Epilogue
Emory
“This couch is all wrong,” Julien muttered as he frowned down at the white, modern sectional. The salesman who was helping them stood back, having lost all semblance of patience at this point.
Emory, who was testing out the couch’s plush cushions, looked up at him. “Because of the color? It comes in others. This is just the floor model, but it’s seriously comfortable and there’s plenty of room in your living room for the extended foot rests.”
“It’s our living room and that’s not it.” Julien waved his hand over the top of it. “Not this one. It’s all wrong, I said.”
Emory briefly shut his eyes before focusing them back on Julien. “Why don’t you sit in it and see for yourself?”
“I don’t need to. This isn’t the one.”
Emory really liked this couch, though he was thinking of getting it in a darker color. There was already enough white in the house, and knowing him, he’d stain the thing the very first day. He could even go with brown since that was the color Julien had before. “I like this one.”
Julien’s lips tightened, but he didn’t repeat himself.
“How do you know it’s all wrong if you won’t try it out?” Emory asked.
He stared down at Emory for several moments before his shoulders loosened and he sighed, the frown still on his lips. “It’s designed for two people to stretch out, but at opposite ends of the damn thing. There would be an entire cushion between us.”
“Oh,” Emory said softly, unable to stop the upward curve of his lips. “You’re talking cuddling.”
“I would like us to recline closer, yes.”
He stared up at his soulmate, all disgruntled and serious, and this time, he laughed. “When I met you, I never would have thought you could be cute.”
That frown deepened. “I am certainly not cute.”
“You are right now.” Emory got off the couch and threaded his fingers with Julien’s. “Come on, we’ll keep looking.” He walked them toward a set that had recliners closer together.
It had been three weeks without any attacks on Julien, so Emory had deemed it safe enough to move him back home.
It was now their home because he’d already moved in. He’d also already moved out the ridiculously uncomfortable brown couch Julien had there. Along with the two hard chairs. This was their third furniture store in four hours of searching and he would normally be on his last nerve.
It was just this side of Julien amused him to no end.
He’d never wanted a soulmate, and wow, had he been delusional.
There was absolutely nothing like the intense connection he felt with Julien.
They couldn’t keep their hands off each other, the passion so explosive Emory was constantly in awe of it.
He held absolutely no desire to touch anyone else.
Ever. Julien had burrowed into his heart so deeply, they felt like two parts of a whole.
And a huge part of him had relaxed knowing Julien was no longer in danger. That last big attack on the street had told whoever was in charge, that their threat was now Xavier.
Emory had asked his employer if they’d discovered any new information, and all Xavier had said was they were close.
And during the past three weeks, there had been two more powerful earthquakes.
Whatever they were doing was definitely wreaking havoc with Seattle.
Preternaturals knew what was up but humans in the city were in all states of panic.
News stations were interviewing many and there were all kinds of fear-inspired answers, including some convinced it was the end of the world.
So a part of Emory couldn’t relax entirely, not until they figured out what these preternaturals were up to. But since that was mostly out of his hands, he focused more on the complete change in his life.
He looked at Julien, the one responsible for that complete change. They were going to formally bond in a ceremony in Xavier’s office in a week. Emory had wanted to wait longer so Julien could be entirely sure this was what he wanted, but Julien had been damned insistent.
“I know what I want,” he’d said before bending Emory over the counter in the kitchen and fucking his brains out. Emory did like the forceful side of Julien’s personality, which would probably never stop surprising him.
Julien had also gone back to work. The board had been apologetic and though he would never be able to explain what was happening in the video, he wouldn’t have to.
Someone on that board had messed with the others’ memories.
William was still missing, and the third-party investigation had proved he’d been stealing from the company for over a year.
There was actually a warrant out for his arrest, but he seemed long gone.
Emory knew that he was involved in whatever was happening in Seattle with the gathering sorcerers and wizards. They’d be seeing him again, he had no doubt.
But for now, he was more focused on his life intertwining with Julien’s.
Emory squeezed Julien’s hand. “Maybe we should quit for the day. We have that dinner with everyone in a couple of hours anyway.”
They were meeting Ivor and Rowan over at Dax and Everett’s house.
Emory had been right to want to see his two best friends’ faces when he’d told them he was settling down, too.
Both had been wonderfully shocked, and they had been even more so when they’d met Julien because he was absolutely nothing like the people Emory usually dated. When he had dated.
Julien wasn’t yet comfortable with any of them, but Emory knew that would just take time.
“There it is,” Julien suddenly stated before tugging Emory to the left.
Of course the couch was brown, and that was fine. And it did have recliners on each end like the other one had. But these recliners were wide enough for two people. And the whole thing looked soft and comfy. “Let’s test it out.”
Julien sat and stretched out before holding up his hand to Emory, who had to pause for a moment to watch anticipation lighten Julien’s features.
Then he took that hand and stretched out next to him.
Julien tugged him close, arm firmly around him.
The section they were sharing was easily wide enough for them both and long enough to accommodate their long legs and Julien’s big feet. Soft cushions cradled their backs.
Julien tightened his arm. “I know it’s brown, which you didn’t want—”
“I don’t have a problem with the color at all. If I’d realized you were looking for something we could cuddle in, this whole search wouldn’t have taken this long.”
He surprised Emory when he turned and pressed a firm kiss just behind Emory’s ear. He obviously didn’t care that the salesman was watching them. “I will always want you close to me,” he whispered softly.
Love flooded Emory and he turned to kiss Julien. Then he looked at the salesman, who wore the most hopeful expression he’d ever seen, his eyebrows practically in his hairline.
“This is the one,” he told him.
The man scuttled away to start the paperwork, and Emory chuckled. “You do realize that with these wide recliners and this big ass couch, there won’t be any space left for other furniture in your living room, right? You’re going to have to move the candlestick.”
Julien grasped his chin and turned Emory’s face toward him. He stared at him for a long moment, then softly smiled before kissing Emory.
“Our living room,” he said sternly, then grinned, his former frown lines turning to laughter. “And who gives a fuck where the candlestick is when I have you.”
The End
Thank you so much for reading Angel!