Epilogue #3
“Te amo, Catalina.” The words felt like they wrapped around my heart.
“I love your kindness. I love your fire. I love your stubbornness. I love everything about the woman you are. For the first time in my life,” his eyes glistened, “I don’t want more years.
I simply want whatever years I have left… with you.”
He brought my knuckles to his lips, then looked up at me with sincerity. “Will you marry me, Catalina Veléz, and bring me the greatest honor by becoming my wife?”
I stared at the beautiful Spanish man kneeling before me. I laughed through my tears, then nodded. “Yes,” I choked out. “Oh my God, yes.”
The smile that broke across his face looked like pure joy. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, and it was perfect because this had become the most beautiful day of my life.
Funny how life works. One day, I was telling anyone who would listen that fairy tales don’t exist… that men like Titus don’t exist. But now, I was staring down at the most beautiful man I’d ever met, and it turned out he was my Happily Ever After.
He was also proof that I had been wrong. Wrong when I said fairy tales didn’t exist. Wrong when I said men like him weren’t real. He was a reminder to any woman who once shared my views that love like this was possible. That with the right man—the one truly meant for you—such love existed.
Not in movies. Not in fairytales.
In real life… and it could happen to anyone willing to open their heart and trust that it was possible.
I looked out at the ocean. Eterna would leave for the Mediterranean next week. My companies would need me again tomorrow. There would be meetings, flights, problems, deadlines, and all the responsibilities waiting for a man in my position.
But tonight? None of those things mattered. Because the woman beside me had just agreed to become my wife.
I used to think having everything meant money. Success, winning, and building something so large it could never be ignored, but I had been wrong.
I now knew that having everything looked like her.
Against all odds—all the mistakes, timing, and uncertainty—I found her. And thank God fate saw to it that she chose me.
Moonlight spilled across the bedroom while the ocean beyond the windows looked like black silk beneath the stars. Catalina lay tucked against my side, her head resting on my chest and one leg tangled with mine.
It had become our favorite position after spending hours wrapped up in each other, neither of us ready to let go once the night finally slowed down.
I slowly ran my fingers through her hair. Neither of us had spoken for several minutes.
I felt her smile against my skin.
I looked down. “What?”
She smiled again. “Nothing.”
I laughed softly. “That’s never true, mi amor.”
She tilted her head and looked up at me. “You seem happy.”
I smiled. “I am,” I chuckled, tracing my fingertips along her arm. “Tonight you agreed to be my wife.”
“Not just that,” she said. “I mean, like… really happy.”
I laughed quietly. “Again. I am.”
She studied me.
I could almost see the thoughts moving behind those beautiful eyes. She lay on her side, her flawless silhouette impossible for me not to touch again.
I turned to face her, mirroring her by propping myself up on one arm. I traced her hips, up her side, and to her hard nipple, drawing a lazy circle around it.
“What’s on your mind, mi amor?” I asked her, knowing there was more than just my happiness circling her mind.
“I never imagined love like this could exist,” she said.
I smiled. “Neither did I.”
She returned my smile. “How is any of it real?” she asked.
“You say that as if you’re going to wake up tomorrow and I won’t exist.”
She quietly laughed. “You have no idea. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. I never thought things seen on television could actually happen. It’s just nonsense that sells for money,” she chuckled again. “Hell, I even dislike Valentine’s Day because I find it insulting.”
I pinched my lips, trying not to smile. “You’re adorable, you know that?”
“I’m being serious,” she argued with a cute expression.
I rolled her onto her back and positioned myself between her legs, getting harder with each second as her eyes stared at me like she was starving for more of this, just as I was.
“I am serious, too,” I said, gently kissing her lips. “Love like this does exist. I spent most of my life believing I had almost everything. Turns out, I simply hadn’t met you yet.”
“You are a true romantic,” she teased.
“Yes. And I plan to spend every day for the rest of my life proving that to you, too, mi amor.”
I took her into my arms, loving her with all the intensity I knew she craved from me. Her kisses, each soft moan, every breathless sound she made... all of it felt like beautiful proof that our souls had always been meant to find one another.
And somewhere in the quiet tonight, with the woman I loved in my arms and our future waiting for us, I realized something.
For the first time in my life… I wasn’t looking forward to another destination.
I was already there.
Home.
With the only woman I could ever love.
The End.