Epilogue
CAMDEN
It’s the middle of April, and I’m enjoying my off-season diet of a pastrami on rye from the deli down the street when Nadine tears into the room. “I got in! I got in!”
“What?” Confused, I set down my sandwich and wipe off my fingers to catch her. “What are you saying?”
“I got into Penn.”
“You got into Penn?” I parrot, matching her level of excitement and volume.
“Yes! I got into Penn!”
I lift her up, swinging her around a few times as she squeals before holding her up, so she can wrap her arms and legs around me. “I’m so, so proud of you.”
The University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League school with one of the top-ranked education programs in the country. Because of its prestige, they routinely receive thousands of applicants but only accept about a quarter of them.
“I didn’t think they’d take me.” She leans back to meet my gaze, and I blink a few times to view her clearly through my tears. She had an online interview with them, and she’d sworn they didn’t like her. I told her she was making it all up in her head.
Of course, I was right.
“We have to celebrate.” I set her down and take off my glasses to wipe at my eyes before grabbing my cell phone to call the building’s concierge to tell them I need a bottle of champagne stat.
The best one they can find. Personal shopping isn’t really in their job description, but seeing as how they want to keep me happy and in the building, they are more than willing to provide it for me.
And twenty minutes later, a bottle of Dom Perignon arrives at my door.
Once we each have glasses filled, I tip mine to Nadine’s. “To Doctor Rivera.”
After some more conversations with me and with her parents, Nadine decided that she did eventually want to earn her PhD, and this acceptance is her first step in that direction.
“It’ll be a lot of work.”
I shrug of her warning. We’ve figured out our schedule thus far; it won’t be a problem in the future.
Plus, the program doesn’t start until the fall, so we have months to line up help if we need it with Paisley.
The little social butterfly has some activity almost every day now.
With more friends than she had back in Iowa, she’s gained a ton of confidence, and that boyfriend of hers isn’t so bad.
He’s a good kid, but I did warn him that he’ll have the entire Founders football team at his doorstep if he breaks her heart.
“I love you,” I murmur against Nadine’s lips, pulling her against me, and I’m so glad the weather has begun to warm up.
She doesn’t have as many layers for me to peel off when I strip her naked before guiding her over my lap.
She takes over for my hand, stroking the length of my quickly hardening cock, leaving me free to reach for the box I plucked out of the back of my closet.
The one I have been hiding from her for weeks.
I open it now, and she gasps in shock, though her face almost immediately melts to a frown. “I cannot believe you’re doing this to me now. With your dick in my hand.”
I grin. “Is there a better way?”
“Literally any other way.”
I lift the custom ring between us, this one rose gold to match the other I gave her last Christmas, but with diamonds inlaid around it and a five-carat cushion cut in the middle.
She could wear it alone or stacked with the other one, although I plan to keep her dripping in diamonds. Glittering like a winter river.
My River.
“So, what do you say?” I place it at the tip of her outstretched finger. “Will you take this corn-fed boy and make him a man?”
She reluctantly lets her smile loose and eventually laughs. “Might as well. No one else in the world would know what to do with you.”
“You got that right.” I slide the ring onto her fourth finger then kiss her palm. “No matter what we do, no matter where life takes us, I am yours, forever. I promise to always take care of you, support you, and put your wants and needs before my own. I love you, Nadine.”
She bites into her lower lip to keep it from quivering, but she loses out on the battle, and I wipe away the single tear on her cheek. “I think you just wrote your vows.” She sniffs a laugh. “Who needs a wedding when we can exchange them right now?”
“In that case, Mrs. Long, I now pronounce us husband and wife.”
She giggles, falling against my chest, and I kiss her ear, her temple, her wet cheek.
I feel her lips brush over my throat, and her torso expand on an inhale a moment before she sits up, clear-eyed and serious.
“I love you, Camden Long, and I promise to always defend you, stand by your side in good times and in bad. I am grateful for your generosity and humor but, most of all, for giving me your heart. I will protect it until my last breath. I am yours, forever.”
I curve my hands around her jaw and cover her mouth with mine, sealing our vows with a kiss. One that tastes like champagne and feels brand-new.
It may not be legally binding, but our promises are all I need.
She is mine, and I am hers.
Forever.
That starts now.
With lazy kisses and roaming hands. She sinks down onto my length, and I thumb the bud of her sex, enjoying the sight of her growing blush, the bite of her fingernails into my biceps when she throws her head back, moaning her pleasure.
The spasm of her inner walls triggers my own orgasm, and I hold her tight to me as I release all of it into her, reflexively lifting my hips, pumping into her until we’re both spent.
Then I carefully reach for the box of tissues, because these couches are leather, and as much as I’m willing to pay for the cleaning service, I think that stain would be a step too far for them to remove.
After, we cuddle on the couch, drinking champagne and admiring her new jewelry, idly chatting about taking a vacation this summer before training camp starts or when exactly we’d like to make our marriage official.
The television plays in the background, highlights of a hockey game, and I play with Nadine’s hair as we listen to the talking heads argue about whether the Philadelphia Iron will make it to the play-offs. Our city’s hockey team hasn’t qualified in years, but they’re supposedly looking pretty good.
“If only Tremblay could keep his personal matters personal, I think he has the potential to be a star on the team.”
I don’t follow much about hockey, but I’ve met Nico Tremblay a few times, and he’s never had fewer than two girls at his side at all times.
A real playboy. In fact, there’s been a story floating around recently about his supposedly giving a woman a sexually transmitted infection.
I cringe just thinking about it, how that would affect my play on the field.
Although I can’t ponder it too long because Nadine finishes the last of her champagne, and with her ass pressed right up against my groin and my ring newly placed on her finger, I’m ready to go again.
I slide my fingers underneath the panties she’d put back on, and she laughs. “You’re kidding. It hasn’t even been, like, half an hour.”
“Yeah, too long.” I suck on her throat. “Let me get you pregnant. Buy two, get one free.”
“What?”
“You were accepted into your number one school program, we’re engaged, might as well throw a baby in there.”
She glares at me. “You think now is the time for me to have your baby when I’m about to start grad school?”
I tip my head side to side. “Might as well really strap you down, you know? Make sure you’re not going anywhere.”
She snorts a laugh. “Your breeding kink is off the charts. What would Malcolm say about that if he found out?”
“Nothing because I’m firing him.”
“He doesn’t work for you.”
I groan into her neck. “Don’t remind me.”