Epilogue
Hart
Ten Months Later
“ I ’m going to come!” Sadie leaned her head back over the edge of the hot tub, her arms spread across the top, holding herself steady, her lips wet from the steam of the water.
And from licking them.
And from biting the shit out of them while I fucked her.
Her mouth was directly in front of mine, sucking in some air, moaning, “Lockhart, I’m going to come right now!”
As always, I could tell. Which was why I’d positioned her legs around my waist, why I ground her clit with my thumb, why I had picked up even more speed. I was bucking my hips forward and back, giving her added friction with each stroke, the water slapping every side of me.
My thrusts were achingly deep.
Hard .
Sharp.
Fuck, I was going to come too.
I reared back, pausing there for just a second with only my crown inside her. I let the tingles build in my sac, feeling them take hold of me—through my body, into my shaft, working toward my tip—and when I couldn’t stand it any longer, when I couldn’t hold off my orgasm for another second, I buried myself into her pussy.
That wetness.
That fucking tightness.
All it took was that one drive, and I lost it.
“Sadie!”
She was matching me scream for goddamn scream. “Yes! Fuck! Ah!”
Our bodies were so locked together that I could feel just how hard she was coming. Not by her moans, although that helped. Not by her breathing, despite that giving it away too. But by the way she was pulsing, gripping me from the inside, contracting around my dick.
“Oh my God!” she cried.
“Agh,” I hissed as her body began to loosen and mine became drained, the final jerk of my hips finishing off the last of my cum, and I wrapped my arms around her.
“ Mmm .” She nuzzled her face into my neck, and out of nowhere, she laughed. “Now I see why when we’re home, you always choose to have sex in the pool instead of the hot tub. The cool water is definitely a better pick over hot water. I’m semi-dying in here.”
“I can take care of that.”
I carried her up the small stairs, lifting her out of the bubbles, and walked us over to the private bean-shaped pool, both directly outside our villa. The change in temperature was appreciated, given how badly I was sweating .
“Much better.” She kept her arms circled around my neck.
“About tonight … I know we have a sunset cruise planned, and the captain is picking us up in about two hours, but I thought we could take a walk on the beach first.”
“I would love that.”
It wouldn’t just be any old walk on the sand of Egremni Beach on the island of Lefkada in Greece, where we were vacationing—a path I’d predetermined with the event coordinator of the Cole and Spade Hotel we were staying at. A path that would be covered in rose petals and candles. And at the very end of that path, I would be getting down on one knee and asking that all-important question.
So far, I’d gotten everything I wanted. Sadie living with me and using her condo as her office, traveling with me when I needed to hit the road to scout out new locations for restaurants or to view the properties that Jenner Dalton had found us. And watching my beautiful girlfriend live out her dream of being a successful food influencer.
But she wasn’t just successful. She was now the top influencer in the food space, and her career was on fire. She had a full-time assistant, got offered brand deals multiple times a day, and had recently accepted an offer from a large publishing house to release a cookbook, featuring all her unique desserts. Her preorder sales alone had already made her a New York Times Best Seller.
It was time to take things to the next level.
It was time for Sadie Spencer to become my wife.
I rested my forehead against hers, and as I was about to carry her out of the pool, I heard my phone ringing inside the villa.
“Fuck me. What do you think that call is about?”
“I don’t know. Your family? But you made it very clear that unless something was burning to the ground, you didn’t want to be bothered.” She smiled. “You hard-ass.”
“That’s because they’ll call to talk about the fucking weather. Or to ask about the weather. And I love them, but no weather talk until we get back.”
She tightened her grip around me. “They miss you—that’s all.”
The ringing stopped and immediately started again.
“I suppose I need to get that, or they’re going to keep calling until I eventually pick up.” I was still inside her, and I easily slid out. “I’ll be right back.”
I climbed out of the pool and went in through the open glass door to the bedroom, my phone on the nightstand. I lifted it, our corporate office line showing on my screen, and I held the phone to my ear.
