AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I love you, too, Win.” His eyes go wide for a moment. He pulls away, grabbing the cake and holding it between us. “Pippa might kill me if I forget to give this to you because she had it overnighted, but this is from her.” He smiles, his eyes running over the same words as mine.
It’s a heart-shaped cake with fancy decorations all over it, the exquisite icing details a stark contrast to the words she’s carefully iced over the top.
Archer laughs. “Should I have ‘Head Bitch In Charge’ put on your plaque instead of your name?”
I shake my head, laughing at how Pippa could’ve chosen anything to put on the cake, and she picked that. “Definitely not. I do need a picture with the cake, though, because you know…” I look at him with a playful smile. “I’m the head bitch in charge.”
Archer sets the cake down before pulling me against him. “Damn right you are. It’s so fucking sexy.” His hands roam down my back until he playfully squeezes my ass.
I shake my head, swatting at his chest. “Don’t get any ideas. Today is all about work. No sex until we’re home tonight.”
He groans, dramatically jutting out his bottom lip in a pout I’ve never seen him do before. “But HR would absolutely love it if we broke in your new, fancy office.”
“Not happening. Today is all about work.” I raise to my tiptoes, having to do it even though I’m wearing a pair of heels. I line my mouth up with his ear. “Although, I do think you’ll love what I have underneath my clothes. It’s a new set and very see-through.”
A growl comes from low in his chest. “You expect me to sit through all the meetings we have today knowing that?”
I kiss along his neck, trying not to get any lipstick on his collar. “I do. I believe in you.”
I stop teasing him in fear that if I do it for too long, I might let him undress me right here in the kitchen. Instead, I grab both sides of his face and force him to look at me. “Thank you,” I whisper, emotion bubbling in my chest.
“For what?”
“For the job. For this.” I point to his decorations. “For everything.”
“Don’t thank me for the job. It was you who sold everyone; I had nothing to do with it. But I will accept the gratitude for the decorations. There are five banners in the trash because my handwriting looked so terrible you could barely read it.”
I let my thumb trail over his bottom lip, completely transfixed that I get to call this man mine. “Are we ready togo to work?” I ask.
“Yes and no.”
I smile. “C’mon, husband. We’ve got an empire to run.”
“And I’m so fucking grateful I get to do it with you, my love,” he answers.
Our foreheads press together, and for a moment, we stand there in silence as we breathe in each other’s air. It doesn’t seem like that long ago when I was terrified to marry the man in front of me. Now, I never want to imagine my life without him in it.
“I’m proud of us,” I mutter, thinking of how hard we fought for each other. Our families being rivals should’ve driven us apart, but with each day we had together, we grew closer. When the world wanted us to end, we found a way to make it better—together.
And I’m so freaking thankful that I’ll spend the rest of my life loving this man. Not everything in the world we were raised in is pretty, no matter how much people try to pretend it is. In fact, underneath every shiny detail are broken people. But we took something broken and made it into a pretty beautiful thing.
“I’m proud of us, too, baby,” Archer answers, his voice hoarse with emotion.
We walk hand in hand to the waiting driver, ready to start our first day running Bishop-Moore Hotels together—the way it was always meant to be.
As I slide into the back seat of the car, I’m reminded of my nanny, who once told me about premonitions. She told me to always trust my gut, and right now, my gut tells me that today is only the beginning of a happy, beautiful life. And so much of that is because of the man holding my hand firmly in his grasp—my husband.
My forever.
EPILOGUE - ARCHER - FOUR MONTHS LATER
“Archer Moore, quit trying to peek,” Winnie commands, her fingers squeezing tightly around mine as she leads me forward.
I groan, letting my free hand drop to my side before I try to inch the piece of fabric she’s tied around my eyes up again. “Baby, you know I’m not very patient. Why are you making me wait?”
“Just keep walking.” Her little giggle just about does me in. She continues to pull on our linked hands, leading me down the front path to our new home.
She’s spent countless hours over the last three months getting the house in Greenwich ready for us to move into. We’ve kept the house in Manhattan in case we want to stay in the city, but I’m excited to move somewhere a little less crowded. And I’m even more thrilled about seeing what she did with the place. It only took a month of us going back and forth for me to convince her that I truly wanted whatever she wanted for the house. She could reimagine the house into whatever her heart desired and I’d love it because every idea and design came from her beautiful mind.
