Epilogue
Liam
My mom stopped by last week, Joe finally called her to let her know he is alive. A strange phone call in nature that resulted in our mother being in complete shock and breaking into sobs into his arms after making the trip to Saint-Tropez to see him. We tell her about everything— Fred, Tyler, Sara…
She didn’t know about Tyler and surprisingly is open to meeting him. I’m not ready for anything that reminds me of a life that results in me pushing Sara away. Too painful.
Mom comes into my bedroom before heading back to Cannes and sits at the edge of the bed, pushing my hair away like she used to, and I fold at her touch. I’ll always love my mom with every fiber of my being.
She watches me with a velvet box in my hands; I hold it like a treasure… It is, one that kept me from dying the day I was shot. It barely holds a scratch from where it sat inside my pocket and changed the bullet’s direction. Changed my life’s direction.
I bought her the ring that day, and the ivory dress she wore in Marbella.
I was on my way to the office with the guys, and I had to get it for her.
The ring was made for her, and when I saw the dress, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her when I pictured her in it.
I didn’t allow myself to think twice about it, a decision that saved me.
Mom studies me. “If you love her as much as I know you do, don’t let her go…”
I stare at the ring for hours until I get on a private plane to get some space in Marbella.
Incessant voices engraving somber beliefs that I’ll never do justice to a love like hers and I am miserably failing her.
Hurting her in ways that I’m ashamed I let happen, I couldn’t contain the rage I felt when Tyler revealed that she had let him in and that she couldn’t tell me he was there, but the person I should’ve destroyed was him, not her.
Darkness swallowed me, lied to me, took over me, until I couldn’t recognize myself.
Now she’s lying in my arms, sleeping next to me, and I love her with every fiber of my being.
I was a fool with a jaded heart, until all the answers and pieces of her soul mended me back together and fought to bring me back to the surface.
She's the missing punctuation to every sentence made of my messy thoughts. She makes it all have meaning.
I’ll do anything I can to have her forgive me, trust each other again.
I’ll never put the weight of my unresolved bullshit on her.
It’s terrifying to be all in, until you realize the alternative is a death sentence.
I am more than good enough for her, and I’ll show her every single day of my life.
Little Liam just needed a hug… I needed to release what held me back for so many goddamn years.
Unable to wait another day to make her mine, my forever, I make some phone calls and have it all set up within a few hours at the beach, underneath my apartment.
She is absolutely breathtaking in the dress I bought her, standing beneath the archway I had set up on the sand, the path lined with a hundred flickering candles, creating a soft golden trail all the way to where I stand waiting.
The ocean waves, crashing against the shore as the sun begins its descent, painting the sky in shades of amber and rose.
I had a suit sent for me, but honestly, I couldn’t have cared less about what either of us are wearing.
All that matters is the look in her eyes when she walks toward me, those brown eyes filled with the same certainty I feel in my bones.
Just us. Just Sara, me and a French officiant, barefoot on the sand, rooted to the earth beneath us, as I watch her fingers tighten around mine as she speaks her vows.
They come from every part of the one woman I will love unconditionally.
Then my vows dance and lace with hers, each word seals the space between our bodies, drawing us closer where promises we’ve waited to make our whole lives imprint into our very beings.
She’s now standing before me in the living room. Her dress is still damp from the ocean air, from our first moments as husband and wife. I can’t tear my eyes away from her as I sit naked, waiting to take all of her.
The thin fabric clings to every curve of her body, leaving nothing to the imagination, yet somehow making my hunger for her more than ever before.
“Sara,” I whisper, my voice thick with need as I sit and watch her every move. The moonlight streams through the windows, casting her in an ethereal glow. Her hair falls in loose waves around her breasts.
God, she’s beautiful. Not in how she stops my heart, but how she starts it again.
She meets my gaze, without a word, reaches for the thin strap of her dress, sliding it down her shoulder until the second strap follows the first.
“I love the way you look at me right now,” I tell her, my voice rough with desire. “Like I’m the only man who exists for you.”
Her dress slips lower, revealing the curve of her breasts. The ivory silk catches momentarily on her hardened nipples before sliding down further.
“No man will ever exist but you,” she says seductively, and I grip the armrests of my chair to keep from rushing to her.
The dress pools at her feet now. She stands before me in nothing but moonlight.
“You’re everything, baby. My everything.” I swallow hard. "You’re my meaning.”
“I love you…” She steps closer to me, and I watch her eyes devour me, the corners of her mouth softening as her lips part, while her gaze tracks from my chest to my lap with deliberate slowness.
Then something shifts in her expression when she sees how hard I already am for her. A darkening and a surrender that makes my blood rush hot through my veins to my cock, a proud possession written over her beautiful face for being mine.
I run my tongue across my teeth, needing to kiss her until my last breath, an obsession that could only be satiated until I taste her.
My heart kicks against my ribs, every pulse sending heat to my fingers that crave to touch her.
I stroke myself and I spread my legs wider in the chair, creating space for her between them, where she belongs, where I’d gladly die a quick death in each life if it meant I can always, eternally, all consumingly be at her side.
And when she speaks in her sultry voice, commanding every inch of me with her burning gaze, she purrs, “On your knees, my husband.”
My jaw tightens, and I slowly lower to my knees, ready for our lives to never end, and as she closes the distance, I part her lips with my tongue, tasting her wetness and earning her next moan as my wife.
My beautiful wife. My twin flame.
THE END.