Epilogue
Six Weeks Later
Lily
Istand slightly behind Mace, my gloved hand in his, and my cheek brushing his upper arm. I grit my teeth to stop them from chattering, not wanting to disturb him while he’s deep in thought.
It took us two hours to get here, and the sun is only now rising.
I hadn’t asked questions when he woke me up at an ungodly hour to go for a drive.
There are times when Mace just sets his mind to something, and I’m learning to roll with it.
It’s more fun that way. Although standing in a cemetery at sunrise isn’t exactly how I expected to start my day.
I shift from foot to foot, and frozen blades of grass crunch beneath my boots.
“Are you cold?” he asks.
A vapor cloud lingers between us. “Just nervous,” I say with a gentle smile. “It’s not every day I get to meet my boyfriend’s parents.”
“Yeah, about that,” Mace says, tugging me so that I come to stand next to him instead of hiding at his back. Together, we face the gleaming white marble headstone with two names etched in gold. James and Lisa Griffin. “Mom, Dad. I’d like you to meet the woman I’m going to marry.”
I know how hard it is for him to call Lisa his mom without getting choked with guilt. Alice Emerson has a lot to answer for. I squeeze Mace’s hand, but he doesn’t get a free pass entirely.
“He still has to ask me,” I tell them, another warning shot to the man who hasn’t yet built up the courage to propose.
I had hoped Mace would make some grand gesture over the holidays, but that would have been far too conventional for the man I love.
In truth, there was too much else going on, especially with us moving into the Griffins’ family home– which is so vast we have our own wing.
I’ve been getting to know his family, and Maddie is a godsend.
It helps that she went through the same assimilation into the world of the Griffins quite recently too.
I’m slowly getting to grips with my new job.
I’ve had clients before who operate in the grey areas of business, but the Griffins do it on a whole new level.
I trust the brothers when they assure me that they don’t fund criminal activity, and it doesn’t fund them.
But they do get paid from time to time for helping one particular crime family with their legitimate interests.
Thankfully, that’s not an area I’ll be involved with.
Maddie and I are focusing on identifying small businesses and industries that could do with our investment, in the same way the Griffins’ helped save her family’s paper mill.
And we’ve also been talking about setting up a charity in the Griffin name.
I have a desk in their main office, but it’s getting a little overcrowded in there, so Maddie and I are talking of having our own office.
In truth, it’s not only about space. I’d feel better not hearing about the current challenges the brothers are facing.
If I hear one more person say a war is coming, I’m going to crack.
And I don’t want Mace to think I’m not cut out for this. I am. I have to be.
“I hope they approve,” I say, staring at the headstone.
“You think there could be any doubt?” he asks. “Honestly, my parents would have been a pushover compared to your folks.”
My low chuckle sends fresh clouds into the air. “They weren’t that bad, and I think you won them over. Once they got over the shock.”
We’d visited my parents on Christmas Eve.
It was the first time I’d been back home, and while I’d warned them that I was bringing Mace, they weren’t expecting us to arrive in a helicopter.
My parents live in a rural location, so landing wasn’t a problem.
Explaining the Griffin logo and how my boyfriend happened to be part of a vast empire was a little more fraught, but it was a distraction from the awkwardness of my reunion with my parents.
And Mace had charmed them, as I knew he would. He can behave when he wants to.
“I did have a good talk with your dad,” Mace says.
Dad had taken Mace on a trip to visit his hardware store, giving me time alone with Mom. “Yeah, I can imagine.”
Mace takes my other hand, pulling me so we’re facing each other. I know to worry when he smirks. “Lily, clearly you can’t.”
My gaze bounces between his sparkling green eyes. “What?”
“I wanted your dad’s permission, and now I’m pretty sure I have my mom’s blessing too,” he says.
Heat rushes to my frozen cheeks. He’s going to do it here? “Do not get down on one knee!”
Mace isn’t the least bit fazed by my reaction. He glances at the frozen ground. “I wasn’t going to.”
My poor clamoring heart tries to skip a beat, but it’s more of a stumbling crash down to my toes. “I’m going to be sick.”
Mace cups my face in his hands and holds me steady. “Do you think you could swallow back the vomit for a couple of minutes while I ask you to marry me?”
Blinking away tears, I manage a nod.
“Lily,” he says in the tone he usually reserves for one of his lectures. “You stole my heart and my sanity the moment you stormed up to my car and called me an asshole. And now I’m your asshole, for better or for worse. And the general consensus of my family is that it’s for the better.”
