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Chapter22
Eden
Epilogue
It doesn’t get cold in the city this early. Not with the heavy traffic and the concrete buildings and the constant crush of people. It’s usually mid-December before I really feel it, and it kind of takes me by surprise when I climb out of the car.
I only go back there to visit Flor and Sage, though they’ve been coming up to the lodge every chance they get now that they have an actual guest apartment instead of one of the lodge rooms. It’s only been a few months, but it feels like my entire world has been turned upside down. It’s hard to remember when I was a nobody, sitting at a desk, dealing with causal workplace sexism as I slowly lost what little bits of my personality I had left.
The only other reason I head into town is for exams. I’m taking a couple of literature courses at the university, but they’re online so I can stay and help out—which I will admit is exhausting work but far more satisfying than anything I’ve ever done.
A small part of me kept waiting for the other shoe to drop as soon as I moved up the mountain. After all, I’m still a city girl who doesn’t like mud or bugs or traipsing through the woods. I will say, though, Maddox has shown me some gorgeous spots, made even better when he pins me against a tree and slips his hand into my panties.
There’s something beyond erotic about panting into the palm of his hand as he claps my mouth shut so no one can hear me come. I’m pretty sure most of the staff know though. Miguel is always wagging his eyebrows at me and making lewd gestures behind Maddox’s back, but I don’t really mind.
It’s nice to kind of let go and just be myself—which happens to be a bit more crude than I was allowed working at an office.
I’ve even grown to love working with the horses. I’m still not a huge fan of riding them, but I spend my mornings brushing them down and getting them fed as Miguel and I gossip about the staff and the guests and talk about the joys of being with the loves of our lives.
I settled in seamlessly with only a little pushback and a few growing pains. Maddox is still working on picking his damp towels up off the floor, and I’m still learning to be patient with him on his bad days when his emotions are still a little hard to control.
But he’s also encouraging. He’s the one who pointed out how much I love to read and how much I love to create stories in my head. It happened one night when I was telling him about this ongoing fantasy I had when I was a kid about my biological family—like a long-lost brother or something—showing up at my door to rescue me and take me home.
Maddox listened to the whole thing with a slight frown on his brows, and when I thought maybe I just sounded like a freak, he brushed his thumb over my lips, kissed me, then said, “Baby, have you ever considered writing a book?”
Which, sure, of course I had. Every book nerd dreams of writing their own great novel, but there was something in his voice that told me maybe I should try.
A few weeks after that, he came home from a run into the city with René with a brochure from the university. I laughed at first. I already had my MBA—I wasn’t really interested in going back to school. Then I realized it was for non-degree-seeking students. It was for people who wanted to learn for the sake of it.
There were nine literature classes, and the more I told myself I didn’t need it, the more I wanted it.
Eventually Maddox showed up with a check, and when I tried to protest, he just pinned me to the bed, kissed me, then pulled my panties aside and slipped inside me.
Wrecked from orgasm, I lay there in his arms, and that’s when he whispered, “There has to be some perks about all this fuckin’ money from my family that I don’t want, right? It’s not going anywhere, so the least I can do is make you happy.”
I realized in that moment I would have done the same for him. Hell, maybe in a way, I had. I’d proven to him that not every person he fell for would be like his ex. I’d proven time and time again that he was perfect for me, no matter what.
It was still hard to accept, but the joy on his face when I agreed made all that struggle worth it.
Now, as I pull my coat tighter around me and head for the stairs, I wonder why the hell I had put up such a fight. Life is so damn perfect. I take the stairs two at a time, ignoring the cold ache in my knees, and my stiff fingers struggle with the doorknob before I get it open.
I quickly pull my boots off, then hang my coat on the rack and step into the living room, where I find Maddox lying on the couch with Nudge sprawled out over his chest. She doesn’t look like a kitten anymore. She’s medium-haired and fluffy around her cheeks with a giant pouf of a tail. She gives me kind of a bored look, daring me to move her, but there’s no point.
I drop to the floor near Maddox’s head, and he curls his hand around the back of my neck and lays a kiss to my lips.
“Baby, you’re frozen,” he whines.
I push my cold nose into his cheek and laugh when he hisses. “Everything’s going to be ice tomorrow morning.”
He grins at me. “You know what that means?”
I’ve never met a business owner who takes so much joy in shutting down so guests can’t come and stay. But the road to the lodge isn’t well maintained in the best of times, so I know it’s safer that way. It also means that for most of the winter holidays, we get the place to ourselves.
It’s going to be my very first holiday season with Maddox—hell, with anyone who isn’t either family or Flor. It feels thrilling and strange, and I wonder if there will ever come a time that we suck it up and deal with our own crappy families.
I know my parents will totally adore him, and it rankles me a little because I prefer pissing them off to making them proud. And yes, it’s immature, I get it. But Maddox has that same mischievous streak, and I know he’s probably hoping he can show me off one day.
After all, his ex was the standard, and I’m nothing like her.
