Epilogue
Matias
“Can you stop looking at your phone?” I sigh and look at the ocean, pretending to be offended. “You’re ruining our first vacation.”
Natalia bites her lip. “Esmeralda’s having colic, and?—”
“Natalia. Baby. She will be fine. Stop worrying and let Sylvia be a mom.” I’d never so much as held a baby until Sylvia’s daughter was born a few months ago.
She’s a cute little thing. Natalia has been over the moon, stepping up to help her sister adjust to motherhood.
And although no one’s asked her to, she sometimes still falls into the trap of overextending herself, of sacrificing so that Sylvia has an easier time.
But she doesn’t need to do that anymore.
I’m here to remind her of that.
“Hasn’t her geriatric-aged boyfriend raised like, fifty kids? They’ll be fine.”
The statement does its job. Natalia puts down her phone with a frown. “Aaron isn’t geriatric. And he only has two kids.”
“He’s a grandfather.” I argue, pleased when she rolls her eyes.
“His son was a teen dad, and—you know what? I know what you’re doing.” She says, watching the slow smirk pull on my face. “It won’t work.”
“I’m sorry.” I let my smile drop. “How dare I plan this surprise, tropical vacation without conferring with Sylvia’s ovulation schedule? Shame on me.”
Natalia gives up with a laugh, trailing her hand on the yacht’s handrail and coming to sit on my lap.
“I’ll put the phone down.” She promises, and I lean up and steal a kiss from her lips, enormously pleased when she deepens it with a sigh.
When she shifts and straddles me, sliding her tongue against mine in a way that betrays her innocent face.
She’s quiet, sweet, shy…but in my arms she’s all of those things and more.
Daring. Sexy. Demanding and moody. Voracious in the bedroom, and with no qualms to ask for exactly what she wants.
And I fucking love that I’m the only person that gets to have her this way.
I groan and pull her hips closer towards me, until my burgeoning erection sits snugly between her legs. Natalia whimpers, raising her hands and breaking the kiss a moment later.
“Stop.” She whispers. “The staff will see us.”
“They can swim to shore.” I insist breathlessly, pawing at the skimpy strings of her bikini top.
She laughs, and all the thoughts go flying out of my head at the hypnotic sway of her tits.
I reach up and admire them, admire her. Her hair is no longer the sharp, brutal cut she wore before.
There’s layers and waves to it, and a healthy glow to her skin.
Her face is pink from our week in the sun, eyes brighter than I’ve seen them in a while.
There’s a healthy curve in her stomach now, something she begrudgingly pointed out after a week of me plying her with all kinds of locally made food and sweets.
I reach for my phone and snap a photo of her perched on my lap, staring at the ocean with a hint of a smile on her lips.
“How are you liking your first vacation?” She asks, leaning down and cuddling into the circle of my arms.
“It’s nice.” I say mildly. I can’t lie, I was expecting to be bored out of my mind.
To look after Natalia, happy that she got the much-needed break she needed.
But Natalia is expertly good at making the mundane interesting.
I never knew what the point of relaxing was until I was planted on the beach next to her, sunset on the horizon, good music in the background, and a cold beer in my hand.
There’s more to life now than winning all the time. And the calm feels…good.
“Nice? Just nice?”
I shrug. “Food is good. Beaches are great.” I concede, remembering that one particular beach where she let me taste her when no one was around. “The company…could be better.”
She jumps with a murderous gasp, fighting to get off my lap. “How dare you!”
I let out a gusty laugh, holding on tight when she tries squirming off my lap.
“Let me go!” She shouts in pretend outrage, freezing when she feels me stiffening below her. “…Matias!”
“What?” I laugh again, stroking the curve of her waist and kissing her neck. “You’re the one rubbing herself all over me. I’m just a man, Florecita.”
The moment is cut short by a ping on my phone. I swipe the device off the little tray table beside us, quickly scanning the message.
“What is it?” She crowds into my field of vision, a flash of anxiety in her features.
Although she puts on a brave face, Natalia still has moments like these.
Where she fears the past may come back to haunt us.
A lingering sense of anxiety that manifests itself through nightmares, most of which culminate in the day she killed Bryce in the warehouse.
As much as she pretends it doesn’t, I know there are days that sacrifice takes its toll on her.
I kiss her forehead until the creases there are gone.
“It’s just the realtor.” I murmur quietly, passing her the phone so she can read the message. “He sold the house.”
“Oh.” She puts the phone down, mulling it over. “…Are you sure you’re not upset about selling it? I know that used to be our plan…”
I shrug. “Plans change. The house means nothing to me if you’re not in it.” I tell her easily. “Besides, I made a pretty chunk of change from that. Got you a really nice gift. Very nice.”
Natalia narrows her eyes. “You didn’t buy me another supercar, right?”
“No.”
“Because the Porsche is already a lot. It’s too much.” She says primly, like I don’t see the glee on her face when she gets behind the wheel. Fucking speed demon.
“You love it.” And she doesn’t argue with that. “No, I got you something else.”
She blinks, eyes wide. “W—what did you get me?”
I pretend to think about it, and then say: “It’s a surprise.”
Natalia almost explodes in my lap. “Tell me!”
“Patience...” I tell her, laughing maniacally when she starts trying to beat the surprise out of me.
“You better tell me, or you’re going to have a really bad day!” She promises.
I chuckle and bite my lip. I really shouldn’t tell her. The surprise will be ruined. But…well…neither one of us have been the kind to do anything by the book…
The box feels earth shatteringly heavy when I reach for it in my pocket. Natalia watches me with studious eyes, her jaw dropping when I open it to reveal a huge diamond ring.
“Are you—is this a...proposal?—”
“Yes.” I answer, smiling at the moisture gathering in her eyes. “Although I had a big dinner planned tonight. Fireworks and all that shit. Santos helped me plan it—he’s a real romantic.”
“It’s so beautiful.” Natalia whispers, staring at the gold diamond ring like it might disappear. The glistening oval in the center has been cut and polished to perfection, bordered on each side of the band by tiny, nearly imperceptible diamonds. Like stars twinkling in the night sky.
“I told you I was going to make you my wife, Natalia.” I say quietly, moved by the happy tears swelling over her cheeks.
“I want to marry you in the church where we met. I want to baptize our kids there, one day. I don’t care if we live in the country house, or in the hills, or in a shitty apartment.
I don’t care where we are, or what we do.
As long as you’re with me.” I’ve already taken too much in this life—more than a selfish bastard like me has a right to.
But my last selfish act, the most important one, are the words that come out of my mouth next.
“Cásate conmigo.”
She nods, her head bobbing wildly. “Si. Si!” Natalia barrels into me, nearly knocking both of us off the chaise. My laugh is buried in the silk of her hair, the scent of sun and vanilla in my nose. I commit this moment to memory. The sound of her laugh, the feel of her weight on my chest.
I hold my peace firmly in arms. And I never let go.