EPILOGUE
KATE
SIX MONTHS LATER
“Girl, we really outdid ourselves.” Lily all but squeals next to me and claps her hands. “This gala is our best yet. Have you seen the numbers yet? We passed a half million within the first hour. It’s still coming. All these swanky assholes are just dumping their cash into our hands!”
“I saw! It’s our best event ever. You are the best partner I could have ever asked for.” My cheeks hurt from grinning and my back hurts from standing, but nothing can temper the pure elation I feel tonight. Months of planning and scheduling, postponing while my divorce finalized, handling everything last minute — all worth it.
Eric dropped David turned his Google investigation skills against David. He found a mountain of proof that David cheated on me years before he claimed I started the cheating. When presented with the evidence, David agreed to settle quickly for more than I’d even been pursuing him for to save the further expenses of lawyers.
I never did show David the video of Eric and me, but an image of us passionately kissing was plastered all over the internet. I only wish I’d been there to see his face.
Interestingly, and unlike David, neither of us has heard from him since, and he paid Eric’s bill without whining. I guess he finally realized how badly he lost.
“Lily, partner with boobs, anyway. We all know I’m otherwise the best partner.” Eric gives my ass a light squeeze and hands me a glass of water. “For the woman of the hour.”
“One of the women of the hour.” I shoot Lily a wink.
“Definitely the sexiest.”
“I’m huge.” I groan and give my behemoth belly a rub. “Every week she tells me there is only one in there, and every week I don’t believe her.”
“That’s because Stevens men are beasts.” Eric kisses me and rests his hands over top of mine. “He’s going to be a great pitcher. Switch pitcher, obviously. They get paid more to be on the mound. Very rare.”
“Is he now? What if he wants to be an actor?” All three of us collectively shudder. I laugh. “Never mind. Baseball player sounds great. Let’s keep our son out of Hollywood forever.”
“I better look as good as you when I get knocked up.” Lily clinks my glass with hers. “Paxton keeps telling me he wants to staff his own law firm with offspring, but my genes aren’t as pretty as yours. I’ll look like the old lady in the shoe. Hell, I don’t even look as good as you during sex.”
“How do you know what she looks like during sex?” Eric asks, waggling his brows. He’s trying to be funny, but Lily turns bright red. “Wait. Wait. Reverse this party train. You’ve seen what Kate looks like during sex?”
“Maybe.” Lily looks away, a smile on her face.
“Maybe?” Eric looks at me.
“Hmm?” I play dumb. Eric places kisses along my neck and slides his hands down my back, hot and heavy. He does this every time he wants something. “Okay! Okay. You can’t get mad. This was a long time ago.”
“I’m all ears.”
“I may have recorded the first time we slept together.”
“What?”
“And Lily may have seen it.”
“It was really goddamn hot. Well done, Eric. I mean, she was way hotter than you. But, yeah. Well done.”
“We have a sex tape and you never told me?” Eric gapes. “You little—”
“Mother of your child?” Lily interrupts. “Why yes, yes she is.”
“I was going to use it to fuck with David’s head.” I explain. “But it was just too good. I couldn’t show him.”
“You still have it?” Eric advances on me again. “I need to watch this.”
“She used to watch it while she masturbated.” Lily says loudly. “Oh, look, someone is calling me. Bye!”
“Lily!” I yell at her, but she’s already disappeared into the chaos of moving bodies. Eric walks around and presses himself against my back. His very erect cock presses into my back. “Eric, there are people everywhere.”
“Do you have any idea how sexy this is?” He breathes in my ear. Already, I can feel myself melting against him. “Knowing that you taped us? Watched us? Touched yourself while watching us? Knowing you made yourself come while watching me fuck you?”
“Eric, there are a million people here.” I beg, even though all I want is for him to take me over the nearest table. The way his hands slide across my body, and the rumble of his voice in my ear, is enough to drive me crazy even without the surging pregnancy hormones.
“We are going to reenact that video later. Only this time, it’ll be one hundred times better.”
“I don’t know.” I can’t help myself. “It was already really sexy. Can you beat a first time?”
“Baby girl.” He purrs in my ear. “I have learned your body. I know how to make you sing with two finger strokes. It will be the best you’ve ever seen.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
“Fuck waiting.” Eric’s hand lingers just under the hem of my dress and he presses his lips to the back of my ear. “There’s a private room upstairs. Let’s go now. You in this dress is going to make me crazy.”
“The party—”
“Can wait.” He turns my head so he can kiss me, and a fire blooms through my veins and between my legs. “Come with me.”
Come with me, he says. His naughty double meaning is all I need to push me out the door with him. He grasps my hand and we slide through the crowded halls, giggling like children. Every day with him has felt this light, this happy, this incredible. I have no doubt the orgasm he’s about to give me will be that much better, though, surrounded by the Hollywood elite.
Eric stops me in front of a door and puts a finger to his lips. “I need you to close your eyes.”
“Close my eyes?”
“Trust me.” He whispers against my lips. I try for a kiss but he pulls away and holds his finger back up.
“Fine.” I stick my tongue out at him and let him lead me into the room. Excitement bubbles through my veins. Turns out, I’m a bit of an exhibitionist. The mystery just heightens it.
We talk a few steps and then I lose his hand. I’m about to open my eyes, but he asked me to trust him, so I keep them shut and try to feel for him in the dark. All around me, something moves.
“Eric?” I say softly.
“Open your eyes.”
What I see takes my breath away. The room is covered in candles and stargazers. Hannah, Lily and Paxton are in the background with their phones out. Okay, maybe a bit of an exhibitionist, but this is a bit much.
I turn around, confused, looking for Eric. He waits behind me, on one knee, holding out a solitaire ring.
I can’t move. I can’t breathe.
“Kate.” Eric says softly and takes my hand. “Kate, my love. You make every day worth living. You are my sun, my moon and my stars. Marriage is something we shunned, but I’ve come to realize it’s only terrible with the wrong person. Marriage with the right person, the person who stirs your soul and completes your being, is perfect. Marriage is not just Kate and Eric, it is also our son. Our family. I do not want one more day to pass without you in it.”
A deep warmth spreads through me, a different fire from the one I felt downstairs. I don’t cry and my breath slowly returns, but I still feel like I’m floating over my body, watching all this unfold. Like it’s not real.
“Kate Monroe, the beautiful mother of my child, the fire in my soul, the sunrise and sunset of my day, the love of my life. Will you marry me?”
Never before have I seen him so impassioned, so in love with me. I can feel it pouring out of him like a waterfall. In his eyes, I can see our future together and nothing has ever felt so beautiful.
“Oh, Eric.” I say softly. “There is nothing on this earth I want more than to be your wife.”
His smile melts what little of me is left. He slides the ring on my finger and kisses me.
It’s the kiss of forever.