Epilogue
epilogue
. . .
HONOR
Blake’s office in the city, while impressive, was intimidating. Even when I’d been here so often now, I’d lost count. Every wall, floor, desk, and hallway was hard, cold and shiny, giving the entire space a daunting feel to it.
Much like the man himself when I’d first met him.
Not anymore though.
I strode from the elevator on the top floor, heading down the hallway to where his assistant sat outside his corner office.
“Is he in, Charly?” I asked the twenty-something blonde with brown eyes and killer organizational skills.
A smile spread across her face at the sight of me. “Sure is, and he’s expecting you. With anticipation, if his mood today has been anything to go by.”
She didn’t bother pressing the intercom to alert Blake to my presence like she did for everyone else, just waved me in.
I gripped the cold metal handle to his office and twisted it, swinging the door open.
He was sitting behind his enormous black desk, gray suit jacket discarded leaving him in a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up exposing his forearms. He stared at a tablet held in one hand, his fingers running through his hair with the other like whatever he was reading had irritated him to no end.
My God, he was so damn handsome. It still took my breath away some days.
We’d be in the kitchen making breakfast and he’d hand me the cup of coffee he’d just made me and the feeling would hit me like a truck—this gorgeous, loving, stick-up-his-ass man was all mine. And I liked to think the stick had been at least partially removed since he met me.
Or we’d be in the bathroom brushing our teeth before bed and he’d stand behind me, watching me in the mirror, and the thought would hit me that I’d be happy doing this totally mundane task with him for the rest of our lives.
It was too soon for all that though… right?
It had only been six months since Hudson and Kelly’s wedding in Antigua. We’d lasted a few weeks back in the city in our separate apartments before Blake was begging me to move in with him. He’d offered to sell his luxury four-bedroom fifty-fourth floor penthouse apartment and buy something new for us, given Reyna had once lived there too.
But I wasn’t so insecure that I’d make him give up the incredible piece of real estate he called home. Especially when he’d given me free reign (and a bottomless budget) to redesign and redecorate the place however I wanted, a privilege that he went to great lengths to emphasize had never been given to his ex-fiancée.
I’d thrown myself into the project with gusto, insisting Blake be heavily involved in the creation of our new home. It was our project that we’d complete together.
Turns out the furnishings and fittings didn’t matter. The life he’d lived there with her was nothing like the life we were building together.
I shut his office door behind me, and he glanced up, his irritation instantly morphing into relief.
“Finally,” was all he said, getting to his feet and coming around his desk to meet me as I strode into the room.
His hands were instantly at my waist, moving my body against his, his mouth closing over mine in a claiming kiss that made my knees weak.
“How was lunch with Kelly?” Blake asked when he could tear his mouth away from mine long enough to get the words out.
“Super fun, as always. Meeting Kelly was probably the best thing that came out of that Antigua trip.” I tried to fight my smile, knowing Blake would rise to the bait in an instant.
“You better be joking,” he said, burying his face in my hair, his lips brushing over the sensitive flesh at my throat and making me tremble.
I wrapped my arms around him, partly to steady me against the knee-weakening work his mouth was doing, and partly because I always wanted him as close as possible.
“You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me, not just on that trip.”
And I meant it. Things had moved fast between us, both in Antigua and since we’d come home. But Blake had filled a hole in my life I’d never even realized had been there. I wasn’t about to let that go. Nothing could make me give him up.
He pulled back, a pensive look on his face as he stared down at me, arms still wrapped around my waist.
“I need to ask you something…” he started, then stopped like he was reconsidering the thought mid-sentence.
I frowned, brushing my hands along his biceps. “ Okay … you can ask me anything.”
He visibly swallowed and my brow furrowed at the sight, wariness filling me.
“I didn’t plan on having this conversation now. Or doing this here. But if I don’t tell you this, I feel like I might regret it.”
I didn’t know whether to be worried or intrigued. When he pulled away, my arms dropping to my sides as he rounded the desk, apprehension took over.
Was he about to break up with me? Or tell me that he’d cheated on me? I don't know when he would have had the time. We spent every moment together that he wasn’t in this office.
I glanced back at the door like I could see through it to the sweet, young blonde who was sitting on the other side. Surely Blake wouldn’t be such a walking cliché as to have an affair with his assistant? Besides, Charly was blissfully obsessed with her girlfriend of three years.
I was so lost inside my head, it barely registered when Blake opened the drawer to his desk, pulling something out and rounding the table to stand in front of me again.
“This isn’t how I wanted to do this at all, and there’s absolutely nothing romantic about this moment.”
He shook his head, and I finally glanced down at what he was holding.
“Oh my God, Blake. What is that?”
My mouth fell open and my eyes shot back to his face.
There was a softness there I’d never seen from him before.
“I promise I’ll do this up right with candles and roses and a twelve-piece orchestra, if that’s what you want.” He grinned back at me and tears filled my eyes. “But I have to ask you this question right now because I can’t go another damn minute without knowing the answer.”
He dropped to one knee in his suit pants and shirt in the middle of his cold, shiny office, and emotion overwhelmed me. Tears slid down my cheeks at the sight of the man I was so irrevocably in love with down on one knee in front of me.
He cracked open the ring box revealing the most enormous sparkling diamond I’d ever seen set in white gold.
“Honor, will you make me the luckiest man alive and marry me?”
I smiled so wide my cheeks ached instantly.
“I don’t need a twelve-piece orchestra or flowers and candles, or any of that.” I reached out to brush a hand over his cheek. “I just need you.”
He smiled back at me, his eyes a little watery.
“Is that a yes?”
I nodded. “Of course it’s a yes!”
He took the ring from the box, discarding it on the floor and slipping the enormous diamond onto my finger. Then he got to his feet, taking my face in both his hands.
“You make me happier than I ever thought I could be. I want to wake up to you every morning and come home to you at the end of every day. I want all of my moments to start and end with you.”
I pressed up on my toes, crushing my mouth to his.
“I want all those things too. And I want them all with you.”
When we pulled apart, I stared down at the giant diamond adorning my finger.
“Where should we get married?” I said, grinning up at him. “I’m thinking an island, maybe Antigua?”
He grinned back at me. “That can be arranged.”
Then he kissed me like it was the start of the rest of our lives.