Epilogue - Mikhail
One month later
After countless hours of grueling work, tenacity, bags and bags of money on advertising, the strength of the chef’s reputation, and my cousins’ connections, the grand opening of The Laurel Tree was finally happening.
We started with two services, but so many important people wanted reservations that we added a third, finally having to tell some of LA’s food critics they’d have to come on another day.
Just that morning, I asked Laurel if she thought this day would ever come, and she told me the unbridled truth, which was what we most wanted from each other.
“No,” she said. “I thought you were going to cancel again when the bathroom tiles were the wrong color.”
“As if I’d be that picky,” I said. It didn’t bother me much anymore, but why was it so difficult to do things right?
A lot of everything getting done was down to Laurel. She got the waitstaff hired, trained them never to offer a Beaujolais with steak, or whatever it wasn’t supposed to go with. I couldn’t keep track and didn’t need to when I had my expert.
Now, just hours after finally getting everyone together for a final pep talk, the place was packed with celebrities, food critics, and most importantly, my family.
As I strode past the long table they were crowded around, I gave them a jaunty wave, ignoring their rowdy cheer as I made it to the host’s station to welcome the next table of VIP guests.
“It’s so beautiful,” the actress, whose movie Laurel and I had recently watched, said while I led her and her entourage to their table. “It’s like being in a space station in the sixties. You have to share your designer with me.”
I was certain Todd would be thrilled to have a client like her, and thanked her for the compliment, then hurried to the next table to receive more accolades.
By the time I found Laurel in her wine cave, I was hot and sweaty and needed a moment to cool off.
She pressed an ice-cold champagne bottle against my forehead, laughing at me.
“You love it,” she said.
“Today I do,” I told her. “But I already want a day off.”
“Just another three weeks,” she said.
It had taken a lot to convince her to leave the restaurant so soon after the grand opening, but she also wanted to meet the Russian Fokins before she was too far along in the pregnancy to safely travel.
We were going to spend a few weeks there, and hopefully arrive back in time for the surprise that should be ready for us by then.
A surprise I wanted to set in motion as soon as possible.
“Come with me,” I said, looking her up and down.
I had come in to cool off, but seeing her in the form-fitting black dress was having the opposite effect.
No one who didn’t already know could tell she was expecting, but her curves were more enticing than ever.
I couldn’t help but reach around and give her a little squeeze.
“Where?” she asked suspiciously. “You might not have noticed how busy we are?”
“This won’t take long,” I promised.
Expecting me to tell the truth as always, she followed me out to my family’s table and had Aleks clink his glass to shut everyone up. Laurel stood by my side expectantly, waiting for me to thank everyone for their support, but instead, I turned to her and dropped to one knee.
The low hum at the rest of the tables ceased, and everyone in the place shifted.
“Mik,” Laurel whispered, her cheeks bright red. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like he’s doing?” Luk asked, getting a swat from Mila, who leaned forward with a big smile on her face.
“I’m finally asking you to marry me,” I told Laurel. “Because even though we’re already married, you deserve a wedding—”
“We’re so ready,” Nat piped up.
“And you deserve to be surrounded by your family who loves you,” I continued.
“Yes, we do,” my father called from his end of the table.
Those two had been having some very lively conversations lately, now that he’d assured her he was delighted to have her as a daughter-in-law.
I hoped that he and the rest of my siblings and cousins would make up for the fact that her parents barely acknowledged her when she told them about us and their grandchild who was on the way.
I couldn’t erase her troubled past, but I could give her the future she dreamed about.
I gave everyone a stern look to shut the fuck up and turned back to Laurel, taking her hand and kissing it. “I love you so damn much, and maybe one day I’ll be able to find the words to make you understand. Until then, will you marry me? Again?”
Her joyous yes was drowned out by everyone in the place bursting into applause, and I finally slid the diamond ring she should have had long ago on her finger.
Nat and Mila were scrambling to change places so they could put their heads together and start planning, and my father promised he’d hunt down my wayward twin brothers so they’d be at the ceremony.
Laurel buried her face in my chest when I hugged her tight, and after nodding at everyone, I hustled her back to her cellar, where she felt the most comfortable.
“I can’t believe you did that,” she said, but her smile was wide, and those tears glistening in her eyes were happy ones. “Oh my gosh, no one was expecting a show.”
“I want everyone to know you’re mine,” I said, pulling her to me. “Now it will be real.”
“It already is,” she told me.
I kissed her instead of answering. She still loved starting little arguments with me because they almost always ended up with us tearing each other’s clothes off.
“Oh, why didn’t you propose at home,” she said, faking a pout as she tore herself away.
With a disappointed look at the wine cellar door, she shook her head and tried to pull away.
“I love you, but there have to be a hundred people out there wanting wine.”
My arm snaked out to yank her back to me. “Your assistant can handle it for a few more minutes. She was trained by the best, after all.”
Running her hands up my chest, she gave me a wicked look. “Only a few minutes?”
“Or until the next service starts.”
