Epilogue

Five weeks later

Manhattan, New York

“Do you, Lila Jade Bailey Maddox, take Colton Benjamin Maddox to be your lawfully wedded husband—again?”

“I do.”

“Do you, Colton Benjamin Maddox, take Lila Jade Bailey Maddox to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“You bet your ass I do.”

“Colton, you may kiss your wife.”

Colton takes my face in his warm hands and he kisses me—and I mean kisses me. Right there in front of all our closest friends and family. “I love my wife,” he murmurs, kissing me again.

In the end, we decided to have our second wedding right here at his—our—apartment. Colton told me he’d buy me a new house if I didn’t like the one he has, but the minute I saw his apartment I fell in love with it. How could I not? It’s the top two stories of an apartment building on Fifth Avenue. It has insane views of Central Park from its wall of windows. The outdoor patio has a pool, a jacuzzi, spacious living and dining areas and is over half the size of the apartment’s lower floor.

The top floor is the master bedroom suite. It has the biggest bed I’ve ever seen. The wall facing the bed has a flat-screen t.v. that lowers to cover the entire wall with the press of a remote control button. There are couches and a coffee table in one corner that take full advantage of the view of the park and the Empire State Building. The whole room has the muted, soft tones of a very upmarket spa or oasis. The master bathroom is three times the size of my old apartment in Southampton and the view from the jetted tub is over Central Park. There’s also a gym, two room-sized walk-in closets, a sauna and a home office.

The lower floor of the apartment has a huge open-plan living area and chef’s kitchen, as well as three bedrooms, four bathrooms, a movie theater/den, a formal dining room, a private meeting room, and a bar/game room. Sliding steel and glass doors open fully to the outdoor living area, which doubles the size of the space.

Colton set up a meeting for me with an interior designer so I could make any changes I wanted. I told him this wasn’t necessary but he insisted. He said he wants me to feel like it’s mine as much as his. At the moment, the place looks like an extremely luxurious but also minimalistic bachelor pad. It’s very New York but it also has a slightly Western flair. We’re going to add a little more color and some art to the walls, but other than that, I love it just the way it is.

When I suggested I might need a table for my sewing machine and that I didn’t mind where I put it, Colton told me he had another present for me. As a wedding gift, he bought the entire floor under our apartment. It’s being renovated into a studio space, with mannequins and tables and eighty sewing machines, just like the one he bought me when we were in Aspen. New desktop computers have been updated with all the latest design software and synced to the new MacBooks. The studio has the same view of Central Park as the upstairs. There’s even going to be a showroom with couches and a private fitting room where we can do fittings with clients.

Colton also put a new table with my new sewing machine in the home office on the top floor. I got so used to sewing all night in my old life, it’s still sometimes a habit, and I often wake up with ideas I need to sketch.

But the few times I’ve done this, Colton always coaxes me back to bed, making love to me until I’m so sated I fall asleep again. There will be always be work to do, he says, and it can wait until morning.

My husband has cured my insomnia, with hot sex and comfort. And with the biggest gift of all: the absence of fear.

It’s not just the money, although of course it’s a relief to not have to worry about it. But even more than that, it’s his devotion to making sure I’m both physically and emotionally swathed in his affection at all hours of the day and night. He hardly lets me out of his sight. If there’s a reason we need to be apart, I have a security team and drivers. I told him this wasn’t necessary but there was no talking him out of it.

You’re my wife, is all he says about that.

He buys me the most outrageous gifts, every single day. My new closet is already full, not only with my own designs but with all the things he buys for me. I had to tell him to stop buying me jewelry because there’s only so much a girl can wear. My favorites are the tennis bracelet and, of course, my diamond ring. For our second wedding he bought me a 24 karat pure gold band with Lila Jade Danger Sunshine Bailey Maddox, love of my life etched into the inside of it, which he slid onto my finger to join the diamond as we said our vows.

