Epilogue
Lili’s wide awake, staring at the ceiling with headphones on, when my eyes open.
She smiles when she sees I’m conscious, slipping the headphones off. I catch the distant drone of the narrator’s voice before she tosses the headphones away. “Morning.”
“Morning.” I roll so I’m hovering over her, planting a kiss on the hollow of her throat. “You’re up early.”
Lili moans softly as my mouth moves lower, her chest lifting and her hands sliding into my hair.
“What were you listening to?” I ask, playing with the strap of the nightgown she’s wearing. I swear she buys these just to drive me insane. They don’t really cover anything, and they definitely don’t keep her warm.
My hand slides lower, cupping the heavy weight of her breast.
Lili gasps. “Honestly? Can’t remember.”
I chuckle. “Sounds riveting.”
“ Charlie .”
“Yeah?” I’m distracted, more focused on sliding my hand down her side and then bunching up her lacy slip.
“My parents.” Gasp. “Your grandmother.” Sigh. “Chloe and Theo.” Groan. “My brothers.” Pant. “Your sister.”
I’m already sinking inside of her. “Can’t you be quiet, love?”
Lili glowers at my smirk. Because we both know she’s never ever quiet. Very vocal about her love of my cock actually.
She stayed up later than I did last night, visiting with her best friend and her mom, so I didn’t get to do this before bed. I’m surprised I managed to fall asleep without my favorite evening ritual.
I fuck her slow, kissing her in an attempt to swallow the needy moans filling our bedroom and trying to remember what room Conrad put her parents in. I should have suggested they stay in the other wing. I think Crew likes me—at least, he gave me permission to offer Lili the engagement ring hidden in the one corner of my closet her clothes haven’t overtaken—and I’d like it to stay that way.
Lili arches her back, breaking our kiss as her nails dig hard into my back. Her pussy clenches around me, trying to hold my cock inside of her. Trying to pull it deeper.
“ So good ,” she breathes, hips rocking against mine.
I lace our fingers together and hold our joined hands above her head. Heat is licking up my spine, and I’m rapidly reaching the point where I don’t care who is listening or how they’re related to her.
Our lips brush together again, and then I bite her lower one.
She whimpers, fighting my hold on her hands. “I want to touch you.”
I pound into her harder, the mattress sinking under our combined weight. “Just take it, baby. You take me so fucking well.”
I lost track of the times we’ve had sex a long time ago. But it’s still as addictive as the first hit of her was.
Lili relaxes her arms, her cheek rolling against the pillow and her lips parting as her wet cunt flutters around me.
“More,” she demands, bucking up against me. Her pebbled nipples rub against my chest.
“I’m not bloody stopping,” I assure her, reaching between our bodies and finding the place where she’s stretched around me. Trace the taut, slick skin and then find the swollen bud of her clit. Pinch it.
Lili comes with a cry I’m slow to smother, her grip on my fingers so tight that she’s cutting off circulation at the same time her tight pussy strangles my cock.
My climax goes on and on. My breathing is still heavy when I pull out and lie down beside her.
Lili doesn’t move. I tug her hand down with mine, our connected fingers draped against the rapid rise and fall of her chest. Brush a kiss against her temple.
She sighs contentedly, then glances at me. Her cheeks burn. “We were really loud.”
“We can work on being quieter tonight,” I suggest.
She shoves me. “You’re not getting laid until everyone leaves.”
“Sure,” I say, unconcerned, as I climb out of bed.
“I mean it, Charlie.”
“Fine. Then, I’ll kick everyone out after the party.”
Lili throws a pillow at me. It bounces harmlessly off the armchair ten feet away from the bathroom door.
“You missed,” I say cheerfully before shutting the door behind me.
It doesn’t block the sound of her huff.
Chloe and Theo are the only ones downstairs when I enter the dining room.
My graduation from medical school was yesterday afternoon. All of our American visitors flew in yesterday morning, and I’m sure they’re all fighting a serious case of jet lag this morning.
I should have mentioned that to Lili. Maybe I could have talked her into a second round in the shower.
“Morning,” I say, grabbing a scone and taking my usual seat at the head of the table.
Theo looks up from the newspaper he’s reading. “Good morning.”
“No one else is up yet?”
“Just us,” Chloe replies. “We tried to sleep in, but the walls in this place are kind of thin.”
Lili chooses this moment to walk into the dining room. Shoots me a dirty look.
Theo fails at hiding his smile behind his paper.
“I’m going to take a quick ride,” I say, then swallow a bite of scone.
It’s been more than a week since I last rode Kensington. Over a month since I last visited my father’s grave. Life has been extra hectic lately. I was studying for and then taking my final examinations. Lili was working on a project in Scotland. Blythe spent a few days here before traveling to London to see her friends. She lives in New York now, working as a fashion blogger for Haute .
Lili nods. I give her a kiss, wave at Theo and Chloe, then head for the stables.
Kensington greets me with a soft nicker. Blows out his belly when I tighten his girth. Ambles good-naturedly toward the mounting block.
I don’t press the pace, enjoying the blue skies and the familiar scenery. It’s a beautiful day.
Ten minutes later, I reach the cemetery.
Except … it looks nothing like it.
I dismount from Kensington. He yanks the reins from my limp hand, stealing a chance for unrestricted grass access.
And just … stare.
Until I hear the sound of approaching hoofbeats.
“I figured this was where you were heading.” Lili swings down from Gilbert’s saddle, letting him join a grazing Kensington.
She walks over, grabbing my left hand with both of hers and resting her cheek against my bicep.
I swallow thickly. “I can’t believe you did this.”
