Epilogue
Love. Gratitude. Serenity. Those are the feelings that I have carried with me for the last six months. Every day, I wake up next to Hunter. Every night, I cuddle in bed with him. Every moment of every day is a new page written in our love story.
We’re on our first vacation alone as a couple. He brought me to a wildlife park in Kenya. My heart overflows with love for him, filling my chest with all the wondrous things he ignites in me.
I stopped wondering if this was my life or a dream. It’s real—so real, like every intake and exhale of air.
Usually, after a long night of lovemaking, I wake up after Hunter. Not today because I can barely contain my excitement about going on a safari. But even that can wait as I admire my handsome man. His lips thrust out in a cute pout, and I can’t help myself. I gently place a kiss on his mouth, trying not to wake him up, but it’s like he’s attuned to me. He peels one silver eye open, making my world sparkle.
In a swift move, he rolls us to the side with me on top of him. Addicted would be too mild a word for how I crave him.
He has been inside me so many times, but our hunger for each other only increases. He has explored my body with such diligence that I am pretty sure he knows it better than I do.
Being loved by him is everything. Maybe I am selfish, but I love having all his heart. His love heals me, eases me, comforts me, and brings me a world of delight.
Scooting up, I straddle his lap, and he brushes his nose against the flicker of my pulse in my neck, inhaling me as I caress his back lazily.
“Good morning, kitten. I thought we’d go see your ancestors today, but that can wait.”
We’re needy like that. Nothing excites me more than waking up to him and making love. Staying in bed has become a ritual. And when we don’t fuck, we just kiss and cuddle for a while longer. Neither of us leaves the bed until the other wakes up, and when we occasionally can’t, we always leave a note.
A giggle escapes my mouth, and he continues in a low growl, “I still have the marks from last night.”
Yeah, those marks—reminders of us giving in to this animalistic side of us. It involves me scratching his back, and it takes days for them to disappear—just like his bite marks all over my body. The proof makes us burn even hotter for each other.
I caress my fingers along the thicker lines my nails left on his back. “I love you so much.” But our love is, at times, raw, mad, consuming.
“I love you, my sweet corruption.”
I’m so happy that I can barely contain my feelings. “No regrets.”
He peppers kisses along my jaw as his hand fists in my hair. Pulling my head back, he nips along my neck, sending a heatwave through my system. “Good, because there’s a no return policy. You and me…”
“Forever,” I finish, knowing he loves to hear me say that.
A satisfied sound rumbles in his throat as he slams his mouth on mine. We’re naked, so it just takes one thrust to fill me to the brim.
Every muscle in his chest and arms cord, and I instinctively squeeze around him, making him throw his head back. I love that it’s me who brings him so much rapture.
As I place kisses along his neck and chest, feeling his heart thumping under mine, he says, “It beats for you. Entirely. My heart is yours. I am all yours.”
I know it, but I love to hear that from him again and again and again. My ravenous heart will never tire of his love declarations.
We continue kissing as our bodies make love, losing ourselves in each other. Our moans and groans mix with the hum of the air conditioning.
We come together in blissful elation. When our breathing returns to normal, he grins at me brightly. “Do you like it here?”
“I’ve seen a lot from the terrace and you naked since last night.”
“So much sass in someone so delicate…”
I sigh dreamily, and he scoops me up, carrying me outside to the shower. We’re high in a tree, and he chose the cabin that is the farthest away. He is unapologetically possessive, and he owns it because he said, “No one is going to see what’s for my eyes only.” It led to us becoming animals in our lust, which had nothing to do with our surroundings.
He’s shampooing my hair as I am lost, watching the vegetation and some giraffes eating. In the distance, I spot a herd of elephants. The weather is so hot here, as if the sun is bowing down to kiss this magical ground. The high temperature has the image flickering before my eyes.
Nothing is hotter than my man, and nothing burns more intensely than my feelings for him, though.
At times, all the happiness overwhelms me, but I don’t have to hide my vulnerabilities. I am safe with him. He pulls me to his chest and simply continues washing me as he kisses my forehead.
“Thank you,” I whisper, not knowing exactly what I’m thanking him for. I guess for everything.
His dreamy silver eyes bore into mine. “You made me believe in fate. That our souls must have known each other before the atoms formed our bodies. This invisible cord binding us together is made of love, threaded with passion, and knotted with destiny. Nothing your heart desires will be impossible for me to give you. You’re everything to me.”
“I love you so much, Hunter, and I’ll never stop.”
“I had this very romantic idea in mind. But this moment, when we’re raw, naked, and bare to the other, fits us. We’ve unraveled one another from the start.” He strides inside the cabin and returns quickly. Then he lowers himself to one knee and looks up at me. My hand flies to my mouth, my heart threatening to burst through my chest.
“Will you marry me? I promise to love you every day of our lives, be there whatever happens, to be your biggest supporter, your devoted husband, and your lifelong partner. I’ve never loved before you, and I won’t love after you. Only ever you—my kitten, my love, my angel. Let’s build our life together. Let me give you the family you’ve always dreamed about and deserve. Let me have the only thing I’ve truly wanted: you, because you’re my world. Be more than my woman—become my wife, please.”
It’s never too soon when your heart knows with absolute certitude this is it.
A memory flashes before my eyes. I once asked Hunter why he calls me by so many terms of endearment, and his answer was, “I can’t express it all with just one pet name.”
Tears stream down my cheeks. This proposal is perfect, making me an emotional, overjoyed mess.
I shout a yes and jump into his arms. He falls on his back, and I land on top of him.
“Yes. A definite, unequivocal yes. I could only ever say yes to you.”
With me cradling his thighs, he hands me a mini copper lockbox with a six-digit password. Engraved on each side are the words: “Corrupt Me” on the left and “Marry Me” on the right. I rotate the wheel to input the password. The biggest grin stretches the corners of my mouth as I take in the unique ring box. Every rotation has my heart beating faster as excitement floods my insides.
I have it cracked in under ten seconds.
He bursts into laughter. “I really put my mind to it.”
“You chose the day you began to fall. I will never forget the fifteenth of September either, as it was just as much the beginning of mine. I hope we’ll never stop falling.”
“No, we won’t. We’ll just fall, never reaching the end of us.”
With shaky fingers, I open it to reveal an astounding vivid blue, pear shape diamond set in a platinum eternity diamond band. It also has an inscription: My one and only. Forever yours, H.
I’m too choked with emotion to speak, but a breathless, “I love you with everything in me,” pours out of me.
Hunter takes my hand and lifts it to his mouth. “I love you to no end.” He kisses each fingertip, then my palm and the back of my hand. He’s perfect. All mine—the love of my life.
He slips the ring onto my finger, and it clicks as if the last lock has fallen into place, our souls irrevocably binding—not for life, but for longer than our bodies will live.
He presses our foreheads together, interlinking our fingers. The world slips away, and it’s just the two of us—for a lifetime and beyond.