The vows we said in Vegas were written for us, chosen in a blur from the selection they offer at the Vegas strip chapel. This time, we wrote our own.

“Congratulations, love birds.” Noah kisses my cheek and gives Colton a man-hug. Noah is the brother I’ve become closest to. He’s like a hot teddy bear, and is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, in an unapologetically masculine kind of way which is hard to describe. He’s funny and has a wry and quick sense of humor that’s very often poking fun at Colton. This is something we both do, because we love him so much and we agree he deserves it. We’ve bonded over our playful banter. I absolutely adore him.

He’s the only one of Colton’s brothers who’s still single and they make fun of him because he’s a romantic and was supposed to be the one to fall in love first. We’re all waiting for him to find his One and Only. There was a lot of discussion between his brothers when Noah disappeared for three days last weekend and no one knew where he was. He’s being cagey about it so the whole family is speculating that he’s finally found someone. We’re all trying to get it out of him but so far he’s admitted nothing.

“Where’s your plus one?” Colton elbows him.

“None of your business,” Noah smiles in a way that has me excited for him. He looks almost comically happy.

“That stupid grin on your face can only mean one thing,” Colton tells him. “You got laid last weekend.”

“Again, none of your business.” Noah pops a bottle of champagne.

“Congratulations, gorgeous.” Cash kisses my cheek, and Dusty hugs me.

Alexander and Ivy are next in line and they both give me a hug. Cash and Alexander are stunning-looking men. They’re both easy to be around and it’s been fun to get to know them. They’re intense people and deeply intelligent. They’re both so in love, it’s entertaining to watch.

My arrival in New York as the new wife of their youngest brother was definitely a shock to begin with. They couldn’t get over the change in Colton. I’m grateful that they’ve welcomed me into their family with open arms.

But it’s Ivy and Dusty that I’ve become closest with. As an only child of a very busy single mother, it’s been life-changing to suddenly have a family. Ivy and Dusty are both around my age and I absolutely love them. They already feel like my soul sisters and we spend as much time together as we can.

Dusty works at Invested Enterprises and—not surprisingly, since Cash thinks she walks on water—has a new executive role working alongside him. I loved hearing the story of how they met at a work conference in Hawaii, had a wild one night stand, then lost touch because they’d given each other fake nicknames. He searched for her for months until one day she showed up as the newest employee of IE. It’s like fate brought them together and Cash is over the moon.

Alexander is equally besotted with Ivy. They met when Noah and Colton set him up with a fake date for a wedding, who happened to be Ivy. The two of them had never met before. He was supposed to be best man at the wedding and his evil ex was the wedding planner, so Alexander couldn’t get out of it even though he tried. Ivy and Alexander ended up falling in love over that weekend and the rest is history. She’s also pregnant. Ivy is a talented musician who has just recently hit the big time. She just released her latest album and it went straight to number two on the Billboard charts. Alexander is the most serious-minded, stoic CEO-type guy I’ve ever met, but the minute his gaze lands on Ivy, he completely melts. It’s the sweetest thing.

Jessie and Jacob hug us next. Jessie squeals as she hugs me. She’s really starting to show now and she’s totally glowing with her pregnancy. Of course I had to have Jessie as my maid of honor and she’s crying as much for me as I did for her. “I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were married to your plus one,” she laughs. “And don’t say ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’. Because we both know that’s not always true.”

She’s the only one I’ve told about the other thing that happened to us in Vegas. We’re going to tell everyone else tonight.

Sloane is here too, with her new boyfriend Levi, who’s possibly the nerdiest of the “nerd brigade”, as she loves to call her work colleagues. She’s a few inches taller than him, especially on the sky-high heels she loves to wear, but he follows her around like a lovesick puppy and I’ve never seen Sloane so happy.

The last five weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. Colton and I met with Eleanor Jaeger and her team the Monday after we got back to New York and I started working for them the following Monday.

Colton and I both negotiated the terms of my job and also the collaboration RL offered. I’m working one day a week in their design offices, two days a week in my own studio on our collab line—where two of their team members will join me—and one day a week on my own business.

