Epilogue
Lake
When I went downstairs that morning, Alessio stayed in bed and rested for the entire day. Or at least he tried to. After lunchtime, when it became clear Alessio wasn’t coming down to eat with us, I took a tray of food up to him. He made me put on the leg bindings and perch on the bed the way a mermaid would on a rock while I fed him. In the nude.
By dinnertime, everyone had checked on his well-being at least twice, causing him to lock the bedroom door. He emerged the next day, announcing to the family that he was canceling nearly every in-person business meeting or conference they had set up for the next year. He told Val to overhaul his entire schedule in order to incorporate entire weeks spent exclusively with his wife.
That’s my man.
By dinnertime that day, he’d planned three honeymoons, two of which are in places on my bucket list. I’d been married for less than twenty-four hours and was already feeling like a spoiled wife.
As for the venue for the wedding reception, I picked the local hotel on the Isola di Monteverro. Alessio and I met there, and I couldn’t think of another place on earth where people would work harder to ensure Alessio’s wedding was an absolute success.
I also picked the new year as the date, and in two weeks’ time, our island was decorated in ways that evoked a theme of starting something exciting, better, and new.
Now, it’s two in the morning on the first day of the year. Alessio sits at the bar with Mike, while loud music competes with the singing of the drunken wedding guests, who dance on tables and chairs, not to mention the floor. With everyone on the island invited to the wedding celebration, the hotel is packed and jamming.
On my way back from the bathroom, I squeeze between sweaty bodies, and, after I catch a few elbows in my ribs, I finally manage to stop next to Alessio at the bar. He’s turned toward Mike.
Mike sees me and jerks his head, so Alessio knows someone’s behind him. When Alessio turns, he slides off the bar stool so I can sit down. I do, and Alessio cages me with his body.
“Hey,” he says.
Just when you think the billionaire who knocked you up and then married you at his dining room table couldn’t get any hotter, he shows up at the wedding reception wearing a military fighter pilot uniform.
I run my hands down his front. “Hey. I think I found my kink.”
Alessio lifts an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? You want to try it upstairs?”
“You don’t even know what it is yet.”
Alessio smiles. “I’m pretty sure anything you’re into, I’m into it too.”
In other words, Alessio loves me and can make whatever I want come true. I can’t believe this is my life.
But then Alessio kisses me on the mouth and reminds me that I’m not dreaming, and that he and I created our own luck by choosing to overcome the terrible odds stacked against us. We never gave up on each other or on the life we glimpsed we could have. He reminds me that I’m loved unconditionally and unequivocally, while I obsess over returning equal amounts of his all-consuming affection.
***
Hi, Milana here :) Hope Alessio and Lake entertained you as they have entertained me during the months I spent writing them. If you’ve not read my work before, thank you for jumping in for a ride. If you’ve read one or many of my stories before, welcome back, pumpkin!
Wherever you are in your reading journey, please consider living a review, even if it’s just a few sentences. Your review helps place this story in the hands of other readers who will enjoy it as well.
What’s next? I’m moving on with the suspense of the misplaced weapon and writing more stories around it. They won’t be as tightly connected as Shark Bait and Risk Capital stories but we might revisit this crew again.
You’re welcome to check out what I’m working on next on my website HERE . In the meantime, read more in Shark Bait on the next page…
AND / OR check out the fae king’s story Lake stayed up all night reading.