Epilogue
AURORA
One Year Later
Bringing the fork to my mouth, I let the salmon slide to my tongue. It melts right away, making me groan in delight. The deliciousness of the fish fills me, and I let my eyes drop shut. I chew, savoring every second of it.
“Goodness, woman,” a male voice grunts from across the table. “Everything you do gets me hard.”
I open my eyes in surprise, meeting Bruno’s heated gaze. As proof of what he said, he reaches under the table and adjusts himself. My cheeks burn, but I can’t deny the heat growing between my legs too. I cross them, shifting on my seat.
We’re in a nice restaurant out of town, a fancy thing that doesn’t go with either me or Bruno, but he insisted he wanted to treat me today.
As if he didn’t do that every day of our lives.
He admires my intelligence and compliments me every quarter of an hour, and he never tires of my stories and asks my opinion on everything in the store.
Bruno knows I adore keeping track of the newest tools, and he buys them even if it’s just for me to try them out.
He already makes me feel special with his treatment. But this? This heated gaze at every minor thing I do? This is the cherry on top. My self-esteem is still a work in progress, but Bruno works hard on making sure I never forget how special I am.
I lean forward, my cheeks burning, but my lips stretching into a smile. “Do I? I was just chewing.”
“Even if it’s just chewing.” And he sighs, his shoulders drooping. “I’m just amazed.”
“At what?”
“You. I’m still amazed at you. And something tells me I will never stop being amazed by you.” His eyes glint. There’s an underlying quality to his words as if he means more than I can figure out. Bruno leans forward and captures my hand in his. “I love you, you know?”
I smile, gripping his fingers. “Of course, I know. You didn’t need to bring me out here just to say this. I know you love me. I feel it every day.”
He smiles, looking over my shoulder and nodding once. I peek behind me, only to see the waiters coming and going. Meeting Bruno’s eyes again, I see him smiling at me.
“I wanted to celebrate,” he says. “You graduated, and with honors. Got your first job. There’s so much going on, and we hadn’t had the time to stop and praise you.”
I grin. “Thanks. But I think you’re celebrating me enough every day.”
He grins back, that twinkle in his eye telling me he knows what I mean. He knows I mean how much he adores my body and how good he makes me feel. Everything about this relationship is perfect. Or almost perfect.
I lean back, my fingers escaping his grasp. “If this was a family thing, I wish Johnny would have joined.”
Bruno’s mouth twists in the corner. “I invited him. He... chose not to show up.”
I arch an eyebrow. “This sounds like there’s more to it. He chose?”
Bruno shakes his head. “You won’t like it.”
“Did he ask for something in exchange?” The words make pain flare in my chest, but they’re the truth.
After I learned to see through Johnny, it was easy to learn how he acted.
He had no love for me and no love for his father.
Johnny only loves himself. I’m sorry about his mother, who does everything he asks because she believes his threats of never talking to her again.
“Money,” Bruno replies, and the twinkle of heat disappears from his gaze. There’s a bit of sadness there, and I know he wishes things were different. “He wanted money to travel abroad in exchange for coming to the dinner.”
My cheeks warm up again, but not out of lust. “Tell me you didn’t give him a penny, Bruno. This is not right.”
“I didn’t.” He reaches out and strokes the back of my hand with a thumb. “Don’t worry, I didn’t, and I won’t. He’ll have all the financial help a father can give to make him comfortable and give him a shot. I’m still paying for his tuition even if he insists on failing half his classes.”
I frown but don’t say a thing. Johnny’s a jerk, much more of a jerk than I expected. He’s been sucking his parents dry for years now and even took advantage of me. I can’t believe I actually dated him.
“Let’s put that aside,” Bruno says, squeezing my fingers. “Today is about you.”
The server approaches with two flutes of champagne. I thank him and bring the rim of the glass to my lips, smiling at the bubbles rising and tickling my nose.
“And I promise,” Bruno says, gazing at me, ignoring his champagne, “every day from now on will be about you too.”
I arch an eyebrow, not getting what he means by it. Tilting the glass up, I sip from the champagne, the bubbles sliding down my throat. Then something hard slips past my lips and clinks against my teeth.
I jerk in surprise, putting the glass down and raising a hand to my mouth. I pluck a diamond ring from between my lips, the stone so big it glints like the stars under the lights. My eyes go huge, and my heart skips a beat.
Bruno gazes at me with expectation. He gets to his feet and kneels next to me. Time stops.
“Will you marry me?”
As soon as the shock wears off, I smile. I smile, and I can only smile as I say I will. He kisses me, sweeping me off my feet, and my heart swells in happiness. He’s mine, and I’m his, and this is our happily ever after.
THE END OF BOOK 2