“What’s up?—”
“You’re not going to fucking believe this,” Walker said.
“Believe what?” I headed back outside and sat at the edge of the pool, dipping my legs in the water.
“Hart, we just got the best news ever,” Eden said.
There was excitement in her voice, something I didn’t hear often.
I put the phone on speaker mode and said, “All right, hit me with it. I’m ready.”
“Toro LA got Michelin-rated,” Colson said.
Sadie had her back to me, her arms looped through my legs, but she released me and turned around, her mouth hanging open, lips shaped in an O.
“Hold on a second,” I voiced. “We got what ?”
“And it gets even better,” Walker announced. “Hart, they gave us three fucking stars.”
“Three stars, Hart,” Eden sang. “Not one or two, but three! ”
Sadie started jumping up and down in the pool. “Eden,” she said close enough to the phone so that everyone could hear, “I told you it was going to happen.”
“Sadie, not for a second did I believe you.” Eden laughed.
Sadie was smiling at Eden’s comment, and it reminded me of the time that Sadie had told me they were going to be besties. My sister was good at acquaintances. Letting someone new in? That wasn’t her style. But slowly, she had embraced Sadie, and they’d spent many nights at Eden’s house, sharing bottles of wine, talking until they fell asleep on her couch.
Sadie could be herself in front of Eden. She could show my sister both sides of her, and she didn’t have that luxury with just anyone. And Eden could let down that callous edge she’d built up over the years, finding comfort in Sadie because Sadie had proven to her that she could be trusted.
That was what mattered most to me—Sadie, my family, the way we were all together, working as one.
But, shit, we’d hit a goal with Toro, and that meant everything to me too.
I ran my hand over the top of my wet hair. “Michelin-rated,” I echoed, the news really sinking in. “Now, that’s so fucking badass.”
“It sure is,” Sadie replied.
“I assume the team is going to put out a press release and get all the food outlets chirping about us?” I asked. “And somehow tie in Horned so it gets a boost too—not that it needs one, but it can’t hurt.”
“Already on it,” Eden confirmed.
“I’m hosting a team dinner at Toro in a few nights,” Beck said. “That’ll give us even more press, and I’ll make sure all the guys post about it.”
“Good.” I rubbed the side of Sadie’s face. “We’ll celebrate when we get back. ”
“Have an excellent rest of your trip,” Colson said.
We said goodbye, and I hung up, setting the phone behind me on a chair so it wouldn’t get wet when I slid into the pool.
Sadie immediately surrounded me—her legs around my waist, her arms around my neck. “So, I’m going to do something, and I don’t want to hear any chirping from you.”
“Oh, yeah? And what is that?”
She smiled. “We made an agreement, and I’m going to break it.”
My eyes narrowed as I gazed at her. “What type of trouble are you about to get yourself into?”
“No trouble at all.” She gave me a quick kiss. “But Dear Foodie’s favorite restaurant was just awarded three Michelin stars, and her audience needs to know that.”
“No more posts—we agreed.”
She climbed up, like my body was the trunk of a tree. “Let me celebrate you. Let me brag about you.” She paused. “Let me do this—not for you, but for me.” She laughed when I still hadn’t said anything. “You know, as my boyfriend, I think you’re obligated to nod and smile and let Dear Foodie do whatever she wants.”
Boyfriend now.
Fiancé later tonight.
At least this would appease my raging beast of a brother who still bitched that Dear Foodie had stopped posting about us after her review of Toro.
“All right.” I held her harder, tickling her waist, listening to her squeals. When she quieted, I added, “But you only get this one pass, and you’re using it on this—don’t forget that. Because the next time you try to break our deal, you’re going to get punished.”
She pulled at my lip, nipping it between her teeth. “If you’re talking about the kind of punishment I think you are, then I’m going to post about The Weston Group every day.”
I moved my face into her neck, my hand slipping around her until it was gripping her ass. And while a breeze sent me a faint hint of her fruity jasmine scent, I growled, “You’re so fucking naughty …”