He sweeps back my hair from my face, tilting my head as we lean closer. He looks at me with an intensity that shoots straight to my core.
“You’re my light and I’m your shadow,” he says gruffly. “And life would be so damn empty and featureless if we didn’t have each other. You’re mine, Lily. And you are going to marry me.”
I bite down on my trembling lip. I have to swallow hard. “It’s supposed to be a question, Mace.”
He smirks again. “Other than arguing about semantics, do you have any other objections to what I’ve just said?”
“No,” I answer breathlessly.
“Good.”
His lips press into mine, but we keep the kiss slow and as respectable as we can manage given where we’re standing. Our hips, however, have their own agenda and I can feel his arousal despite our thick, woolen coats that create a frustrating barrier.
“We should go somewhere,” I gasp. I’m not sure where, but I don’t think I can last a two-hour drive home.
Mace takes my hand and throws a glance back at the headstone. “Sorry, Mom. Dad. I need to go fuck my fiancée.”
“Mace!” I chide.
“Did I say something you disagree with, Slayer?”
“No, but…” He lifts an eyebrow, and I raise him two. “I’m pretty sure I was supposed to say yes to something,” I mutter.
I save the rest of my breath to keep up with Mace’s long strides as we weave through the rows of headstones and head for our SUV. The cemetery is vast, but completely deserted at this hour. The sky has turned crimson, and it’s as if the world is smoldering along with my body.
Mace unlocks the car, and it’s only as he’s spinning me around that I notice it’s the rear door he’s opening. I should object, but when he pulls off his gloves and starts unbuttoning his coat, I find myself helping.
My future husband looms over me, consuming me in his shadow. He unbuttons my slacks and pulls them down my thighs, along with my panties. “This is where I get on my knees,” he says.
Gravel crunches as Mace drops down in front of me. His hands wrap around my thighs and as he pulls me onto his mouth, I grab fistfuls of his hair. “Mace!” I cry out as his tongue cuts through my wetness.
He looks up at me, a wicked glint in his eye. “Do you think you could scream loud enough to wake the dead?”
Nodding is not the appropriate response, but I don’t care as his lips seal around my throbbing clit and my hips buck. “Yes!”
His hand is cool to the touch as it slides between my thighs. He parts me with fingers that plunge deep inside me, curling as he drives in and out, teasing that spot that’s going to have me seeing stars very soon.
I’m a quivering mess as the tip of his tongue circles my swollen clit. My pussy walls clench with each thrust of his hand, and I’m dripping all over his fingers, but I need more.
“Mace, I need you.” I tug on his hair. “Let me come around your cock. Please. Just fuck me!” I demand.
Mace stands and kisses me once before pivoting me around and bending me over the back seat. “I’m always going to give you what you want.”
I hear his zipper and then there’s a familiar pressure between my legs. I lift my hips as his hot cock slides between my cold thighs. He glides his length along the seam of my soaking wet center. His tip rubs against that throbbing bundle of nerves that has my legs shaking.
My whimper tells him I’m close, and he seats himself at my entrance. His entry is slow as he stretches me, but as he withdraws, he presses a hand against my spine to pin me down. His next thrust is hard, and when he buries his cock to the hilt, I let out a cry.
“You take me so well, Slayer,” he says as. “Always ready.” He slams into me again. “Always wanting more.”
His thighs slap against my cold ass, and the sting sparks the fire in my belly. Heat curls and coils until it can’t be contained.
“Mace!”
“Come for me, Lily,” he growls, thrusting harder. Then harder again. “Let me hear you.”
My fingers scrape along the leather car seat, but I can’t hold on. So I let go, and an explosion of ecstasy rips through my body. “Yes! Oh god, Mace! Yes!”
“That’s my beautiful wife,” Mace says, panting out the words as he rails into me.
My pussy clenches around him as his thrusts blur into a single point of release and he comes with a roar. He presses his chest against my back as our bodies contract and relax, over and over, and we ride out the aftershocks together.
“Now we can tell everyone you said yes,” he says. “I counted three times.”
I pant through my laughter as his hand trails along my arm and he takes my hand. My eyes are closed, but they open when his other arm comes across me and he slides something onto my finger.
“You choose now to put a ring on my finger?” I ask, raising my hand. The large princess-cut diamond sparks with the fire of the sunrise.