expression that tightened his gut and made his body react. “Of course I am. You taught me well.”
He laughed, but his hands moved lower, resting heavily on her silk clad bottom, eliciting a gasp of awareness. “Remember before we were married? The oil minister, project manager, engineer, and three of the rig workers?”
“The ones that kidnapped my father because he’d figured out that they’d embezzled from you?”
“The exact ones,” he replied evenly.
She pulled back, angry now. “What about them? Are they threatening you? From prison?”
He laughed, loving the way she snapped into tigress mode. “No, they aren’t threatening anyone,” he told her and pulled her right back onto his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him another excellent view of her cleavage. “They are asking for leniency.”
“You’re not giving it to them, are you?”
“Absolutely not! They were sentenced to life in prison. No possibility for parole.”
“Good!” she replied, nodding her approval. “They hurt my father and killed other people who got too close to the truth.”
“Exactly. So no, they aren’t receiving any leniency from me.”
She tilted her head slightly in curiosity. “So, why were they contacting you?” she asked.
“They wanted to apologize.”
She stared at him for a long moment, and shook her head. “They think apologizing will soften our attitudes?”
He nodded. “Yes. I believe that’s exactly what they were hoping.”
She stood up and started pacing. She stood in front of his desk, furious with those men for pulling a trick like this. “But it isn’t going to work, right?”
“Absolutely not,” he replied, still leaning back in his leather chair as he enjoyed the view. Arianna paced furiously. Passionately. Just like she did everything else in life.
She nodded and stopped, staring at something, but he wasn’t really sure what. Obviously, she was going through something in her mind and, when she nodded again, he knew that she’d come to some sort of conclusion. “Good. Because…well, I’m not going waste my time thinking about them. They didn’t show any concern for my father or the others that they callously beat, threatened, or killed to protect their money, so they don’t deserve any consideration either.”
“Good. So, we’re agreed.”
She nodded again. “Yes. I can’t allow them to get away with that.”
He knew her all too well. Arianna was one of the gentlest women he’d ever met. Sure enough…She was walking away, had taken two steps before she swung around, her mouth open, ready to argue the opposite point. She was such a gentle soul, not wanting anyone to suffer. Even though she’d just been arguing adamantly that the people who had kidnapped and beat her father shouldn’t be shown any leniency, her position was shifting.
He couldn’t let her do that. “Nope!” he told her firmly. “Even if you might want to give them leniency, the other families don’t.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “You’ve already spoken to them?”
He stood up and came around his desk, pulling her into his arms. “Yes. All of them. They all want the men to remain in prison. They don’t want any of them killed. The families want those men to live out the rest of their lives in prison.”
She sighed, leaning her head against his broad shoulder. “Fine. But…”
“You’re not sending them a care package either, Arianna. If you do, I’ll have my guards intercept it and it will be sent somewhere else, someone far more deserving.”
She groaned but didn’t have a chance to reply since their four children raced up to meet them in the hallway. “When do we leave?” Aranja demanded, bouncing up and down even though he was eight and trying hard not to show his excitement. Mijar, their second oldest at six, and Alexandra, their daughter who was four, followed behind, equally excited but not ashamed to show it. “We’re all packed! When do we leave?”
Katirina, their youngest daughter at two, toddled along, seemingly oblivious to everything, singing a song.
“Do you think Alejandro will recognize me?” Alexandra asked, happy to be seeing the handsome boy who was about fourteen now.
Natalie and her brood were already on their way. Hayden and Viktor had phoned this morning, making sure Arianna and her clan were coming for the weekend as well. Katia and Sergei were…well, they were somewhere, but promised to bring their entire family. The four friends who had met in that tiny town in Virginia got together as often as possible, never allowing too much time to pass before they reconnected. They were all meeting in Virginia this time. It was a family reunion, even though they weren’t officially related.
“We leave in thirty minutes. Go make sure that everyone is ready,” she instructed her children, all of whom raced back to the family suites to inform their nannies, servants, body guards, and personal maids that they would be leaving soon.
When they were alone again, Arianna leaned her head against Rhys’ shoulder. “Ten years,” she whispered. “When are we going to get bored with each other?”
Rhys laughed, pulling her off to the side so they were relatively alone. “I doubt I’ll ever get bored with you,” he promised and kissed her neck, feeling her shiver. “Especially when you react like that every time I touch you.”
Arianna laughed, but then turned serious. “Thank you! Ten years. Ten years of amazing happiness!”
He kissed her gently, all teasing gone. “An incredible journey. Thank you for trying to slap me.”
She laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck. “My pleasure!”