EPILOGUE
Two months later
“I CAN’T TAKE my eyes off you.”
Natalie looked up at her new husband as they claimed the first dance, surrounded by friends. “You’re pretty amazing yourself.”
Dressed in a black Armani tux with a gray silk vest, gray silk tie, and crisp white shirt, he looked more edible to Natalie than the four-foot-tall cake they’d cut and left to their guests to devour.
The wedding had gone off without a hitch.
They’d rented a manor in Estes Park amid stands of golden aspen, selected a cake, flowers, and a dinner menu, and then left it up to the manor’s staff to put it all together.
That had given Natalie the time she needed to find the right dresses for herself and her bridesmaids.
She’d gone with a white silk Oscar de la Renta with sheer beaded sleeves and a mini-train, while her bridesmaids had chosen empire-waist gowns in a deep burgundy red, a style that would accommodate Tessa’s and Kat’s growing bellies.
Natalie had spent her spare time with Zach hunting for their dream home.
They’d found what they wanted—a sunny five-bedroom house with granite countertops, a big sunken tub, and indoor and outdoor fireplaces—in the mountains west of Denver and would move in once they got back from their honeymoon in France.
Zach nuzzled her temple. “I cannot wait to go to our room. I’m going to take off this beautiful silk dress—and whatever sweet things you’re hiding beneath it—and spend the entire night making you scream.”
“Is that a promise?”
“Damn straight it is.”
From somewhere behind them, Joaquin’s camera flashed. He was the official wedding photographer.
Natalie felt a flutter in her belly, anticipation beginning to build. “And how are you going to do that? How are you going to make me scream?”
He nuzzled deeper. “With my fingers, my lips, my tongue, and,” he whispered into her ear, “with my cock.”
She felt a familiar ache between her thighs. “How much longer do we have to wait before it’s polite to leave? Everyone seems to be having such a wonderful time. I think Rowan’s tipsy.”
Zach glanced over at his new boss and chuckled, the smile on his handsome face lighting up Natalie’s heart. “I think we should at least stay for the first hour.”
He looked so much happier these days, less troubled, younger.
It wasn’t that the nightmares were gone.
He still had bad dreams once in a while, but they were growing less frequent, and he wasn’t turning to alcohol afterward.
When dreams woke him, Natalie would hold him, and they would talk or make love, and he would sleep again.
“I am so lucky to have you in my life.” He looked into her eyes, his voice rich and resonant.
She smiled, feeling loved. “Have I ever told you how much I love your voice?”
“My voice?” He looked amused.
“Yes, your voice. It’s the first part of you I met, remember? You spoke to me out of the darkness. For a time, that’s all you were—a voice holding me together.”
He kissed her forehead. “I’m not going to let anything like that happen to you again. You’re going to live out your days as the cosseted and cherished wife of a chief deputy U.S. marshal. What do you think of that, Natalie McBride?”
It helped that Natalie had left journalism.
She wasn’t going to work freelance. She wasn’t going to write a book about her ordeal in Mexico.
She was going to stay at home, cooking meals, baking pies, and making sure their life together was comfortable.
When Zach came home from a hard day’s work, she wanted to be there for him, not coping with her own stress and fatigue.
She knew some women would object to her decision, but this was her life, and she was going to live it as she chose.
“That makes me very, very happy.” She drew Zach’s lips down to hers.
And, forgetting about the music, forgetting that they were supposed to be dancing, forgetting about the friends who watched and the camera that flashed, they kissed long and slow and deep.
SAVORING THE SIGHT of the woman he loved out there having fun, Zach stood near the bar with his groomsmen as they watched their wives dance together.
The women showed off their sexy dance moves for one another like women did when they danced with other women, belting out the lyrics to Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” with no hint of inhibition.
Next, the DJ played Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach,” during which Tessa and Kat seemed to have great fun exhibiting their pregnant bellies.
Then Sophie burst into giggles over something Holly said, wobbling slightly on her heels.
“Yeah, she’s had a bit too much to drink.” Hunter grinned. “Don’t worry. I’ll take advantage of her later.”
“You have to get your wife drunk to get her in bed with you?” Rossiter asked, mock surprise in his voice. “Sorry to hear that.”
“Up yours, Rossiter.” Hunter took a drink. “And who said anything about bed when I got my old Chevy out front?”
“Thanks for the warning.” Darcangelo made a face. “We’ll make sure to give that relic a wide berth when we leave. If I saw your hairy ass bouncing up and down in the backseat, I think it would give me nightmares.”