My husband insisted I take Fridays off. He doesn’t want me overworking, he said, especially in my condition.

We’ve hired a business manager to run my business, as well as sixty-four other new employees, including fifty dressmakers. With the new sewing machines and several other machines we purchased, the new team should be able to handle the production of all the new garments being made. Two experienced design coordinators will oversee the production to make sure it runs smoothly.

Twelve administrative staff will handle the orders, the billing, the marketing, the social media and so on. We thought about outsourcing some of the production work overseas, where labor costs can be a lot less expensive, but Colton’s idea was that we could start by keeping everything in house as long as we can keep up with it, and that we’ll see how it goes and revisit that option in six months. I agreed.

I work mainly on creating new designs, but at the end of each day I get reports about every detail of the business, which is growing quickly. It really is a dream.

Colton and I met with his—our—lawyers and accountants to make sure the business plans and legal contracts are in place. He put a mind-boggling thirty million dollars into the company and legally owns five percent. Which means I own ninety-five percent. Of course we had a lot of discussion over this and I thought he should have a bigger share, but he said all the creative ideas are mine and, in the end, he got his way.

And it doesn’t really matter. We’re co-owners of everything now, including his six properties, which I didn’t even know about until he suggested we go to Italy for our honeymoon, where he owns a hotel. Aside from the apartment in New York, he also owns a ranch in Austin, a villa on St. John—where he keeps his yacht—the hotel on the Amalfi coast, a house in Miami and a house in the Hamptons.

I couldn’t believe that. I mean, I could , I was just…amazed that every single one of those places sound like dreams coming true.

My Instagram blew up and I now have over five million followers. Our new company made a profit of one million dollars in the past month, if you include all the orders we’re in the process of filling.

What is this life?

Even more incredibly, Vogue did a feature article on me, wearing the wedding dress I designed and which I’m wearing tonight. It’ll go to press next week—with me on its cover.

The media seems to have gone into a frenzy over the fact that I somehow managed to get Colton Maddox to marry me. Many girls have tried and failed but according to one insider Maddox is “gaga” over his stunning new bride, said one article Sloane insisted on showing me.

Of course my marriage has a lot to do with my newfound success, but the clothes themselves are also getting rave reviews. I’m getting a lot of press as “the” young new designer on the scene who “everyone in the know” wants to wear.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself.

As it turned out, the two pills I missed in Aspen were all it took. I bought a pregnancy test when we got back to New York and Colton and I watched together as those two blue lines didn’t even hesitate. They glowed there together like they were very sure of themselves. To me it seemed sudden and not at all what I was expecting to be doing at this point in my life, but my husband was so overjoyed about it he immediately took me to bed and insisted on “breeding” me for an entire weekend. I told him I was already “bred” but that didn’t seem to slow him down.

In my life, I’ve become so used to feeling alone and afraid and overwhelmed, the thought of having a baby at first seemed like a scary one. But I’m not alone now. I have my gorgeous, perfect, exasperating, fun, sexy, generous, loving rock of a husband. There’s nothing Colton wouldn’t do for me, which he proves to me every single day. I don’t have to be scared anymore.

Colton’s manly—and extreme—excitement over becoming a father has slowly allowed my new reality to sink in.

We’re having a baby.

Will it be a little boy with dark hair and silver eyes like mine? Or a girl, with blue eyes like her daddy’s?

For a while, I was viewing the whole scenario from the point of view of my past life, and so it took me some time to get used to the idea and to realize that this baby’s life is going to be charmed and magical. Not lonely or full of the fear of being abandoned or left behind. The little family we’re creating is so beautiful it makes me cry (I’ve been an emotional mess since I got pregnant).

Now, the love and protection I feel for this little thing growing inside me is fierce . Already, I love it with a passion I’ve never experienced before. It’s a part of me. And it’s a part of him, the beautiful love of my life. All the best of us combined and thriving with its little beating heart. The emotions are vast and life-changing.

