“Here,” Kane says, pushing the glass of whisky into my hands. Touching my glass against his, I then take a sip of the aged whisky and let it burn down my throat.

“Agh,” I groan, sitting down on the couch.

“Yeah, it kinda bites,” he tells me, drinking his whisky and allowing his gaze to wander to the large floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, the sun seems to bounce off the clear blue water in the pool, a gentle breeze making the the tops of the palm trees sway gently.

“So...this is it, huh? No more shooting,” I sigh, taking one more sip.

“Yeah, we’re done with this season. We were supposed to start shooting the next one right away, but the executives said they wanted to go over a few things,” he tells me, and his words confirm what I expected.

“Go over a few things…” I mutter, and Kane just closes the distance between us and sits on the couch, next to me.

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Resting one hand on my knee, he takes the other one to my chin and, turning my head, he makes me look into his eyes. “Whatever happens, happens…”

“I guess you’re right. And even if things go south, at least we had a good run, right?” I ask him, feeling somewhat more relaxed now. If the suits decide to axe Manhattan Reign, I’ll be sad to see it go. Despite being one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, every single day on set was like a blessing. And, of course, if it weren’t for the show...I would've never met Kane.

“We had a good run, yeah,” he chuckles, tucking a lock of hair over my ear. Smiling, he leans in and brushes his lips softly against mine. “And we sure closed the season with a bang. A very literal one,” he laughs, and I can’t help but do the same. I never thought I’d be capable of doing something as crazy as that, but whenever I’m with Kane I feel as if I have no limits.

This time I’m the one leaning in but, when my lips are almost touching his, I hear my cellphone ringing from inside my purse. Taking it out, I see Laurel’s name flashing on the screen and I put the phone up against my ear.

“Hey.”

“Hey, Sasha...I, ah, have news. And it's not good,” she tells me right off the bat, and I feel my heart tightening up. Even before she says it out loud, I already know what her words are going to be.

“Alberta...She has released the tape,” she finally breathes out, and I can tell that she isn’t enjoying her role as bearer of bad news.

“Well, we had a good run,” I tell her, repeating what I just told Kane. “I guess this is it for us.”

“Maybe things will work out…” Laurel says, but her words don’t sound confident. And, really, how can they be? Things were already bad after the fight I had with Alberta, and now there’s a sex tape of Kane and I...Well, there’s really no other angle I can look at this from: I’m screwed.

“Maybe,” I repeat with a sigh. “Okay, thank you, Laurel.” Throwing the phone onto the couch, I then lean back and sigh.

“She did it, didn’t she?” Kane asks me, and I look at him and purse my lips.

“She did it,” I nod. “The tape is out there now.”

“Screw it. It’s not like we have anything to hide.” Resting his hand on top of mine, he gives it a gentle squeeze. “Besides, it doesn’t matter. I have you here with me, and that’s what really matters.”

“Do you mean that…?”

“Of course I do, Sasha,” he replies, and then looks into my eyes for a long moment. “You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, and I want to spend the rest of my days with you by my side. I love you, Sasha.”

“You don’t know how good it feels to hear that,” I whisper, squeezing his hand back. “I love you too…”

Leaning in, we kiss. It’s a soft one, and it feels like the perfect seal for what we just told each other. Love—ah, I never knew it’d feel this good.

“But,” I start to say, pulling back from his kiss, “we might lose the show.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he replies quickly, smiling. “If they decide to axe the show, so be it. We’ll manage.”

“But —”

“There’s no ‘but’. I have enough money to last us a lifetime, Sasha. And with that money I can finance any project I want...Sure, Manhattan Reign was a once in a lifetime opportunity, the kind of project that makes a career. But so what? We’ll create our own opportunities if that’s what we need to do.”

“Yeah, you’re right…” I reply, managing a smile. Even though I’ll be sad to see Manhattan Reign go up in flames, nothing can destroy the happiness I’m feeling right now. I have Kane, we love each other, and money simply isn’t a problem. Yeah, he’s definitely right; we can create our own opportunities.

“Maybe you could even finance one of Laurel’s projects. She’s been trying to push her scripts for ages now…” I tell him, and he just nods. “Could be interesting to work in something tailor made for us.”

“See? It’s easy.”

“It is,” I laugh softly, reaching for him and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. As I pull him in, crushing my mouth against his, I then jump on top of him. Placing my knees on either side of his thighs, I surrender to his kiss, his hands running up and down the side of my body as he feels each and every curve of mine.

“I love you,” I tell him once more, those three words the most delicious and sweet things that have ever rolled off my tongue.

“So do I…” he whispers, and then we just kiss and shut the whole world out.