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“This is amazing. I knew it. This is the best news we could have wished for.”
“I know,” she says, a glorious smile spreading across her face. “It really is. Oh, Rider. This is it, isn’t it?”
“What, princess?”
I brush the hair from her face, captivated by the untarnished bliss shimmering across her perfect face.
“It’s the start. Of us. Of everything.”
I nod fiercely, tightening my grip on her waist. “I couldn’t have said it better myself. I love you.”
“I love you more,” she whispers.
I lean down to claim her lips again. “Impossible.”
Extended Epilogue
One Year Later
Ruby
I leap out of my chair and let fly with a punch of happiness, excitement, disbelief… all of it mixing together as I thump the air and fight the urge to scream. I would scream, of course, if it wasn’t for beautiful Tessa sleeping soundly in her crib in the corner of my office.
I dance around the bright and airy room, skipping over to her crib and smile down at her. She has her own bedroom, but I like to have her close to me while I’m working.
I stare down at her sweet sleeping form, her chest rising and falling softly, still in awe that she came from me, from us.
I don’t think I’ll ever stop being stunned by that.
“What is it? I heard you jumping around,” Rider murmurs from the doorway. “Wife?”
I smile when he calls me this. It’s replaced princess ever since our wedding day, and I think that’s fitting. I went from a mob princess to the wife of the man of my dreams.
I turn to find him in the doorway, wearing a steel-silver suit, ready for a day in the city.
He doesn’t mind the commute from our seven-bedroom house in the suburbs into the city. It was his idea to move out here to make a home we can raise our family in, giving our children stability and love for the decades to come.
Despite having so recently given birth, my man stirs something in me, my insides doing flips of joy.
He stalks into the room quietly, head tilted at me. “Well?”
We keep our voices low. Little Tessa – named after his mother – might be the cutest little bundle who ever lived, but she sure can scream when she wants to.
“My story,” I murmur. “It… They said yes. My agent placed it with a publisher and they want it. They want to pay an advance and publish it and…”
Hot welcome tears prick my eyes as the enormity of this moment showers over me, the tears sliding down my cheeks.
My husband steps forward as a warm glowing smile spreads across his face. His smiles don’t surprise me anymore, but their effect has never lessened as the months have worn on, as we’ve married and grown and flourished together.
“I knew they would,” he says, looking at me with a mixture of pride and lust.
I don’t question the lust he aims at me anymore. What I do question is how he can still want me when I’m still heavy with pregnancy weight and I look half-dead from caring for Tessa. But he assures me, every chance he gets, that he’ll find me beautiful no matter how tired I am, no matter how many children we have.
And he proves it in the bedroom too.
“I told you,” he says, leaning down and kissing the edge of my mouth, the place that has become a special tingling spot ever since our wedding day. “You’re going to shock the world.”
I turn my face to catch his lips, kissing him back firmly, feeling his support and love blazing through him as our tongues clash wonderfully.
“I can’t wait to watch you top the bestseller charts,” he says, our faces pressed close.
“I’m just happy the book’s going to see the light of day. My agent says they’re interested in book number two as well. How crazy is that?”
“It’s not crazy at all,” he says huskily. “You work your butt off and you’re talented as hell. You’re amazing, Ruby, and it’s only a matter of time before everybody else realizes it too.”
“Thank you, Rider. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“I love you,” he whispers.
I lean in to kiss him. “I love you too.”
Extended Epilogue
Ten Years Later
Rider
“That’s it,” I cheer when Zack throws the right hook at the boxing pads.
I feel the impact of my five year old’s strike, and a wave of pride moves through me when he makes the tsk sound. He grins at me when the timer goes off, bobbing back with his gloves raised.
“Daddy, I want to go again.”
I chuckle as I pull off the pads, reaching over with my hand and ruffling his hair. Zack has my jet-black hair – before it turned iron – whereas all our other children have their mothers deep brown.
“We’ve done five rounds, bud.”
“Daddy’s lazy,” he teases.
