EPILOGUE
COLT
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Riley flew home on my private jet, then I stood up for Sebastian as he married Emily a few days later.
It was a beautiful wedding.
Lexi was one of the bridesmaids, and I was right about Mason falling in love with her.
Predictable.
By the time the jet had returned to New York and the crew had time to take a few days off, I was heading back to Australia.
I’ve been here four days already and have met her friends Kylie and Billie, and her parents. The latter aren’t thrilled Riley has met someone in another country, but given I’m the father of their grandchild, they were polite.
Although I think her mom likes me more than she let on.
Her father pulled me aside last night before we left their house after dinner.
“Colt.” He crossed his arms and leaned on the edge of his desk. “I suspect you want to ask me something.”
I walked to the bookshelf, choosing my words carefully. I didn’t have anything to ask, but I knew where he was going with this.
“I love my daughter but wanted different things for her.”
“Such as?”
He cleared his throat. “Well, a life in Australia.”
I nodded.
“Not sure I agree with her business choices either. Now she’s pregnant, I hope she’ll look at her life.”
I nodded again, more sharply.
“However, if you want to marry her—”
I’d had enough.
“I will be asking Riley if she’ll marry me. I’ve told her. If she chooses to say yes, then I’ll be ecstatic.” I held the man’s gaze.
No point in pretending to be anyone other than who I am. Riley was her own woman. She’d shared with me how unsupportive her father had been about her business, and it pissed me off.
“No man is going to find you attractive wearing overalls Riley. Get married and grow a big garden like Grandma. Don’t waste your life.”
Who says that to their daughter who has clearly shown herself to be entrepreneurial.
Well, I think she’s the sexiest woman alive...and I’ve seen a lot of women. Things I won’t say out loud.
“I see.”
He waited.
I tapped my finger on the bookshelf.
“Well,” I smiled. “Guess we’ll all be surprised when she gives me her answer one day.”
He cleared his throat. “Yes.”
My father would be highly disappointed in me for not being more respectful, which is the only reason I added, “And would I be correct in saying we have your blessing?”
That’s when I saw the glint in his eye.
He loves his daughter.
As someone who’s about to become a father, it hits me dead in the chest. I’m fucking glad I asked.
“If it’s what makes Riley happy, then yes.”
The weather is turning a little colder here now that it’s Autumn. Riley has her coat on as we walk along St Kilda Beach.
I tug her to a spot, and we both sit.
The sun is going to set; then we are going for dinner on the Southbank.
I’ve never thought of myself as romantic, but there’s something about falling in love with a woman and wanting to make her happy that pulls you to do things you’ve laughed at other guys for.
Laughed at movies.
Promised yourself you’d never do it.
I’d move fucking mountains.
“How long are you staying?” Riley asks, turning to me.
My arm is resting on the grass behind us, and I lean to kiss her. Her lips are warm and glossy, and I pull her against me.
“Until you come home with me,”
“I have a business,” she drops her eyes. “How do we do this?”
“One decision at a time.” I glance out at the ocean. “I found a house. Just out of the city. If you like it, I’ll buy it for us.”
“A house.”
“In Westchester County. It has a big garden. A pool. You can start your own business there and still be my little gardener.”
Riley’s eyes glisten under the darkening sky.
“You’ve thought this through.” She lets out an uncomfortable laugh. “It’s not just my business. I have friends here, too. My family.”
I am not giving up.
“I have a private jet, Riley. You can fly back and forth. I am not living without you.”
“What if we live here?”
I nod, staring back at the ocean.
I could.
The world is connected via the internet, so it's not like I can’t live in Australia.
“Let me see the house.” She holds out her hand.
Tugging my phone out, I swipe to the link and show her the listing.
“Is that...how many damn zeros is on that price?”
I grin, leaning over her shoulder and pointing out all the features of the house. Also known as an enormous mansion.
“It’s a very opulent area. Imagine the clients.”
“Stop trying to sell it to me. I’m falling in love with it just from the pictures.”
I hold my breath.
Riley must feel the tension in my body as she turns, smiles at me, and as the sun burns orange on the horizon, she cups my face and gazes into my eyes.
“I do love you, Colt.”
“Fuck.” I tug her onto my lap and kiss her so fiercely I worry I’m hurting her. “Riley, I fucking love you.”
We keep kissing until there are only stars above us, and I’m almost certain this is the most perfect moment of my life.
This woman who carries my baby in her tummy, the one who owns my heart now. I meant it. I’m not leaving.
I will sell the club—even though Drew said, and I quote, what the fuck, dude—but I know he respected me for being willing to.
“Sounds like she’s the one.”
“She is.” I nodded. “No question about it.”
Riley shifts in my lap. “What if we spent half our time in the States and half in Australia?”
Hope blooms in my chest.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I mean I’d need to hire people to run my business, but I would have to when I have this little baby of ours, anyway.”
“Do you want to keep the business running?”
Riley bites her cheek. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
There is time. There is plenty of time for making these decisions, and both of us will need to compromise.
But on one thing I won’t.
I love her and want to spend the rest of my life with her. To have her take my name so that our children also have it.
That decision needs to happen now.
Getting pregnant and living on different sides of the planet means we skipped the part in between.
I stretch out a leg and dig into my pocket.
Then hold up my fingers.
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RILEY
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THE GASP I gasped.
Colt almost blinds me with the enormous diamond he holds before my face.
It’s a stupid thing to think at a time like this, but I’m going to have to get used to being in love with a very rich man.
First world problems and all that, but it is different. Every part of me wants to tell him he didn’t need to get me the Rock of Gibraltar.
That a good old two-carat from Michael Hill Jewelers in Melbourne city would have sufficed.
I swallow.
“Riley, my little gardener.” Colt starts and I’m already crying. “You dropped into my DMs, called me a troll, seduced me on FaceTime—”
I gasp. “Do not talk about Vagina Gate!”
“Vagina-gate?” He looks perplexed.
“Keep going, keep going.”
“Okay, ah, where was I? Before I came to Australia, I was already charmed by you. I should have known then I’d fall in love, but as I walked along the beach in Hawaii, I almost told the captain we were turning back.”
“You did?”
Colt nods.
“But I’m lazy and decided you could fly your pretty ass to America.”
I giggle, dropping my head on his chest.
“Seriously, baby, I love you. I want you to take my name. I want our baby to have our name. I want this ring on your finger so every man on this planet knows you belong to me.”
Kylie is going to die when I tell her this.
“Say it, ask me.” I wriggle in his lap.
Colt smirks, joy beaming from his gorgeous green eyes.
“I mean, I could wait—” He tugs the ring away, and I launch at it.
Laughing, he takes my hand, slides it halfway on my ring finger, and as his smile fades, he pops the question.
“Riley Scott, will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
“Yes,” I say, my voice choked. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Colt Winters.”
As he slides the ring onto my finger, all the way, it feels like I’m home.
Colt is my home.
It doesn’t matter where we live or where I run my business. This man honors my love of being a landscaper—even if he does call me a bloody gardener—and I know he will be an amazing father.
While I don’t love the Obsidian Club, I trust that he will do the right thing. As a husband and father.
He’s a wealthy man.
He doesn’t do things traditionally or in line with what society says, but then again, neither do I.
Perhaps that’s why we’re suited.
Colt is right about a couple of things: he loves me, I love him, and it does in fact appear that I have tamed Mr. Winters.