At this point, I had her dress halfway up the back of her thighs, and she wrapped her arms around my neck to tangle her fingers into my hair. “You’re…”
“Irresistible,” I finished for her. “I’m sure that’s what you were going to say, right?”
With my hands cupping her lush ass, I lifted her off the floor and moved her to a shelf, pushing aside a few bottles to make room.
“Oh, those are expensive,” she moaned, closing her eyes as my tongue slid between her lips.
She locked her legs around my hips and dragged me between her thighs, not seeming to care too much when one of the expensive bottles tipped over and began to roll. I grabbed it, and the vibration of her laughter against my mouth made me join in.
If I lived a thousand years, nothing would be better than this. “I love you so much,” I told her, easing her skirt up past her hips and hooking my thumbs under the edges of her panties.
She dragged herself closer, rubbing her pussy against my stiff bulge. “I love you,” she murmured. “Even though you’re a bad influence in every way.”
I reached over and turned the lock on the heavy wooden door. “Even though it was you who suggested this place be able to lock from the inside?” I questioned, leaning back to watch her cheeks turn adorably pink in the low light of her sanctuary.
“Hey, you never know if someone’s going to bust in with guns blazing,” she teased. My innocent Laurel, who fainted at the sight of blood, was joking about gun fights.
I held her closer, groaning at the feel of her writhing against my cock. “Was that the reason?”
Her answer was a gasp as I worked my fingers between us to nudge her clit through her panties. Her back arched, pressing her ripe tits upward, and I slid my free hand up her side to graze her nipples and tug the silky fabric of her dress down.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” I said. “I can’t wait until you’re as big as a house.”
She thumped me in the back of the head, but her eyes glazed over as I continued to work her clit with one hand and stroke her taut nipple with the other. My cock pulsed, and she squirmed against my teasing touch, shoving my jacket back off my shoulders and yanking my tie loose.
When her hands were flat on my chest, she leaned forward to nip at my lower lip. I loved it when she was in a biting mood and pushed her panties aside to sink my fingers inside her wet heat as she nipped at me again.
Both of us growing impatient, she ran her hands down my chest to pull my belt out of its clasp, then deftly popped the button.
Pulling back to lock her eyes with mine, she slowly lowered the zipper.
Her breath was hot against my neck as she sighed, her fingers closing around my cock.
Her teeth brushed across my skin as she moved her palm up and down, gripping tighter until I groaned.
“Yes,” she said when I stepped back to yank her panties down her smooth legs.
I licked my lips at the sight of her glistening pussy and ducked down to have a taste. “Oh, that’s not fair,” she cried, but spread her legs wider as I dipped my tongue inside her, then lapped at her swollen clit.
There was a thud outside the door, one of the waitstaff ditching a heavy tray in a hurry. I paused, turning to kiss the inside of her thigh, ignoring her eager pulling on my shoulders. “We should have considered making this room soundproof,” I said in a low voice, making her laugh.
I pressed my tongue against her, digging into her hips to drag her closer, wanting to consume her. She shuddered, moving her hands to my hair and holding on as I urged her to cry out, softly, then pulling me up to kiss me.
In the next instant, I was inside her, while she was still gasping against my mouth. Her hands shook as I drove my cock deep, and I turned my head to kiss along her jaw and down her neck. Her head flopped back, and her arms were languid around my neck, and she whispered my name.
That was all it took, and I lifted her off the shelf, holding on to her as I finished with a strangled sound, muffled in her hair. With her legs clamped around me, she arched her back, and I let out another feral growl as her next orgasm gripped me.
Sweat dropped into my eyes despite the cold temperature of the room, and she weakly swiped it away, finally letting both her hands drop at her sides. The only thing keeping her up was my tight grasp around her waist. She trusted me, and I’d never let her fall.
“See, if you had proposed at home, we’d be in bed right now,” she said after a long moment of catching our breath.
I laughed and settled her feet on the floor, helping to smooth her dress down, neither one of us having any idea where her panties went.
“There’s nothing you want more than to get back out there and show off,” I said, lightly smacking her bouncy ass cheek. “You’re going to be a star in all the food and wine reviews tomorrow.”
She smiled and forgot about searching for her panties to turn to me and kiss me again. “All because of you,” she said.
“Nonsense. You’re great at your job.”
“I wouldn’t have it if it weren’t for you,” she said. “I might not be alive. I definitely wouldn’t be as happy as I am now.”
It was hard for me to take her gratitude when I felt like it was I who owed her so much.
I had been barely interested in this new venture, determined to do my best but without any passion for it.
She taught me to love this place as much as my brewery, and made me feel right at home in a new country I wasn’t so sure about.
“I should be thanking you,” I said, drawing her close for a tender hug.
She grinned. “Okay, I’ll take it.”
“Good.”
When she pulled away from the next kiss, she sighed, but it was full of contentment and happiness. “I thought I gave up on dreams,” she said. “But now I can’t come up with them fast enough because you keep making them all come true.”
“Good,” I repeated.
That was all I wanted. Rich or poor, peace or war, as long as Laurel was with me, I was home.
*****
THE END