Epilogue
Six Years Later
Howard
“Some bodyguard you are!”
Sebastian mocks me, but I don’t bother even glaring at him. It’s bad enough that I have to deal with the man for the rest of my life now it seems. He was one of my closest friends back in high school, but we lost contact when I joined the Marines and he went on to become some music bigshot. Now my wife has brought us back together. We might be grown with families of our own, but it almost feels like we’re back in high school.
“Shut the fuck up, I am trying to listen to my wife sing.”
“Aren’t bodyguards supposed to be looking around for potential danger? You haven’t once taken your eyes off her since she walked on the stage.”
“Shut up!”
“Are you sure you don’t want to hire someone else to act as her bodyguard so that you can watch her all you want?” I turn to Sebastian, and he must read the venomous look in my eyes because he raises his hands in surrender. “Jesus, it was just a suggestion. Don’t kill me over it!”
“No one protects my family but me,” I growl, my eyes shifting back to my lovely wife. Her long blonde hair is styled to fall over her shoulders, catching the light and shimmering like spun gold. She radiates such beauty, it still stuns me that someone so beautiful is my wife.
She’s seated on the stage with a guitar, strumming as she sings into the mike. I could listen to her sing all day without all the background noise her previous label pushed on her. She sounds like an angel and looks like one too—absolutely breathtaking.
I will always be grateful to Sebastian for signing her to his label and giving her the spotlight to shine, although I would never tell him that to his face. The cocky bastard’s ego is inflated enough as is.
“I get you, man, I wouldn’t let anyone near my Lizzy either,” he says, slapping my shoulder before we both fall into silence, watching the magnificent woman on stage performing for nearly two hundred people. This is the smallest stage she’s performed on in a while, but Valor Springs is a small town, and after touring for months in major cities, she wanted to end the tour where it all started.
Home.
Six years ago, she sought refuge in Valor Springs, and it became home. No matter how many cities we travels to and how beautiful they are, we always come back to Valor Springs. It’s where we intend to raise our kids.
The crowd breaks into a loud cheer as the song ends. Missy bows at the crowd, the smile on her face bright as people clap and cheer for her. Her eyes sweep over the crowd, and the smile widens when her eyes lock on mine. I don’t rush to her as I typically would if we were in a different city. This is home, and the people here know her, so they don’t rush to mob her, instead giving her space as she climbs off stage and walks over to me.
“How was it?” she asks when she stops in front of me.
“Perfect,” I say, wrapping my arm around her and pulling her against me. “You are always perfect.”
“Aaand that’s my cue to leave,” Sebastian says, turning around and leaving us alone. Well, not alone since we have a lot of eyes on us—on my lovely wife. The focus slowly shifts as someone else steps on the stage to perform.
“Do you want to stay back and mingle, or do you want me to steal you away?”
She looks at the people around us, and I see the guilt in her eyes. She’s had a busy couple of months, and I bet she wants nothing more than to go back home to our kids, but we both know they won’t be there. Our two girls are having a sleepover at Lizzy and Sebastian’s with their kids, so we’ll have the house to ourselves if we head straight home.
“I could use a break,” she whispers. “But only for a little while, and then I’ll come back to mingle.”
“A walk it is,” I say, sliding an arm over her shoulders as we walk away from the crowd who’ve turned their attention back to the stage.
We walk in companiable silence before she stops me next to an alley, looking around to make sure no one’s watching, but most of the shops are closed and everyone is at the live music show Sebastian’s label is hosting. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” Missy whispers. “We’ve been on the road for months. I want to take a break from the big stages and make music without going on these long tours. I think I want to stay home until Whitney is at least ten.”
“That sounds perfect, princess.”
Her eyebrows draw at my words. “B–but what about you? What do you want?”
I chuckle, pulling her away from the sidewalk and into the alley. She gasps when I back her to the wall, but she doesn’t protest the move. “I want whatever you want,” I say. “I go wherever you go. The best decision I made was quitting the police force to be with you and protect our family. The girls love traveling as much as they love staying at home. Whatever it is you want to do, then you have my complete support. It doesn’t matter as long as we’re together.”
She blinks up at me, her beautiful blue eyes welling with tears. “How did I find such a perfect husband as you?” She sniffs. “I must have been a saint in my previous life to deserve you.”
I lean down and brush my lips along the side of her neck, nudging her to tilt her head back and allow me access. “I’m the lucky one,” I rasp, tracing my mouth over the perfect slope of her neck. “I get to be with the sexiest girl, who only has eyes for me.”
“I do,” she whispers, snaking her hand up to my nape before threading her fingers through my hair and grabbing a fistful, pulling my head from her neck so my eyes are locked on hers. “I only see you.” Our lips meet in a slow kiss, and she makes a low mewling sound in her throat as our tongues wind together. “I love you,” she whispers, releasing my hair to wrap her arms tightly around me. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t stopped me that day.”
A loud cheer breaks through the air as another song starts playing. “Think of it as fate.”
“But you don’t believe in such things.”
I brush my lips over hers, tracing a hand up the back of her thighs before cupping her ass and fondling her perfect mounds. “A man is allowed to change his mind.”
“Does that mean you’ll finally start meditating with me?”
“Hey, you don’t push a new believer into the hard stuff,” I say, and she giggles, which turns into a moan when I slide my hand under her dress, slipping a finger into the waistband of her panties before tugging them down.
“We shouldn’t do this here,” she argues, even as her hands drop to my belt buckle. Her eyes shift to the entrance of the alley to make sure no one’s watching as she tugs open the button on my jeans before pulling down the zipper. “Someone could walk by and see us.”
As if on cue, another cheer tears through the air, startling her. “Hey, focus on me,” I say, grabbing her chin and forcing those gorgeous eyes back on me. My dick is swollen and throbbing with the need to be inside my wife. I’ve been hard from the second she stepped on the stage, and it hasn’t gone down since. “If we’re going to stay home for a while, what do you say we give the girls a sibling?”
She chuckles. “Howard Westwood, are you trying to get me pregnant?”
“Care to give it a go, Missy Westwood?”
I grip her ass and lift her up the wall, groaning when she immediately wraps her legs around me. My eyes are locked on hers as I position my cock at her sodden entrance before slamming into her wetness with a deep growl.
“You are so fucking beautiful, princess,” I grind out. Even in the dim lighting, she’s a fucking star, brightening my entire world. “Mine.” Missy belongs to me, and as I make love to her, our breaths mingling between us, I vow as I did on our wedding day to protect her with my life. To love my bright little star and make her happy.
I’ve never broken a promise before, and this is the most important one I intend to keep.
~The End