Epilogue
Bailey
“I can do that for you.” Sacha appears in the doorway leading from the storage room into the main room of the cafe. He moves to help steady the stepladder I’m standing on.
“I’ve got it!” I say, adjusting the menu sign behind our coffee bar. “Just stand back and tell me if it is straight!”
It turns out that four months is an excellent amount of time to obtain a business license, find a location, sign a lease, start sourcing local products, move in with your mate, and have plenty of time leftover for copious amounts of fucking.
Sacha takes a couple steps back, still scowling. “You don’t need to climb the ladder. I am as tall as your ladder.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t enjoy my ass being directly at your eye level. Is the sign even?” I demand.
He gives a small growl, before he answers. “The left needs to go up a little bit.”
I adjust the sign and secure it with a screw before I climb down.
“Oh! it’s perfect!” I exclaim, bouncing on my toes with excitement. Cat Rhapsody is opening tomorrow. The pink and purple sign with the business name hangs above the counter, looking perfect in the freshly painted space. I can’t believe my good fortune, to finally own my own small business, to use my hard earned degree, to have an amazing partner, to be standing on my own two feet without feeling like the ground might crumble beneath me at any moment.
Everything feels right at this moment. I might not know everything the future holds, but I have this. My business, my mate, my life, full of great things.
“You’ve done wonderful, Beast,” Sacha whispers in my ear, he sneaks his arms around my waist and tugs me backward, his broad body supporting my back. “This will definitely be a successful openingtomorrow.”
“Soft opening. Soft,” I repeat. To test the menu and make sure the machines are in working order. I am trying to keep my expectations realistic, although it’s hard to anticipate the worst when the past several months have been so perfect.
“It will go smoothly, and I will be with you every moment of the day.” Sacha’s help and advice has been completely invaluable over the past couple months.
“How are the kittens?” I ask. “You checked on them before you came here?”
“Yes. Aruba, Jamaica, Key Largo Montego are all just fine. Settled in nicely. Rhapsody has relegated herself to our bed where they cannot bother her.”
“Good!” I hesitate before asking the more important question, “And how did your meeting go at Cryptech?”
“Fine,” he grumbles.
“Aren’t you excited to go back to work?”
“Truthfully, I never want to be away from you ever again,” he says with a sigh as his mouth finds the sensitive part of my neck that lights up my whole body. “I never thought I could love being away from my job this much.”
“But the board said you could come back?”
“The board agreed I could come back—” he stops himself mid-sentence. I pull away from him enough to study his face.
“That’s great isn’t it?” I ask. “That’s what you wanted right?”
“I’m only going to be working part time for a while,” he winces.
“Why the face? That sounds fantastic, Sacha. Really. You have always worked so hard. It’s okay to take a break sometimes.”
“Are you sure? It’s less money?—”
“Please, like I give a crap about your money.”
“You only dated me for my money!” he declares.
“Yes, but I stayed with you because of your giant dick.” I furrow my brows at his crotch. “That’s still hanging around isn’t it?”
“Would you like to check for yourself?” He reaches for me, but I pull away forcing him to keep talking. “Helping you open this cafe made me realize how much I miss the starting part of starting a business. I am proud of what we built at Cryptech, but I liked putting it together more than I ever liked running it once it got large. Not the way that I loved working with you, giving you advice, helping you build all of this from the ground up. I think there might be a way for me to help more people follow their dreams the way that you did.”
“I think that’s a great idea, Sacha. Your help was invaluable, you could do so much for the community.” I press a little kiss to his cheek before moving toward the coffee counter. I bend over, stretching to collect the rest of my tools.
He makes an odd noise behind me.
“Are you looking at my big luscious ass again?” I tease.
“Can I ask you something?” Sacha”s voice takes a serious edge, but I am having too much fun.
“How did I get such a big luscious ass?”
“No.”
“Will I christen this new store by letting you fuck this big luscious ass on this counter?” I wiggle my butt and spreading my arms across the surface of the counter.
“No,” he says. “I mean, I would like to revisit that question, but it isn’t what I wanted to ask you.” he wraps his large hands around my hips, lifts me, and spins me around so I am sitting on the counter. My stomach flips at the easy way he moves me. Heat already pooling in my stomach when his hands control me that way, but facing him is even better, getting to fall into his big brown eyes.
I dig my fingers into the fabric of his shirt, and spread my thighs to welcome him closer. He smells so good, he looks so good, he feels so good. I glance up at him through my lashes, already mentally planning which positions we are going to fuck in tonight.
“Then what on earth could you want to ask me?” I flutter my eyelashes suggestively.
Sacha reaches into his pocket and pulls out a little black box. He pops it open; there’s a ring inside. A simple gold band and a large solitary stone, it’s smokey brown with flecks of green swirling through. Moody, and foresty, and the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“Sacha. What the fuck is this?”
“A moss agate. Do you not like it?”
“I love it Sacha, it’s gorgeous, but is this a—” My eyes flash up to his and the expression there stops all the words that were going to follow.
“Bay. Will you marry me?”
“Marriage? Aren’t we already mated? Isn’t that the same thing? Isn’t that already a lifetime commitment? Do we really need a wedding? All the time and money and effort and—” I feel the word salad spewing forth.
Sacha catches my chin between his large fingers stopping my rambling.
“Beast. We are mated, forever, you are mine always. A wedding is a human custom that I thought you might want to participate in. So that we could invite all of our friends and family to come and celebrate our love. Now—” his voice comes out in a low growl that makes my breath catch in my throat, “answer my question, will you marry me?”
“Yes. Yes. Of course I will.” I reach for him. He wastes no time lowering his mouth to mine and dipping his tongue into me, and even if the cafe, or the city, or his business is just for now, he tastes like forever.
The End