AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“London.” She laid a hand on my arm, gentle, soft, perfect. “You didn’t go around thinking you had to do everything, did you?”
I ducked my head. “Maybe it’s a bad habit I get sometimes.”
“With the lashing you just gave Kevin, I think he’ll back off after this. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him so… brought down to size.”
I shook my head, looking up at her through tears I didn’t want to admit were there, because… how corny was that? “You know, it’s damn sexy when you swoop in like an angel of vengeance and save the day.”
“Noted. I’ll find every opportunity to in the future. But I’m also looking forward to…” She gestured vaguely in the air. “How do I even say it? What’s the term that encompasses quiet mornings with you, you popping into the office at random times just to see me, going to the opera and to dive bars—that encompasses making love late into the night and then rushing out the door together in the morning after sleeping in late, city drives with my hand on your knee, and taking you to high-profile rooftop parties and living-room dance parties in our pajamas—what’s the term for that?”
I let out a long, slow breath, looking out at the city—at that Miami skyline that I guess was home after all.
“Being happy,” I said. “I think that’s the term.”
Epilogue
Ruth hurried up to me in the parking garage, wearing a stunning white dress with her braids twisted up into a knot she had pinned up with a crystal-studded hair ornament, the kind of showstopping look that made it clear she’d finally moved on from Damien and was hoping to turn the head of a less stupid man tonight.
“Lord, I’m so late,” she huffed. “I’ve never seen traffic on the bridge like that.”
“Clearly something must be done about it, seeing how the bridge is the worst time you’ve ever seen it every time you see it.”
“It is not every time. Don’t be a little jerk just because your high-rolling girlfriend is the one hosting the party.” She gave me a hug, her cheek against mine, squeezing me quickly before she stepped back. “Your high-rolling girlfriend who seems to have picked out another new dress for you, because hot damn, woman.”
“Ah… she models a lot of things on me,” I said, looking away, feeling my face prickle. “I’ve been in a lot of nice dresses lately.”
She scowled. “Was that supposed to be subtle? Veiled? She’s a lingerie designer, dammit, I know what you mean when you say she models things on you. And I’m not squeamish. You can tell me that she puts you in lingerie.”
“Hm.” She also took me out of a lot of lingerie. But Ruth didn’t need to hear everything, squeamish or not. “Anyway, since you’ve finally decided to show… shall we go upstairs?”
She laughed, swatting my arm, but she fell in line with me towards the elevator. “She’s rubbing off on you with all the lofty snark. I swear you talk like her these days.”
Like that was a bad thing? I was probably biased, being head-over-heels in love with the woman and waking up in her bed more often than not these days, but I was pretty sure Cameron Mercier was a compliment to be compared to.
The divorce proceedings hadn’t been pretty, but they’d been less eventful than either Cameron or I had anticipated—Kevin, tail between his legs, not really putting up much of a fight after all. Didn’t even try to grab Cameron’s money—she brought me in every time he tried to get handsy with the asset breakdown and distribution, and I’d long since gotten a handle on how to break the guy down, and he settled in the end without much more than the house.
Almost enough to make me feel bad for the guy, until I stopped and remembered he tried to wipe out all those assets in the first place just because he thought she didn’t deserve them, so… gave me a second wind for the negotiations, so to speak.
And now I was here, spending stupidly blissful days riding the fancy penthouse elevator up to Cameron’s suite, taking Ruth with me to the rooftop party at her suite to celebrate the upcoming launch of the line I wasn’t telling Ruth was modeled on me like Cameron had promised long ago, and dreaming of whether one day I’d get to marry her in French lavender fields for myself.
Or maybe she’d want something different the second time around. Didn’t really matter that much. The important part was that she’d be there.
The suite had quickly started to feel like home, although that never made it less impressive—still found myself staggered a little when we stepped through the doors and out to the massive wall of windows overlooking the ocean, the beach small below us, and Julio, the valet and attendant for the party, a man with deep olive-toned skin and long dark hair pulled back into a tight knot, smiled warmly at me.
“Thank goodness you’re here, London. Cameron’s getting impatient waiting for you to come back and is going to take her frustration out on the guest. This is Miss Ruth, then?”
“The one and only. Ruth—this is Julio, contractor with the firm Cameron and I hire for events, usually here for parties. He’s a sweetheart.”
But Ruth wasn’t listening, batting her eyelashes instead. “Hi… I’m so sorry, where are my manners? It’s so nice to meet you.”
Ruth wasn’t going to so much as look at me all night. Whatever. She’d never stop thanking me if… whatever this was worked out.
Julio led us up to the rooftop, taking the wide, winding steps into the glass-domed roof entrance, where I could see the sunset lighting up Miami in brilliant gold even before we’d gotten outside. The event was in full swing now—I’d ducked out to grab Ruth personally when she showed up, and the last few stragglers were arriving when I stepped out into the cool evening air, music filling the air but not too loud.
Not yet, anyway. That would be later in the night once the important parts had finished and everyone was a couple drinks in, and people would dance until they passed out, and Cameron would call in a specialist on standby to take them away.
Julio led us to the observation platform, raised from the rest of the rooftop and lit up with LEDs around the perimeter of the sleek black platform, and—as if I didn’t see her every day, my heart felt a little lighter, a little fuzzier, when I saw Cameron standing there leaning against the railing talking to an older man I recognized as one of the executives in our production supply line. Important figure, but she lit up and waved him away as soon as she saw me, her eyes scanning back across the roof and finding mine the way they always did.
She stepped away from the railing and took my hand as I stepped up onto the platform, pulling me forward and into her for a kiss, her lips on mine, short and sweet and leaving me reeling. Not that it was anything new, but just—every time she had a crowd like this and still kissed me fearlessly in the middle of it, at least part of me turned into a blushing schoolgirl.