Colton takes my hand. “Are you ready?” he asks, his voice deep and low. I love his voice. His thick hair. I love his face and his wide shoulders and the way he fills out his tux. Most of all, I love how strong and sure his grip is and the steadiness of his love. I love that he believes in me. I love that he’s fixed me.

I nod, squeezing his hand. “I love you,” I whisper.

He kisses me. “Love you more, Sunshine girl. You’re my life.” Then he taps a spoon against a glass of champagne sitting on a high table. Once he has their attention, he says, “I want to thank you all for coming and helping us celebrate our second wedding. We have some news to share with you all. Turns out I knocked up my wife in Vegas.” All our friends and family exclaim and cheer.

“Is there something in the water around here?” Noah says, which leads to more cheering and attempting to coax information about whether he’ll be adding to the gene pool any time soon.

The music starts up and Colton and I have our first dance, something we didn’t get in Vegas. After the first dance, everyone joins in and we have the most beautiful night.

I didn’t know a person could be this happy.

It’s late now and all our wedding guests have gone home. Colton carries me to the elevator. We get to our bedroom suite and he sets me next to the bed and starts unzipping my dress.

He hands me an envelope. “One more wedding present.”

“Another one? You need to stop giving me so many presents, Maddox.” I say this at least once a day.

“Just open it, baby.”

Inside the envelope is…a deed. Venice Beach. I gasp. “You bought my apartment?” My quirky little house in Venice, which is in desperate need of repairs and barely covers its own expenses.

“I bought the whole house. And the one next to it.”

“You did?”

“It’s all in your name. We’re going to go there next weekend and meet with some renovations teams. You’re going to turn it into exactly what you always wished it could be. Or you can leave it like it is, but I saw photos and I think it needs an upgrade. We need a house in L.A. so we can go back and visit when you feel like it. When you miss it.”

“Cole.” The deed is blurry through my tears. I don’t even know why I’m crying again. It’s just…it’s the nicest thing anyone could have done for me.

“Hey.” He wipes my tears with his thumbs and kisses my lips. The kiss is erotic in its lightness. “You’re all right now, sweetheart. I’m here. I’m going to put you to bed and hold you close all night long until you don’t feel scared anymore.” Colton knows better than anyone that I still wake up sometimes and can’t go back to sleep because the loneliness sometimes resurfaces. I never really even knew it was such a big part of my psyche until he filled it.

He helps me step out of my dress then he carefully hangs it over a chair. Then he takes off my bra and panties, like he’s undressing a child. I could stand still and never do anything and Colton would do it for me. And we like to sleep naked.

Sometimes he’s almost overly careful of me because he wants me and our baby safe.

But pregnancy has not only made me crazily emotional, it’s also made me extremely…hot for my husband.

I know how to get what I want. I had a good teacher.

So I get onto the bed on all fours, crawling toward the pillows, looking behind me to see him watching me. “I need some more detention from Professor Berserker. It’s my wedding night, after all. Come here, husband. ”

I don’t need to ask twice. Colton’s clothes drop to the floor and he’s behind me, his strong, rough hands on my hips, his mouth already there, burrowing and feasting. I arch my back and let my knees slide wider, laying my head on a pillow, offering myself to him in every possible way. He’s mine.

He makes me come with his mouth and then he lays his body over mine, his thick cock thrusting into me from behind as his hands guide my body into the position he demands. He’s strong but tender, relentless but reading every moan and every gasp, giving me exactly what I need, as he drives into me, thick and deep.

Colton murmurs into my ear as the waves of pleasure start to overwhelm me. “ I love you, Sunshine girl. I love you so much. You’re the most beautiful thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m going to spend my whole life giving you pleasure and lots of babies and making sure you’re safe and happy and all your dreams are coming true .”

And that’s exactly what he does.

Thank you so much for reading Billionaire Devil .

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