“Do you like it?”
There’s hesitancy in her voice I’m surprised to hear, unsure how she could think I wouldn’t.
“I love it. I love you .” I kiss the top of her head, then look straight back at the graveyard to admire it again.
The stone wall is still here, but it’s unrecognizable. There’s a wooden archway over the opening in the piled rocks, blooming greenery beginning to climb over it. I spot the familiar shape of ivy. Smell the fragrance of the wild roses.
Purple bushes stand on either side of the archway while a mix of red, pink, and yellow tulips runs the entire length of the wall in both directions.
It’s beautiful. All of it.
The grayness of graves and rocks doesn’t look depressing amid the brilliant spray of color.
It’s the kind of final resting place I wanted to give my father but was too overwhelmed and confused and angry to pursue it three years ago.
“It won’t look like this in the winter,” Lili tells me. “I can plant some evergreens and put in a box hedge. But all the flowers are perennials, so they should?—”
I cut her off with a kiss, crushing her against me so quickly that she stumbles.
“Marry me.”
Lili blanches, then releases a surprised huff. “Most clients just offer me a bonus if they’re really happy with a project.”
I smile. She does too.
And then our mutual amusement fades as we stare at each other, the moment gaining a new weight.
This isn’t how I intended to ask her, right by a cemetery with the ring I bought her back at the house. Just like I hadn’t planned to tell Lili I loved her right outside an airport.
But maybe that’s how you know you found the right person. When it doesn’t really matter where you are, and the words just won’t stay inside any longer.
I was waiting to propose until I was finished with medical school, until our busy lives felt a little more settled.
I suddenly want—need—her to know I want to marry her, even if she doesn’t walk down the aisle toward me for another fifty years.
“You’re … serious?”
I nod. “So serious that I asked your dad.” A conversation I stressed over for weeks. I even called Ellis and had him pretend to be Crew so I could run through what I planned to say. “And there’s a ring hidden in the little bit of the closet I have left.”
She rolls her eyes. “You told me to move all my clothes here.”
“I know.”
She didn’t move them all here though. She still has her penthouse in New York, which I know for a fact has full closets. She’s also left plenty of clothes at the London flat, where I’ve lived for most of the past two years. Honestly, I couldn’t care less, but it’s fun to tease Lili about her clothing collection. Kit does the same thing.
I tighten my grip on her hips, looking straight into her eyes. More red rushes to her cheeks, the longer I stare, but she doesn’t break eye contact.
“This wasn’t where I was planning to ask you. But I’ve been planning to ask you—knowing I would ask you—for a long time.” I ghost my lips along hers, and Lili shivers. “Marry me, Elizabeth Josephine Kensington.”
Lili bites her bottom lip before she nods. “Yes,” she tells me. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
I can’t talk right away. This moment—this massive moment, where the person I want to spend the rest of my life with has agreed to spend the rest of her life with me—feels like it’s expanded around me, blocking any words from coming out. Nothing seems like enough.
For the third time, I witness Lili cry.
“I love you so much,” she sobs, burying her face in my chest.
I wrap my arms around her, holding her as tight as I can. Kiss the top of her head and murmur, “I love you,” into her hair.
For a few blissful minutes, it feels like we’re the only two people in the world, savoring the perfect bubble around us.
I only let go of her to walk over to my father’s grave. Crouch down and brush a stray leaf off the top of the thick stone.
I wish he had been there yesterday to see me graduate. I wore the stethoscope he never got to give me, and I’d like to think he knows that.
I wish he could be at my wedding.
But today would look very different if he were still alive. Maybe things happen for a reason, as bloody awful as they are to accept at the time.
“Happy birthday, Papa.”
I stand, then walk back toward Lili. She squeezes my hand before mounting Gilbert.
We ride back toward Newcastle Hall in sweet silence, stealing glances at each other like love-drunk teenagers.
Figures are visible out in the gardens as we ride nearer. Martha’s been cooking for days in preparation of today’s party.
After I graduated from Oxford with my undergraduate degree, Papa, Blythe, Granny, and I all went to Le Cinq, one of London’s fanciest restaurants.
If you’d asked me then, I’d have said that my future graduation from medical school would look the same. The four of us and a four-course meal.
Six years later, I’ve lost a lot.
My father.
Large chunks of the legacy I thought I’d inherit.
But there’s a growing crowd in the gardens—we were gone for longer than I’d realized—all of them here to celebrate this accomplishment with me.
The Kensington family, who flew all the way from New York to be here. Chloe and Theo drove up from London. Fig’s arrived, standing right next to Blythe, which makes me frown and decide to have a talk with him later. Gran is sitting at the metal table, sipping on tea as she talks to a beaming Elsie. My mom sent a card, which arrived two days ago.
And then there’s Lili, looking at the gardens, not noticing my attention has drifted to her.
Dark hair blowing wild around her flushed face as she rides alongside me, following the same path that my father and I often went on. Where he’d lecture about duty and reputation and respectability, preparing me for the role I’d inherit.
It all felt false after he died. Maybe before then too. Arbitrary and meaningless.
I continue to stare at Lili, and nothing about my life feels false.
“I was talking about you,” I tell her.
She glances my way, fighting with the wind for control of her hair. “What?”
“When I said ‘Beautiful,’ I was talking about you.”
Her smile expands when she realizes exactly what I’m talking about, her blue eyes as captivating as they were the first time I saw her. I’ll always consider her the most beautiful woman in the world.
But when I look at her now, beautiful is no longer the first word that comes to mind.
She looks like the one word I wrote on her once, back when I thought she never would be.
Mine .
THE END