Hunter chuckled. “Or turn you on.”
“In your dreams.” Then Darcangelo turned to Zach. His left hand was still in a cast, but his thumb was healing well. “So, McBride, how long will it be before there’s a little Zach or Natalie junior around to fight over toys with our kids?”
Rossiter grinned. “We hear you’re, uh . . . practicing. I just have to say that some of us get it right on the first try.”
“That’s called ‘lack of self-control,’ Rossiter,” Hunter said.
Darcangelo laughed. “Look who’s talking. Who got his woman pregnant while he was still running from the law? Oh, yeah. That was you, Hunter. No, don’t look at me like that. Tess and I were married before I got her pregnant. That’s more than either of you can say.”
Hunter and Rossiter looked at each other, grinned, then knocked their beer mugs together and drank.
But Zach was confused. “How did you hear that we’re ‘practicing’? I thought that was a private joke between me and my wife.”
Hunter leveled a grave look his way. “They’re women, and they’re journalists. No secrets. Get used to it.”
“Thanks for the warning.” Zach took a drink of stout, then answered the question. “We’re waiting till next year. I want this first year with her. So much has changed for both of us. Sometimes, I don’t believe it’s real.”
He saw understanding in each man’s eyes.
Darcangelo clapped him on the shoulder. “You did well. Natalie is a class act.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you all for what you did.” Maybe it was the champagne and the beer, but Zach had to say it. “Each of you risked your own life and the happiness of your wife and children to help Natalie. You saved her life, and mine. I’ll never forget that.”
Hunter met his gaze. “I told you, McBride. We take care of our own. You’d do the same for us.”
Darcangelo nodded. “For once, Hunter, you and I agree.”
“To friends.” Zach raised his glass. Then he smiled, chuckling. “And to the women none of us deserve.”
The men laughed, shouting out their agreement, beer mugs clinking.
HOT FROM DANCING, Natalie took a sip of cool champagne.
“Mmm, I love the sight of my husband in a tux.” Sophie nibbled on the olive from her martini. “Makes me want to rip his clothes off.”
Holly smiled. “I love the sight of all of your husbands in tuxes. Anytime you want to share, just let me know.”
“Poor Julian.” Tessa put a hand against her lower back. “When I get home, all I’m going to want is a back rub and sleep.”
Natalie gave Tessa a nudge. “Julian is so crazy in love with you, I don’t think he’ll be disappointed.”
“I think I must be the only woman in the world who feels sexier when I’m pregnant.” Kat took a drink of bottled water. “I want sex all the time now.”
“No, you’re not the only one.” Kara sipped her chocolatini. “My labors with Caitlyn and Brendan were brought on by sex.”
“So was mine with Alissa,” Kat confessed.
Natalie found herself looking forward to the day when she would be part of this sisterhood of women who’d given birth.
Then she caught sight of Zach toward the back of the room.
He seemed to be arguing with a man whose face Natalie couldn’t see.
He grabbed the man by his jacket and marched him toward the foyer.
“What is it?” Sophie followed the direction of Natalie’s gaze.
“I don’t know. Trouble of some kind.” She hurried after her husband, arriving just in time to see Zach step out the front door, pushing the man ahead of him.
“You weren’t invited,” he was saying.
“I shouldn’t need an invitation. I’m your father.”
Natalie stopped in her tracks. His father?
“How did you get in?”
“I told them I was the groom’s father, and they let me in.”
“So you bullied your way through the door. You need to leave.”
“You’re not going to introduce me to that beautiful young woman you married?”
“I told you when Mom died that I didn’t want to see you again.”
Natalie knew why Zach didn’t want to be around his father, knew his father had mistreated his wife and his elected office.
But something about this situation tore at her, and she found herself hurting for both men—the father who seemed to want to be reconciled to his only living relative and the son who had been disappointed so many times that he’d lost all respect for his father.
Then Zach’s father’s voice took on a resigned tone. “Why do we do this? Why do we always fight? That’s not why I came here. I wanted you to know I’m not the man I was, Zach. I left the senate. I resigned.”
“What?” Zach sounded stunned. “Why?”
“I wasn’t doing anyone but myself any good. I realized it was time for me to leave. I’m no leader. I’m not a hero. You showed me what a hero really is.”
Zach had only begun to take this in when he saw Natalie standing in the foyer, her face flushed from champagne and dancing.