Epilogue
T hree months later ...
I smiled at the huge crowd milling at the front entrance of the gallery I’d once managed, my heart jigging with delight. They’d all come to see the fictional me, Chase Holland. But more importantly, they were also here to admire my landscapes, which were gaining popularity fast.
Evander moved to stand on the top step beside me, his arm going around my waist. It didn’t hurt that my fiancée and soon-to-be husband added notoriety to my name. We’d become something of a power couple, a force of nature.
If only people realized the portraits had been done by Evander. But he was grateful to give me all the credit while he continued being a mafia underboss, and painting in what little spare time he found.
We’d become comfortable painting together, though much of the time he simply painted me while I painted whatever landscape was in front of me.
Our lives were pretty much complete. We’d even discussed trying for another baby one day in the future, once our grief had dulled to a more bearable pain.
I was just happy knowing my brother, Enzo, hadn’t tried to take advantage of me in any way. In fact he’d kept right away from the Agostino and Costas, doing his best to protect my mafia family and possibly his connections to it.
Even better, our O’Malley enemies had also withdrawn, disappearing like cockroaches in a pile of rubbish. Our families weren’t to be messed with and anyone with half-a-brain knew it.
Gregory stepped forward then, his infatuation with me sliding away as he smiled magnanimously out at the crowd of people whose wealth fairly dripped from them. There would be a lot of sales made today, with Evander’s connections helping to bring in celebrities and many others with deep pockets.
Evander clasped my hand, then murmured, “Are you ready for this, my future Mrs. Agostino.”
I nodded, then winked and said huskily, “I was born ready.”
I barely heard Gregory’s speech as he addressed the impatient crowd, not while I was lost to the man who’d given me everything. The man who was my everything. Then the doors behind us opened, and the crowd surged toward us in an unstoppable tide.
Evander pulled me out of the crush and I was made breathless by the knowledge this was our remarkable future. A future I’d nearly given up.
I’d be forever grateful that Evander hadn’t stopped looking for me, and had never given up on us. I’d never stop loving him for it, or take him or our life for granted.
I grinned, and drew him toward a less crowded part of the gallery. What would he think of the landscape I’d painted of his cabin and its surrounds before I’d ever even laid eyes on it?
I had no doubt he’d agree we were soulmates who had always meant to be together, our destiny intertwined in reality and in our art.
Want more contemporary stories by Mel Teshco...
Scorpion
His sting is as lethal as his charm
Sheikh Aziz Hadi might be a player who knows how to charm the panties off women, but that means very little when the one woman he wants—Zamira Fasih—is also the one woman he can’t have. She’s the daughter of a sheikh from a neighboring country bordering his province. That they’re at war means there is no way he can talk to her, let alone date her. Then he sees her at the markets and he can’t deny the impulse to take what—who—he wants.
Zamira Fasih is not interested in Aziz, at least that’s what she tells herself. He and his family sided with an enemy of her father’s and now her people are paying the ultimate price. The Hadi family are scum, and Aziz is the worst of them. He’s not worthy of her attention, if only she’d stop damn well thinking about him! Then he kidnaps her and expects her to like him—he’d better think again!
She is promised to another man who will help end the war and the death of her people, and nothing will change her mind. Not even the famous scorpion charm Aziz is renowned for.